7Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy is engaging in behaviors that obtain results that confirm existing attitudes. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that causes itself to become true. For example, I believe that I am going to do poorly in school, so I decrease the effort I put into my assignments and studying, and I end up doing poorly, just as I thought. Another common example is relationships; I think my relationship with my significant other is going to fail, so I start acting differently, pulling away emotionally. Because of my actions, I actually cause the relationship to fail. This is a powerful tool used by “psychics” – they implant an idea in your mind, and you eventually make it happen because you think it will.
Interesting Fact: Economic Recessions are self-fulfilling prophecies. Because a recession is 2 quarters of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline, you cannot know you are in a recession until you are at least 6 months into one. Unfortunately, at the first sign of decreasing GDP, the media reports a possible recession, people panic and start a chain of events that actually cause a recession.
7 自我实现的预言
自我实现的预言是说在一些既定的想法下事情真的会发生。一个自我实现的预言就是会实现的真的预言。举个例子,我相信我在学校里会变穷,所以我就减少了开支,而且努力学习,最后我还是和我想的一样变穷了。另一个常见的例子是有关关系的:我想我和其他人之间的关系会变差,于是我就开始下意识做一些不同的事。正是因为我的这些行为,真的使我们关系变差了。这个在心理学上被广泛运用了—他们在你心里做出暗示,那么那件事就真的会发生,因为你认为它会发生。
有趣的现象:经济衰退就是一件自我实现的预言。因为衰退指国内生产总值(GDP)减少一半,直到最后6个月的时候你才会发现自己处于衰退之中。不幸的是,因为看到了GDP的减少,媒体报道了衰退的可能性,人们就开始恐慌,然后引发了一系列的事情,最后导致经济衰退。