~ SITE PURPOSE ~

~ THE INDIGO NETWORK ~

~ LEVEL ONE ~

~ LEVEL TWO ~

~ LEVEL THREE ~

~ LEVEL FOUR ~

~ LEVEL FIVE ~

~ CHILDREN ~

~ ARTICLES ~

~ TELL YOUR STORY ~

~ LINKS ~

~ READ COMMENTS ~

~ MAKE COMMENTS ~

~ PRIVACY STATEMENT ~

PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS

~ HOME

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

In 1957, Robert Merton, a professor of sociology at Columbia University, wrote "Social Theory and Social Structure" wherein he said the Self-fulfilling Prophecy phenomenon occurs when a 'false definition of the situation evokes a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come true.' More simply put, it means that once an expectation is set, even if it isn't accurate, we tend to act in ways that are consistent with that expectation. In other words, if you keep telling a child something, that child will become it even if they really aren't it.

The primary example of this is telling a child that he or she will amount to nothing, and sure enough, that child never does amount to anything, yet perhaps that child could have been the next Einstein if allowed to. Children believe what is told to them over and over again!! Beware, they are little sponges absorbing everything you tell them.

The Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion Effect comes from the George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, where a professor takes a flower girl, trains her and attempts to pass her off as a duchess. The professor succeeds by the way, but the key to this concept as it is related to kids and ADHD is the difference between a child with or without ADHD: It doesn't matter how a child behaves, but how he or she is treated.

BACK TO TOP

BACK TO CHILDREN INDEX