Interactionalism Flashcards
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
Pygmalion effect
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) Overview
The labels given by teacher can effect student’s performance (Self-fulfilling prophecy )
- They gave a set of students IQ tests and then randomly put them into classes. They told the teachers that some of the classes were high IQ and some low IQ.
- At the end of the year they retested the students IQ – those in the ‘high IQ’ classes performed better due which they concluded was due to higher teacher expectations. They argued that the teachers had labelled these students as ‘better’ and this impacted their performance
What does the Pygmalion effect refer to ?
psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area.
Rosenthal & Jacobson Evaluation
- Negative labelling can sometimes have the opposite effect – Margaret Fuller’s (1984) study
- their methodology can be questioned . The IQ tests have been considered low quality and the way they were administered has been questioned too. Therefore the evidence may be questionable.
- Surely teachers are among the most sensitively trained professionals in the world, and in the current ‘aspirational culture’ of education, it’s difficult to see how teachers would either label in such a way, or get away with it if they did.
Margaret Fuller’s (1984) - Counter argument for evaluating Rosenthal & Jacobson
researched black girls in a London comprehensive school and found that the black girls she researched were labelled as low-achievers, but their response to this negative labelling was to knuckle down and study hard to prove their teachers and the school wrong.
Jones & Dindia
Boys and Girls are labelled differently in schools
Jones & Dindia overview
They found that boys received more praise than girls. They believed this meant girls received the hidden message that they were not valued as much.
