The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 1 The Phenomenon of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Simon Fraser University Introduction to Psychology The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 2 The Phenomenon of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy What if I told you that believing in your success or failure in life would result in being correct in either scenario? You might wonder how this is possible. This is because of the powerful psychological phenomenon known as the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. If you believe that you are not capable of achieving your goals, you are likely to avoid taking risks or opportunities that may lead you to success. On the other hand, if you believe that you are capable of succeeding, you are more likely to take actions that will bring you closer to your goals. The self-fulfilling prophecy is a phenomenon in which our thoughts and expectations can influence our behavior and, ultimately, shape our reality. This theory is not limited only to the belief of self, rather it applies to how our beliefs influence interactions and relationships with other people. The self-fulfilling prophecy is a wellestablished theory in social psychology that asserts that an individual's beliefs and attitudes about themselves, others, and a situation can shape their behavior towards it. This behavior can, in turn, create outcomes that match the initial beliefs and attitudes. (Snyder & Klein, 2005) The self-fulfilling prophecy is not just a coincidental pattern, but a scientifically supported theory. One of the experiments that supported the theory was in the Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study that aimed to examine the relationship between teacher expectations and student performance. The study was conducted in a California elementary school, where teachers were provided with a list randomly chosen “intellectual bloomers” at the beginning of the school year. These students were identified based on a fictitious test that was presented to the teachers as a valid measure of their intellectual abilities. However, in reality, the test was designed to be ambiguous and had no relation to the students' actual abilities (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). Teachers were told that bloomer-kids have such intellectual abilities that their academic progress The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 3 will significantly improve during the school year. After one year, Rosenthal and Jacobson measured the students' academic performance and found that the "academic bloomers" had significantly improved their grades compared to their peers. This study concluded that the teacher’s attitudes and expectations of kids shaped their behaviour towards them which further influenced student’s academic performance, and with that it supported the theory of the selffulfilling prophecy. (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). This phenomenon is present in our everyday lives, and my experience with the selffulfilling prophecy is most relevant to my academic journey. When I was finishing high school I expressed the desire to go to the faculty of psychology. However, I believed that I would not be able to pass the entrance exam because I didn’t have the appropriate background coming from high school specialized in mathematical sciences, and the fact that Psychology is a highly competitive program reinforced my belief that I don’t have right skill set to get into the program. This belief shaped my behaviour in a way to start studying for the bio-chemical engineering program more seriously, and I have studied psychology only in my free time, and not as seriously as chemistry. Consequently, when the time of the examination came my results on the psychology exam were poor and I passed chemistry with one of the best grades. This led me getting into the bio-chemical engineering program and not psychology. This experience can be understood through the self-fulfilling prophecy in a way that my belief that I would not be successful in pursuing psychology created a negative expectation about my ability to succeed in the program. That belief caused a behaviour of me not studying enough, which caused a negative result that I already believed was “destined” because of the program’s competitiveness. However, at that time, I have not realized that my belief (“I can’t pass the exam") negatively influenced my behaviour (I did not prepare for the exam), and that negative behaviour The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 4 caused the result I predicted in the very beginning (I failed the exam). Interestingly, after some life-changing events I started re-evaluating my beliefs and changed my mind of trying to get into the psychology program. This time I approached the task with a much different and more positive attitude, which influenced my behaviour more positively (I was studying hard, I was doing practice exams, etc.). In the end, here I am – a third year student majoring in psychology. Thus, we can say that me believing in my failure or success in life resulted in a cascade of events that led to two completely different results, yet both matched with their initial prophecies. On the whole, we can see how the attitudes and beliefs we have can be detrimental on the type of outcomes we get in our lives. Those beliefs influence our behaviour, sometimes in ways that we are not aware of, which creates environment that will go into the favour or our prophecies coming true. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 5 References Snyder, M., & Klein, O. (2005). Construing and constructing others. Interaction Studies, 6(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1075/is.6.1.05sny Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. The Urban Review, 3(1), 16– 20. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02322211
