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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Definition
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a process through which someone's expectations about a situation or another person leads to the fulfillment of those expectations. Thus, the expectancy becomes a cause, so that what is expected comes true because it was expected. The process includes three steps: (1) A perceiver forms an expectation of a situation or target person, (2) the perceiver's expectations affects how he or she behaves in the situation or treats the target person, and (3) the situation or the target person is affected by the perceiver's behavior in a way that confirms the perceiver's initial expectation.
Background and History
The concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy was initially introduced by a sociologist, Robert K. Merton. In Merton's conception, a self-fulfilling prophecy applied to social as well ...
- Action Control
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- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
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- Mental Control
- Mere Ownership Effect
- Misattribution of Arousal
- Moral Development
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- Name Letter Effect
- Objectification Theory
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- Overjustification Effect
- Personal Space
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- Positive Illusions
- Procrastination
- Projection
- Psychological Entitlement
- Reactance
- Regulatory Focus Theory
- Roles and Role Theory
- Schemas
- Self
- Self-Affirmation Theory
- Self-Attribution Process
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Categorization Theory
- Self-Complexity
- Self-Concept
- Self-Concept Clarity
- Self-Control Measures
- Self-Deception
- Self-Defeating Behavior
- Self-Determination Theory
- Self-Disclosure
- Self-Discrepancy Theory
- Self-Efficacy
- Self-Enhancement
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Esteem Stability
- Self-Evaluation Maintenance
- Self-Expansion Theory
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Self-Handicapping
- Self-Monitoring
- Self-Perception Theory
- Self-Presentation
- Self-Promotion
- Self-Reference Effect
- Self-Regulation
- Self-Reports
- Self-Serving Bias
- Self-Stereotyping
- Self-Verification Theory
- Social Comparison
- Social Identity Theory
- Spotlight Effect
- Stigma
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- Terror Management Theory
- Threatened Egotism Theory of Aggression
- Uniqueness
- Value Priorities
- Zeal
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- Accessibility
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- False Consciousness
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- False Uniqueness Bias
- Focalism
- Fundamental Attribution Error
- Gain–Loss Framing
- Gambler's Fallacy
- Halo Effect
- Heuristic Processing
- Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion
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- Hot Hand Effect
- Illusory Correlation
- Implicit Personality Theory
- Inference
- Integrative Complexity
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- Nonconscious Processes
- Norms, Prescriptive and Descriptive
- Omission Neglect
- Person Perception
- Personality Judgments, Accuracy of
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- Positive–Negative Asymmetry
- Primacy Effect, Attribution
- Primacy Effect, Memory
- Priming
- Projection
- Prototypes
- Recency Effect
- Responsibility Attribution
- Risk Appraisal
- Salience
- Satisficing
- Schemas
- Scripts
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Self-Reference Effect
- Self-Serving Bias
- Self-Verification Theory
- Shifting Standards
- Similarity-Attraction Effect
- Social Categorization
- Social Cognition
- Social Cognitive Neuroscience
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- Social Impact Theory
- Social Projection
- Spontaneous Trait Inferences
- Spreading of Alternatives
- Subliminal Perception
- Subtyping
- Symbolic Interactionism
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- Value Pluralism Model
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