Self Fulfilling Prophecy
A person commits an act is considered criminal/antisocial and they become labelled as such. Based on this label, the individual becomes treated differently by those around them. The label will become internalised by the individual, in particular if more than one person agrees with the label and if the label is not far from the individual’s normal behaviour. This makes the individual feel there is no opportunity to change and thus fulfils the prophecy of them being a criminal by acting the way the label suggests.
An example would be that older people may have the stereotype that people wearing hoodies are troublemakers. They see a young person wearing a hoodie and label them as a trouble maker. Based on this label they avoid talking to them and cross the road to avoid them. Based on this expectation from others the young person internalises this label of and begins acting in an anti-social.
Evaluation
Supporting evidence:
Jahoda found Males born on Wednesday had a significantly higher arrest rate (22%) than males born on Monday (6%). This is a self fulfilling prophecy because boys born on Mondays are named KWADWO (Considered to be mild mannered) whereas boys born on a Wednesday are named KWADKU (considered to be aggressive and short tempered). This is valid data as it comes from crime records, however it has not been replicated so this may just be a one off
Rosenthal and Jacobson found that students labelled as bloomers had improved IQ scores and continued to thrive for the next 2 years in comparison to other students in the class. This suggests the ‘prophecy’ came true because the teachers responded differently to them. This study was well controlled – children were randomly allocated to each condition, however It may be due to teachers beliefs that they were being observed and felt they needed to act on the information they were given. Also this was an educational setting rather than crime.
Opposing evidence:
Studies are correlational - they show a link between expectations and outcome but cause could be due to any amount of reasons. Also a lack of ecological validity – research cannot always be applied to real-life due to the amount of other influencing variables involved in experiments.
Not everybody conforms to the label they have been given and may do the opposite to prove that person wrong
We cannot experimentally test the effects of SFP due to ethics - to create criminals by treating them differently would be immoral
Few studies have been conducted into labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy because finding a false belief (e.g. ‘about to bloom’) is difficult
Much of the research has been in field of education – teacher/pupil relationship and other relationships may not have this effect
Different explanation:
There are alternative explanations e.g. upbringing, SLT, personality. People who score high on extrovert, neuroticism and psychoticism have been associated with criminal behaviours. SLT says it is the influence of role models and the individual copies this behaviour
A person commits an act is considered criminal/antisocial and they become labelled as such. Based on this label, the individual becomes treated differently by those around them. The label will become internalised by the individual, in particular if more than one person agrees with the label and if the label is not far from the individual’s normal behaviour. This makes the individual feel there is no opportunity to change and thus fulfils the prophecy of them being a criminal by acting the way the label suggests.
An example would be that older people may have the stereotype that people wearing hoodies are troublemakers. They see a young person wearing a hoodie and label them as a trouble maker. Based on this label they avoid talking to them and cross the road to avoid them. Based on this expectation from others the young person internalises this label of and begins acting in an anti-social.
Evaluation
Supporting evidence:
Jahoda found Males born on Wednesday had a significantly higher arrest rate (22%) than males born on Monday (6%). This is a self fulfilling prophecy because boys born on Mondays are named KWADWO (Considered to be mild mannered) whereas boys born on a Wednesday are named KWADKU (considered to be aggressive and short tempered). This is valid data as it comes from crime records, however it has not been replicated so this may just be a one off
Rosenthal and Jacobson found that students labelled as bloomers had improved IQ scores and continued to thrive for the next 2 years in comparison to other students in the class. This suggests the ‘prophecy’ came true because the teachers responded differently to them. This study was well controlled – children were randomly allocated to each condition, however It may be due to teachers beliefs that they were being observed and felt they needed to act on the information they were given. Also this was an educational setting rather than crime.
Opposing evidence:
Studies are correlational - they show a link between expectations and outcome but cause could be due to any amount of reasons. Also a lack of ecological validity – research cannot always be applied to real-life due to the amount of other influencing variables involved in experiments.
Not everybody conforms to the label they have been given and may do the opposite to prove that person wrong
We cannot experimentally test the effects of SFP due to ethics - to create criminals by treating them differently would be immoral
Few studies have been conducted into labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy because finding a false belief (e.g. ‘about to bloom’) is difficult
Much of the research has been in field of education – teacher/pupil relationship and other relationships may not have this effect
Different explanation:
There are alternative explanations e.g. upbringing, SLT, personality. People who score high on extrovert, neuroticism and psychoticism have been associated with criminal behaviours. SLT says it is the influence of role models and the individual copies this behaviour