Developmental study of praise and blame as attributional cues.

Abstract

Meyer et al. (1979) documented that praise following success and the absence of blame following failure are used by adults to infer low ability. In the present study, the Meyer et al. methodology was modified for examining developmental differences in the use of praise and blame as attributional cues. Children ages 4 to 12 years were presented with videotaped scenarios depicting two students who either succeeded or failed at an achievement task. The feedback to these students was either praise versus neutral feedback following success or blame versus neutral feedback following failure. Participants then judged the effort and ability of each target child. All children inferred that the praised student was higher in effort and that the blamed student was lower in effort than were their neutral-feedback counterparts. A developmental pattern in ability judgments, however, indicated that only the oldest children inferred lower ability given praise and the absence of blame, as in the Meyer et al. study. The data for the youngest children were opposite to this pattern, with higher ability inferred given praise and lower ability reported given blame. These findings were interpreted as evidence of children's emerging understanding of a compensatory relation between effort and ability. This article is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted by the first author to the University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate School of Education under the supervision of the second author. The article was written while the second author was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.We thank the students and staff of the Conine A. Seeds University Elementary School for their participation in the research. Appreciation is also extended to Bernard Weiner for his comments on the article.

The Effects of Person Versus Performance Praise on Children’s Motivation: Gender and age as moderating factors

“…Specifically, the potentially detrimental effects of person praise may not obtain with younger children who do not use causal attributions in complex ways when reasoning about achievement (Barker & Graham, 1987;Covington, 1984;Harari & Covington, 1981;Karniol & Ross, 1979;Miller & Hom, 1997;Nicholls, 1978), and who tend to have a literal bias when interpreting adult utterances (Ackerman, 1981;Winner, 1988). Young children may simply lack the cognitive sophistication to translate what they have learned in a situation of success to a situation of failure.…”

Atribuições interpessoais pelo professor e sua relação com emoções e motivação do aluno

“…Na literatura tem sido considerado o efeito do elogio atribuicional pelo êxito, que é uma forma de feedback positivo ampliado, ao conter expressões adicionais de afeto e enaltecimento do ego, ausentes no feedback positivo simples (Barker & Graham, 1987;Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Segundo esses autores, comprovou-se ser eficaz para a motivação elogiar o aluno pelo esforço, pelo capricho ou pelas estratégias adotadas.…”

“…Em alguns estudos investigaram-se os efeitos de crítica ou repreensão a alunos com mau desempenho (Barker & Graham, 1987; Weiner e Cols., 1982). O resultado consistente foi que, quando pré-adolescentes entendiam tais expressões verbais como indicadoras de capacidade, a repreensão soava como incentivo, por suscitar expectativas positivas para o futuro e alimentar a autoestima.…”

“…Schunk (1983;1991) propôs que, além das situações de laboratório, são necessários mais estudos que explorem, nas condições reais de sala de aula, os efeitos do feedback atribuicional ao longo de períodos mais prolongados. E, mais especificamente, cabe investigar como os alunos interpretam as mensagens comunicadas, com seus possíveis efeitos sobre a autoeficácia percebida.Na literatura tem sido considerado o efeito do elogio atribuicional pelo êxito, que é uma forma de feedback positivo ampliado, ao conter expressões adicionais de afeto e enaltecimento do ego, ausentes no feedback positivo simples (Barker & Graham, 1987;Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Segundo esses autores, comprovou-se ser eficaz para a motivação elogiar o aluno pelo esforço, pelo capricho ou pelas estratégias adotadas.…”

Student Interpretations of Teacher Verbal Praise in Selected Seventh- and Eighth-Grade Choral Classes

“…In a study conducted in a laboratory environment, Barker and Graham (1987) asked students and an actor-teacher to act out researcher-developed scenarios that were videotaped and shown to students between the ages of four and twelve. In the scenes, two students were portrayed as either succeeding or failing at a task.…”