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November 19, 2005
Pygmalion
1.Although I have seen My Fair Lady performed numerous times, I did not find it any different than Pygmalion based on the first two acts. I think that the two plays are very similar, maybe even identical.
2.The Pygmalion Effect was recognized and studied by psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, and, thus is also appropriately known as the Rosenthal Effect. In short, the Pygmalion Effect is a theory which says that if instructors of any medium have expectations for their students; the students will grow and learn according to these expectations. Rosenthal and Jacobson tested their hypothesis on a class of elementary school students. The two randomly selected twenty percent of the student body and told teachers that these students showed enormous potential for intellectual achievement. At the conclusion of the study this group of children showed a significant gain in IQ versus those who were not expected to do as well. Thus, this study shows that students who receive attention and expectations by their teachers perform to these expectations.
The Pygmalion Effect was named after a Roman myth about Pygmalion and a statue he falls in love with, which is consequently the subject for George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion, and the popular musical, My Fair Lady. The myth of Pygmalion says that Pygmalion so adored a statue he had made that it came to life as a result of his constant hopes for and attentions on it. Similarly, both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady tell the story of a young, low-class woman who quickly rose to the top of society under the attention of a high-class, wealthy man. The connection between these stories and the Pygmalion Effect is that in all three cases an individual grows under the attention of someone else.
Of course, this theory is tested almost daily as society sees the outcome of teaching on students who are given attention and expectations versus those who do not.
Source: “Pygmalion Effect” Wikipedia. 19 November 2005. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect
I think that source is very credible. First of all, the website is a .org, which means that what is contained in the website has been approved. Secondly, Wikipedia is a well known online encyclopedia and I definitely trust the information that they put on the Internet about various subjects, as I have used it before their website for research before.
Posted by lciscotis at November 19, 2005 11:00 AM