The self-fulfilling prophecy

• the self-fulfilling prophecy

  • a prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made
  • argued that labelling can affect pupils achievement by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • step 1 - the teacher labels the pupil and on the basis of the label makes a prediction about the student
  • step 2 - the teacher treats the student accordingly actin as if the prediction is already true
  • step 3 - 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 and tries harder and is successful
  • the prediction is fulfilled
• Rosenthal and Jacobsen study

  • show that the self fulfilling prophecy at work
  • they told the school that they had a new test specially designed to identify those pupils who would 'spurt' ahead
  • this was untrue because the test was in fact simply a standard IQ test
  • importantly however the teachers believed what they had been told
  • the researchers tested all pupils but then picked 20% of them purely at random and told the school agan falsely that the test had identified these pupils as 'spurters'
  • A year later, the randomly picked 'spurter' pupils had actually improved academically
  • This is because the teachers labelled them as achievers and gave them more encouragement and support