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

“…with its old friends: performance goals, low-ability attributions for failure, and impaired performance (helpless reactions) following failure.2 Kamins and Dweck (1999), working with younger children, examined the impact of person praise and criticism compared with process praise and…”

“…criticism (i.e., “Maybe you could think of another way to do it”) were less likely than their counterparts imagining person-oriented criticism (e.g., “I am very disappointed in you”) to draw negative conclusions about their abilities, experience negative affect, and give up (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“In a number of experimental studies, Kamins and Dweck (1999) showed that it is possible to activate feelings of contingent self-worth in 5-year old children.”

“Research has thoroughly established the role of adults’ praise and criticism in influencing children’s implicit theories of intelligence (Cimpian et al. 2007; Gunderson et al. 2011; Kamins and Dweck 1999; Mueller and Dweck 1998).”

“Specifically, Kamins and Dweck (1999) found that kindergarten children who had been given person praise (e.g., “You’re a good boy!”) in a role-play procedure were more likely to show a pattern of helplessness when faced with later failure than children who had been given process praise (e.g., “You…”

“For example, Kamins and Dweck (1999) suggested that feedback focused on the child could be the origins of the Entity orientation and that feedback focused on the process could be the origins of the Incremental orientation.”

“As with feedback on other aspects of children’s behavior, it is important to focus on the behavior rather than its implications for the children’s enduring characteristics and general worth (e.g., Kamins and Dweck, 1999 ).”

“This result is consistent with findings such as those by Dweck (see Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998), who also notes that not all forms of praise and feedback foster a positive self-worth, typically citing person or trait-related praise (noncontingent praise) as being a cause of…”

“Substantial research has shown that controlling practices, including praise that implies evaluation (Ryan, 1982) or implicates the person’s worth (Dweck, 1999), has negative effects, including making behaviors less flexible, less intrinsically motivated, and of poorer quality than is so for autonomously motivated beha…”

“…that the person praise parents give their children when they are young toddlers may differ from the kinds of person praise given to school-aged children and from the kinds of person praise given in experimental studies (e.g., Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998; Cimpian et al., 2007).”

“…who believe more strongly that failure is debilitating should convey their performance orientation by worrying about their children’s ability (see Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Weiner, 1994), pitying their children when they fail (see Graham, 1990), or trying to comfort their children for not having…”

“Twenty-four 4-year-old children (M5 4 years 6months; range5 4 years 1 month to 5 years 1 month; 12 boys) acted out several scenarios1 (see Kamins & Dweck, 1999, Experiment 2).”

“Implicit theory research, conducted with children and students by educational and social psychologists (e.g., Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Kamins & Dweck, 1999 ), has focused largely on the motivational implications of holding a primarily entity or incremental implicit theory.”

“Maybe you could think of another way to do it^ (Kamins and Dweck 1999).”

“…, Mueller and Dweck, 1998; Cimpian et al., 2007; Heyman, 2008), by focusing on what the person has achieved rather than on the person’s inherent traits (Kamins and Dweck, 1999), and by explicitly stating that dedication and effort are paramount (Mueller and Dweck, 1998; Kamins and Dweck, 1999;…”

“Kamins and Dweck (1999) proposed that different forms of teacher feedback can influence young children’s performance.”

“Enthusiasm toward school is a character strength that has been linked with academic achievement in a litany of research, much of which has examined programs and included both academic engagement and achievement as outcomes (Connell et al. 2006; DeBruyn 2005; Kamins and Dweck 1999; National Research Council 2003; Singh…”

“Entity and incremental beliefs have been induced experimentally through explicit messages, case studies and vignettes (Bergen 1992) and indirectly through feedback, praise or criticism (Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Muller & Dweck, 1998).”

“According to Kamins and Dweck (1999), parental responses to task success or failure are related to students’ task engagement, persistence, andmastery oriented behavior.”

“Much of this work has taught incremental beliefs to students explicitly through messages, case studies, and vignettes (Bergen, 1992), or indirectly through letter writing tasks, feedback, praise, and criticism (Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“Following Dweck and colleagues (e.g., Cimpian et al., 2007; Kamins & Dweck, 1999; see also Henderlong & Lepper, 2002), (b) and (c) above are closely related issues as person feedback and person praise, respectively (in contrast to process feedback and process praise, respectively), promotes the…”

“Brief interventions can influence mindset (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“However, given the detrimental consequences of tying one’s sense of self-worth to attainment (Dykman, 1998; Kamins & Dweck, 1999), it would be difficult to consider self-oriented perfectionism adaptive if, as these findings suggest, it is underpinned by a contingent sense of self-worth.”

“To avoid linking people’s selfesteem to their performance, feedback should be kept task-related through the use of comments on the process (e.g. effort and strategy use) and on specific technical changes (Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan, 1999; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“And in other research, person-oriented criticism (where an adult criticizes the child, e.g. ‘You’re not very good at math’) as opposed to process-oriented criticism (‘You failed to carry from the 10s place’) appears to increase children’s learned helpfulness and so decreases their effective, persistent performance (e.…”

“This teaching block also incorporates the work of Kamins and Dweck (1999) on effective praise.”

“…attributions about performance outcomes, as well as different learning strategies for future performance (Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan, 1999; Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998), which in turn can shape school achievement (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Blackwell, Trzesniewski, &…”

“While previous studies have shown that minimal interventions, such as praising students’ hard work and strategies, can increase motivation and task persistence [24, 17], it would be valuable to understand how our system affects student behavior during longer play sessions.”

“This is consistent with other work showing that when traits are made highly salient (as when they are directly praised), individuals are pushed toward an entity theory ( Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“…(e.g., “great job kicking all the way to the end”) instead of the person as a whole (e.g., “you’re a great swimmer”) is known to engender mastery as opposed to helpless motivational responses and contingent self-worth in children (Cimpian, Arce, Markman, & Dweck, 2007; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“It may undermine intrinsic motivation, foster a sense of contingent self-worth and helplessness, and create self-consciousness that heightens negative self-awareness and disrupts performance (Henderlong & Lepper, 2002; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“There is substantial evidence suggesting that parents and teachers socialize children’s mindsets through everyday communication (Kamins & Dweck 1999, Mueller & Dweck 1998, Rattan et al. 2015).”

“For instance, Kamins and Dweck (1999) experimentally provided negative feedback to kindergartners in a person-oriented fashion, thereby telling the kindergartners that they had disappointed the experimenter, or in a process-oriented fashion, thereby telling the kindergartners that they failed…”

“…effects of failure following a history of receiving person-oriented praise, such as `̀ You're a good girl/boy'', whereas effort or strategy praise, such as `̀ You must have tried really hard'', increased mastery and persistence in the face of setbacks (Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“…which showed that conceptions of intelligence as a fixed commodity decreases self-worth, performance, and selfconfidence when faced with difficulty (Kamins & Dweck, 1999) whereas the belief that intelligence can grow over time increases self-worth, performance, and confidence when faced with…”

“Empirical work to date on the effects of praise has identified two influential types of praise (e.g., Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“Both laboratory and classroom studies have shown that mindset can be changed through careful intervention, often involving social interaction [8, 16, 4, 22, 19].”

“Ideally, this feedback is process-oriented and focused on the children’s efforts and strategies (e.g., “You seem to have found a good way of studying this course”) rather than on the person as a whole (e.g., “You are so smart”) (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“This type of praise is process oriented (Cimpian, Arce, Markman, & Dweck, 2007; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“Third, to explore a potential reason for the negative effects of feedback, we also measured children’s self-assessment (i.e., whether they considered their performance to reflect negatively on their traits and abilities) using a four-item measure from Kamins and Dweck (1999).”

“Incremental motivational frameworks have been found to predict academic achievement in 1st and 2nd grade children (Park et al., 2016), as well as in older students (Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck, 2007; Romero, Master, Paunesku, Dweck & Gross, 2014; Stipek & Gralinski, 1996).”

“mark experiments have demonstrated these effects (16, 19, 20).”

“Perhaps surprisingly, even praise for positive traits, such as goodness and smartness, focuses children’s attention on the causal force of immutable entities, which are by defi nition uncontrollable (Kamins & Dweck, 1999 ).”

“A hallmark of a mastery goal orientation is being able to see the benefits of exerting effort and implementing strategies while learning (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“…to motivation than praising the person (e.g., “You’re a wonderful artist”), as theorists have long argued (e.g., Ginott, 1965; Good & Brophy, 1984; Kanouse, Gumpert, & CanavanGumpert, 1981; Kohn, 1993) and some experimental evidence has suggested (Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“Mind-sets of intelligence are present by early childhood (e.g., Heyman & Dweck, 1998; Kamins & Dweck, 1999), meaning these beliefs potentially shape responses in the achievement domain across the life span.”

“Praise from teachers and parents for students’ ability may increase the students’ fear of failure (Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“…shown that when adults praise children for their intelligence (person praise)—as opposed to praising them for their effort or strategy (process praise)—they foster the fixed-intelligence theory with its goals, attributions, and response to difficulty (Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“Ironically, depending on the appraisal and type of praise, praise may both lead to enhanced well-being and positive affect as well as stress and reduced well-being (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“Praise for being smart can foster a contingent self-worth (Kamins & Dweck, 1999) as well as entity beliefs (Mueller & Dweck, 1998), which may explain how a gifted label could lead to a strong contingency of self-worth on academics coupled with entity beliefs.”

“Similarly, person-oriented criticism appears to increase learned helplessness, whereas process-oriented criticism increases children’s beliefs in their ability to improve performance through effort (Burhans & Dweck, 1995; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“Consistent with this thinking, Dweck and colleagues ( Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998) have found that praising children for their intelligence in terms of global traits (e.g., "you are smart") leads to greater self-blame and decreased performance following setbacks than praising children for effort.”

“(iii) To encourage parents to praise their child’s effort rather than performance (10, 11), parent and child could use a logbook, noting down every reading session.”

“Excessively favorable self-assessments can intensify concerns with self-evaluations (Dweck, 2002, 2006; Kamins & Dweck, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998), leading to engagement in selfdefeating practices (e.g., self-handicapping behaviors) for the sake of protecting a threatened self-image.”

“…example, praise that is directed toward children’s personal qualities tends to backfire and predisposes children to evaluate themselves more negatively when they fail, compared to praise directed toward children’s behavior (Brummelman et al., 2014; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“The protection from failure that such techniques claim to provide might fuel narcissism and leave chil- dren vulnerable in the face of failure (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“, which suggests outperforming oneself, makes children persist on the task at hand and solicit more challenging tasks, in an attempt to better themselves (Corpus, Ogle, & Love-Geiger, 2006; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“This global praise can convey the implicit message that ability that can be readily assessed on the basis of performance outcomes (see also Kamins & Dweck, 1999, and Mueller & Dweck, 1998, regarding the paradoxical effects of praise).”

“The social expectations model may be particularly important for understanding perfectionism in gifted children, as contingent self-worth may develop in response to children consistently receiving positive feedback based on their high intelligence level (Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“Once these feelings develop, they may guide the way children perceive others, and prompt them to interpret the world as a more accepting place (see also, Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“Drawing from Adlerian concepts on encouragement (Azoulay, 1999; Kelly, 2002) as well as Dweck and colleagues’ empirical work on the benefits of process versus person praise (Kamins & Dweck, 1999), I further propose that effective encouragement messages tend to emphasize process-oriented factors.”