I found the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies to be very
interesting. It is the idea that when you expect something to occur you may
begin to act in a way that impacts the outcome to happen in the way you
expected. For example, if I believe I am a bad student because my former teachers
have always put me down or made me feel inept; I may start to miss class or not try as hard
with homework because I already have it in my mind that I am a failure. So in
turn I begin to act like one, not because it is true but because I believe and
expect it to be true. Young children who are presented with negative
expectations of themselves by adults are the ones who are affected the most.
They are at an age where they cannot comprehend the psychological effects of
labels and generalizations, so they respond very personally to comments made
about them, both negative and positive. It is interesting to see how the human
mind can self-fulfill these certain ideas of expectations that may not be ones
we created for ourselves.
This is a very interesting post! The topic you have chosen to write about this week of self-fulfilling prophecies is one that I hadn’t given much though. When we expect something to happen one way, it usually does, based on our attitudes going into it. If I feel like I’m going to have a bad day at work, I will find every reason to believe that work was indeed bad. I like you example of being a bad student. If you are constantly put down by your teachers, you will constantly put yourself down by how you are treated. I hope you don’t actually think this because I think you are a good student based on your posts!
ReplyDelete