Ten-Year-Old Kerry Is from the "Wrong Side of the Tracks

question 4

Multiple Choice

Ten-year-old Kerry is from the "wrong side of the tracks" and his fourth grade teacher expects bad behavior from him. Why could this expectation be especially harmful for Kerry

• A) What looks like a self-fulfilling prophecy may be an accurate assessment made by a teacher.
• B) It is unclear whether self-fulfilling prophecies tend to do more harm than good.
• C) Self-fulfilling prophecies can be especially influential on students who belong to groups that are already stigmatized.
• D) Self-fulfilling prophecies are only one of many influences on student achievement.

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Definitions:

Jury

A group of people sworn to render a verdict or decision in a legal case based on evidence presented to them in court.

Superordinate Goal

In intergroup conflict, an objective held in common by all conflicting groups that cannot be achieved by any one group without the supportive efforts of the others.

Ultimate Attribution Error

A perceptual bias occurring in intergroup relations. Negative behaviors by out-group members are attributed to stable, internal factors such as undesirable personal traits or dispositions, but positive behaviors by out-group members are attributed to unstable, external factors such as situational pressures or luck. As a result, in-group observers will blame the out-group for negative outcomes but will not give it credit for positive outcomes.

Out-group Homogeneity

The perception that members of a group different from ours are more similar to each other than they actually are, often leading to stereotyping.