What is Self-fulfilling Prophecy? (Psychology)

A self-fulfilling prophecy Is a false belief that, directly or indirectly, leads to its own fulfillment.

This process involves three psychological events:

  • Have a false belief about someone.
  • Treat the person in a way that fits your false belief.
  • The person must respond to the treatment he receives confirming the false belief.

self-fulfilling prophecy

The sociologist Robert K. Merton Who coined the expression"self-fulfilling prophecy"and formalized its structure and consequences. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, Merton defines a self-fulfilling prophecy as

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a false definition of a situation or person that evokes a new behavior, which causes the false conception to become true. This deceptive validity perpetuates the error. The possessor of the false belief will perceive the course of events as proof that he was right from the beginning.

Example: When a wife believes that her marriage will fail, her fears cause that failure to be confirmed.

Therefore, a positive or negative prophecy (a strong belief or deception), declared as true even if false, could sufficiently influence a person so that their reactions fulfill that belief.

What is a false belief?

A false belief is a belief that does not coincide with selfconcept Of a person (what the person thinks of himself). It can be positive or negative. For example, you may have the belief that a person is able to do or not do something.

Based on the false belief, Treats the person in a way that matches her And the person may begin to respond to that treatment by confirming that belief . In turn, the person may begin to doubt themselves or believe in themselves, depending on the treatment they receive.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful psychological effect when your expectations of another person's abilities influence how that person sees himself.

Self-fulfilling prophecies began to be studied in the school environment. Robert Rosenthal (1973) examined how teachers influenced school performance. He found that teachers were likely to treat their students according to their beliefs:

"Creating a warm and friendly environment for students, giving them opportunities to develop their skills and provide feedback based on performance."

In Rosenthal's experiment, primary school teachers were told that three students had scored more than the others on aptitude tests. They were also told not to treat them differently.

At the end of the year, the tests were passed again and these three students scored above the others. The interesting thing is that in the initial test of aptitude the three indicated students had scored like the rest of the students.

Why do other people's false beliefs influence how we see ourselves?

According to Theory of self-verification (Swann, 1987), people have a basic desire to confirm their self-concepts, including the way they see themselves. Further. They want to find harmony between their perceptions and the new information that comes to them.

This theory suggests that it is pleasantly existential to confirm self-concept, even if it is negative; The person would feel congruent in observing that their perception coincides with that of other people.

For example, we verify the false beliefs of other people acting according to them, and this gives us a firm sense of identity. We try to live according to a role / function.

Application

Although there are many applications, some of them are:

  • Education : If the teachers believe that their students have high capacities, they will act to fulfill their beliefs and the children will end up learning more and obtaining better results. It is a concept that has already been widely used in the United States with the War on Poverty.
  • sports : If a coach has a belief that a player can perform well and is skillful, he will behave in a way that will lead the player to fulfill that belief.
  • Performance and personal life : As in the example of the wife, we can make positive prophecies so that they are more likely to obtain positive results.

"When some children are randomly selected and their teachers are told that in the coming months they will improve a lot intellectually, they do so" .-Rosenthal, 1985.

"Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; Reproduces itself by paralyzing our will to act" Howard Zinn.


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