SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

A good friend of yours has just met someone she thinks you would really like; she claims you and this new person have much in common and wants to arrange a lunch meeting. Because you trust your friend’s judgment, you agree to lunch. How might your lunch meeting unfold?

For this Discussion, you will analyze the effect of self-fulfilling prophecies on education, careers, and relationships

TO PREPARE

• Think of a time when you expected a new acquaintance to act a particular way.
• Review the Learning Resources for this week and consider how self-fulfilling prophecies could affect your own education, career, and relationships.

Post a description of how your expectations might influence your behavior toward a new acquaintance. Explain whether self-fulfilling prophecy made it more likely the new acquaintance would be just the kind of person you had expected him or her to be. Explain the implications of the self-fulfilling prophecy for your own education, career(s), and relationships.

References

• Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., & Sommers, S. R. (Eds.). (2019). Social psychology (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
  
  • Chapter 3, “Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World” 
• Note: Viewing media and interactives embedded in the electronic version of this course text is not required for this course.
• Stolle, D. P., & Slain, A. J. (1997). Standard form contracts and contract schemas: A preliminary investigation of the effects of exculpatory clauses on consumers’ propensity to sue. Behavioral Sciences and the LawLinks to an external site., 15(1), 83–94. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099- 0798(199724)15:1<83::AID-BSL261>3.0.CO;2-F.
• Madon, S., Jussim, L., Guyll, M., Nofziger, H., Salib, E. R., Willard, J., & Scherr, K. C. (2018). The accumulation of stereotype-based self-fulfilling prophecies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,Links to an external site. 115(5), 825–844. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000142.supp (Supplemental)