Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Previous research has established that praise focused on ability decreases children's motivation after failure in comparison to praise focused on effort (e.g., Kamins & Dweck, 1999).It has been suggested that children who receive ability praise are more likely to employ self-protective behaviors, such as avoiding the task, to alleviate the anxiety of failing again (Cimpian, 2010).The goal of this study is to investigate the role of anxiety as a link between praise and motivation.Electrodermal data was collected to examine the effects of praise on children's anxiety levels through measurements of the stress response.Children were told pretend stories about their drawings while wearing a wristband that collected electrodermal activity (EDA).The children were given either ability or effort praise with four successful drawing stories and then heard two "failure" drawing stories.Motivation was measured using a series of self-evaluation and persistence questions, pre and post failure to compare motivation to patterns of EDA responses.EDA data were analyzed independently and the relation between the EDA data and questionnaire responses were also evaluated.It was found that children receiving ability praise presented with significantly higher EDA responses during praise and questioning of failure in comparison to effort praise.The analysis of the combined EDA responses and questionnaire demonstrated a negative correlation between number of EDA responses and persistence scores post failure.These findings reinforce the negative effect ability praise has on motivation and demonstrate how emotional arousal and anxiety could be the mechanistic link between praise and motivation.
Author: Angela G. Junglen
Institution: Kent State University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2614097523