This lady told me how the sidewalks at the complex where she lives were not being "properly cleared". Instead of being shoveled and then deiced they were just being deiced which caused snow to melt and form more layers of ice later. She had complained about the situation saying "I'm going to slip on that ice if it's not removed!". This may seem like a completely legitimate reaction and statement to make regarding a potential threat, however, I wonder if it was actually a self fulfilling prophecy. Why was she the only unfortunate victim of this particular icy sidewalk? It's doubtful that several other residents had also sustained serious injuries from that sidewalk, especially considering the woman had made no such mention (usually if there is a problem within a community, people tend to use similar experiences of others to back up their own claim -at least that's what my experience has told me). What would have happened had she called and said "I fear someone might get hurt from slipping on that ice that hasn't been cleared" or not called and simply said to herself, boy I better be careful on this sidewalk - it's slippery! I'm not saying she purposely slipped and broke her wrist, I'm suggesting that maybe unconsciously she had decided how this threat was going to effect her and had unconsciously done something (such as not be "as cautious" when walking that sidewalk) that had contributed to a predicted fall thus fulfilling her initial prediction.
During my practicum in the fall of 2010 I had a similar experience when talking to a man who seemed to have many... problems... He told me his entire life story and all the ailments that had plagued him. He said that all the vitamins he bought were way too expensive (true story - vitamins are expensive) and I asked him if he had ever asked the pharmacy if they have a frequent customer discount or some kind of bulk deal. He hadn't. He just looked at me and was like "no I don't bother," and in my head I wondered why would he continue dwelling in this problem without seeking a solution to it? Anyways, this is just an example of the type of personality this guy was - a kind of "poor me" type (I wrote about this guy in another blog during the fall as an example of a possible "type" of personality here is the link: Theorizing). Anyways, he had ended up in physio due to a car accident. He was going straight in an intersection and had hit the tail end of a truck in oncoming traffic that had made an overly aggressive left hand turn. At first I had sympathy since he had been in a traffic collision which are incredibly stressful situations not just in the moment but with long lasting effects. Then I realized this guy just had terrible defensive driving skills - almost like he had purposely decided not to avoid the collision just so he could tell this story his latest problem. Obviously this wasn't premeditated but I can't help but think that his self concept of being a victim had some how influenced this in happening. He said he could see the truck deciding to make a left hand turn and had thought that that person was a bad driver and shouldn't have done so (true...). He continued driving straight all the while thinking about what an idiot the other driver was. He ended up hitting the very tail of the other truck's box so that that truck did a spin. Tell me this those of you who are good at physics... If you are travelling in a straight line and you hit the tail end of an oncoming vehicle making a left hand turn (going towards your right) in such a way that the other vehicle spins clockwise, does that not imply that you could have avoided the situation by simply breaking (thus avoiding the end of the truck as it travels straight to your right and away from you) or by steering slightly to your left (remember the other truck is moving continuously to your right)... Let's add this to the equation... if you are far enough away to anticipate someone making this turn and label them an idiot, are you not also far enough away react in some way that will counter that action (seeing as your reaction only needs to defer about one foot of space to avoid a collision). Anyways, my brain (that of a person with a strong belief in defensive driving) sees this as a fully avoidable collision. Even though the person making the left hand turn was legally at fault, it seems to me the collision may have been influenced by the subconscious of the "victim". Could this be another self fulfilling prophecy of someone who believes themselves to be always having problems? Why not one more then? Unconsciously relaxing precaution and responsibility until something happens that reinforces their self concept?