Chapter 7

In chapter seven it covers social perception of one’s environment and attributions involved in one’s personal behavior. In this chapter I came across the “Pygmalion effect” and “Galatea effect.” These ideas are associated with people’s expectations in determining their behavior and performance. The Pygmalion effect is when someone has a high expectation for another person and it results in better performance of that person. The Galatea effect is when one’s own expectation is very high and leads to high performance. I believe that both ideas are reasonable but can also be proven false. Someone’s high expectation for another may or may not lead to that person resulting in better performance. In lifting weights with someone else I believe this to be very true. In the work environment the pressure of high expectation can lead to a bad report or bad performance. I do believe however that an individual’s high self-expectation leads to better performance. When I am very comfortable in myself expectation I perform better.