Chapter 14. Do Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Accumulate or Dissipate?<\/p>\n
Abstract<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This chapter reviews theory and data regarding the accumulation of self-fulfilling prophecies over time and across perceivers.\u00a0 The theoretical case for powerfully accumulating self-fulfilling prophecies (described in depth here) often seems so obvious and compelling that data are not even needed to test it \u2013 until the theoretical case for dissipating self-fulfilling prophecies is described in similar depth.\u00a0 Given that these opposite claims appear highly compelling, whether self-fulfilling prophecies accumulate or dissipate can only be resolved by data, not by theoretical analysis.\u00a0 In classrooms, the data are vividly clear: self-fulfilling prophecies do not accumulate over time.\u00a0 Instead, they dissipate.\u00a0 Concurrent accumulation (across perceivers) in classrooms most likely does occur.\u00a0 This chapter shows why, perhaps surprisingly, the generally highly limited self-fulfilling prophecy effects found in existing research likely constitutes an upper limit of how much concurrent accumulation actually happens.\u00a0 The handful of studies assessing accumulation outside of classrooms have yielded suggestive but inconsistent results from which no broad and general conclusions can yet be reached.\u00a0 Although one can tell a compelling story about how the accumulation of self-fulfilling prophecy upon self-fulfilling prophecy constitutes a major mechanism by which social stereotypes confirm themselves and maintain unjustified systems of oppression and status, there is, in fact, currently no clear evidence supporting such an analysis, and a great deal of evidence against it.<\/p>\n
EXCERPT:<\/i><\/b>
\nThere might be some conditions under which teacher expectation effects accumulate to create large, enduring differences between students.\u00a0 Such conditions, however, have not yet been found.\u00a0 Despite arguments and claims emphasizing the power of expectancy effects to accumulate, there is no evidence of powerful accumulation effects in the classroom.
\nConcurrent accumulation [of self-fulfilling prophecy effects produced by multiple perceivers\u2019 expectations during the same time period] most likely occurs, at least sometimes.\u00a0 … despite the initially compelling appeal of arguments for the concurrent accumulation hypothesis, naturalistic studies of dyadic teacher-student interactions, which typically show expectancy effects of .1-.2 (see Chapters 3 and 13), do not underestimate concurrent accumulation.\u00a0 Instead, they precisely capture the overall extent of accumulation across different teachers during the time period covered by those studies.\u00a0 Concurrent accumulation effects in the classroom are, therefore, on average quite small.
\n…accumulation over time … in the classroom … does not happen.\u00a0 Four studies have directly addressed this issue (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968; Rist, 1970; Smith, et al., 1999; West & Anderson, 1976).\u00a0 None found evidence of accumulation.\u00a0 All found at least some evidence that self-fulfilling prophecies dissipate…
\nOutside the classroom, the evidence on accumulation is still preliminary and suggestive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"