It really amazes me how relevant social psychology is to my own day to day life. Coming into the class I had an idea of what social psychology was and the importance of its concepts to comprehend and be able to apply to future contexts but the appealing part of the course is that I don’t need to go out of my way to apply the concepts to my life, they already exist and now I am just giving a title to them.
The topic that really caught my attention was the self fulfilling prophecy. Having the knowledge that you as an individual can really manage the outcome of a potential situation is empowering and in some ways scary. My thoughts were what if I am the cause of my own unhappiness? The most prominent example of self fulfilling prophecy occurs in my relationship with my boyfriend, Mark. There have been numerous occasions where I think that he will have a bad attitude about where we are going that night, or that he will be angry if I bring something up to him and indeed that is what happens. It wasn’t until reading the text on this concept that I realized I was guilty in the first degree. I see now that me, going into the night worried about him being something besides excited was setting myself up and our night for failure.
Awkward is a term that is frequently used in my relationships vocabulary bank, and although I feel I try to avoid situations in which I feel awkward the more I try the more it shows up. I have now come to terms with the fact that by me anticipating something being off with my boyfriend it is more likely to really happen. This could honestly be a huge breakthrough for my relationship with Mark and allowing for some less awkward nights. Thanks social pscyh!
