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…”