Social Psychology 305

After viewing the six-minute video on the self-fulfilling prophecy research (sometimes referred to as “the Pygmalion effect”) of Rosenthal and Jacobson, do the following:

1. Review pages 58-61 of your textbook, beginning at the bottom of page 58 (Making Our Schemas Come True: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy).

2. Summarize the self-fulfilling prophecy in one clear, concise paragraph.

3. According to the text (middle of page 60), “…teachers are only human, and they may acquire faulty expectations about their students based on the students‟ gender, race, social class, or family history.” Demonstrate your understanding of this statement and the self-fulfilling prophecy by recounting two real-world experiences you have had where, from your perspective, teachers or others have had faulty expectations about you based on gender, race, social class, or family history. What were their expectations? How did those expectations impact the way they interacted with you? In turn, how did the way they treated you impact your reaction toward them such that the self-fulfilling prophecy came about?  Remember, if your response to them DID NOT confirm their expectation then this is NOT an example of the self-fulfilling prophecy.  I strongly prefer you write about real-world experiences, but if you are unable to think of any then demonstrate your understanding of the self-fulfilling prophecy by sketching out two fictitious scenarios wherein teachers or others may have faulty expectations of others based on gender, race, social class, or family history and how that contributed to the self-fulfilling prophecy.

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