Person versus process praise and criticism: implications for contingent self-worth and coping

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Child Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Conventional advice often promotes praising a child's overall character or traits.
• However, this feedback may inadvertently link a child's worth to external judgments.
• This can negatively impact their resilience and coping mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the hypothesis that person-focused praise and criticism can undermine children's subsequent coping.
• To compare the effects of person-focused versus process-focused feedback on children's responses to setbacks.
• To examine how feedback type influences children's self-assessments, affect, and persistence.

Main Methods:

• Two studies involving 131 children (ages 5-6 years) were conducted.
• Study 1: Children received person, outcome, or process criticism after role-played tasks with setbacks.
• Study 2: Children received person, outcome, or process praise after successful role-played tasks. Self-assessments, affect, and persistence were measured on a subsequent setback task.

Main Results:

• Children exhibited significantly more "helpless" responses, including self-blame, after receiving person criticism or praise.
• These negative effects were observed across self-assessments, affect, and persistence measures.
• Process-focused feedback did not yield the same detrimental impact on children's coping.

Conclusions:

• Feedback that judges a child's person or traits, even when positive, can create a sense of contingent self-worth.
• This type of feedback can increase vulnerability and undermine a child's ability to cope with challenges.
• Emphasizing process or outcome over personal attributes is essential for fostering robust coping skills and stable self-worth in children.