Expectancy confirmation processes arising in the social interaction sequence.

Abstract

Psychologists have begun to use Merton's concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy to explain a wide variety of social phenomena and problems. The present article further develops the theory behind this and related concepts. The core of our argument is that self-fulfilling prophecy effects occur when any one of many possible forces distort the processes occurring in normal social interactions. To elucidate this argument, we describe a model of simple social interactions that involves (a) a perceiver's formation of an expectancy about a target person, (b) his or her behavior congruent with the expectancy, (c) the target's interpretation of this behavior, (d) the target's response, (e) the perceiver's interpretation of the response, and (/) the target's interpretation of his or her own response. We discuss the biasing factors that may lead to self-fulfilling prophecy effects at each step of this sequence. In addition, we suggest several other forms of expectancy confirmation that may occur via the social interaction process. Our presentation has two major purposes: to increase the theoretical clarity of the self-fulfilling prophecy and related effects and to identify needs for future research on the topic. The concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy continues to generate research (e.g., Crano & Mellon, 1978; Snyder & Swann, 1978), theory (R. A. Jones, 1977), and controversy (Archibald, 1974; Wilkins, 1977). This activity is certainly a testimony to the importance of the construct, which is central to many of the practical implications of psychological knowledge for real-world settings (Rosenhan, 1973; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). Partly because of this enormous practical importance, the majority of empirical investigations of the selffulfilling prophecy have involved its occurrence in classroom settings. Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) contended that the induction of a teacher's expectation of improvement in certain children's achievement performance caused such an improvement. Despite the controversy regarding this initial research (Elashoff & Snow, 1971; Jensen, 1969; Thorndike, 1968), subsequent experimental investiVol. 35, No. 10, 867-881 gations (e.g., Meichenbaum, Bowers, & Ross, 1969; Zanna, Sheras, Cooper, & Shaw, 1975) have confirmed that teacher expectations affect student achievement. Several recent studies, aimed at documenting the workings of the teacher-student expectancy confirmation in nonexperimental social interaction settings, have provided some estimates of the magnitude and generality of the effect. A series of correlational studies showed that naturally occurring teacher expectancies are related to students' achievement (e.g., Palardy, 1969; Rist, 1970; Seaver, 1973; Sutherland & Goldschmid, 1974). For example, Seaver (1973) suggested that teachers form expectations about a younger sibling on the basis of the older sibling's performance. He found a greater relationship between the achievement scores of two siblings taught by the same teacher than between the achievement scores of control siblings taught by different teachers. Such correlational findings are always open to question concerning causal direction. A recent cross-lagged panel analysis suggests, however, that it is the teacher expectations that affect student performance. Crano and Mellon (1978) found that teacher attitudes affected children's achievement to a greater degree than students' performance impinged on the teachers' attitudes. This is impressive testimony to the practical importance of

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