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Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance
1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|August 1, 1998
Summary
Praising students for intelligence can harm their motivation more than praising effort. Intelligence praise leads to performance goals, reduced persistence, and enjoyment after failure, unlike effort praise.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Praise is often believed to enhance student motivation.
- The type of praise may significantly impact its effects on motivation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the differential effects of praise for intelligence versus praise for effort on students' achievement motivation.
- To examine how these types of praise influence goal orientation, persistence, enjoyment, attributions, performance, and beliefs about intelligence.
Main Methods:
- Six studies were conducted involving fifth graders.
- Participants received either praise for intelligence or praise for effort.
- Data collected included goal orientation, task persistence, task enjoyment, attributions after failure, task performance, and beliefs about the malleability of intelligence.
Main Results:
- Praise for intelligence led to a greater focus on performance goals over learning goals compared to praise for effort.
- After failure, students praised for intelligence showed less persistence, less enjoyment, more attributions to low ability, and worse performance.
- Children praised for intelligence viewed it as a fixed trait, while those praised for effort saw it as improvable.
Conclusions:
- Praising intelligence can have detrimental effects on students' achievement motivation, contrary to popular belief.
- Effort-based praise appears more beneficial for fostering learning goals, persistence, and a growth mindset.
- These findings have implications for educational practices and understanding the socialization of self-worth.
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