2015.11.4 - Week 8

A. Vocabularies to Know
1) vanity: when you are too interested in your appearance or achievements
2) invoke: to request or use a power outside yourself, especially a law or a god, to help you when you want to improve a situation
3) egos: your idea or opinion of yourself, or a great feeling of your own importance and ability
4) dictation: when someone dictates something for someone else to write down
5) troop: soldiers on duty in a large group
6) cunning: describes people who are clever at planning something so that they get what they want, especially by tricking other people, or things that are cleverly made for a particular purpose
7) duty: something that you have to do because it is part of your job, or something that you feel is the right thing to do
7-1) responsible: to have control and authority over something or someone and the duty of taking care of it or them
7-2) obligation: when you are obliged to do something
8) patron: a person or group that supports an activity or organization, especially by giving money
B. Pygmalion
a.  Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved

In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides he was "not interested in women",but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it.
In time, Aphrodite's festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite. There—too scared to admit his desire—he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl". When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness. Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish.
Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture changed to a woman under Aphrodite's blessing. In Ovid's narrative, they had a son, Paphos, from whom the city's name is derived.
In some versions, they also had a daughter, Metharme
b. Pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. The effect is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.

A corollary of the Pygmalion effect is the golem effect, in which low expectations lead to a decrease in performance;both effects are forms of self-fulfilling prophecy. By the Pygmalion effect, people internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. 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.

Studies of the Pygmalion effect have been difficult to conduct. Results show a positive correlation between leader expectation and follower performance, but it is argued that the studies are done in an unnatural, manipulated setting. Scientists argue that the perceptions a leader has of a follower cause the Pygmalion effect. The leader's expectations are influenced by their perception of the situation or the followers themselves. Perception and expectation may possibly be found in a similar part in the brain.