Ms. Valentino could tell from the first day of school that Javier was going to be one of her struggling Latino students. He came
to school wearing worn clothes. No parent accompanied him, and he acted withdrawn and shy. By the end of the first grading period, she confirmed her impressions. Javier's grades were low. This scenario most likely illustrates: a. differentiation.
b. the Pygmalion effect.
c. a self-fulfilling prophecy.
d. a sustaining expectation.
The scenario most likely illustrates a self-fulfilling prophecy because, the prediction or expectation of Ms. Valentino had regarding Javier (i.e., Javier was going to be one of her struggling Latino students), actually came to pass, just the way she felt about it. Her feelings or beliefs were based on prior knowledge she had about Javier’s actions and attitude. Based on Ms. Valentino’s assessment of Javier, she had an expectation about him, and which came to pass—a self-fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecies come to pass, depending on the strength of certain situations that eventually lead to their occurrence.
Stereotype threats refer to a person feels susceptible to conforming to stereotypes. For this reason, older people in the example who hadn't been subjected to ageisn (discrimination based on age) showed better memory skills, as they didn't want to conform to older people's stereotypical ideas about memory.
