The Concepts of Self-Sealing and Self-Fulfilling in Psychology - Essay Example

1 Self Sealing and Self Fulfilling: The concepts of self-sealing and self-fulfilling in psychology have been around for some time. They express the situations surrounding human methods of expressing themselves in the face of circumstances. Self-sealing doctrines are about postulating ideas or opinions that may not be scientifically proved or correct but are held as the general truth by people who proposed them or their supporters (Anderson, 1978). An example of self-sealing assertion came from those who believe in the issue of white supremacy: they state that white students are naturally more brilliant than black students, even though academic records and facts disprove this statement. And whoever opposes this idea is seen as going through a regression. And even though it has been known that white students don’t necessarily outperform black students while writing the same exam, but the proponents of white supremacy still hold on to their claim to feel superior. On other hand, self-fulfilling prophecy points out how an individual could achieve his/her self purposes while taken into consideration to attitude of the others. Self fulfilling can be better understood through the Pygmalion Effect described below in the diagram (Merton, 1968): (source of this diagram: Meghan Williams-www.meghanwilliams.com/Pygmalion.jpg) 2. The Concepts of Power Visible and Invisible: The concept of visible and invisible power in an organization has been discussed on several occasions. It is interesting to notice an organization works like a system with a structure fashion out to show those in the positions of power. For instance, everyone understands that a company’s president or managing director wields some visible executive power within that organization: they could order the production of a certain 3 product or fire an wayward employee. However, the question about what or who holds invisible power in an organization has been asked on several occasions. Research on organizational management has demonstrated that one of the invisible power-holders in an organization is the culture of the organization. The culture in an organization demands that every employees of the organization conforms to the rules and regulations laid down for their activities (Lockett & Spear, 1980). Another source of invisible power in an organization is the financial capability of the organization. This invisible power of money compels the organization to dream and project its goals within the limits of its financial capability. 3. (a) The spray diagram is drawn below: Virtual Classroom Support system Users University system Management 4 3 (b) The system map is drawn below: Courseware Client software Computers Virtual Classroom Support System Network Server-based software Network devices and protocols 4. Peter Senge (1990) says we tend to blame outside circumstances for our problems. Systems thinking says there is no “outside” . . . that we are part of a system that includes the cause of the problems. Hence, the cure lies in your relationship with your “enemy.” Looking at the statement above, it is possible to explain it by using the concepts of self-sealing, self-fulfilling, blame, and guilt. Ideally, we live in world 5 that looks like a close system, and surrounded by people of different ways of life and manners. On most occasions when something bad and unexpected happened to us, we tend to look outward for the reasons for such a happening to occur. We always point accusing fingers at the others because we engaged in self-sealing. As a doctrine, self-sealing encourages people to state their own selfish opinions without actually listening to the ideas from the others (Argyris, 1999). The surprising thing about self-sealing is that the proponents of the idea would continue to repeat and emphasize the contents of their message without actually thinking about verifying them scientifically or otherwise; even though their assertions have been found misleading and unfounded, those who believe in self-sealing would continue to repeat what they had strongly believed. For instance, those self-sealing people that often say that white students are usually more academically sound than black students have been proved quite wrong on many numbers of occasions, but they still decide to stick to their wrong and prejudicial beliefs to make themselves feel more important or superior. It is glaring that such a declaration would offend people, who might care about the outburst when retorting the statement above. From history, many black activists have struggled against such prejudice and launched both peaceful and violent demonstration against the white supremacist organization like KKK. Many innocent lives have been lost in the crossfire as the forces of opposition collided with the forces of racists. The example from the United States is a typical way to link how self sealing could spark serious anger in some people. 6 In the same way, most Western countries automatically perceive a Muslim as a dangerous terrorist that must be strictly monitored and maltreated sometimes. This kind of view makes the Westerners look like saints: a typical self-sealing idea. Hence, the United States has directly blamed Osama Bin Laden for the attacks on September 11, and indirectly blamed the Arab world for producing such a fanatic personality. The fact is that such blame should be considered from inward: the United States should look at its past prejudicial treatment of Arabs that might have sparked such strong hatred against the US and its Western allies. In general, self-sealing causes anger that could lead to some violent actions against the heckler! Many experts on self-fulfilling prophecies believe that the major hindrance to achieving one’s potential and dream is feeling guilty about some past actions. Guilt restrains us from reaching to people, places and things that we may need to attain that level of self-fulfillment. Using the United States as an example again, after President Bush unilaterally launched a military offensive against Iraq, he someone alienates himself from Arab people. And when he seriously needed the help of the Arab leaders to help him stop the action of insurgents in Iraq, his guilt could not let him approach them optimistically. But till today, American leaders still point accusing fingers to the Arab people when the issue of religious fanaticism and terrorism are raised. But the United States, in actual fact, 7 should consider itself as a member of an international family of nations, dealing with all members of this family equally and without arrogance in its foreign policies. In the same way, when a person becomes carried away with self-sealing agenda and offends the others, such a person would definitely not experience self-fulfilling because of the guilt arising from his/her past mistakes. And instead of passing blame on the others, such a man or woman should look at her behavior and change some of his/her characters. And the people around him/her would behave the same way. References Anderson, ML 1978, The use of IQ tests in blaming the victims: predicting incompetence rather than general intelligence, San Jose Studies, Vol 4, San Jose University, San Jose: CA. Argyris, C 1999, On organizational learning, edn 2, Wiley-Blackwell, London. Lockett, M & Spear, R 1980, Organizations as systems, Open University Press, New York. Merton, RK 1968, Social Theory and Social Structure, Free Press, New York. Peter, MS 1990, The fifth discipline fieldbook: strategies and tools for building a learning organization, Doubleday, New York. Read More