Stereotyping And Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

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The three psychological concepts to be discussed are primacy/recency effect, stereotyping and self-fulfilling prophecy.
The first concept that can be applied in everyday life is the primacy/recency effect. This can be defined as remembering primary and ultimate items with more ease than information received between the two. (Postman and Phillips, 1965.) This effect can be applied to everyday life such that when attending a lecture, students find it easier to retain the first and last chunks of information they receive as these are the points that they are at their most attentive. The positives of this being that information presented during these times is more likely to be retained, however any information posited to the students between

It can be defined as applying knowledge one has about some members of a certain groups, to every member of that group. (Allport. G.,1979). Stereotyping can and does become a way for some to over-simplify the way in which the social world works by fulfilling the idea that people can be place into categories so simply. It could be posited that stereotyping could apply to the world of nursing in that, while some stereotypes can be harmless, they can often lead to discrimination and prejudiced behaviour. Making assumptions that certain service users will act a certain way or having preconceived notions of what their behaviour or mannerisms will be can be harmful. If the nursing staff abides by these preconceived notions about unhealthy lifestyle choices or inferior intelligence that may be perpetuated, often unintentionally, by health care professionals or even by public health campaigns, it can have detrimental effects on service users’ health. It can increase the risk of hypertension and create a feeling of mistrust between service user and healthcare worker. (Abdou, 2015) While it may not be a good thing that stereotyping could be used in everyday life among healthcare staff, it is often an innate behaviour and is difficult to stop. Healthcare staff must work at trying to abandon these

Defined as the tendency for one’s expectations about another or themselves leading to fulfilment of those expectations, this phenomenon is especially applicable to everyday life. For example, if a teacher has been warned that a new student is going to misbehave in class, the teacher might, consciously or not, become strict with the student to prevent the behaviour about which she has been warned. The student may begin to misbehave in retaliation to what is seen as unfair treatment, thus, fulfilling the teacher’s expectation. Self-fulfilling prophecy can be a tool used to increase students’ success. The Rosenthal- Jacobson study illustrates the Pygmalion effect. When one has higher expectations, for example a teacher about a student, the teacher may inadvertently practise teaching methods that give the student higher chances for success or indeed, be more encouraging towards that particular student than before. (Rosenthal R., Jacobsen L. 1965) This concept of self fulfilling prophecy is certainly something the population should be aware of, especially those working with the general public such as teachers and healthcare workers as it can have an important effect on those with which they