expectation

Meaning: An expectation is a belief about what will happen or how someone should behave, built from schemas, past experience, and social norms. Expectations steer attention and interpretation (top-down processing, perceptual set), so people tend to notice information that fits them. They also change behavior. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, a belief leads to actions that bring about the predicted result. In sociology, role expectations are the behaviors a group anticipates from someone holding a given status, and violating them often draws disapproval.

On the MCAT: A common passage describes teachers told that randomly chosen students are about to "bloom" (the Pygmalion or Rosenthal effect). The labeled students then improve more, because teacher expectations changed how the teacher treated them. You may also see the observer-expectancy effect, where a researcher's expectations bias how results are gathered or read, which is why double-blind designs are used. Expectations also appear in stereotype threat, confirmation bias, and expectancy-based motivation, where people work harder when they expect effort to lead to success.

Common confusion: A self-fulfilling prophecy is not just an accurate forecast. The belief must cause behavior that produces the outcome. Also keep others' expectations of you (Pygmalion effect) separate from your own belief in your ability (self-efficacy).