Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
psychology.stanford.edu
Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
1–10 of 166 posts
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#2TL;DR: If you're interacting with a kid, try to avoid saying, "you're so smart!" and instead say, "You've picked this up really quickly" or "you're such a hard worker". If you tell a child they are smart then they will stop trying either because they assume they can get by on their intelligence or because they are afraid of failing and loosing your praise about how smart they are.
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#3If you're interested by this, here's a piece[0] by Carol Dweck. She's an interesting researcher.
[0]: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct0...
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#4Is there an implication that children also seem to think that intelligence is not variable while amount of work is?
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#5TL;DR: If you're interacting with a kid, try to avoid saying, "you're so smart!" and instead say, "You've picked this up really quickly" or "you're such a hard worker". If you tell a child they are smart then they will stop trying either because they assume they can get by on their intelligence or because they are afraid of failing and loosing your praise about how smart they are.
"You worked really hard on it that!" seems a bad thing to say without having observed the kid working hard. I know if I'd been told I worked hard on something that came easily, it would have cost the speaker credibility.
My tentative plan, for my son, is to phrase it as a question. "Did you work hard on this?". If so, praise the hard work. If not, "let's find you something more challenging".
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#6What's the general impact on a child's motivational levels after being called "stupid" and/or "lazy"?
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#7Suddenly my life makes so much more sense.....
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#8TL;DR: If you're interacting with a kid, try to avoid saying, "you're so smart!" and instead say, "You've picked this up really quickly" or "you're such a hard worker". If you tell a child they are smart then they will stop trying either because they assume they can get by on their intelligence or because they are afraid of failing and loosing your praise about how smart they are.
"You worked really hard on it that!" seems a bad thing to say without having observed the kid working hard. I know if I'd been told I worked hard on something that came easily, it would have cost the speaker credibility. My tentative plan, for my son, is to phrase it as a question. "Did you work hard on this?". If so, praise the hard work. If not, "let's find you something more challenging".
You're absolutely right. Thank you for your suggestion, I think I'll change my own phrasing if I didn't witness the hard work.
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#9Suddenly my life makes so much more sense.....
Gifted underachievement goes a lot deeper than reinforcement. Eventually, gifted people learn synthesis comes more easily to them and can learn to coast or become anti-social as a result and still get by.
Peter Thiel on his thoughts re: Elon Musk: "[He is] very smart, very charismatic, and incredibly driven -- a very rare combination, since most people who have one of these traits learn to coast on the other two."
Quote source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g4g95/peter_thiel_te...
Re: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation (1998) [pdf]
#10TL;DR: If you're interacting with a kid, try to avoid saying, "you're so smart!" and instead say, "You've picked this up really quickly" or "you're such a hard worker". If you tell a child they are smart then they will stop trying either because they assume they can get by on their intelligence or because they are afraid of failing and loosing your praise about how smart they are.
"You worked really hard on it that!" seems a bad thing to say without having observed the kid working hard. I know if I'd been told I worked hard on something that came easily, it would have cost the speaker credibility. My tentative plan, for my son, is to phrase it as a question. "Did you work hard on this?". If so, praise the hard work. If not, "let's find you something more challenging".
In addition, the work being praised needs to be effective.