People all around me are forever telling me to stop being so negative (i.e. "If you say you're not going to get into grad school, you won't get in.") Now that, I can't entirely buy. The good folks at the three programs I've applied to haven't got a damn clue whether I'm sitting at home the most confident person in the world, or if I'm just a regular ol' negative-Nancy.
In short, the self-fulfilling prophecy is "an initial expectation that is confirmed by the behavior it elicits" (Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology). That, in itself, has been proven in various ways.. BUT what about your subconscious? For Freud, it was the unconscious, but eventually the term "subconscious" was popularized, and now we all have at least an idea of what that means. So, here's my first question. Have you ever blamed something on your subconscious? You know, "Oh, I left my notebook at home--I guess that's my subconscious way of saying I don't want to take notes today." Stuff like that. Well, is our subconsciousreally driving these things or is it just a convenient excuse?
When I began applying to grad school I did NOT want to. I felt like I had no other choice, it was what was expected of me, it was what I was supposed to want, and it was what I suspected my closer-to-graduation self would be glad I had done (true). But in the moment, I hated every second of it. Since then I have experienced "little thing" after "little thing" go wrong with my application submissions. Needed TWO transcripts--only sent ONE. Teacher recommendations due on date X--turned in a week and a half later. And the most recent, discovered yesterday, one month after my final submission. I never sent my transcript for the ONE class I attended at State over the summer.
All of this has led me to ask myself... was this my subconscious way of sabotaging my graduate school apps? Now that I really REALLY do want to go, I've already messed up my chances? Or is it just circumstance and my own lack of proper brain organization?
How much influence does the self-fulfilling prophecy really have? Can a pro ball player psych himself into or out of a shot? Does believing I will/won't do poorly on a test affect my grade? How much power do we really have over the things in our lives? Are we really in control of our own destinies or do we use things like our subconscious to make ourselves feel better--to loosen the fear, and strengthen our perception of control? Is the self-fulfilling prophecy a self-fulfilling prophecy in and of itself? We believe in its ability, its effect, and thus when we think it works, we attribute the results to it, thus CREATING its power?
Sam: I read The Secret for the first time several years ago. Since then, I've read it almost every year, which is a testament to how much I like that book (the only other book I read that often is Style from A to Zoe). (English majors everywhere are weeping.) The whole premise of The Secret is that like attracts like. Basically, it looks at how positive thoughts will attract positive things in your life and negative thoughts will attract unpleasant things.
I am one of those people who constantly tells Kassy to stop being so negative. In part because I have about as much compassion as a pile of toe nail clippings, but also because I am a firm believer in cosmic justice. To me, cosmic justice is a lot like karma or the self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe that the actions you do, whether they're external actions or internal thoughts, will lead to another action. Life is not static. It is not just a series of unrelated events. If you do something bad, something bad will in turn happen to you. It may not happen right away but I think that before you die, the universe evens out the bad deeds you've done with bad things that happen to you. The same goes for good thoughts or actions.
So, if you believe that you're going to fail whether it be grad school applications or a job interview or sticking with a diet during the holiday season, then you will. If you put negative thoughts out into the universe, then the most probable outcome will also be negative.
