...Topic : The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Organisational Behaviour 1. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy was coined by Robert Merton in 1948, describing it as how (1) an expectation may evoke a behaviour of an individual therefore increasing the chances of it becoming true. Merton concluded that (2) a belief eventually leads to a result as it influences the individual to change their behaviours to match your initial expectations. Example: My coach expects me to do well and he spends more time with me preparing for my competition. I performed well and got a gold medal. 2. Introduction More often that not, the outcomes of events that occur in a person’s life is the product of the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy. In this article, we will address these questions as follow. First, we present the definition of the self-fulfilling prophecies. Second, we will look at the process of the self-fulfilling prophecy and how it is applied in our everyday life. We subsequently identify the effects of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Fourth, we will discuss the relation of self-fulfilling prophecy to stereotypes. Finally, we will conclude by weighing up the pros and cons of the self-fulfilling prophecy and how it can be fully utilised in an organisation. 3. Applications of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Three steps are involved in the self-fulfilling prophecy process (McShane, Olekalns & Travaglione, 2012). Process begins when Stage (1) ...
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...The self-fufilling prophecy A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true by virtue of it having been made. Interactionists argue that labelling can affect pupils’ achievement by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. The teacher labels a pupil (e.g as being very intelligent) and on the basis of this label, makes predictions about him (e.g. he will make outstanding economic academic progress). The teacher treats the pupil accordingly, acting as if the prediction is already true (e.g. by giving him more attention and expecting a higher standard of work from him) The pupil internalises the teachers expectation, which becomes part of his self-concept or self-image, so that he now actually becomes the kind of pupil the teacher believed him to be in the first place. He gains confidence, tries harder and is successful. The prediction is fulfilled. The self fulfilling prophecy can also produce under achievement. If teachers have low expectations of certain children and communicate these expectations in their interaction, these children may develop a negative self-concept. They may come to see themselves as failures and give up trying, therefore fulfilling the original prophecy. Streaming and self-fulfilling prophecy Streaming involves separating children into different ability groups or classes called ‘streams’. Each ability group is then taught separately from the others for all subjects. Studies show that the self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur when...
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...“It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.” These wise words from a former U.S. president made me question how true this really is in reality. It is obvious that our minds and what we think play an enormous role in what goes on around us. Our thoughts seem to take over, causing us to act or react in a certain way. These reactions in reality are caused by our immediate perceptions of the given subject, issue or concern. What if recessions are caused by our reactions to things around us such as the media and so called “experts”? The recession had to start somewhere. How many times have you turned on the news hearing “we are in a recession, we have to save our money and stop spending”? The majority of people will hear this and follow along because of the constant charts and graphs supposed experts bombard the public with. Contrary to popular belief, people’s perspective of a recession, can in actuality, cause and fuel it even further. The famous Greek philosopher Plato, in his work Allegory of the Cave provides insight into how a recession can be perpetuated due to the public’s perspective. In his allegory, humans are depicted as prisoners chained in a cave only seeing shadows from the light and creatures that walk behind them. One of the prisoners was released and was exposed to the reality outside the cave. Allegory of the Cave can be interpreted in many ways. The way I see it, people accept reality from the perception...
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...AS Sociology – Unit 2 Education with Research Methods Social class and Education - In-school factors 1. Paul Willis – Counter/anti school subculture * Interviewed 12 disruptive boys in a school in the North of England, and then followed their progress in the workplace. * Boys wanted to go into manual work ‘proper jobs for real men’ and saw education as ‘sissy’ and irrelevant to their future * Found that being ‘one of the lads’ was an important part of their identity * This counter school culture was carried through into the workplace Evaluation of Willi’s study However it is questionable how far Willis’ findings would apply in modern Britain because there are far fewer unskilled and manual jobs available and less chance of finding employment without qualifications. His sample size is not representative therefore generalisations cannot be made. 2. Mac an Ghail - study of Parnell School (1994) * Suggests that peer groups reproduce a range of different class based masculine identities * Traditional working class masculine roles are under threat * Working class macho lads were dismissive of other working class boys who worked hard and aspired to middle class careers * The dominant definition of masculine identity changed as boys went on to sixth form * Shift from working class definition based on toughness to a middle class one based on intellectual ability 3. Howard Becker - Labelling and the Ideal pupil * Teachers...
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...to give their children the best chance in life. And to do that, they need a Western education. Because of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities that I put on earlier. It's a circular thing. What new vocabulary words did you learn? 1. metaphorical Definition: not having real existence but symbolic and showing some truth about a situation or other subject Context: People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical arbitrary 2. arbitrary Definition: based on chance rather than being planned or based on reason Context: This system equates intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary. 3. Prophecy Definition: the ability to say what is going to happen in the future Context: the journals are done in English, but that is a self-fulfilling...
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...I have participated in a guitar course when I was in form 3. My mum’s instant response was that “You are never perseverant in everything. I bet you will give up within three months!” Afterward, I started to doubt with my patience, and thought that she may be right. Besides, I started to ditch the class, and never practiced by myself. Finally, her prophecy was fulfilled, and the guitar which has just been used for a month was discarded in the storage room until now (Self-fulfilling prophecies). In a family meeting last year, my father told me that “I recognize that you have paid huge efforts in your academic works. You are outstanding! I am really pound of you!” I felt cheerful when he fully appreciated my performance as well as labeling me as outstanding. Accordingly, I was convinced that I was superlative and excellent, and this message influenced me extremely. Even though I have come across with some obstacles afterwards, I became optimistic and confident. I believed that nothing can stop me, and I was able to overcome all the hindrances(Direct definitions). When I was in primary school, the school has instilled an idea into my mind, which was “Hong Kong is a competitive society. Thus, you should study hard in order to enter university, if you want to pursue an ideal career.” I did felt pressured and angry, and always asked myself “Why I need to spend so much time on study? Why I cannot do what I really want?” However, although I was extremely unwilling to accept it, I...
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...Self-fulfillment prophecy McShane & VonGlinow (2013) state that “A self-fulfillment prophecy occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations” (p.80). The self-fulfilling prophecy is a statement that changes actions and therefore comes true. For example, if a person state that he or she is probably going to have a lousy day. It might change his or her actions so that such a prediction is fulfilled by his or her actions. If a person who might espouse a self-fulfilling prophecy in a positive way just like he or she is going to have a great day. It might acts in ways that will actually make this prediction true. In China, there are some people trusting in fate. That is why there are so many fortune tellers in China. These fortune tellers will tell people what will happen on you. In the next days, most people will think about the fortune. And then the family members or friends around them will find these people miss a lot and just focus on the fortune until the fortune comes. During that time, these people will change their life style but they don’t even know. That is a kind of self-fulfillment prophecy. My grandma is one of that people who is living in such a dream and hoping they will have a better life in their next life. The “self-fulfilling prophecy” is conceptually linked to another important social science idea brought back to life by Merton: the idea originally dubbed the Thomas Theorem...
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...Psychological Theories 1. The Self-fulfilling theory The self-fulfilling theory deals with a prediction that directly or indirectly causes it to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. In other words, it is based on the believe will come true because you will subconsciously and consciously act in ways that cause the event to happen. Self fulfilling theory was developed by Robert K. Merton, an American sociologist. It seeks 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. According to this theory, 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 (Tim, 2010). The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come 'true'. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.[1] In other words, a prophecy, strongly held belief, or a delusion, declared as truth when it is actually false may sufficiently influence people, either...
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...essay will then go on to explain how the response from professionals to problem behaviour can become a contributing factor to a child’s sense of futility, through discussing positive and negative theories of behaviour. The second objective of this essay is to examine the concept of “learned irresponsibility” and to understand how youth cultures are able to contribute to such learned helplessness and rebellion through things like social exclusion and street gangs. Next, nearing the end of this essay I will offer my opinion as to how the child and youth care worker should approach the young person differently during the assessment as to avoid the young person becoming discouraged during the transaction. Before the conclusion I shall offer my self reflection as well as sharing the impact that this topic of “the seeds of discouragement” has had on me. Climates of Futility The climates of futility refers to those environments which may cause young people to experience feelings of deficiencies and that are able to contribute to their fears of failure. The negative transactions between the young person and others within these hostile environments can become “an ecological hazard in the lives of youth at risk” (Brendtro, Brokenleg and Van Bockern 2002, p. 8). There are a number of factors that can lead to climates of futility, one such important factor to investigate is that of...
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...evidence. A self serving bias is a cognitive bias that tends to enhance the ego and self confidence of an individual, through different processes. Since everyone wants to be strong and successful individual so most people demonstrate this one way or other. We tend to relate success to our internal attributes (hard work, intelligence, and dedication) and our failures to external attributes. If we are aware of these processes it can help us to evaluate our performance and progress more critically, and learn from our failures. In the just-world theory people believe that world is just and that the people get what they deserve. They believe that world is fair and they look for ways to explain any injustice. I think the just-world theory can lead people to not look for alternatives and try to overcome real obstacles to difficulties and problems and achieve success in life. We should make a sincere attempt to understand why things happened the way they happened and the self-serving attributes should not interfere with our desire to correct our mistakes and excel. Self-serving attributes might become self- handicapping by preventing a person to feel responsible for his/her failures. We can externalize failures and internalize success if we have self-serving attributional biases. Self-fulfilling prophecies change our actions and the actual situations get changed. They are kind of predictions which indirectly or directly come true by chance. My self-fulfilling prophecy is my bad driving...
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...people need a common goal. Something that members all would agree is the reason for the groups existence (sports team) Presentational comm.: occurs a speaker addresses a gathering of people to inform, persuade or entertain. CHAPTER 2 1.- Differentiate between self concept and self image Self concept: your interior identity or subjective description of who you think you are (slow change) Self image: your view of yourself in a particular situation or circumstance 4.- Explain what role self reflexiveness plays in self labels We interpret what we experience encourage us to use labels to describe who we are 5.- Describe how gender, social comparisons… prophecy affect our esteem Gender: in male dominated cultures, females suffer self esteem loss to a much greater degree than men and boys, primarily as a result of males feeling better able to do things than females Social comparisons: judgments about how weird or poorly you can perform certain tasks compared to other can be self defeating and can cause self esteem to suffer. Self expectations: your estimation of how well you perform in comparison to your own goals or self expectations has a profound impact on self esteem. Self fulfilling prophecy: what you believe about yourself often comes true because you expect it to come true. 6.- Identify ex of...
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...The Pygmalion Effect There is a tale from Ancient Greece of how a prince turned a statue from ivory to life and married her. It is the story of Pygmalion. Remarkably, the principles of this story are relevant to modern techniques of leadership. Read this article to find out how. [pic] Enlarge Image A team does as well as you and the team think they can. This idea is known as "the self-fulfilling prophecy". When you believe the team will perform well, in some strange, magical way they do. And similarly, when you believe they won’t perform well, they don’t. There is enough experimental data to suggest that the self-fulfilling prophecy is true. One unusual experiment in 1911 concerned a very clever horse called Hans. This horse had the reputation for being able to add, multiply, subtract, and divide by tapping out the answer with its hooves. The extraordinary thing was that it could do this without its trainer being present. It only needed someone to put the questions. On investigation, it was found that when the questioner knew the answer, he or she transmitted various very subtle body language clues to Hans such as the raising of an eyebrow or the dilation of the nostrils. Hans simply picked up on these clues and continued tapping until he arrived at the required answer. The questioner expected a response and Hans obliged. In similar vein, an experiment was carried out at a British school into the performance of a new intake of pupils. At the start of the year,...
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...After reviewing the Bob Knowlton case study, many concepts that are affecting the communication skills are apparent. Different factors [age, beliefs, culture, gender] were taken in to consideration while reviewing the case. Bobs self concept tells the unique story of the case study. Bob begins his story with a positive self concept and ends with a negative one. Towards the beginning of the case Bob gains self confidence in his work knowing he is a productive worker. During the time Fester arrives and begins working, Bobs self concept fades. During the case, Bob allows Fester to take over the group meetings and even take over his primary meeting as the project head. Eventually Bobs self concept plummets to next to nothing and Bob seeks a new job. Bob let social comparison steer him on to another career path in result to his “private me” being perceived as “not good enough.” The roles of the characters of the case study affect how each and every character interacts with one another. Bob approaches Jerrold with loyal work information, however he never felt comfortable disclosing his own discomforts with Fester being present in fear of showing weakness in his position. As the group began to break up Bob confronted Oliver and Davenport to get a sense of the reason for the splitting, yet did not confront Leak due to his role as a close colleague to Fester. Social needs affect the communication within the characters of the case study. Bob Knowlton loses his sense of control over...
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...that society may be deemed as unequal. There is however many different ways as to how why and how a person may be treated less favourably than other people. Within society, an aspect of inequality is labelling. Labelling is process where someone holds a certain belief over another individual. Within sociology labelling is a way of controlling the behaviour of an individual. For example, in a school a teacher may label a student as a failure if the student is someone who cannot complete their homework due to other commitments or not having the facility to do so. Due to the label that the teacher has against the student, the attitude that the teacher will show the student would lead the student to failure. This is self-fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecy that the individual, who has been labelled, adapts their attitude and follows the attitude of the label. When a positive label is associated to an individual such as ‘she is an overachiever’ this is known as the Halo effect. Stereotyping is another form of inequality within society. Stereotyping and labelling are quite similar, however stereotyping is generally against a group of people and is usually untrue. Stereotyping in society usually comes from sources which are myths and are only in place as that is what people want society to believe. For example a stereotype that is quite regularly portrayed within the media is that “All gay men are feminine.” For example on Modern Family with...
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...The self-fulfilling prophecy generally means that how other people view you can have an effect on what you think about yourself. There are several causes of the self-fulfilling prophecy, which leads to two main effects on the British education system. There are many causes accounting for the self-fulfilling prophecy. Teachers’ labeling on students can be one reason for self-fulfilling prophecy. This means that if teachers label students into bright and slow due to their academic performance, students will be treated into different ways. Family background also may cause self-fulfilling prophecy. This is because some teachers seem to take into account things like dress, behavior and ways of speaking. So if students who are come from middle-class family can share same values and norms with teacher, they are more likely be seen as bright. However, if student come from working-class family and their standards of values are different with teachers’, they will be victims of self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy can have bad influence on both academic development and mental health. Such labels and bias can affect student’s view about themselves.so the may act in accordance with the label and bias attached. For those who are viewed as high achievement, teacher will pay more attention to them in class and believe them can success in future and so these students can become more confident and work hard to keep up high expectations, so it is easy for the to achieve academic...
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