Final answer:
A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when our expectations about a person's behaviour lead them to act in ways that confirm those expectations, creating a cycle of reinforcement for our original belief.
Step-by-step explanation:
When we are unaware of the role that our behaviour played in shaping another person's behaviour and we then interpret the other person's behaviour as evidence that our expectation of the other person was correct all along, a self-fulfilling prophecy is said to have occurred. This occurs when our expectations about a person's behavior potentially cause the person to behave in ways that confirm our expectations. An example of this is a landmark study by Rosenthal and Jacobson where teachers' expectations of students influenced the students' performance, confirming the teachers' beliefs. This illustrates how our biases and expectations can inadvertently influence others, creating a cycle where the initial assumption is seemingly validated by the observed outcome.