Wikipedia Trail: From Carol Dweck to Pygmalion Effect

(Image Information: Pygmalion and

Galatea. Ernest Normand. 

Source: Wikipedia)

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     Engaging in a "Wikipedia Trail" was very interesting. Clicking on links, and ending up somewhere you didn't think you would in the beginning is the best part. I started with the Wikipedia biography of Carol Dweck, and ended up at the phenomenon of the Pygmalion Effect. 

     To give you an idea of what my trail consisted of, I have listed the articles in order and what they were about. 

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1. Carol Dweck

     I was very interested in the studies conducted my Carol Dweck, and her contributions to our understanding of different mindsets. Carol has a PhD from Yale University and has taught in several universities including Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Illinois. Since 2004, she has been on Stanford's faculty. She has been published in several publications about her work and research. 

2. Implicit Theories of Intelligence

     From the article about Carol Dweck, I clicked on a link in the "See Also" section. This link led me to the article about the implicit theories of intelligence. These theories refers to a person's belief on whether or not intelligence or abilities can change. It was interesting to read about the development of these theories. I specifically was drawn to the section that talked about different education levels, and how we were able to shift from an entity mindset to incremental mindset to improve achievement. For college students, this meant overcoming the stereotype threat. 

3. Stereotype Threat

     The stereotype threat is when someone feels that they are at risk of conforming to stereotypes in their social group. If someone is in a negatively stereotyped group, they tend to perform worse academically. There have been several studies regarding this threat in which various groups were tested. The results ended up matching the theory of this threat. I continued reading and decided to click on a link in the "See Also" section. This led me to the Pygmalion Effect. 

4. Pygmalion Effect

     The Pygmalion effect, also called the Rosenthal Effect, is a phenomenon that when someone expects more of themselves, that they tend to do better. For example, if someone expects a high score of themselves on a test, they tend to do better if they thought otherwise. This phenomenon is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, which is why I chose the picture I did for this blog post.  Similarly, the golem effect is when someone has low expectations, there's a poor performance.  "Studies of these effects have been difficult to conduct", as stated in this article. 

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     I was interested in Carol Dweck initially because I hoped to discover more outlooks on our ability to learn and increase intelligence. Reading about the pygmalion effect, I remembered that my dad always tells me to have confidence. I believe that having a positive outlook goes a long way.

    Going into Spring 2017, I have full confidence in making this semester one of my best semesters yet! I am excited to see how all of these things I have learned about will come into play.