Summary
Personality is a relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual´s behavior and is shaped by hereditary and environmental determinants.
How a person evaluates him- or herself can be examined by different concepts. First the self concept with self efficacy, - esteem and - monitoring. Second the positive/ negative affect which indicates if a person's tendency towards themselfes and the surrounding is more positive or negative. And third the locus of control. This is parted into the internal and external locus of control. It is about a person's belief if the person controls its life and happenings itself or if everything is happening because of external control, eg. other people or destiny. Furthermore there are different personality theories existing as for example the Big5 and the Integrative approach.
Perception is based on a person's view about the world by using its five senses. There is a perciever and a target. Social perception is the process of interpreting information about another person. Perceptions are most of the times also culturally determined. Sometimes perceptions can be inaccurate impressions because of stereo typing, first impression error, projection, selective perception or the Pygmalion effect (which will be explained in more detail later).
Attitudes are defined as positive or negative evaluations, feelings and tendencies that individuals harbor towards objects or concepts. They are learned from role models and formed within a cultural context. At work it could be for example the attitude towards a perceived opportunity for success.
Attribution is about how individuals pinpoint the causes of our own behaviour and that of others. One's performance within an organization is affected by an internal source of responsibility and an external source. But there are biases existing. For instance the Fundamental attribution error which is the tendency to make attributions to internal causes when focusing on someone else’s behaviour and the Self serving which means the attribution of one’s success to internal causes and one’s failures to external causes.
Values are defined as ideas, beliefs, and customs to which people are emotionally attached. Relating them to business, they affect people´s work ethic and desire for material possessions. So to say, values reflect one's judgment and helps sort out what is important in life. Therefore Maslow created the so called B-values.
The Pygmalion effect in a real case
First of all the Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. According to Goethe "treat a man as he is he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be."
The Pygmalion effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988 Harvard Business Review. Livingston said about a supervisor, "If he is unskilled, he leaves scars on the careers of the young men (and women), cuts deeply into their self-esteem and distorts their image of themselves as human beings. But if he is skillful and has high expectations of his subordinates, their self-confidence will grow, their capabilities will develop and their productivity will be high."
Other examples can be found in terms of school, sport, etc. If people have high expectations about somebody, this person will see even more an incentive in performing good and to give the best as he can. It is somehow related with motivation.
References:
Takao Inamori, Farhad Analoui, "Beyond Pygmalion effect: the role of managerial perception", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 Iss: 4, pp.306 – 321.
Gregorio Martín-de-Castro, José Emilio Navas-López, Pedro López-Sáez, Elsa Alama-Salazar, (2006) "Organizational Capital as Competitive Advantage of the Firm", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 7 Iss: 3, pp.324 – 337
http://inwiki.pabo-inholland.nl/_media/pygmalion_effect.jpg?w=&h=&cache=cache
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleW3Qe-yMOQQdfgOFadhlMhyjzd0olk2Wx32EOMTql59I7yD8a8NcreCqJ_nz0e1opwqYP3yTMnmFAtNdoQ7LyKbdjHEnanOFJfd6XvG78U7J-74JaBCNhAmmJo4vZ3HVLC6j4zRmZprL/s400/ATT00001.jpg
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/images/2008/10/16/perception.jpg
http://www.valueindesign.com/images/values_circle.gif
I think the last picture you have of a story about elephants is a perfect example of what beliefs can do to living beings.
ReplyDeleteIt is not only important what others think of you, what you think about yourself is even more important. Having high expectations of yourself, believing that you can do big and good things is important in order to achieve huge goals.
Don't letting small things tie you, thinking big, thinking positive can give better results than what following what other persons think of you.
If for others is important and determinant in many cases what you expect of them, imagine what can your own expactations do to yourself.
I have to say that what it's expressed in the "It's called mindset" picture is definetely true. I think that if a person thinks he/she is not capable, or not good enough, there is no other's expectations that can lead that person to do something and achieve great things. More important than what others think of you, is what you think of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog, very interesting! Thanks for sharing :D
I like your post yvet, in all the post i have visited non of them had something about the oposite of the pygmalion effect, what this kind of "negativism" can seriously leave scars on the subordinates´self-steem and distor the image of themeselvs. it´s really important take into account that the leader positions brings a lot of responsabilities and you have to be aware on how to act because this coud bring optimistic or pesimistics feelings on your subordinates
ReplyDeleteupon reading a summary on personality, perception, attitudes, attribution and value i began to understand the basis on which a man is and can be shapped by his peers due to the theory of PE,and that a person will perform as well as he or she is expected to. Indeed, people are as good as their motivation
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