Self-fulfilling Prophecy by Madeline Daniels

My friend came across a very interesting article about behavior. She wanted me to have a look, see and to comment as we always do. I love the article and because I have found it to be very informative, I am sharing to all of you in the hope that it will serve the purpose.

The Self Fulfilling Prophecy
By Dr. Madeline Daniels

Back in the 1950s a number of researchers began to realize that
when people act on a belief, they create a reality to match that
belief. This idea was developed further by Dr. Robert K. Merton, a
professor of sociology at Columbia University, who pointed out that
even when the original belief is false, people make it come true.

We humans seem to prefer that other people behave as we expect them
to, and we will modify or distort reality until it conforms to our
expectations. And we can do this without even being aware we are
doing it!

One of the most famous studies done on the SFP was published in a
book called Pygmalion in the Classroom.If you remember your Greek
mythology, Pygmalion was the sculptor who carved a statue of a
beautiful woman, then fell in love with it. He believed so strongly
that it could come to life, that it did! Hence, the SFP is also
called "The Pygmalion Effect."

A Harvard professor, Dr. Robert Rosenthal, collected the results of
over 300 studies showing the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in action. In
classroom experiments, a group of children were divided into two
classes. One class was given to a teacher who was told that the
students were high achievers and should do well. The other teacher
was told that her class was composed of underachievers who needed
special help.

At the beginning of the school year there was no difference between
the two groups of children in terms of ability. By the end of the
school year the class that was labeled "high-achievers" was doing
better than average work. The class that had been labeled as
"underachievers" was doing below-average work.

Furthermore, a careful study revealed that children who made gains
in the "high achiever" group were generally better liked by their
teacher, but the children who made gains in the "underachiever"
class were generally less liked by their teacher!

In summarizing this research, it can be said that people prefer
people who live up to their expectations, and that people
unconsciously create situations that encourage the expected
behavior. If the expectations are positive, people (in this case,
students) are encouraged to behave positively. If the expectations
are negative, people (again, the children in the class) are
encouraged to behave negatively.

There has been plenty of research that shows this Self-Fulfilling
Prophecy effect in job situations. Since we do it so unconsciously,
adults are no more immune to its effects than children are.

Remember too that this effect usually occurs despite the fact that
the person with the expectation is usually unconscious of the
effect he/she is having.

For example: Dr. Albert King did a study with a number of welder
trainees. All the trainees had scored approximately equal in
aptitude testing before the training started.

However, their trainer was told that five of the men had shown high
aptitude on their tests. (Remember, this was not true!) At the end
of the training course, these five men had an amazing record. They
had been absent fewer times than the other men, they had learned
the welding skills in half the time, and they scored ten points
higher than the others in a comprehensive welding test given at the
end of the course.

Furthermore, when the other trainees were asked to rate each other
in terms of whom they most wanted to work with, each wanted most to
work with one of the five "high aptitude" men.

Somehow, both the trainer and the other trainees had encouraged
these five men to meet their expectation. They had created a true
reality out of a false belief. In every possible way, without
consciously meaning to do so, they gave the five trainees messages
that said "Don't worry; we know you'll do well."

With all that subliminal encouragement, it's easy to understand why
those five trainees developed a positive attitude towards
themselves and their work.

In studying the Pygmalion effect close-up, we have found a number
of ways in which these expectations are transmitted and encouraged
to become reality:

1) Climate: The entire package of non-verbal signals encourages or
discourages the worker. Think of how much a smile or a friendly
tone of voice can mean to you.

2) Feedback: More positive responses encourage; more negative ones
discourage. Even if a worker makes a mistake, you can respond in
two ways. "Not again! You'd better learn to do it right" is very
disheartening. "Not bad, but you might find it easier to try it
this way instead" sounds helpful and encouraging.

3) Amount of input: If we have positive expectations about a
worker, we tend to give that person more information to help them
along. If we have negative expectations, we tend not to bother to
give information.

4) Amount of output: We expect more work from a good worker than a
poor one. Saying "Don't bother to tackle that job; I know you'll
never do it right" discourages an employee from taking on any new
responsibilities.

What you expect to come true is often what you make come true. You
may have seen this in everyday life. We all know at least one
pessimist who expects things to go badly, and is always complaining
about the things that have gone badly. And we all know at least one
optimist who expects good things to happen.

The optimist doesn't dwell on the negative, but rather continues to
work on the positive, making those good things happen more often.

It should be clear from this research that far more important than
the skills you learn are the attitudes with which you apply those
skills. You must look carefully at what you expect from the group
you are working with. Of course, you need to develop realistic
expectations. You cannot, for example, expect people to do a job in
one day that logically requires a week to accomplish.

However, within these reasonable limits, the most important thing
you can do to increase productivity is to expect the best of
people. To expect that they will give you their best efforts. To
expect that they will want to meet their goals. To expect that they
would prefer to do a good job.

Whether you are unconscious of your expectations or not, those
attitudes will influence how you treat everyone who works with you!

The best way to ensure that your influence if positive is to become
conscious of your expectations and to develop them into positive
feelings for all your workers.

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Here's my comment about the subject. When I was with Tupperware before in 1990, being a Manager and with responsibility of leading some people under me, we had been attending personality development and seminars. I love attending seminars. Mostly, in all the seminars that I have attended they always have the same beliefs, that as we are created in the image of God, we can also create or manifests anything that our heart desires. Meaning, everything we ever believe, if we belive, we could certainly attain. And so the saying "whatever you perceive you could achieve"

However, no matter how good individuals we all are, dealing with other people will get us to experience some pains and hurts even withoutwanting to experience those hurts and pains.

Though you try do to good, people most of the time misunderstood your gestures. You think this way and they think that way. ou get sad and lonely. Take for example my case, in my life nobody would believe, my highest ideals in life is rooted in dignity, honesty and doing the best in everything that I do. Guess what,even without me doing something, I get hurt most of the time. I do not have to explain but if you happen to have the same experience, you very well know what it is that I am discussing here because then you can relate to what I am writing about.

Do we want our life to become bare and bad? Of course not!! If you did not want to do wrong intentionally, you are fine. But when others makes life very frustrating for you, and you do not see reasons for the way they treat you, though you are kind and helpful, even you are a very understanding or very appreciative person, we are only human we can't help but feel our feelings in that moment that we react especially if the mistake is not ours. Do we call it self-fullfilling prophecy??? I guess not.

Guided by proper reasonings, I can honestly state, truthfully and sincerely, partly some points in this article is true. But for others who are doing their best to very understanding, acting with integrity and honesty while others are acting indifferently especially if the fault is not ous, all I can say is what else can we do but accept that what others do is their own stuff and maybe really they do not know what they do and so we need to forgive.

My belief is that, when God created us, all His creations are equally loved. Be these creations are good or bad and in our day to day experiences, we have encountered good things and bad things in life, I do not complain of any circumstances because doing that is the only way to show that we have faith in what God intended us to be. Even with all the tests and trials, we should not be afraid of our challenges. If he is with us all the time, who can be against us? If he puts us in a very bad situation to tests our beliefs, there's always a way out of any bad situations no matter what it is.

I guess, if we are in Christ, our self-fulfilling prophecy is to become stronger so we can go forth and realize our life's purpose that God intended us to be. In realizing our goals, it does not matter what other people think or say. What matters is, if at the end of our life, when we leave this world we can honestly say to our love ones we have done a great job, we made them proud and when our body is being lowered to the ground there's everyone of them standing infront of our grave attesting their love and respect for us, affirming that we had become what God wanted us to become as a person. That in itself is our self-fulfilling prophecy nothing else really matters.

God's blessings always,
LibransCareForYou