Joe always told himself that he was lousy at athletics. when he tried to play soccer, he was not very adept at it. this may be a result of the

I believe the answer is Self Fulfilling Prophecy
Self Fulfilling Prophecy refers to a prediction that we made for ourself that eventually became true because we unconciously keep trying to fulfill our own expectation.
For example, someone who keep telling themselves that they would never pass the class, will lead to them not going to make a learning effort (because he/she thinks 'what's the point anyway?'') and this ending up to self fulfilling his/her failure.