Abstract
This study examined children’s interpretations of and responses to insincere praise in a situation involving failure and explored the association between these responses and the maturity of their theory of mind. Seventy-two young Japanese children (mean age = 5.70 years, SD = 0.61) completed a test battery that included tasks designed to assess responses to teacher feedback (i.e., insincere praise, no feedback) in hypothetical failure situations, theory of mind, and verbal ability. The results showed that children who failed experienced higher levels of positive emotion and self-rated performance and showed lower motivation to persevere when they received insincere praise following failure, relative to those observed when they failed and received no feedback. In addition, relative to children with less mature theory of mind, children with mature theory of mind responded more negatively to insincere praise following failure. The evidence indicated that the effects of insincere praise could differ depending on the maturity of children’s theory of mind. It highlights the importance of understanding individual differences in theory of mind in parenting and educational settings.
Highlights
Children are exposed to diverse types of evaluative feedback regarding their behavior, intelligence, and performance in their social lives
Data from 52 children (18 boys and 34 girls) who evaluated their work in the no-feedback story as “not good” were included in the main analysis examining their responses to the praise in the praise story
This data selection process was essential because young children tend to be unrealistically overconfident of their ability (e.g., Schneider, 1998) and could be unable to recognize their failure in the story
Summary
Children are exposed to diverse types of evaluative feedback regarding their behavior, intelligence, and performance in their social lives. An increasing body of evidence suggests that praise is not always beneficial for children (see Dweck, 2000; Henderlong and Lepper, 2002 for a review). Henderlong and Lepper (2002) suggested that the effects of praise on motivation depend on the praise content (e.g., process-related feedback or personal feedback) and the recipients’ characteristics and interpretation of the praise. Evidence accumulated from research conducted far has revealed that some variables, such as perceived autonomy and performance standards, affect children’s motivation (e.g., Deci et al, 1999; see Henderlong and Lepper, 2002 for a review). Few studies have examined insincerity, another key variable, or have assessed the manner in which children interpret and respond to praise that leaves room for doubt. Developmental studies have shown that young children can produce and understand
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