How do people control other people?

I think that we see this in action the most with parents and their children….even though some children seem to have reversed the roles while nobody was looking.  Sometimes parents control their children with fear, bribery, encouragement, logic, mind games, etc.  I think that most people take their own approach when it comes to parental control….just as I think children find their own ways of testing their parents and trying to get their control…

What is it about certain things that create certain reactions within us from another person, especially from someone close to us.  Screaming tantrums often get their way in today’s society; although I know that type of thing seems unbearable at times, is it really benefiting anyone to reward such behavior…what reaction within us causes us to lose our logical side for a moment?  Although it ends the screaming now, what happens the next time a kid wants something their way….or the next and so on and so on? 

What is it about guilt that seems to control all sorts of people, especially people that know you care about them?  I know I can be manipulated by guilt, as I am greatly affected by it and it can cause all sorts of stress reactions….I wonder what it is about that particular emotion that can really get to people?

Some people are easily persuaded to change their minds or open them up to something, or close them to something by the people that are around them, or opinions they are exposed to in the media on a regular basis….some people just buy into everything that they hear if it sounds like there is a good case behind it, even when there are no facts to back it up…while others cannot be persuaded even when fact after fact is laid out right in front of them….

So what is it that people give into?  Is it the people closest to them?  The opinions and values they are raised with?  The media?  Or something else completely?

Tags: control, emotions, relationships
Filed under: Life, Society