Have you experienced this: You walked into an exam hall with a super-positive attitude; sat for the test, and scored with flying colors. You knew you had that faith to do well, even with very little effort put into the preparation. It was that "gut" in you that you trust.
Let's talk about that "gut."
Robert K. Merton's concept of self-fulfilling prophecy states that the positive feedback between beliefs and behaviors, can directly or indirectly causes a prediction to be true. For instance, if Jimmy thinks that he can ace his classes as long as he puts in effort and determination, he will eventually do so, according to the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Thomas theorem also backs this idea firmly. It states, "if men defines situation as real, they are real in their consequences."
I try to relate these ideas with human personalities: self-esteem, self-control, and self-confidence. Does high self-esteem leads one to better performance? How does self-control affect self-esteem? What about self-confidence; is it a by-product of good performance?
I like to take examples from daily routines. Take for illustration that Jimmy, again, is given a term paper assignment for his Media Law class. Having that "positive interaction" between his attitude and beliefs that he will be able to complete the assignment on time, Jimmy did not start writing until the last week of the semester.
Using the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, do you think Jimmy - who defines his situation as real - could still cause his prediction to turnout true?
I doubt so.
I'm still finding that fine line between self-fulfilling prediction and overconfidence. I believe many factors can contribute to one's success or otherwise. In Jimmy's case, procrastination can be a main issue. Whether his confidence level is boosted by his previous successes and experience, or by plainly following the feel from his guts, I am not sure. There isn't have to be a single reason to his results.
How about another similar assignment given to Jimmy the following semester? Will his past performance affect his self-esteem and hence level-down his self-confidence? Or will that experience be a boost to his self-control and increase his self-confidence relatively?
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this comparison. I still believe that everyone has the potential to be great. Nevertheless, it really comes down to knowing who you really are and expand the best of out yourself.
Students in colleges and universities really need to find a balance between knowing-they-can-surely-do-it and the amount of effort they put into one task. When both sides of the end are equally leveled, the making of true prediction seems whole lot realistic - rather than being simply overconfident and achieving nothing in the end.
In short, trust your guts, but give some sweat to it, too. Cheers!
