Pygmalion effect: A qualitative research on academic's impressions in the working environment

The aim of the research is to reveal the impressions of academicians about self-fulfilling prophecy in detail. The design of the research is designed as phenomenology. The sample of the research consists of academicians working at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and selected by deliberate sampling technique. It is aimed that the research contributes to the readers by revealing the details about the causes, processes or results of the formation of self-fulfilling prophecy among academics. The data in the study were collected through a semi-structured interview form and evaluated by qualitative content analysis method. Research findings were presented in the form of eight themes. Among the themes found; performance and responsibility awareness, individual capacity, self-efficacy and performance-based merit, openness to learning and desire for self-improvement, unemployment and lack of purpose, nepotism (favouritism), desire to be an academician, the possibility of being spoilt and age. The most frequently found themes are performance and responsibility awareness, individual capacity, self-efficacy and performance-based merit, and the least frequently found theme is the desire to become an academician. Developing a holistic and in-depth understanding of the mechanism of the impact of expectation effects on academic achievement will be possible through qualitative research. In this context, it is thought that the findings obtained within the scope of the research will enable new methods and ways to be found in order to maximise the effect of interventions related to expectation effects in order to improve academic performance and contribute to the elucidation of the process regarding the effect.