Pygmalion effect (Rosenthal effect)
The Pygmalion effect, also known as the Rosenthal effect, describes how higher expectations can lead to improved performance in individuals. This psychological phenomenon highlights the significant impact that a person's expectations, such as those of a teacher, manager, or parent, can have on another's abilities and achievements. The concept originated from a 1965 study by researchers Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, who discovered that when teachers were led to believe certain students were likely to excel, those students tended to perform better academically, regardless of their initial abilities.
The Pygmalion effect operates as a self-fulfilling prophecy, where positive expectations result in improved outcomes. It has been observed across various contexts, including education, the workplace, and personal relationships, suggesting that the effect can influence performance in diverse settings. The phenomenon has garnered both acclaim for its implications and criticism for the challenges in replicating its findings. Overall, the Pygmalion effect underscores the power of belief and motivation in facilitating success, advocating for the importance of fostering positive expectations in any leadership or mentorship role.
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Pygmalion effect (Rosenthal effect)
The Pygmalion effect (Rosenthal effect) refers to situations in which higher expectations lead to improved performance in others. Its origins lie in the context of how a teacher's expectation of a student's performance can affect the outcome of the student's academic achievement. The Pygmalion effect can be applied to parenting, workplaces, and other situations as well. The Pygmalion effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy, a prediction someone makes that later becomes true due to the person's expectation of the outcome. The effect was first identified in 1965 by a team of researchers who conducted an experiment on students and teachers at a public elementary school in California. The experiment found that when teachers were told certain students were expected to excel in their studies, the teacher's positive expectations affected these students' academic performance. Although critics have called the results of the Pygmalion effect manipulated and irregular, the experiment shed new light on the study of perception and expectation in psychology.
Background
The Pygmalion effect was first identified in a 1965 experiment conducted by American researchers and educators Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson. Rosenthal and Jacobson hypothesized that a student's intellectual ability could be boosted by a teacher's positive expectations of the student. The researchers asked teachers and students from Spruce Elementary School in California to participate in their study without telling them their intentions. Students were enlisted from a range of grade levels and asked to take an intelligence quotient (IQ) test called the Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition. The researchers told teachers that certain children had scored well on the exam.
The researchers then told teachers that students who achieved the highest scores were expected to be "growth spurters" or "spurters" and do very well throughout the academic year. Although the test measured each student's intellectual abilities, researchers did not designate students as growth spurters based on their test scores. Children were randomly placed in the high-achievement category regardless of their scores. The researchers attempted to measure how a teacher's expectation of a student affected that student's academic achievement.
The experiment was designed to assess, in a period of one year or less, if a child's intellectual growth could be heightened by a teacher's positive expectation of them. The experiment had two control groups. The first group included randomly selected children who were designated as high test scorers. The second group consisted of children who were not designated as such. The researchers worked across different grade levels, taking into account the age, gender, and minority status of the students over the given period.
When the study ended, each student was tested again. Spurters from every grade showed an improvement in scores, but first- and second-grade spurter students showed statistically significant improvements in their scores. First graders improved their IQ scores by an average of more than twenty-seven points. Rosenthal and Jacobson then revealed their ruse to the teachers. The researchers concluded the teacher's belief in student potential motivated their academic achievements, not an inherent intellectual advantage. Not only could teacher expectations advantageously affect a student's performance, but the younger the student, the greater the improvement. The researchers argued that a teacher's mood could affect a student's academic success. This claim was met with much controversy following the study's publication.
Overview
The research team referred to their discovery as the Pygmalion effect, named for the mythological Greek sculptor Pygmalion, who fell in love with a statue he created and asked the gods to bring it to life. Rosenthal and Jacobson published Pygmalion in the Classroom in 1968. The book elaborated on their findings and discussed ways to apply the Pygmalion effect to education. The researchers experienced a deluge of critical backlash following the publication. Despite the criticisms it received, Rosenthal and Jacobson's study greatly impacted the field of psychology. The results also boded well for Spruce Elementary School's minority students, who were often stereotyped as low achievers by teachers. Many of the spurter children in the experiment were from low-income Mexican families. Their academic achievements defied a common scientific belief that intellectual abilities were predetermined by genetics.
Replicating the study's effects proved difficult, however. One factor that appeared to be of critical importance to the experiment's success was keeping educators in the dark about the experiment's true intentions. In hundreds of similar studies to follow, teacher expectations were only effective when their behavior was subconsciously motivated. This information suggested teachers were not so capable of altering their behavior toward students if they knew the truth about the study. If this were true, it squashed the hopefulness surrounding the Pygmalion effect's potential.
Although the original experiment saw the greatest effect in younger children, Rosenthal believed the effect also applied to those in higher education. The experiment garnered positive results when conducted on students at the Air Force Academy and a group of engineering undergraduate students. Later renditions of the experiment also attempted to gauge how student expectations affected teachers. In one experiment conducted in 1969, researchers compared how teachers evaluated themselves in two scenarios. One teacher group taught participatory, responsive students, and the other taught disengaged, nonresponsive students. The study found that the teachers who taught the nonresponsive students had much lower self-evaluations than those who taught the responsive students.
Researchers have also studied the Pygmalion effect in the workplace. Studies have shown certain leader behaviors promote employee participation in workplace learning activities. The employee's behavior was shown to be affected by the expectations of the leader. Goal setting also proved to be a key element in the success of the Pygmalion effect in a workplace setting.
The Pygmalion effect can also be applied to parent-child relationships, romantic partnerships, the military, sports coaching, and personal development. Its usefulness can be seen in any situation that requires motivational leadership.
Bibliography
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