Self-Fulfilling Prophecy When I Was in High

¶ … self-fulfilling prophecy when I was in high school. I never thought I was very good at math. I could understand the concepts when I was in class, but would get very anxious about the tests. I was so convinced that I was going to fail the math tests that I would start panicking days ahead of time. This made studying absolutely impossible, and taking the test was agony. My brain would shut down completely, and, of course, I would fail the test. If I had gone into the testing situation knowing that I understood the concepts and could pass easily with preparation, my studying would have been more effective, and I could have taken the test with a clear head and probably passed. While this is a small example from my life, self-fulfilling prophecies can have a major impact in large-scale situations. If Congress predicts ahead of time that there is no solution to a problem, they will surely be unable to find a solution. The good news is, once negative self-fulfilling prophecies are recognized, positive self-fulfilling prophecies can be put in place to counteract them.

B. I think the self-serving attributional bias is part of human nature, but can stand in the way of personal growth. It is understandable to want to place the blame for negative consequences somewhere outside of your control, but that prevents you from learning how to avoid those consequences in the future. The just-world hypothesis is similar in that it is understandable but can be dangerous. If we always look for a rational "fairness" in what happens around us, we can end up building delusions of cause-and-effect that miss the reality of the situation, and innocent people can end up be blamed for situations that simply don't make sense. I believe the self-serving attributional bias is more unhealthy on an individual level, because it doesn't give you a clear idea of how to improve, but the just world bias is more unhealthy on a societal level because it creates prejudices and stereotypes that are not necessarily accurate.

C. The justification of effort can be seen all of the time in the attitude of parents towards their children and other children. Because of the enormous amount of work that parents put towards raising their children, they often consider their children more "valuable" -- more talented, intelligent, kind, funny -- than others consider them. This can be difficult for the parents when the children enter school and are judged in a more competitive environment. It can even be seen in first-child/parent relationships, when parents sometimes favor the eldest child because of the more intense learning curve in the child's early years.

D. One of my favorite commercials from this year's Super Bowl was the Volkswagen commercial where a young child dressed as Darth Vader tries to move things with his mind. He is unsuccessful until he tries it on the Volkswagen in the driveway, which turns on at his bidding (it's actually his dad starting the car remotely). This commercial was obviously meant to appeal to parents. It relies heavily on central processing, mainly because there is no dialogue in the commercial, just the Star Wars soundtrack. The viewer has to figure out the logic of the commercial himself or herself, which makes the payoff of "getting" the joke that much more impactful and memorable. I think the commercial is extremely effective for its intended audience, as it is funny and it plays strongly into natural affections for children.