Effort-Based Praise Research

Superior Essays
Past research on the effect of praise on preschool children has focused on performance and motivation, not perseverance. In this study, we examined the effect of effort-based versus neutral feedback on children’s perseverance on a puzzle task. We hypothesized that children who were given effort-based feedback would persist longer on a difficult puzzle than children who were given neutral feedback. We found no effect of type of feedback on perseverance, and we must reject our hypothesis.

Effects of Effort-Based Praise on Perseverance in Children
A major concern in psychology and education is that ability-based praise, as opposed to effort-based praise decreases task performance and reduces task perseverance in children. This is based
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These results are supported by two more meta-analyses specifically examining praise. One found that praise is generally beneficial to motivation (Henderlong & Lepper, 2002), and another found that praise is generally beneficial to performance while blame is generally detrimental (Kennedy & Willcutt, 1964). While all four meta-analysis do not differentiate between ability-based praise and effort-based praise, it is evident that praise in general is conducive to performance and perseverance in …show more content…
Of the studies that did include young children (4-5 year olds), researchers focused on the effects of praise on performance (Meddock, Parsons, and Hill, 1971; Kennedy, 1964) or on motivation (Henderlong & Lepper, 2007; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002); no studies were done on the effect of praise on perseverance. Thus, in this study, we are interested in the effects of effort-based praise on perseverance in a puzzle task in preschool children aged 4-5 years old. We predict that children in the effort-based feedback condition will persevere at a challenging task longer than children in the neutral feedback

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