Editing Pygmalion effect (section)

{{Short description|Phenomenon in psychology}}
The '''Pygmalion effect''' is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brookover |first=Wilbur B. |last2=Rosenthal |first2=Robert |last3=Jacobson |first3=Lenore |date=April 1969 |title=Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2092211 |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=283 |doi=10.2307/2092211 |issn=0003-1224|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is named after the Greek myth of [[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]], the sculptor who fell so much in love with the perfectly beautiful statue he created that the statue came to life. The psychologists [[Robert Rosenthal (psychologist)|Robert Rosenthal]] and [[Lenore Jacobson]] present a view, that has been called into question as a result of later research findings, in their book ''Pygmalion in the Classroom;'' borrowing something of the myth by advancing the idea that teachers' expectations of their students affect the students' performance.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|doi=10.1037/0022-0663.76.1.85|title=Magnitude of teacher expectancy effects on pupil IQ as a function of the credibility of expectancy induction: A synthesis of findings from 18 experiments|journal=Journal of Educational Psychology|volume=76|pages=85–97|year=1984|last1=Raudenbush|first1=Stephen W.}}</ref> Rosenthal and Jacobson held that high expectations lead to better performance and low expectations lead to worse,<ref name="Mitchell">{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Terence R. |title=Handbook of Psychology (volume 12) |last2=Daniels |first2=Denise |date=2003 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |isbn=0-471-38408-9 |editor-last=Walter C. Borman |pages=229 |chapter=Motivation |editor2=Daniel R. Ilgen |editor3=Richard J. Klimoski}}</ref> both effects leading to [[self-fulfilling prophecy]].

According to the Pygmalion effect, the targets of the expectations internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly; a similar process works in the opposite direction in the case of low expectations. The idea behind the Pygmalion effect is that increasing the leader's expectation of the follower's performance will result in better follower performance.

Within [[sociology]], the effect is often cited with regard to [[education]] and [[social class]]. The Pygmalion effect remains controversial among [[Social psychology|social psychologists]], because researchers have repeatedly failed to [[Replication (statistics)|replicate]] the original finding of a strong, [[Statistical significance|statistically significant]] effect.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Jussim |first=Lee |last2=Harber |first2=Kent D. |date=2005 |title=Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1207/s15327957pspr0902_3 |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review |language=en |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=131–155 |doi=10.1207/s15327957pspr0902_3 |issn=1088-8683|url-access=subscription }}</ref>