Preschool-Age Children's Performance Expectations for Themselves and Another Child as a Function of the Incentive Value of Success and the Salience of Past Performance

Stipek, Deborah J.; Roberts, Theresa A.; Sanborn, Mary E.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1984.tb03896.x

Cited by 23 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In other words, does the self‐bias result from children's differential beliefs about people's willingness and motivation to change negative traits and maintain positive traits? Stipek et al. 's (1984) studies provide some evidence consistent with this possibility.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Self‐protective Optimism: Children's Biased Beliefs about the Stability of Traits

Diesendruck

Lindenbaum

2009

Social Development

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Studies indicate that children believe that positive behaviors are more likely than negative ones to remain stable across time and situations. The present study assessed whether children hold such optimism equally regarding their own vs. others' behavioral patterns. Thirty five-year-olds answered questions about the extent to which they viewed themselves as having various positively, neutrally, and negatively valued behavioral patterns. An experimenter then asked children about the extent to which behavioral patterns that children thought they had would remain stable in themselves and in others, and the extent to which behavioral patterns that they did not think they had would remain stable in others. We found that children gave higher stability ratings for positive behaviors in themselves than in others, and the opposite regarding negative behaviors. This self-protective optimism is discussed vis-à-vis the relationship between children's beliefs about traits and their behaviors and motivations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Self‐protective Optimism: Children's Biased Beliefs about the Stability of Traits

Diesendruck

Lindenbaum

2009

Social Development

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“…Such an assumption may seem surprising in light of evidence that children already have some capacity to distinguish between prosocial and antisocial intentions before they reach their first birthday (Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2007) and are capable of identifying lies during the early preschool years (Lee & Cameron, 2000). However, preschool‐age children often act based on what they desire to be true rather than what they believe to be true (Stipek, Roberts, & Sanborn, 1984), and both preschool‐ and early elementary‐age children tend to hold highly positive views of others under circumstances in which older children and adults do not (Boseovski & Lee, 2008; Droege & Stipek, 1993; Heyman, 2009; Lockhart, Chang, & Story, 2002). Moreover, it is not uncommon for early elementary school children to argue that people can be trusted to tell the truth because they should tell the truth (Heyman & Legare, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Distrust

2011

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Preschool-age children’s reasoning about the reliability of deceptive sources was investigated. Ninety 3- to 5-year-olds watched several trials in which an informant gave advice about the location of a hidden sticker. Informants were either helpers who were happy to give correct advice, or trickers who were happy to give incorrect advice. Three-year-olds tended to accept all advice from both helpers and trickers. Four-year-olds were more skeptical but showed no preference for advice from helpers over trickers, even though they differentiated between helpers and trickers on metacognitive measures. Five-year-olds systematically preferred advice from helpers. Selective trust was associated with children’s ability to make mental state inferences.

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“…Motivated biases increase as a function of the value of success (Stipek at al., 1984). The possibility that it was more important for the younger children to succeed on the tracing task, which was more similar to typical preschool than elementary school tasks, cannot explain the different patterns received at PP1 and K1.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One possibility is that conflicting findings were due to differences in experimental methods. Another possibility, which can explain age differences in use of SC for self versus other appraisal, is that young children rate themselves high regardless of social outcome because of wishful thinking bi-ases (Ruble et al, 1992;Stipek, Roberts, & Sanborn, 1984). Thus, children could not judge outcome differences directly, but had to rely on the complex symbolic information provided (e.g., representing rates of success with numerical scores).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies (e.g., Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980;Ruble, Eisenberg, & Higgins, 1994) that found later impact of social outcome often used novel tasks with ambiguous outcomes. Motivated biases increase with the incentive value of success (Stipek et al, 1984), but Butler (1990) suggested that they also emerge when information is difficult to process. Such designs differ from natural settings, where children typically see for themselves how they and others are doing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Age Trends in the Use of Social and Temporal Comparison for Self-Evaluation: Examination of a Novel Developmental Hypothesis

Butler¹

1998

Child Development

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Two studies tested the novel hypothesis that children use social comparison (SC) for self-appraisal at an earlier age than they do temporal comparison (TC). The effect of other's and of own prior outcome on performance and ability appraisal and on self-evaluative strategies was examined using simple tasks and outcome information. Results from 840 children at ages 4-8 confirmed that self-evaluative SC was similar over age. Even 4- to 5-year-olds rated themselves higher after doing better versus worse than another and explained their ratings in terms of explicit SC. Social failure undermined continuing motivation at all ages. In contrast, young children in TC conditions attended only to their last outcome, and comparisons between current and prior outcomes increased with age. Self-evaluative biases were marked at age 5-6 and for boys in SC conditions. Results clarify the role of cognitive and motivational factors in the development of SC and TC.

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Preschool-Age Children's Performance Expectations for Themselves and Another Child as a Function of the Incentive Value of Success and the Salience of Past Performance

Cited by 23 publications

References 10 publications

Self‐protective Optimism: Children's Biased Beliefs about the Stability of Traits

Self‐protective Optimism: Children's Biased Beliefs about the Stability of Traits

The Development of Distrust

Age Trends in the Use of Social and Temporal Comparison for Self-Evaluation: Examination of a Novel Developmental Hypothesis

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