SUGGESTION

Meaning and Definition of Suggestion:

Suggestion is process of inducing an idea in a receptive person without using persuasion or coercion.

Suggestion is the sharing of thoughts of others. It is the unwitting acceptance of ideas of others. If we
accept the ideas of others after deliberate argumentation and discussion that is not suggestion. The process
of acceptance here is unwilling.
Wikipedia: “Suggestion is the psychological process by which one person guides the thoughts, feelings,
or behavior of another person.

Sir T.P. Nunn: “Regards suggestion as an involuntary following of some one’s idea.

McDougali: “Suggestion is a process of communication resulting in the acceptance with conviction of the
communicated preposition in the absence of logically adequate grounds for its acceptance.”

Characteristics:
(a) Suggestion needs two persons, one who receives, and the other who gives.
(b) The process is unwilling on the part of the person who receives the ideas.
(c) The process may be deliberate on the part of the person who suggests.
(d) The person who receives the ideas, accepts these as his own, never dreaming that these are external.
(e) There is no logically sufficient grounds for the acceptance of these ideas.
(f) Suggestion can be both good or bad.

Nature of Suggestibility:
Suggestibility is the extent to which a person can be suggested. Children, weak persons and less
intelligent persons are prone to suggestion very much. In the case of some persons, the resistance to
suggestion may be great, and they are not so easily suggestible.

Factors of Suggestibility:

1. Age
2. Intelligence
3. Sex
4. Knowledge
5. Belief
6. Interest
7. Temperament
8. Emotions
9. Physiological Condition
10. Type of Personality
11. Source of Suggestion
Types of Suggestion:
On the basis of the source of suggestion, there are:
(i) Auto-suggestion - Sometimes a person gets a suggestion from himself, from his own inner conscience.
In that case, the giver and the receiver of suggestion are the same person. Hence it is called self-
suggestion or auto suggestion.
(ii) Contra-suggestion- If the source of the suggestion is a person not like by the subject, his suggestion
gives an opposite effect. The child who has no confidence in his teacher or in his parent, refuses, to accept
the suggestion simply because it comes from the un-liked person. He not only refuses, but acts in the
contrary. Suppose he is asked not to move from a particular seat, and the order is from the teacher who is
unlike, the child will make it a point to move from his seat
(iii) Prestige suggestion
Prestige or authority helps in securing unresisting acceptance to an idea. We generally accept suggestion
from elders whom we admire and respect and to whom we look up with veneration and confidence. We
also accept suggestion from those who are superior to us in knowledge, experience, prestige and status.
(iv) Mass suggestion.
A man in a group is very much like a hypnotised person, as he is prone to submit to a large number. He
accepts certain views because a large number of persons about him hold those views. Suggestion here
depends upon the mere force of numbers, and it is called ‘mass suggestion’. Mass suggestion plays a great
role in moulding the individual behavior.

On the basis of the manner of suggestion given, we have:

(i) Positive suggestion,
(ii) Negative suggestion,
(iii) Positive auto-suggestion, and
(iv) Negative autosuggestion.

Form Suggestion. Form suggestion depends upon the form in which the suggestion is presented. A
church sermon gives a religious suggestion. A political party gives a political suggestion. A moralist gives
a moral suggestion. A beautifully decorated place gives an aesthetic suggestion. A scholar gives an
intellectual suggestion.

References:
http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/psychology/mimesis/suggestion-meaning-types-and-role-
psychology/2477
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestion