The effect of Pygmalion in psychology, pedagogy or management

All psychological sciences are truly something extraordinary. Thanks to them, you can really explain things that ordinary people will find fiction. Back in ancient times, people noticed the fact that their minds can sometimes give out the most amazing visions, produce knowledge and information that changes almost everything. At the same time, psychology for people of that time was a way of controlling oneself like that. Now the tasks of applied psychology are less prosaic. People comprehend this science, in order to help others later. However, psychology is still a truly amazing phenomenon. Even after the passage of centuries, she is able to explain many incredible things.

Are the prophecies coming true?

What is prophecy? This is a certain prediction of the future, which can vary, depending on the degree of concretization of the facts in it. The more specific the future is told, the better is the prophecy. Most of the population believes in such things, but no one thought that the real source of any future events are ourselves. In psychology, there is such a thing as the Pygmalion effect. According to this scientific term, it does not matter who predicts the future, and how it does it. However, the status of a magician or sorcerer is not important. Prophecies come true, but not because they are so destined for destiny, but because the person himself expects this.

The Pygmalion effect is reality or fiction?

Before talking about the effect of Pygmalion, you should plunge into the depths of history in order to better imagine what is at stake. Pygmalion itself is the hero of an ancient Greek legend. According to the myth, he was a sculptor. Pygmalion was a true master of his craft and therefore created such a fascinating sculpture that he himself fell in love with her. Pygmalion so believed in the "reality" of the sculpture that he persuaded the gods to revive her. This plot was later repeatedly reflected in works of literature.

Now let's return to the present and try to understand what the Pygmalion effect is in psychology . Earlier, the fact was pointed out that this psychological concept causes the process of internal identification of the surrounding world, in which a person is the source of the expected events. Thus, it can be concluded that the Pygmalion effect is a person's expectation of prophecy, which is due to human behavior, in other words, the person creates the expected result for himself. This psychological category was opened by the famous American physician and psychologist Rosenthal in 1966. After this discovery, the term is called the "Rosenthal effect."

The essence of the term

At its core, the concept of anything complicated and transcendental does not. The Pygmalion effect is easy to explain and even easier to verify. This term determines a very real process of expectation, in which a person creates his own future. At the same time, the theory of the effect is based not on the paranormal foresight forces, but on the real strength of expectation. When a person believes in something and knows that this will happen, then, due to his behavioral characteristics, he will determine the expected result. The truthfulness or falsity of prediction has absolutely no significance. It's all about convincing the person who is waiting for this event.

Examples of the Rosenthal effect

To date, you can give a large number of examples of this effect. Since the discovery, the Rosenthal effect has gathered a host of adherents. The problem is that it really works! For example, statistics show that in most cases experiments to test some paranormal phenomena end with a positive result for parapsychologists, and not for those who try to disprove them. There are other examples of experiments to test the Rosenthal effect. One of them is the most famous.

Rosenthal's experiment

"Rosenthal's Children" is one of the experiments carried out by Rosental to confirm his theory of the Pygmalion effect. The essence of it was as follows: Rosenthal conducted an analysis of the mental abilities of students in a San Francisco school.
In the course of the experiment, children with extraordinary mental abilities were found. Rosenthal told their teachers that in the future these children will show miracles of intellectual development, but at the moment they have not yet fully revealed themselves. Such a statement was very bold, since all selected children did not show any results at all. From the point of view of science, they were at the level of the average student, "good." However, by the end of the year all these children showed unimaginable results of IQ.

It would seem that the experiment is not some kind of special. The psychologist did an excellent job, if not for one "but"! All children who received high IQ results at the end of the year were randomly selected at the very beginning of the experiment. There were absolutely no criteria or system of selection. Rosenthal noted the first students who came in. In this case, the essence of the Rosenthal effect was that the expectation that the teachers had for the students was somehow transmitted to them. By their actions, the teachers deliberately pulled their "geniuses" to the top of science and, most importantly, they succeeded.

The experiment not only proved Rosenthal's rightness, but he also showed everyone the power of persuasion. After all, the world and man are one indivisible whole. With their thoughts, people create actions for themselves, and by actions they build the entire surrounding world. In this case, the Pygmalion effect is a special relationship of thoughts and actions, in which a person interprets the world around according to a pre-known result.

The result

In general, the Rosenthal effect explains many unexplained phenomena. The theory is quite serious and controversial, but the fact of its effectiveness is proved by many years of practice and real examples. So far, no known experience, the purpose of which was to prove the reality of the effect, did not fail.