Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Anticipating Failure
A couple of lectures ago, we spoke about the detrimental effects that overconfidence can cause on unsuspecting individuals. However, the last class we spoke about the exact opposite, and how lack of confidence can be as detrimental if not more than overconfidence. An individual that anticipates failure may not try as hard which in turn will cause the performance to be sub-par. I actually just encountered a situation that involved this. I had a Pathophysiology test that I was studying for, which had a lot of difficult information in the chapters. I began to stress out and believe that I wouldn't be able to succeed on this test. However, my friends reminded me that if I believed I would fail, I probably would. Therefore, I studied as hard as I could and went into the test with enough confidence to succeed, and I did. This self-fulfilling prophecy can either cause negative results or positive.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I actually have experienced the detrimental effects that anticipation has on our grades also. I was so overwhelmed with all of the information that I had to know that I just caved under the pressure. I was worried so much on failing that the information that I needed to know didn't really sink into my brain. The same thing has happened with overconfidence; I thought I knew all of the information that was going to be on a test but when I took it I realized that I needed to study a lot more!
ReplyDeleteAnticipation has also affected me as far as my academic performance is concerned. There have been nights that I have had to cram as much information as I could into one study session because I was not prepared enough. After a few hours of studying the idea that I wasn't going to be able to learn all of the information popped into my head. I continued to study however this idea was still lurking in the back of my mind. I feel like anxiety I had while trying to learn all of the information caused me to not really retain as much of it as I normally would have. Had these feelings of anxiety and doubt not been present during my study session I feel like I would have retained the information a lot better, and most likely earned a better score on the test.
ReplyDeleteI have actually experienced the opposite of this. If I think I am going to do well on something I do poorly and vice versa. So I am not actually sure if the theory on overconfidence is accurate, but maybe it is just me and my underconfidence :)
ReplyDeleteI also have noticed that whenever I think I am going to do well on an assignment or test, I end up doing not so well and vice versa. This may not be the best way to go about things, but when I instead anticipate failure, it creates a sense of nervousness in me that somehow helps me learn and retain the information better since I am more worried about not knowing the material. My anticipating failure actually tends to help me most of the times as it makes me feel as though I have to work harder to avoid the negative result of failure.
ReplyDelete