Welcome to my newest brainchild, a series illustrating psychological concepts with a song!
It’s been a while since I’ve written, as my real life has gotten completely, insanely, ridiculously busy, so this will be how we move forward, with an explanation of a psychological concept, and a song or two illustrating how they work in real life.
Ready?!
Today’s lesson is the concept of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the idea that our expectations shape our behavior, and bring about the very thing we’re expecting! Think about a party – if you go in nervous, not expecting to have a good time, or make friends, how will you act? Nervous and scared, hanging around the punch bowl, being quiet and awkward? Odds are, you won’t have a good time if that’s the case – your expectations brought about your expected result.
Perfect example of this is “The Obituaries” by the Menzingers, illustrated below.
Chorus lyrics? “I will fuck this up – I fucking know it.” I think he’s probably gonna fuck it up – that’s what he’s expecting to do!
See you next time for our piece on cognitive distortion – overgeneralizing!
theshamedynamic 