A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when?

Answer 1

It occurs when a prediction is made, but the fact the prediction is made contributes

• In the story of Oedipus in Greek mythology, Laius is informed that his newborn new son will kill him and marry his wife. So Laius abandons his son Oedipus, but Oedipus is rescued and adopted by new parents. When he grows older, Oedipus hears of the prophecy himself and decides to move away from his foster parents to avoid fulfilling it (because he thinks they are the parents mentioned in the prophecy). He eventually encounters Laius without recognising him as his true father, and kills him and marries his wife.
• In Shakespear's play Macbeth, the witches prophecise to Macbeth that he will first become King of Scotland, but after a while the son of his friend Banquo will become King. They later warn him to beware of MacDuff and the fact a "man born of a woman" cannot kill him. Macbeth ignores the prophecy at first, but after being encouraged by his wife, he murders King Duncan and becomes King of Scotland. He orders the murder of Banquo and his son Fleance, but Fleance escapes. He then orders the murder of Macduff's family, but Macduff escapes and vows revenge for his family. When an army besieges his castle, Macbeth is convinced he is invincible until he meets Macduff, who was infact was born by being cut from his mother after she died before giving birth. Macduff then kills Macbeth.
• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it is revealed that shortly before Harry's birth, Sybil Treelawney made a prophecy to Albus Dumbledore that a wizard with the power to destroy Voldemort is about to be born at the end of July. Severus Snape heard this part of the prophecy before being caught listening and thrown out of the building. After Snape was thrown out, Treelawney continued by saying that Voldemort would "mark him as his equal but he shall have powers of which the Dark Lord knows not" and finally one of the them will kill the other in the end. Voldemort heard from Snape about the prophecy and went off to kill Harry without realising that he would disastrously "mark him as his equal". He failed to kill Harry and in doing so transferred some of his own powers to Harry as well as allowing Harry to see into his own mind, which Harry uses to his advantages throughout the books. At the end of the book, Harry confronts Voldemort and kills him.

Answer 2

Self-fulfilling prophecy is when our expectations about another person causes that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectation.

This could kind of be broken into a four step process:

1. We form an expectation of the person (sometimes inaccurate because of the limited information we have about them --for example only a first impression)
   • high expectancy people would receive more emotional support through nonverbal cues (smiling and eye contact), valuable feedback and reinforcement, better training, etc
2. our expectations affects our behaviour towards person
3. Our behaviour affects the behaviour of the person (the non verbal cues that we exert towards the person shapes how they act - for example if we keep frowning at the person they become nervous)
4. Person's behaviour becomes consistent with our expectations

For example, if we form the expection that the person will be successful, this will shape our behaviour in that we will act positively towards the person (by smiling a lot and being very encourageing). This encouragement makes them believe that they can succeed and thus will act more confidently when performing a task. In the end the person becomes successful which is consistent with your expenction.

SFP is usually stronger at the beginning of a relationship (when you dont know the person that well), when several people hold the same perception (if everyone thinks you're going to fail the test, you might actually fail it), and among people with a history of low achievement (they arne't very confident in themselves so when someone is encouraging, they do extremely well, or vice versa).

Answer 3

A prophecy that you fulfill yourself. The meaning of life is to give life meaning, blouses