Recap question BR = 20/5 = 4

RR= 10/20 =
0.50

● A baby is tested on the mobile task and

kicks 5 times during the baseline, 20
times during the immediate test and 10
times during the delayed test. What can
we say about their memory?
 Social development:
Self and others

Jenny Richmond
PSYC 2061

https://tinyurl.com/2061questions
 Objectives
• To explore how self concept and self esteem
change with age
• To introduce research showing that practices
designed to bolster self-esteem may not
always be beneficial
 The self
–Joint attention
• 9 month olds point to
share
–Self recognition
• 18-24 month olds pass
“rouge” test
–Self representation
• 3 year olds can describe
themselves and how they
feel
Self concept
 Self esteem
• Judgments of worth, liking and satisfaction
– Global?
– Or domain specific?
– Scholastic competence The impact of these domains on
self esteem depends on the degree
– Athletic competence to which an individual
judges the domain to be important
– Social acceptance
– Physical appearance
– Behavioural Conduct

Harter, 1999
 Changes in self esteem
• Young children generally have high self-
esteem
• Adolescence is associated with a drop in self
esteem, particularly for girls
– Parenting- authoritarian
– Relationships with opposite sex
• Self esteem also declines in old age
Check your understanding

You are playing with your baby niece at the

playground and she looks at you, then up into a
tree, points and says “birdie!”. This is an example
of….
 Is self esteem important?
• Related to mental health
– Low SE associated with loneliness, anxiety,
depression, reduced life satisfaction
– Low SE in adolescence linked to poor health,
financial/employment difficulties, and criminality
in adulthood

“self esteem has profound consequences for every aspect of our existence” (Branden, 1994, p5)

“cannot think of a single psychological problem- from anxiety and depression, to fear of
intimacy or of success, to spouse battery or child molestation- that is not traceable to
the problem of low self-esteem” (Branden, 1984, p12)
 Praise
“A chapter book?
“You must be the best
You must be really good at reading”
swimmer on your team”

“You are so clever”

“you are so good at that”
“I love your drawing. You are a great artist”

“Wow, great job. You are so smart”

“My clever girl”

“You are a really good reader”

“Look how smart you are”
“You got an A on your test?
You are so good at Math”
“How many goals did you get at soccer?
You must be the best kicker on the team?”
 Praise
80% of parents think that
praising their children’s ability helps Prof Carol Dweck
Stanford University
children feel good about themselves

But is there a
downside
to praise?

Dweck (2002)
 Mueller & Dweck (1998)

• 10-year-old children
– Set 1 reasoning problems (moderate difficulty)
• Manipulated feedback after success “You got >80% problems
right. That’s a really high score”
– Group 1: ‘You must be smart at these problems’
– Group 2: ‘You must have worked hard at these problems’
– Group 3: No feedback
 What kind of problems would you like to do at
the end of the session?
Proportion of children who chose
easy problems

Group
Children praised for their ability are more likely to choose easy problems later.
Motivated by performance rather than learning.
 Mueller & Dweck (1998)

– Set 2 reasoning problems (high difficulty)

• “You performed a lot worse on those problems. You
got <50% right”
• Children rated
– failure attributions
– desire to persist
– enjoyment
 Why did you have a hard time with the second set of problems?
(failure attribution)
ratings

Group

Children praised for their ability initially are more likely to attribute failure to a lack of ability
than those praised for effort or controls.
 How much would you like to take these problems
home to work on? (persistence)
How much did you like these problems? (enjoyment)
Ratings

Group

After failure, children initially praised for their ability were less likely to
persist and enjoyed working on the problems less than children praised for their effort.
• Set 3 reasoning problems (moderate
difficulty)
• Post failure performance
Number of problems solved

Group
After failure, children initially praised for their ability performed more poorly than those
praised for effort or controls.
Learning motivation (look at strategies) or performance
motivation (look at other students’ scores)
Proportion of children choosing
To read other children’s scores

Group
 Asked to anonymously report their scores to
children at another school
Proportion of children who inflated
their scores

Group
 Mueller & Dweck (1998)
• Praising children’s ability makes them
– Less likely to embrace challenge
– More likely to attribute failure to a lack of ability
– Less likely to persist in difficult situations
– Less likely to seek out learning situations
– More likely to misrepresent performance (cheat?)
 Process praise
I can see how much you like math. What a great effort! I can see how
You are working really hard on those problems you are improving

I like the way you covered your mouth

You are trying really hard You must have studied hard for that test.
You did really well
Look at you, putting your shoes on by yourself

You are really good at persisting I like how you’re are concentrating
with those hard problems
You finished all your spelling.
You must have worked hard
Good job running. You are trying hard
 Early process praise
• Predicts motivation frameworks
– 14-38 month olds
• Coded praise during play session with mother
– 7-8 year olds
• Questions about stability of traits, attribution for
success/failure
• Children who experienced process praise as
toddlers were more likely to report that traits
like IQ are malleable, they prefer challenge
and attribute failure to lack of effort

Gunderson (2013) Child Development

Carol Dweck

10min
But...
Do Dweck’s results replicate?
Li & Bates (2019)
N = 624 9-13 year olds in China

Circles = praise for effort

Squares = praise for ability
Diamonds = control
Are growth mindset interventions effective?
N= 12000 students
Preregistered analysis on 6320 low achieving
students

Randomised control trial- online intervention

- training kids to think about the malleability
of their cognitive abilities
Results
- improved fixed mindset
- increased GPA (only 0.1 grade point on
average)
- depend on...
- peer norms
- supportive > unsupportive
- school achievement
- low = medium > high
 Take Home
• Self esteem in children children is important,
but praise may have adverse consequences
• Early studies showed that directing praise at
children’s behaviour/action/effort is beneficial
for developing motivational constructs and
ability to cope with failure
• Some controversy about the replicability and
effect sizes in the real world