Ritualized self-sabotage before tests

[RoseGoesToYale]

I've noticed a trend among my peers (at least from 2010 on) to ritually self-sabotage before any kind of quiz or exam in school, and it seems like everybody from all walks of life is doing it. I haven't seen anything like it from students in the past (though I'm pulling from TV here).

 

90s TV show: "Did you study?" "Yeah." "Me too." "Did you study?" "Sorta..." "Ooh, you're toast!"

Nowadays in school: "I'm so gonna fail..." "I don't feel confident at all." "I'm freaking out!" "Yeah, I'm definitely screwed."

 

I can't seem to find any literature on it. I don't think teachers/professors even notice it, or they do and don't think anything of it.  The awful thing about it is I really think the majority of students who say this stuff actually study, but then they wind up getting an average or bad grade, possibly because they spent fifteen minutes before the test berating themselves and their abilities! How did this happen? Part of me thinks it might be lowering expectations so that they aren't let down when they get an average or good grade. But then, it's like this weird bonding exercise that everyone's expected to take part in... I don't have any reference, though. Is it a millennial thing? Or an American thing?

 

Have you seen this happen? Do you think teachers should do something about it?

[fuzzipueo]

Huh. I don't remember that from my high school or college days, but I suppose, if a person is convincing themselves that they're going to fail/flunk, they have indeed sabotaged themselves. The worst thing to do on a test is double guess yourself, especially if you've studied for it!

 

Thing about college/university is that the teachers or professors really expect people to take responsibility for themselves and their class work. If they fail the test, then it's on the students, not the teachers. You might think about starting a campaign of positive reinforcement among the student body and encourage people to find help with subjects they aren't sure of or comfortable with.

[Epitaph]

The mindspace you reside in determines success or failure. I don't know if it's established as 100% fact yet, but it is out there. Exactly like the placebo effect. I recall nothing from my schoold days, but from what I've seen lately it does seem to be a trend. Too much pressure elsewhere and not enough positive reinforcement. Some of this comes down to school teachings, some of this comes down to parental teachings, all eventually culminating into a nervous wreck.

[Chimeric]

2 hours ago, E is for E said:

The mindspace you reside in determines success or failure. I don't know if it's established as 100% fact yet, but it is out there.

I saw a really interesting TedTalk about "power posing" once. Jordan Petersen has an entire series on the importance of acting with confidence, too. Apparently just putting your shoulders back and holding your head high helps communicate your confidence to your brain, which upregulates serotonin secretion and downregulates some other neurotransmitter that's apparently partly responsible for lack of confidence. Neat stuff.

 

Anyway, more on topic - it has definitely become a more prevalent thing the farther I've climbed up the educational ladder, and it definitely inversely correlates with the average amount of time one would have to study in order to pass the courses. It probably is a sort of protective mechanism - like, "well now if I fail, nobody will be surprised, I did say so, after all." 

 

I don't really know what could be done about it. My first year anatomy prof was really good about reassuring us all that we knew the information, we had it in our brains, we just needed to put it on paper (truth) - but that didn't stop basically the whole class from telling each other they were so, so screwed. It was a constant litany, to be honest.