Self Fulfilling Prophecy — The Psychology of Ups and Downs
Have you ever predicted something that later came true? Have you ever believed that you’re a fortune-teller, at least in some cases?
If yes, you’ve been in the market of this Self Fulfilling Prophecy!
If someday you think — that I’ll not be able to play well today — your frame of mind won’t let you play the game consciously. The way you ignore the concrete side of your game and the way you’ll boost up the opposing side will go on simultaneously, making you a fortune-teller rather.
The investors and traders think that the market will crash, and in the meantime, don’t buy any stock. Now guess what? The stock price starts to tail off, and the market actually crashes.
What really is Self Fulfilling Prophecy?
This prophecy just makes out certain assumptions, either positive or negative. It seeds the prediction to be accurate due to its believer’s action, which results in becoming true to life.
Due to one’s biases, the predictor performs the tasks that make the prediction correct, totally in their unconscious mind.
In some cases, people often call this situation the Rosenthal and Pygmalion Effect.
Let’s take a far-reaching example for this condition:
Suppose Mark is good at playing cricket, and Bill doesn’t look more of a sporty guy. Whenever the coach spots them playing, he decides unconsciously what to expect and how to behave with Mark and how with Bill.
When Mark plays low, the coach makes him practice for one extra hour. The coach pushes him to do better. He gives all the extra efforts to Mark. On the other hand, when Bill plays terribly, the coach doesn’t seem to correct his errors. The coach doesn’t give him much extra time.
Now, Mark feels that everyone is giving him attention and pushing him for his betterment. He, therefore, feels his success and offers his 100% in achieving tasks. In contrast, Bill thinks that no one is attaining him and predicts that cricket is not his piece of cake and stops giving much attention to sports.
And in the end, as you may have predicted, Mark’s ability to play cricket increased enormously, and Bill got less influenced and less skilled at cricket.
This is the case where this prophecy leads to their upstanding and for another down standing for one.
Majorly, there are two types of self-fulfilling prophecies:
1. Self-imposed prophecy — When our own expectations control the operations by us.
2. Other-imposed prophecy — When others’ expectations manage our operations.
Benefits of this Prophecy
In many ways, we can use this forecast method for our own well-being. Let’s look at some of them:
1. Strengthen performance with the optimistic belief — According to performance psychology, if we expect our performance to be top-notch, the chances of having a great session takes high inflation.
2. Assumption affect our socializing — People with more positive beliefs while setting foot in any social case tend to act more steadily than those with negative expectations.
3. Change the thought of hopelessness from people and different groups — When we prejudge people or groups around us to be superior or unacceptable. Our attitude for them remains constant. Our expectations for them could not be changed. If we want to do so, then changing the expectations and predictions should be focused on.
Self Fulfilling Prophecy and our downturn
Sometimes, being the prey of prophecies like these can result in dejection or depression unexpectedly. Having queries like “I can’t do anything,” “I’m trashy,” “No one likes to talk with me” leads to a severe deepening of depression. Thoughts like these unsurprisingly resist individuals to acquire specific skills and self-development.
Having these thoughts for a long persistent time, a person may start functioning daily fundamental tasks freakishly.
Perceptions like don’t having any loyal friend sometimes actually becomes a grinding truth.
People start behaving abnormally, thinking that others will surely be aggressive and unpleasant with them.
This psychological cycle gives nothing but the mental illness.
Right away, let’s just stop thinking about this “poor me” conception.
Here are some quotes on Self Fulfilling Prophecy
“Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. What we believe about life will be our experience of life.”
“Self fulfilling prophecies do exist in real life.”
“Whatever we expect with the confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“We must be optimistic about our future because it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
I will not bother you with more quotes here; maybe you’re already annoyed with some.
Originally published at https://prakshall.tech.