We all want to persuade people (our kids, boss, employees, spouse) to do certain things.
The Pygmalion effect (also called the Rosenthal effect) is a phenomenon that has been proven to work very well by scientists, including Dr. Robert Rosenthal of Harvard University and UC Riverside. It has been shown that when you have high expectations for your students, spouse, children, employees, etc. that they will perform better just because you have faith in them.
Also, it has been proven over and over that positive reinforcement (reward) works better to change people than negative reinforcement (punishment).
So when your child comes home with poor grades, it is best to say,
“Honey I know you can do better next time because you are smart” than to say “You are grounded for a week, dummy.”
Self-fulfilling prophecy is powerful. Listen to the way you talk to yourself in your mind. Do you call yourself stupid, lazy, ugly? If you do, you will start to become what you call yourself.
An MMA fighter named Tito Ortiz talked about this. He had grueling workouts to prepare for fights and tried to motivate himself by calling himself lazy if he quit a workout early. He called himself a loser and other names people should never call themselves or others. Ortiz was unpopular in the ring. He was often booed, and he could not understand why people didn’t like him.
Later Ortiz got a new coach who told him to be careful of his “self-talk.” Ortiz began to call himself a winner and a hard worker. To his surprise, the fans quit booing him and he dramatically improved his fighting ability. It became easier to finish his workouts.
Do you want to change someone? Wives I know you want to change your husband. The best way is to use positive statements. “Honey, I really admire you when you take out the trash” is better than getting angry and not talking. Silence only makes things worse, because us men are never smart enough to read your minds.
If you really believe in yourself and your people, great things will happen!
I found the article very insightful and shared it so that management from my former workplace might actually read it and practice positive reinforcement. Their old “if you work more, we earn more” mentality just isn’t cutting it. That and they also constantly complain of how low production is and have made the place into a veritable prison while you’re inside seem only to worsen the situation.
I , however, found it odd the pictures posted with the blog. It didn’t seem to go along with the article. Then again, the caption of the cartoon “Why is my blog sexy?” was the reason I read the blog in the first place, so in this instance the picture is what influenced me to read it. X-D
Ummmm…not so sure when it comes to husbands…ha ha ha. I am not kidding about that one, been trying, still trying, will continue trying…But yes, I am with you on the self-talk bit. Hands down changes things
A good lesson to hear before teaching little kiddos abroad!
This is some good information that’s good to be reminded of! Thanks!
This is especially true in a classroom filled with 3rd graders!
yes, i bet it is
Amen! I used to teach grades 1 through 6 myself.