The Pygmalion effect has its roots in France, eighteen century with a mythological story of a sculptor named Pygmalion who was disappointed of women; however, in a dream the goddess Venus said to him that she will guide his hand in order to build a statue of herself. He succeeded with the sculpture and this statue was so perfect for him that he started to wish so bad a life for his statue. His desire was so strong that the statue started to acquire movement and even thought and speech.
Pygmalion with Galatea
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As we just saw, The Pygmalion effect has been present for centuries. Philosophers, theorists and scholars have taken this story in order to explain how a positive or negative expectation from one person may affect the end result. Studies have been more focused on the relationship between positive expectations of somebody and the possibility of achieving a positive performance, but not only positive expectations affect one person’s performance but also negative ones.
With a purpose of clarifying even more the concept of “The Pygmalion effect”, I am going to give an example of how the Pygmalion effect can work in the real life.
In several films, we can see the Pygmalion effect present. One of those movies is “pursuit of happiness” in where we can see a positive Pygmalion effect when Chris Garner, a broke salesman abandoned by his wife, but with his son as his only motivator, Garner started a hard journey for a job as a stockholder, and his son’s positive expectations about him made Chris garner be motivated about this mentioned job and he does whatever it takes in order to get it and in order to not disappoint his son. Finally after putting all of his efforts, he gets the so desired job.
Chris Garner is affected by internal factors such as his economic situation, his instable life that affects him and his son, past experiences but the most important factor is the expectations his son has about him and that becomes a triggering event that encourage him to work for all he has wished for.
In this following video we see how Chris Garner has always his son right next to him, supporting him and those positive expectations worked as a motivator in order to get a better job and that way a better life.
Other motivational video is the following, in which Chris gives and advice to his son, telling him that nobody is allowed to tell him what to do or what he can’t do and if he want something he just must go and get it.
References:
J. L. Carr. 1960, Pygmalion and the Philosophes: The animated statue in Eighteen Century France
Takao inamori, Farhard Analoui, Beyond Pygmalion Effect: The Role Of Managerial Perception. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29, pp 306-321
i think that the pygmalion effect cand never be understimated because can make the people achieve greater things as we saw in this movie, so it can be used to generate good effects such as this, or in a work environment
ResponderEliminarI think this is a great and inspiring example of the pygmalion effect and the significant effect that a persons expectation of us can either improve or dicourage us. I think that no matter the low confidence you may have on someone its important to try to have positive expectations because the other person can feel this possibly succeed.
ResponderEliminari like the way you explain the pygmallion effect it is very practical to compare it with a movie insomuch as is going to be easier for student to compare it with stuff that are happening everyday.
ResponderEliminari think that no matter what you have it matter what you want and the way you achieve it
hello Velentina ,
ResponderEliminarI love the way you explain the effect. Based on historical grounds it is easier to understand any theory. The example is great, so creative and moving. Those who have seen the movie certainly understand clearly how the effect is applied there. The encouragement of a child does bring up any parent.
I believe that relating this movie with the theory of which we spoke was very creative.
I recommend you take a look at my blog, you will find a vidio that clearly illustrates this effect.