essay on 8 marker q9 2018 paper 2, about discussing self-fulfilling prophecy in scenario.
including 3 PEEL paragraphs and competing arguments for higher level marks
Paper 2 Q9 2018
9 Rachel lives in an area that has a high incidence of criminal activity. Her older
brother has frequently been in trouble with the police for anti-social behaviour and
shoplifting. Rachel has recently spent the night at a police station for being drunk and
disorderly.
Discuss self-fulfilling prophecy as an explanation of Rachel’s anti-social behaviour.
You must make reference to the context in your answer. (8)
Self-fulfilling prophecy may explain Rachel’s antisocial behaviour. This theory states that
people assume that an individual will behave in an antisocial manner because of previous
experiences, and will hence treat the individual according to that label. For example, the
area Rachel lives in has a high incidence of criminality. This may lead some people to
expect antisocial behaviour from Rachel, therefore they treat her according to the
expectations of that label. This leads Rachel to internalise the assigned label and to hence
behave in an antisocial manner, such as to be drunk in public. This might explain her
antisocial behaviour. However, it could also be that she has high levels of extraversion,
where she has a greater need for stimulation and is hence more likely to engage in risk
taking behaviour, such as antisocial behaviour like drinking in public. This suggests that self
fulfilling prophecy may not fully explain her decision to live up to the expectations of the label
and engage in antisocial behaviour.
A smaller amygdala might explain Rachel’s antisocial behaviour better. The amygdala is the
integrative centre for emotional response, behaviour and motivation. The amygdala has a
role in fear conditioning. Poor development of this structure might lead to issues with fear
conditioning. This means that the individual may fail to learn negative consequences of
antisocial behaviour and will hence have no fear of being caught. For example, Rachel may
not understand the negative consequences of antisocial behaviour because the area has a
high criminality rate, therefore she may assume that antisocial behaviour is OK. This leads
her to be drunk in public and be disorderly because she may not know the risks associated
with such antisocial behaviour due to a poorly developed amygdala. This may explain her
antisocial behaviour better than self-fulfilling prophecy.
On the other hand, self-fulfilling prophecy may explain why Rachel may also engage in
antisocial behaviour. Expectations about antisocial behaviour gives an individual little
opportunity to change or disprove their assigned label. This causes them to internalise and
fulfil the prophecy of being a criminal as they believe they are expected to behave in an
antisocial way. For example, Rachel’s older brother has been frequently in trouble with the
police for antisocial behaviour and shoplifting. This may lead to Rachel also committing
antisocial behaviour since she may believe that she is expected to behave in that way due to
the stereotype assigned to her because of her brother being in trouble with the police. This
suggests that Rachel fulfills the prophecy of being antisocial just like his older brother.
However, Rachel imitating his brother’s antisocial behaviour might explain her being drunk in
public better. Rachel might view his older brother as a role model and may imitate his
antisocial behaviour by also spending the night at the police station just like her brother did.
This means that social learning theory might explain Rachel’s antisocial behaviour in
response to his brother’s shoplifting.
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