The Psychology of a Self Fulfilling Prophecy
By Dr. Tim Ong
Self fulfilling prophecy is a concept developed by the American sociologist, Robert K. Merton, to explain how a belief or expectation, whether true or not, affects the outcome of a situation or the behavior of a person or group. In other words, what we expect is often what we get.
According to this concept, we form certain expectations of people or events and either consciously or unconsciously convey those expectations with various cues and signs, either in the way we talk or behave, that led to people adjusting their behavior to match those expectations. The result is that the original expectation becomes true.
This self fulfilling prophecy concept has been verified by many experiments and observations, and if we look at our own lives we can often see it happening in our lives in various situations. For example, parents who believe that their children will not do well in school tend to make it come true by reducing emphasis on the importance of school work to their children and accepting poor grades from them. On the other hand, parents who believe their children can excel in school will create a home environment suitable in promoting reading and knowledge, emphasize the importance of school work and generally will not tolerate poor grade from their kids. All these will eventually propel their children to excel in school.
In short, higher expectations lead to higher performance. Likewise, lower expectations lead to lower performance. In addition, better performance from higher expectations lead us to like someone more, and poorer performance from lower expectations results in us liking someone less. Thus, not only does the self fulfilling prophecy come true, it leads to a virtuous or vicious cycle.
It is especially important for parents and teachers to be aware of this phenomenon as their attitudes are often the very factor that will determine the outcome of the children they care for. For example, teachers often communicate their expectations unconsciously by:
- Seating low expectation students far from the teacher and/or seating them in a group
- Paying less attention to lows in academic situations (smiling less often, maintaining less eye contact, etc.)
- Calling on lows less often to answer questions or to make public demonstrations
- Waiting less time for lows to answer questions Not staying with lows in failure situations (e g. providing
fewer clues, asking fewer follow-up questions)
- Criticizing lows more frequently than highs for incorrect responses
- Praising lows less frequently than highs after successful responses
- Praising lows more frequently than highs for marginal or inadequate responses
- Providing lows with less accurate and less detailed feedback than highs
- Failing to provide lows with feedback about their responses as often as highs
- Demanding less work and effort from lows than from highs
- Interrupting lows more frequently than highs
Here is another example of how self fulfilling prophecy may play out in the office:
Once expectations are formed, they tend to be self sustaining.
Self fulfilling prophecy applies equally to our own expectations of ourselves. If we believe that we cannot succeed in a certain project or situation, the likely outcome is that we will not try hard and therefore dooms the project to certain failure. On the other hand, if we expect ourselves to do well in certain tasks, we will often rise to the occasion.
This concept once again shows us the importance of self awareness. Being aware of our thoughts and attitudes towards certain people or situations allows us to examine the validity of those thoughts, and to adjust them appropriately to get the desired results. Mindfulness brings this unconscious mental habit into conscious awareness, thus providing an opportunity to change it.
Can you recall any situations in your life where your self fulfilling prophecy came true for you? If so, I invite you to share it with me.
About the Author
Dr. Tim Ong is a medical doctor with keen interest in self improvement, mind science and spirituality. He is also the author of "From Fear to Love: A Spiritual Journey" - a book that explores our hidden fears and how we can overcome them. Dr. Ong shares his personal experience as well as relates stories and lessons from his patients. You can get a copy of his ebook here (with a special discount): From Fear to Love.
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