Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

False beliefs that lead to their own fulfillment.

Three sequences to every SFP:

1. Perceiver develops false expectation about a target

2. Perceiver treats target in a manner consistent with the false expectation

3. Target responds to this treatment in such a way as to confirm the originally false expectation, thereby making it come true.

SFPs may create social problems

Merton (1948): SFPs may cause minorities to confirm negative stereotypes about their group.

1. False belief: In early 1900s African Americans were stereotyped as strike breakers

2. Treatment: African Americans were barred from joining labor unions and were hired only when White unionists went on strike. This left African American laborers with few job opportunities

3. Confirmation: Consequently, they had little choice but to take those jobs left vacant by striking workers. This confirmed the stereotype.

First empirical test of SFPs

Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968):

Hypothesized that disadvantaged students underperform in school because that's what their teacher's expect of them.

Tested this by seeing whether teacher expectations influenced student achievement via SFPs

Procedures:

1. Led teachers to believe that Harvard Researchers had developed new IQ test that could predict intellectual blooming.

2. Teachers told that some students in their class had been identified by test as the bloomers--students who would have large gains in IQ during year.

· Selected students actually chosen randomly.

· Selected students no different from other students except for their teachers' positive expectations

Results: The randomly selected students had greater gains in their IQs than the other students.

Importance of Rosenthal & Jacobson's experiment:

· Showed that SFPs were possible

Limitation of Rosenthal & Jacobson's experiment:

· False expectations induced

· Perceivers may not develop false expectations in their natural environments

· If false expectations not developed, then SFPs can't occur and they can't be a cause of social problems

To address this limitation I have been studying whether the expectations that perceivers develop naturally also create SFPs

My early work addressing this issue focused on the self-fulfilling effect of teacher expectations

Jussim, Madon, & Eccles (1996)

General Research Question:

Are SFPs more powerful among students from stereotyped groups?

Research Question 1: Are SFPs more powerful among African American or White students?

Answer: Stronger among African American students

Results from slide for ethnicity analyses goes here.

Research Question 2: Are SFPs more powerful among students from lower or higher social class backgrounds

Answer: Stronger among students from lower social class backgrounds
Results from social class analyses goes here.
SFPs and Social Problems

These findings showing that SFPs stronger among stereo-typed groups is consistent with Merton's analysis that SFPs create social problems.

However, if SFPs really do create social problems then....

Negative expectations should create more powerful SFPs than positive expectations

Negative SFPs

1. A teacher underestimates how well a student will do in school

2. Teacher treats student in manner consistent with this negative expectation

3. This treatment causes the student's' performance to decline

Positive SFPs

1. A teacher overestimates how well a student will do in school

2. Teacher treats student in manner consistent with this positive expectation

3. This treatment causes the student's performance to improve

Madon, Jussim, & Eccles (1997)

Research Question: Are SFPs more powerful when they are negative or when they are positive?

Answer: Positive SFPs are more powerful

Paste JPSP figure here

SFPs Beyond the Classroom

Most research addressing naturally occurring SFPs have focused on teacher-student relations.

However, SFPs have potential to influence targets in other contexts and relationships too.

I have most recently examined SFPs between mothers and their children.

Madon et al. (in press)

Research Question: Are positive SFPs also more powerful within the family as it relates to adolescent substance use?

Answer: Yes

Results: Positive expectations reduced underage drinking more than negative expectations increased it

Conclusions

· SFPs occur even when perceivers develop their expectations naturally

· SFPs are stronger among targets from stereotyped groups

· SFPs occur in both the classroom and the family

· In both contexts SFPs helped targets more than they harmed them

· This suggests that SFPs may not be as potent a cause of social problems as is typically assumed