Quite often, sick people will grab on to a label and live up to it. The benefit is one can use past performance and behaviours of others with the label to predict what future behaviour will be.
This is the entire basis of Credit records...
What are the benefits and risks of using diagnostic labels to describe maladaptive behavior?
2 answers
Bobpursley is talking about the "self-fulfilling prophecy." Once a label is given — whether for maladaptive behavior or not — the person tends ot live up to the label, others tend to promote situations that reinforce the label, or others tend not to note behaviors that do not match the label.
However, once labeled correctly, beside predicting future behavior, the label might suggest methods to modify the maladaptive behavior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy.htm
http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/selffulfilling_prophecies
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/self-fulfilling_prophecy.htm
I hope this helps a little more. Thanks for asking.
However, once labeled correctly, beside predicting future behavior, the label might suggest methods to modify the maladaptive behavior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy.htm
http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/selffulfilling_prophecies
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/self-fulfilling_prophecy.htm
I hope this helps a little more. Thanks for asking.
1 answer