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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
- Action Identification Theory
- Adaptive Unconscious
- Apparent Mental Causation
- Approach-Avoidance Conflict
- Authenticity
- Auto-Motive Model
- Autonomy
- Behavioral Contagion
- Choking Under Pressure
- Control
- Controlled Processes
- Decision Making
- Delay of Gratification
- Drive Theory
- Ego Depletion
- Excitation-Transfer Theory
- Extrinsic Motivation
- Feedback Loop
- Free Will, Study of
- Goals
- Grim Necessities
- Guilty Pleasures
- Habits
- Helplessness, Learned
- Home-Field Advantage and Disadvantage
- Hormones and Behavior
- Implementation Intentions
- Intrinsic Motivation
- Ironic Processes
- Learned Helplessness
- Learning Theory
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- Meta-Awareness
- Mindfulness and Mindlessness
- Modeling of Behavior
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- Overjustification Effect
- Procrastination
- Reasoned Action Theory
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- Risk Taking
- Rubicon Model of Action Phases
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- Self-Defeating Behavior
- Self-Determination Theory
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- Self-Efficacy
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- Self-Regulation
- Social Facilitation
- Social Learning
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- Stereotype Threat
- Stress Appraisal Theory (Primary and Secondary Appraisal)
- Temporal Construal Theory
- Theory of Planned Behavior
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- Antisocial Behaviors
- Aggression
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- Displaced Aggression
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- Hostile Masculinity Syndrome
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- Influence
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- Debiasing
- Door-in-the-Face Technique
- Fear Appeals
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- Forced Compliance
- Forewarning
- Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion
- Influence
- Informational Influence
- Ingratiation
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- Inoculation Theory
- Mere Exposure Effect
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- Minority Social Influence
- Normative Influence
- Norms, Prescriptive and Descriptive
- Persuasion
- Reactance
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- Resisting Persuasion
- Scarcity Principle
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Sleeper Effect
- Social Power
- Stealing Thunder
- Supplication
- Interpersonal Relationships
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- Nonverbal Cues and Communication
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- Pornography
- Propinquity
- Rejection
- Romantic Love
- Romantic Secrecy
- Self-Disclosure
- Self-Evaluation Maintenance
- Self-Expansion Theory
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Sex Drive
- Sexual Desire
- Sexual Economics Theory
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- Teasing
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- Illusory Correlation
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- Mental Accounting
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- Prospect Theory
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- Recency Effect
- Representativeness Heuristic
- Risk Taking
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- Sequential Choice
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- Social Dilemmas
- Spreading of Alternatives
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- Sensation Seeking
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- Uniqueness
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- Altruism
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- Decision Model of Helping
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- Prisoner's Dilemma
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- Public Goods Dilemma
- Reciprocal Altruism
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- Volunteerism
- Self
- Actor–Observer Asymmetries
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- Barnum Effect
- Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRGing)
- Brainwashing
- Close Relationships
- Collective Self
- Contingencies of Self-Worth
- Deindividuation
- Downward Social Comparison
- Ego Shock
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- Executive Function of Self
- Exemplification
- Facial-Feedback Hypothesis
- Identity Crisis
- Illusion of Control
- Illusion of Transparency
- Impression Management
- Independent Self-Construals
- Ingratiator's Dilemma
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- Introspection
- Looking-Glass Self
- Mental Control
- Mere Ownership Effect
- Misattribution of Arousal
- Moral Development
- Mortality Salience
- Name Letter Effect
- Objectification Theory
- Optimal Distinctiveness Theory
- Overjustification Effect
- Personal Space
- Phenomenal Self
- 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
- Symbolic Self-Completion
- Terror Management Theory
- Threatened Egotism Theory of Aggression
- Uniqueness
- Value Priorities
- Zeal
- Social Cognition
- Accessibility
- Accountability
- Action Identification Theory
- Actor–Observer Asymmetries
- Adaptive Unconscious
- Alcohol Myopia Effect
- Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic
- Assimilation Processes
- Associative Networks
- Attention
- Attribution Theory
- Attributional Ambiguity
- Attributions
- Automatic Processes
- Availability Heuristic
- Bad Is Stronger Than Good
- Barnum Effect
- Base Rate Fallacy
- Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRGing)
- Belief Perseverance
- Blaming the Victim
- Central Traits Versus Peripheral Traits
- Confirmation Bias
- Consciousness
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- Downward Social Comparison
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- Egocentric Bias
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- Focalism
- Fundamental Attribution Error
- Gain–Loss Framing
- Gambler's Fallacy
- Halo Effect
- Heuristic Processing
- Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion
- Hostile Attribution Bias
- Hostile Media Bias
- Hot Hand Effect
- Illusory Correlation
- Implicit Personality Theory
- Inference
- Integrative Complexity
- Interpersonal Cognition
- Justice Motive
- Just-World Hypothesis
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- Lay Epistemics
- Lowballing
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- Meaning Maintenance Model
- Memory
- Metacognition
- Mimicry
- Mind-Wandering
- Misattribution of Arousal
- Moral Emotions
- Moral Reasoning
- Motivated Cognition
- Motivated Reasoning
- MUM Effect
- Nonconscious Processes
- Norms, Prescriptive and Descriptive
- Omission Neglect
- Person Perception
- Personality Judgments, Accuracy of
- Person-Positivity Heuristic
- 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
- Social Comparison
- Social Impact Theory
- Social Projection
- Spontaneous Trait Inferences
- Spreading of Alternatives
- Subliminal Perception
- Subtyping
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Theory of Mind
- Thin Slices of Behavior
- Three-Dimensional Model of Attribution
- Transactive Memory
- Value Pluralism Model
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