Got this from Jeremy.
Have you heard of the Placebo effect?The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. This effect is believed by many people to be due to the placebo itself in some mysterious way. A placebo (Latin for "I shall please") is a medication or treatment believed by the administrator of the treatment to be inert or innocuous. Placebos may be sugar pills or starch pills. Even "fake" surgery and "fake" psychotherapy are considered placebos.
In the 1950s, doctors wanted to investigate if a patient’s belief in a drug actually made a difference to whether or not the drug was effective in bringing about a cure. In one experiment, they gave the patients “sugar pills”. They told them that the medication would be effective in curing their flu and headache. To their surprise, the sugar pills brought about almost the same level of relief as compared to the actual drugs.
What about the Pygmalion effect?The Pygmalion effect, Rosenthal effect, or more commonly known as the "teacher-expectancy effect" refers to situations in which students perform better than other students simply because they are expected to do so.
The Pygmalion effect requires a student to internalise the expectations of their superiors. It is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, and in this respect, students with poor expectations internalise their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. The Pygmalion Effect within Sociology, is often cited with regards to Education and Social Class.
It was demonstrated by Prof Robert Merton, a professor of Sociology at Columbia University in 1957. He demonstrated how our EXPECTATIONS of other people can create a self-fulling prophecy.
It was demonstrated by Prof Robert Merton, a professor of Sociology at Columbia University in 1957. He demonstrated how our EXPECTATIONS of other people can create a self-fulling prophecy.
The study involved a teacher who was instructed to teach anew class of gifted students for the next year. What she did not know was that these students has been tested and found to be of low IQ. Not only that, they had behavioural problems. Sure enough she had some problems in the beginning.
But because she believed that they were high IQ students, she figured out that they were not the ones who had problems, but she. She started taking responsibility for their misbehaviour andinnovated in her teaching style, thru encouragement, arousing their curiosity, games and really nurtured them. At the end of the year, their academic grades jumped tremendously. When they retested their IQ, they measured a 20-30 points improvement. She literally created gifted students!
Thanks Jeremy!
