The Pygmalion Effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy that is usually studied in work settings. It's a pretty interesting theory, and a great theory for motivation. The basics of the theory is that if you are expected to achieve a certain goal or perform to a certain standard, it is more likely that you will succeed than if there are no or low expectations given of you. Basically it's the self-fulfilling prophecy applied to those who manage you or have a strong influence on your life.
The text discusses intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. I think the Pygmalion effect is a great example of both. Obviously, extrinsic motivations (Reeve, 113) play a big part here because there is likely praise and rewards from the environment when the expectations are met. But at the same time it takes intrinsic motivation (Reeve, 111) in order for you to want to achieve those goals and make that person (may it be a teacher, boss, leader, coach) proud of you or happy. If there is no intrinsic motivation, it is likely that failure will occur. In a job setting, intrinsic motivation is crucial because you may not always get that reward or praise just because you are doing your job, even if there are high demands. It takes a lot of intrinsic motivation to continue to achieve high expectations that are demanded of you when there is no direct reward or praise (other than a pay check at the end of the month...). Even a pay check may not be enough, however. When people demand more of you and you receive nothing different in return, there must be intrinsic motivation present to keep you motivated.
This theory can also be related to the goal-setting theories discussed in Chapter 8 (Reeve, 205). One area that is easy to pick out of these theories is Goal-Performance Discrepancy (Reeve, 212). Things such as goal difficulty and goal specificity have a large impact on the capabilities and achievement of those involved in the goal. The Pygmalion effect uses these aspects as well, noting the importance of setting appropriate goals for subordinates or students. Knowing how goal setting can affect people is a crucial element in both teaching and maintaining high performance; and with this information psychologists can implement these ideas into the classroom or work setting.
We briefly discussed this in my Applied Psychology class, and we found that this is generally studied in military settings (most likely because it is easy to get results from the military). We discussed how this probably skewed the results because the types of people who join the military are different than the general population or different from the type of people who are CEOs of large companies, etc. The military is also a very demanding and life changing experience, which also may have had an effect on responses. There are many other things that may have skewed the results of this study, such as the jobs they chose to study, but it is still interesting nonetheless.
Here is another, possibly better study that the other half of our class read (but I have not):
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