Week 7 - Narration

The Background Of  The Topic

 

1. Pygmalion mythology

In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory and named her Galatea. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves (more accurately, they were reduced to prostitution by Aphrodite after they denied Aphrodite's divinity), he was "not interested in women",^[3] 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, touched its breasts with his hand, 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. One translation reads as follows:

A lovely boy was born;
Paphos his name, who grown to manhood, wall'd
The city Paphos, from the founder call'd.^[4]

In some versions, they also had a daughter, Metharme.^[5]
Ovid's mention of Paphos suggests that he was drawing on a more circumstantial account^[6] than the source for a passing mention of Pygmalion in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke, a Hellenic mythography of the 2nd-century AD.^[7] Perhaps he drew on the lost narrative by Philostephanus that was paraphrased by Clement of Alexandria.^[8] Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, and figures in legend of Paphos in Cyprus.

2. Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon whereby the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.^[1] 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;^[1] 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. Scientist 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.^[2]

Leader expectations of the employee may alter leader behavior. This behavior that is expressed toward an employee can affect the behaviors of the employee in favor of the leader's expectations.^[11] The more an employee is engaged in learning activities, the higher the expectation is from the leader. In turn, the employee participates in more learning behavior. Leaders will show more leader behaviors such as leader-member exchange (trust, respect, obligation, etc.), setting specific goals, and allowing for more learning opportunities for employees, and giving employees feedback. These factors were brought about by Rosenthal's model of the Pygmalion effect.^[11]