Do self-fulfilling prophecies accumulate, dissipate, or remain stable over time?

Idea Technology and Ideology

Although we are accustomed to thinking about technology as involving things-objects and processes-derived from scientific discoveries, science also creates a technology of ideas, ways of thinking both about the world and about human beings. And unlike "thing technology," "idea technology" can have powerful effects even when the ideas are false. This paper discusses false idea technology, or ideology, and suggests mechanisms by which it can have effects on both individuals and societies. It discusses neuroscience as the "next frontier" of ideology that may change our conceptions of human nature.

Metastereotypes impairing doctor-patient relations: The roles of intergroup anxiety and patient trust

This study examined whether patients' negative metastereotypes undermine their perception of doctor-patient relations through raising their intergroup anxiety and decreasing their trust level. One hundred twenty-four outpatients from a Chinese hospital participated in this study; they were randomly assigned to either the negative metastereotype activation (NMSA) or the non-NMSA condition according to different instructions. Then, they were asked to complete the Intergroup Anxiety, Patient Trust, and Doctor-Patient Relations Scale. Patients' negative metastereotypes undermined doctor-patient relations through the mediation of intergroup anxiety and patient trust (i.e., the independent mediation effect of intergroup anxiety and patient trust) and the serial mediation effect of intergroup anxiety and patient trust. These findings suggest that future research consider intergroup anxiety and patient trust in developing interventions to improve doctor-patient relations.

Why do females choose to study humanities or social sciences, while males prefer technology or science? Some intrapersonal and interpersonal predictors

The article attempts to answer the question why females prefer humanities/social studies, whereas males opt for technology/science. For this purpose, the study majors selected by 445 females and 431 males were linked by logit functions with: (1) parents’ and (2) teachers’ expectancies, (3) students’ self-expectancies, (4) their self-concepts of abilities and (5) time spent on learning mathematics and (6) literacy, (7) test results in mathematics and (8) literacy, (9) gender of mathematics, and (10) literacy teacher in the 12th grade. Interaction effects of the mathematics and literacy teacher’s gender with the abovementioned predictors were also quantified. Females’ selections were mostly influenced by teachers’ expectancies, while for males, by their self-concepts. The teacher’s gender modified tested relations in five (females) and nine (males) cases. The results were discussed on the grounds of the theory of intra- and interpersonal expectancies as learning regulators.

Migrationsbedingte Disparitäten in der Notenvergabe nach dem Übergang auf das Gymnasium

Zusammenfassung. Disparitäten bei der Leistungsbewertung von Schülern und Schülerinnen mit Migrationshintergrund konnten häufig für den Übergang zwischen Grundschule und weiterführender Schule nachgewiesen werden. In der hier vorgestellten Studie wurde geprüft, ob sich solche Zusammenhänge auch nach dem Übergang auf das Gymnasium zeigen. Untersucht wurde der Effekt des Migrationshintergrundes von Schüler_innen auf die Leistungsbewertung im Fach Mathematik bei Klassenarbeiten und Zeugnissen. Daten von 1487 Gymnasiastinnen und Gymnasiasten und deren 56 Lehrkräften im Fach Mathematik zu fünf Messzeitpunkten (Beginn der fünften Klasse bis zum Ende der sechsten Klasse) zeigten, dass Schüler_innen nicht-deutscher Herkunft auch unter Kontrolle von Leistungen in standardisierten Tests signifikant schlechtere Klassenarbeits- und Zeugnisnoten erhielten. Der Effekt blieb im Zeitverlauf stabil. Diese Ergebnisse unterstützen die Hypothese, dass sich Urteilsfehler bei der Benotung von Leistungen von Schülern und Schülerinnen mit nichtdeutscher Herkunft zeigen.

Effects of Instructor Attractiveness on Learning

Although a considerable body of research has examined the impact of student attractiveness on instructors, little attention has been given to the influence of instructor attractiveness on students. This study tested the hypothesis that persons would perform significantly better on a learning task when they perceived their instructor to be high in physical attractiveness. To test the hypothesis, participants listened to an audio lecture while viewing a photograph of instructor. The photograph depicted either a physically attractive instructor or a less attractive instructor. Following the lecture, participants completed a forced choice recognition task covering material from the lecture. Consistent with the predictions; attractive instructors were associated with more learning. Finally, we replicated previous findings demonstrating the role attractiveness plays in person perception.

Am I as You See Me or Do You See Me as I Am? Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Self-Verification

This research investigated the extent to which self-fulfilling prophecies and self-verification occurred among 108 teachers and 1,692 students in 108 sixth-grade public school math classrooms. Results demonstrated three main findings. Self-fulfilling prophecies and self-verification occurred simultaneously in a context where perceivers and targets had highly valid information on which to base their initial perceptions. The availability of highly valid information led perceivers and targets to develop initially similar perceptions before mutual influence took place. High similarity between perceivers’ and targets’ initial perceptions had no effect on the power of self-verification but weakened the effect of self-fulfilling prophecies for some targets. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for extended and close relationships and how the nature of people’s perceptions may influence the power of self-fulfilling prophecies and self-verification.

The Effect of Age and Role Information on Expectations for Big Five Personality Traits

In four studies, the authors investigated the extent to which expectations for personality traits in age-graded roles correspond to patterns of personality trait change across the life course. In Studies 1 (N = 43) and 2 (N = 126), the authors examined the age-graded roles of high school student, college student, parent, and grandparent and found that expectations for how people behave in these age-graded roles showed strong parallels to the documented pattern of personality trait development and that this pattern of expectations was largely shared by younger and older participants. In Studies 3 (N = 252) and 4 (N = 123), the authors separated age and role information (e.g., marital, parental, and employment status) and found that people use both sources of information independently in forming expectations of others. The implications for understanding the interplay of expectations and personality trait development are discussed.

Précis of Social Perception and Social Reality : Why accuracy dominates bias and self-fulfilling prophecy

Social Perception and Social Reality (Jussim 2012) reviews the evidence in social psychology and related fields and reaches three conclusions: (1) Although errors, biases, and self-fulfilling prophecies in person perception are real, reliable, and occasionally quite powerful, on average, they tend to be weak, fragile, and fleeting. (2) Perceptions of individuals and groups tend to be at least moderately, and often highly accurate. (3) Conclusions based on the research on error, bias, and self-fulfilling prophecies routinely greatly overstate their power and pervasiveness, and consistently ignore evidence of accuracy, agreement, and rationality in social perception. The weight of the evidence – including some of the most classic research widely interpreted as testifying to the power of biased and self-fulfilling processes – is that interpersonal expectations relate to social reality primarily because they reflect rather than cause social reality. This is the case not only for teacher expectations, but also for social stereotypes, both as perceptions of groups, and as the bases of expectations regarding individuals. The time is long overdue to replace cherry-picked and unjustified stories emphasizing error, bias, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies, and the inaccuracy of stereotypes, with conclusions that more closely correspond to the full range of empirical findings, which includes multiple failed replications of classic expectancy studies, meta-analyses consistently demonstrating small or at best moderate expectancy effects, and high accuracy in social perception.

Family Socioeconomic Status, Parent Expectations, and a Child's Achievement

This study investigates how a family's socioeconomic status (SES) affects a child's educational achievement and differentiates the direct effects of SES on these experiences from the indirect ones as they are mediated by the school. This distinction is an important one as it is in the latter realm where social policy can have an impact. The data are from a nationally representative sample of children enrolled in kindergarten in the US in the Spring of 2000. The percentage of the parents expecting their child to earn at least a Bachelor's degree rises with family SES. However, the percentage of high-SES parents of low-achieving students expecting their child to earn at least a Bachelor's degree is higher than that for low- and middle-SES parents of high-achieving students. Ordinary least squares regression analyses using a mediation model were used to distinguish direct from indirect effects of the family's SES score on achievement. Unexpectedly, the direct effects are greater than the indirect ones.

The Role Of The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy In Young Adolescents' Responsiveness To A Substance Use Prevention Program

This research examined whether naturally-occurring self-fulfilling prophecies influenced adolescents' responsiveness to a substance use prevention program. The authors addressed this issue with a unique methodological approach that was designed to enhance the internal validity of research on naturally-occurring self-fulfilling prophecies by experimentally controlling for prediction without influence. Participants were 321 families who were assigned to an adolescent substance use prevention program that either did or did not systematically involve parents. Results showed that parents' perceptions about the value of involving parents in adolescent substance use prevention predicted adolescents' alcohol use more strongly among families assigned to the prevention program that systematically involved parents than to the one that did not. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The role of expectations in children's experience of novel events

The expectations children bring to interactions, as well as the information they receive prior to them, may be important for children's experiences of new adults. In this study, 148 children (8-13 years old) reported on their expectations of adults, received one of three types of information about a new adult (positive, realistic, or control), and then "interacted" with a videotaped "controlling" adult. The effect of information type depended on children's age and prior expectations, with expectancy effects emerging in the context of positive information at the younger end of our age range and in the context of realistic information at the older end of our age range. Furthermore, the more expectations exceeded perceptions (i.e., the more disappointment), the lower children's rapport, affect, and prosocial intentions were and the more internal causal attributions they made. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and applied contributions.

Self-verification as a mediator of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on adolescents' educational attainment

This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N=332) indicated that mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents' academic attainment through adolescents' educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a 6-year span, provided evidence that mothers' self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, because mothers' false beliefs influenced their adolescents' own educational aspirations, which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Educational aspiration-expectation discrepancies: relation to socioeconomic and academic risk-related factors

This study examines whether disconnection between educational aspirations and expectations is associated with socioeconomic status, academic performance, academic risk-related behaviors and related psychosocial factors in an ethnically and economically diverse sample of early adolescents from a public middle school (N = 761). Results suggest that students who aspire to achieve more than they expect to achieve also are likely to have more economically disadvantaged backgrounds and poorer academic performance. These students also show a variety of academic and social risks. Specifically, students whose aspirations exceeded their expectations reported lower levels of school bonding, higher levels of test/performance anxiety, and elevated behavioral/emotional difficulties. Results are discussed in terms of social-cognitive theory as well as applications for promoting student social and academic success.

Potential impact of ADHD with stimulant medication label on teacher expectations

OBJECTIVE

The present study investigated how teachers rated children's Behavior, IQ, and Personality contingent on the presence or absence of an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) label.

METHOD

Teachers from K-12 read a hypothetical description of either a male or female child with no label, an ADHD label, or an ADHD with stimulant treatment label. Teachers responded to 30, 7-point Likert rating scales anchored with descriptors related to Behavior, IQ, and Personality.

RESULTS

Teachers rated the child with an ADHD label and ADHD with stimulant treatment label significantly less favorably than the child with no label. Results partially supported that teachers rated the child with an ADHD label significantly less favorably than the child with an ADHD with stimulant treatment label.

CONCLUSION

Teachers rated the children with ADHD and ADHD with stimulant treatment label less favorably than the child with no label. Implications for educators and future research are discussed.

The black-white test score gap and early home environment

Based on panel data for three age cohorts of children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine how early home environment contributes to black-white achievement gaps at different developmental stages and the extent to which early gaps contribute to later racial achievement gaps. We find large black-white test score differences among children of all ages even before children start formal schooling. Except for the oldest cohort, the gaps for all tests widened when children's cognitive skills were assessed six years later. Racial achievement gaps in applied problem scores by grade three and letter-word scores by grade six, can be accounted for by child's characteristics, family socioeconomic background, and mother's cognitive skills. However, these covariates explain an increasingly smaller proportion of the black-white achievement gap as children advance to higher grades. Gaps in early cognitive skills are highly predictive of gaps at later ages, setting off a trajectory of cumulative disadvantage for black children over time. Our results underscore the key role of early home environment and the intergenerational roots of the persistent black-white achievement gap.

A longitudinal study of the simultaneous influence of mothers' and teachers' educational expectations on low-income youth's academic achievement

This short-term longitudinal study investigated the simultaneous influences of adults' (mothers and teachers) educational expectations and youth's achievement (standardized test scores and teachers' ratings of academic performance) across a 3-year time span on youth's performance in school (GPA). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 426 low-income urban youth, ages 6 through 16 at T1. Results from cross-lagged and autoregressive path analyses indicated stability in adults' expectations and youth's standardized test scores; cross-lagged influences of teachers', but not mothers', expectations across time; and effects of youth's achievement outcomes on adults' expectations at T2, but not vice versa. Overall, the pattern of findings demonstrate that adults' educational expectations are dynamic and responsive to how youth are faring in school and to changes in academic performance across time.

Self-fulfilling prophecy effects of mothers' beliefs on children's alcohol use: accumulation, dissipation, and stability over time

This research examined whether self-fulfilling prophecy effects accumulated, dissipated, or remained stable over time in terms of 2 complementary conceptual models. Analyses of longitudinal data from 2 samples of mother-child dyads (N(1) = 487; N(2) = 288) yielded 3 main findings. First, the degree to which mothers' inaccurate beliefs assessed at a single point in time predicted children's distal alcohol use did not differ from the degree to which they predicted children's proximal alcohol use, thereby supporting a pattern of stability for the samples on average. Second, mothers' inaccurate beliefs repeatedly assessed across time had additive self-fulfilling effects on their children's subsequent alcohol use assessed at a single later point in time. Third, these additive self-fulfilling effects served to exacerbate differences in the alcohol use of children who had been consistently exposed to unfavorable versus favorable beliefs year after year. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the link between self-fulfilling prophecies and social problems.

Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies: knowns and unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies

This article shows that 35 years of empirical research on teacher expectations justifies the following conclusions: (a) Self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom do occur, but these effects are typically small, they do not accumulate greatly across perceivers or over time, and they may be more likely to dissipate than accumulate; (b) powerful self-fulfilling prophecies may selectively occur among students from stigmatized social groups; (c) whether self-fulfilling prophecies affect intelligence, and whether they in general do more harm than good, remains unclear, and (d) teacher expectations may predict student outcomes more because these expectations are accurate than because they are self-fulfilling. Implications for future research, the role of self-fulfilling prophecies in social problems, and perspectives emphasizing the power of erroneous beliefs to create social reality are discussed.

The self-fulfilling influence of mother expectations on children's underage drinking

This research examined whether mothers' expectations about their children's drinking behavior influenced their children's future alcohol use through self-fulfilling prophecies. It also investigated whether children's self-esteem, family social class, or the valence of mother expectations moderated this process. Analyses of longitudinal data from 505 mother-child dyads yielded results consistent with a self-fulfilling prophecy. The inaccurate portion of mother expectations predicted children's future alcohol use after accounting for relevant control variables. Moderation analyses indicated that this effect was stronger among higher self-esteem children and when mother expectations were positively valenced (i.e., when mothers underestimated their children's future alcohol use). The findings are discussed in terms of parent-child relationship quality, peer influences, self theories, and out-group stereotypes.

Are parents' gender schemas related to their children's gender-related cognitions? A meta-analysis

Meta-analyses were conducted of 43 articles (with 48 different samples) investigating the relationship between parents' gender schemas and their offspring's gender-related cognitions. The parents' offspring ranged in age from infancy to early adulthood. Offspring measures included gender self-concept, gender attitudes toward others, gender-related interests, and occupational attitudes. Overall, a small but meaningful effect size (r = .16) indicated a significant and positive correlation between parent gender schemas and offspring measures. Specifically, parents with more traditional gender schemas were more likely than parents with more nontraditional schemas to have offspring with gender-typed cognitions about themselves or others. In addition, the magnitudes of observed effect sizes were influenced by particular moderator variables, including type of parent gender schema (gender self-concept vs. gender attitudes toward others), type of offspring gender-related cognitions, parent gender, offspring gender, offspring age, and publication characteristics. The results are cautiously interpreted as suggesting a possible influence of parents on the development of their children's gender-related thinking.