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November 20, 2005
The Pygmalion Effect
The Pygmalion Effect is a phenomenon in which one's expectations of another person actually cause that person to act in ways that conform to the expectations. It basically suggests that if a person holds a certain view towards another person, then that person is likely to live up to that view. The idea comes from an Ancient Greek myth, in which a man idolized a statue of a woman so much that a goddess agreed to turn the statue into an actual person, and the man and the newly formed woman fell in love. However, this idea can be seen in modern entertainment as it is the underlying plot in many movies, including "My Fair Lady," of course, "She's All That," and "Pretty Woman."
The Pygmalion Effect is not just explored in film, it has been studied in various places, such as the work place and in schools, to see if it really has a significant effect on performance. In 1966, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson did a study on teacher expectations in which they administers I.Q. tests to students at the beginning of a school year. Before the teachers received the results on these tests, they randomnly selected certain students to be labelled as academic acheivers, and other to be labeled as academically challenged.
At the end of the year when they administered the I.Q. test once again they found that each student's score correlated to his or her label. For example, students labelled as academic acheivers scored higher, while students labelled as challenged scored lower. Rosenthal and Jacobson concluded that a teacher's expectations of his or her students could affect the students' ability to excel. This finding gained a lot attention because it suggested the possibility that the wrong teacher could inhibit a student's learning.
This Pygmalion Effect is similar to the idea in pychology known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. This theory states that an individual usually acts to fulfill an expectation held about him or her, ultimately making this expectation reality. Psychologists believe that the self-fulfilling prophecy has more to do with self-image and determination, therefore suggesting that students who scored high on the test did so because they were confident in themselves.
The Pygmalion Effect seems like a reasonable theory, especially in the classroom. It seems feasable that when a teacher believes in his or her students, the students believe in themselves, and as a result they perform better. Films that suggest that this theory extends into real world experiences, are somewhat ungrounded in that there is no research done to prove this correct.
http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw/edp603_group2-f00.html"
I believe that the source from which I got this information is credible because it is an essay written for a college course. The authors, date, and professor for which it was written are all included. At the end of the paper there is a rather long list of references cited. Also, the fact that the URL is muohio.edu is an indicator that it is a credible site.
Posted by lcissullivan at November 20, 2005 09:42 PM