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Children Entitlement Mentality in a Modern Society

Rachel Borunda
University of Texas in El Paso

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Abstract
This Literature Review examines the placements of Child Entitlement Mentality in a
modern society-scientifically and break downs the psychological development over the stages in
childhood. Given the research from surveys, tests on the behavioral areas of how some children
preform in the education system, the matter of their well-being in an adult society; how
entitlement can be caused, their social skills/intelligence in constructive workspaces, and the
audience can inhibit the details of the fact that some children think privileges are rights and are
to be expected.

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Children Entitlement Mentality: a Review in Literature

A problem in modern society today is that entitlement mentality is taking over childrens
subconscious and affecting their development to adulthood. Giving praise and rewards where it
is not needed can bruise a childs mind more than most people think. Honesty should covet
todays work professions and educations systems. According to Conservapedia.com, the
entitlement mentality is a state of mind in which an individual comes to believe that privileges
are instead rights and that they are to be expected. Some high schools do not prepare students
well for the life ahead of them, because when someone grabs full time jobs, or decides to go to
college, overconfidence will ruin their ideals and hope for the future because they will see that
reality is a greater task at hand. Failure is necessary to promote healthy well-being and success in
child development. Entitlement Mentality is the cause for over confidence, and societys ideals
about reality will impact children not only psychically but psychologically as well. In a world of
financial responsibilities, and independency, a child that has grown up in an environment of too
much over- praising, will be responsible for not understanding why they do not have the same
range of success, if they did not already achieve success. Of course there is absolutely nothing
wrong with praising a young child, but the message sent with it when there is excess of it well
tell a different story.
How does Entitlement Mentality effect children in the education system?
Preparing a child for the future is never as easy as many people think. There might be a
flaw in the education system where children are given grades higher than their average effort
they give in school. If some students wish to go to college, they might not be prepared to attend
the classes because reality will hit and they wonder what they did wrong to deserve this. "The
best way to help students prepare for successful futures is by monitoring their achievement ...

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and providing help whenever we find they are not on track for success," says Jon Whitmore,
chief executive officer at ACT. Studies show that the achievement that a student makes is given
to them not earned by hard work and perseverance, but by envy, so most children will not know
the difference between rewards being a privilege, not a right. This approach will do more harm
than good, because this will determine how much effort is put into responsibilities, and most
parents make this mistake in thinking that over-praising is a good factor, rather it is more deadly
than some people think. Everyone learns through trial and error and that is how we gain
knowledge and information about the universe. Christopher Berglands, How Does Your Brain
Learn Through Trial and Error? on psychologytoday.com, deals with problem-solving skills and
critical thinking. He explains: researchers believe these findings provide compelling evidence
that supports the benefits of "active learning in schools and workplaces. Active learning is an
educational approach that advances critical thinking and problem-solving by doing an activity
while simultaneously thinking about the task at hand. This is more a boarder way to look at it,
for a discourse community looking for scientific, pier-evaluated ideals and information. With
children, problem-solving tasks will be a bit more difficult without there brain fully developed
but the education they pour into their minds and learn with effort, will all create different results.
Education will seem more like a competition to the children, and some may struggle worse than
others for reward and praise. Praise to children in the educational work space will feed either
their egos, or their perseverance. This kind of mental state affects the children in an education
system, constructive work place, and/or sociocultural environment. Maura Pennington from
Forbes.com states that A good job here or there is not going to ruin anyones life, but an
overdose of it is lethal. This explanation will be aimed at some parents who are a giving a lot of
unnecessary praise to their children is doing much more harm than good, and that the things in

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life are a right not privileges. Imagination is harmless, according to many experienced parents,
but the science behind it is that in the stages of pruning and frontal lobe development, many
children during their years of emerging to adulthood, falsifiable information could cloud their
judgment and leave some type of psychological damage.
Is over-praising harmful to the development of a childs psychological well-being?
The phrase everyones a winner is setting up children to feel like a failure in life, and
that they cannot accomplish their future goals. Children would most likely failure in sports, or
school, and even in their home, but would not react the same as other children who have
affluenza. Children who have affluenza, which is lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a
sense of isolation, self-evaluation is minimal and rarely happens to increase any filed of
development that child might be having trouble with. Over-praising has some part to cause
affluenza, and many countries around the world have a different view on how praising affects
their children. Parentingscience.com states that there are many qualities with the beware, and
encouraging of praise. There is deeper meaning in the unnecessary praise that parents give to
their children that may cloud their judgement and not contribute to hard work. There are
different types of praise, and the most commonly used is the praise for intelligence. As studies
shows from, Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation and Performance,
authors Claudia M. Mueller and Carol S. Dweck, children who were praised for intelligence
were found to be more on the side of their performance goals, rather than focusing on their
learning goals. They were found to have less enjoyment in the takes given to them, compared to
the children who were praised for effort. It is all about how hard you work, it should not matter
what perform you give, all that should matter is the effort they out into it without giving up.

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Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine
Children's Motivation and Performance, Claudia M. Mueller and Carol S. Dweck 1998, vol 75, pg. 42

This graph indicates the different types of praise given to children and the results are that
parents are most likely to give praise on intelligence, then praise on effort. Though there is a tiny
flaw with praising after success, because according to the article, Praise for Intelligence Can
Undermine Children's Motivation and Performance, psychological scaring could form from
wanting future success:
However, attributing children's good performance to intelligence

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may have an undesired impact on children's overall

achievement. Some interesting research has documented that
ability praise after success can have a variety of negative effects
when it leads children to believe the praise to be insincere
and when it leads them to feel pressured to produce future good performance.
(pg. 33)
Finding a solution for entitlement mentality is certainly erasable, because there are little cracks
inside that branch off to more growing problems. A childs mind is fragile because they are
learning and how they absorb information and use knowledge will affect how their own special
personalities form. Over-prasing can back fire very quickly, and as Gwen Dewar states on
parentingscince.com, In particular, telling kids they are smart can make them act dumb. And
here is the evidence When you praise kids for their ability, it makes them focus on looking
goodnot on learning Kids who were praised for their intelligence tended to avoid
challenges. Instead, they preferred easy tasks. They were also more interested in their
competitive standing--how they measured up relative to others--than they were in learning how
to improve their future performance. If children are given the tool to think they are all geniuses,
of course they will want to live up to their parents expectations, as to not disappoint them, but
the fall and realization that they cannot do everything without learning and gaining more
knowledge, will be bitter.
How does a child, who grew up in an environment of entitlement, perform in a social
environment and a constructive working space?

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Performance wise, children have the tendencies to first lack how trial and error can help
them increase or decrease their skills, mentally and psychically. They need that kick starter of
working pass their mistakes and creating new strengths. As the contributor, Bob Cook, to the
article at Forbes.com, What Should Parents Do If Their Child Does Not Succeed In Sports, Cook
states: Your children have tried different activities, by the time they get to high school, they will
have a strong sense of what they enjoy, and where they will succeed and might even decide to
give up something even though theyre successful in it. He is describing that the development is
much more important for a child to focus on and when they do decide to become better athletes
in the sport they choose, it will be on the fact that they know they can become better with hard
and determination. Emphasizing effort over ability, will improve performances and natural wellbeing for children. Self-regulation is a main source for how entitlement mentality has affected a
child. All results are different and branch to specific areas of problems, because each child feeds
their brain based off their emotions. A positive example would be wanting to work hard at a sport
because it gives that person enjoyment and pleasure so it is not considered mainly hard-work but
having fun for the sake of fun. A negative example would be demining oneself because someone
won the spelling bee and that childs parents told him/her that he/she would win be they are
smart no matter what. This will scar some children in building their own unique character and
skills for the future. When children grow up and start their teen years, the affluenza they have
suffered over those years may leave permanent ideals and matters pertaining in failure, and
decreased motivation.William H. Reading, MD from drreading.com, he states in his journal
titled, Teen Entitlement Issues, There is a failure to accept that things must be earned
disbelief in the Principle of Mutual Interchange.

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The usual justification for receiving a reward is that somebody else has it...never learns that time
and effort must be exchanged for compensationparents may buy into the idea of conspicuous
consumption or may actually believe that popularity, acceptance, and self-esteem are contingent
on having the right possessions...there are also certain psychiatric disorders and developments,
which can result in entitlement behavior. William tells us that he believes that there will be long
term scaring and mental disorders when the children grow into teens, and finally into adults
facing reality with huge weights on their shoulders of inability to progress, or use the rage or
unhappiness towards others which could lead to bullying.
Will it be helpful in preparing a child for reality/ adult responsibilities?
Most people might think this to be a minor issue compared to that of the nation, but many
children will grow up without realizing their full potential, and may struggle with the reality of
adulthood responsibilities, if society does not at least try to recognize the harm this problem
disperses. Michael Sigman, a writer for The Huffington Post, explains that Some public
schools refuse to allow anyone to get a grade below "C," so no student will ever fail! These sort
of things do not give children the change to make mistakes and encode from them, because that
is how people have been learning since the beginning of time. If children progress on their envy
of other children who have succeeded in their failures, they will never have room to grow for
healthy perseverance and will most likely not put in any had work for adult responsibilities
because they were conditioned to not focus on effort but on gaining intelligence out of thin air,
theoretically.
Conclusion/synthesis

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Eliminating this cause is a difficult task, because this deals with mostly psychological
orders and cannot be controlled that easily, though it can be prevented if parents take more time
and caution in how their child grows up on praise and self-regulation. Having motivation is a big
part in helping children developing working and sharing skills. This is especially helpful in their
education so they can thrive to not grow up to be spoiled brats who harm or envy others
rewards, achievements, and success in general. There are deeper problems that branch off when
handling Entitlement Mentality, different types of praise that affect a childs performance, the
process of trial and error not many children will understand at first, but they will perceive it in
different ways and this will lead to creation of character and status.

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References
Bergland, C. (2016, March 07). How Does Your Brain Learn Through Trial and Error? Retrieved
March 07, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletesway/201603/how-does-your-brain-learn-through-trial-and-error
Buchholtz, A. K., & Carroll, A. B. (2011). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and
stakeholder management (8th ed.).
Cook, B. (2014, October 20). What Do Parents Do If Their Child Isn't 'Good Enough' For
Sports? Retrieved March 07, 2016, from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2014/10/20/what-do-parents-do-if-their-kid-isntgood-enough-for-sports/#23e9c4f77d3a
Dewar, G., P.H.D. (2008). The effects of praise: What scientific studies reveal. Retrieved March
07, 2016, from http://www.parentingscience.com/effects-of-praise.html
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children's
motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33-52.
Retrieved March 4, 2016, from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/mrg/MuellerDweck1998.pdf
Reading, W. H., MD. (2015). Teen Entitlement Issues | Dr. Reading. Retrieved March 08, 2016,
from https://www.drreading.com/topics/teenentitlement.html