Effect of Ability vs. Effort Praise on Children's Achievement-related Attitude according to their Goal-orientation
AUTHOR : 정윤경
INFORMATION : page. 81~98 / 2012 Vol.19 No.4
ABSTRACT
The present study is designed to investigate the effect of ability vs. effort praise on children's achievement
related attitudes according to their goal orientation. To do so, 98 elementary school students(5th and 6th
grader) were divided into two groups: those children with high performance goals and those children with
high learning goals. The children in each group were randomly assigned into ability praise and effort
praise conditions and their reactions after failure were measured. Children with high performance goals
responded in a more achievement oriented way in effort praise conditions than in ability praise conditions:
these children attributed their failures to effort more frequently than to ability, chose learning problems
more frequently than performance problems, and chose hints for solving problems over other student's
scores in effort praise conditions. On the other hand, children with high learning goals did not show any
significant differences in achievement related attitudes except when it came to attributing their failures,
revealing high achievement oriented attitude in both praise conditions.