On another note, "ridcule" is a technique that is strongly DISCOURAGED in the above-mentioned handbook. (among others, see Figure 7-6 pg 133).
My $0.02.
Strike
Setting full nose up trim is a valid training scenario but only to demonstrate the need to use a check list. The trim must be reset before take off. Run away trim in flight is a valid scenario in that a pilot must be able to deal with it just like a simulated engine failure.
With regard to the attitudinal relationship between an instructor and student, all that changed somewhere back in the 1960's. Before that the student's ego was the least considered factor in the training process, especially in the military. I thought the negative training environment was designed to weed out those who were not sure they wanted to be pilots, many did quit. It was not unusual to fly a good lesson and not be told so, but rather be beaten over the head because of some little miscue. The saving grace of all that was you knew you would get through if did your best, hung in there and did not give up. If they kicked you out, you were not meant to be a pilot. Quitting was not an option.
Does a cozy, friendly, positive training environment make for a better pilot? It does help the marketing of airplanes but I am not sure the pilot is a better than the guy who went through the old school. The psychology of learning changed in public school education about that time also. The theory being the student learns quicker in a positive environment than in a negative one.
But when you see the end result it makes one wonder if that conclusion is valid. The USA is ranked might low worldwide in terms of educating its young people. Maybe the environment where no one is threatened with getting wrapped on the head with a ruler is not the best way to go. I came up through that environment where nuns always carried a ruler and used it frequently.
I also remember a tough HS shop teacher (WWII Navy fighter pilot) who grabbed a kid by the throat one day when he was disrupting class, bent him over backward on a table and quietly told him to knock it off. It worked, there were no more disruptions in that class, the word was out. Today that same teacher would be charged with assault and fired.
Times have changed and as with most everything changing today, things are not getting better.