PSYC1001 Developmental Psychology Lecture 6 2024 PDF

PSYC1001: Developmental Psychology Lecture 6 Motivation, Achievement & How to Talk to Children 1 Lecture Outline: 1. Praise, Motivation, and Achievement in School 2. Parents’ and Teachers’ attitudes and how that affects children:...

PSYC1001: Developmental Psychology Lecture 6 Motivation, Achievement & How to Talk to Children 1 Lecture Outline: 1. Praise, Motivation, and Achievement in School 2. Parents’ and Teachers’ attitudes and how that affects children: The case of gender stereotypes and maths 2 First a class poll: 1. How many of you think intelligence is fixed? You can’t change it with effort. It may change with maturation as kids become adults, but we don’t have control over that. 2. How many of you think intelligent thinking can be improved with effort? That the mind is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets? 3 Praise, Motivation, and Achievement – Background 4 Background Misconceptions about Self-Esteem Since 1969’s The Psychology of Self-Esteem (by Nathaniel Brandon) a massive social movement has emphasised children’s self-esteem as the central factor in determining a successful childhood, then life. People thought: If children/people have high self-esteem, they will try hard, achieve, have friends, etc. If children have low self-esteem, they will fail in school, have no friends, become drug addicts, etc. 5 Background Misconceptions about Self-Esteem So the focus became centered on cultivating high self-esteem… e.g., No keeping score in games (losers feel bad) Criticism in school reduced, praise increased 85% of USA parents have endorsed the idea that high levels of praise is critical Is this the right thing to do? Clearly, liking yourself is better than hating yourself, and praising children better is than emotionally abusing them, but many aspects of this story turn out to be wrong e.g., teenagers with high self-esteem often drink and do drugs 6 Background Misconceptions about Self-Esteem “Millennials” do appear to have higher self-esteem. So, in one sense, this movement worked. However, constant, indiscriminate praise appears to lead to more “fragile” self-esteem instead of a sense of earned “secure” self-esteem. Further, cross-generational research (Twenge, Campbell, & Freeman, 2012) suggests that USA university students born in 1982 or later are more concerned with self- image and status vs. issues of social justice compared with previous generations. 7 Praise, Motivation, and Achievement 8 Why not reward and praise children? If a child has done well on their homework, parents and teachers have the strong urge either to reward them (e.g., with lollies) and praise them “you’re so smart!” Isn’t that nice and encourages achievement? There is a distinction between intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation Intrinsic: Working because one likes it Extrinsic: Working to achieve reward Immediate reward can shift an intrinsic motivation to extrinsic motivation – What if reward no longer available→ lose motivation – This is about predictable reward for participation When reward is less predictable and/or based on increasing standards of performance, may be beneficial for motivation9 Motivation and Goals Intrinsic motivation → Mastery goals Desire to master a skill for its own sake Extrinsic motivation → Performance goals Desire to perform for other’s sake. What matters is how you do relative to peers. How well you are evaluated. From early childhood through Uni, students with mastery goals have better marks than students with performance goals. 10 Dangers of “person” praise: Carol Dweck Praising qualities of a person: “You’re so smart!” Encourages “entity” mindset Entity mindset: intelligence is fixed, innate – Good grades should come with little effort if you are smart Associated with performance goals, especially avoidance-performance: children want to avoid looking dumb This leads to a lack of effort, inability to cope with failure. Both of which lead to a lot of further failure. – High IQ children often fail later in school. This is rooted in how frequently they are praised. They don’t think they should have to try. 11 Benefits of “process” praise: Carol Dweck Praising processes: “You did well because you worked so hard!” Encourages “growth” mindset Growth mindset: intelligence is a skill achieved with hard work – Good grades are a result of effort Associated with mastery goals: children want to get better at what they are doing This leads to increased effort in the face of failure 12 Person vs. Process Praise/Entity vs. Growth Mindsets Carol Dweck Year 5 students solved a bunch of puzzles. Half of children given person praise, told “you were good at that. You must be smart.” Half of children given process praise told “you were good at that. You must have worked very hard.” Then children given option of 1) a second harder set of puzzles, told they would learn from them, or 2) another easy set of puzzles. Most person-praise kids took the easy puzzles. Most process-praise kids took the hard puzzles. 13 Person vs. Process Praise/Entity vs. Growth Mindsets Carol Dweck Person-praised children didn’t want to be embarrassed by revealing they in fact, were not smart Process-praised children wanted to learn Then all children had to do a very hard set of puzzles. All children failed. Most person-praise kids were stressed, strained, and sad Most process-praise kids enjoyed the process, wanting to improve 14 Person vs. Process Praise/Entity vs. Growth Mindsets Carol Dweck Then all children given a final set of doable puzzles Process-praised children did better than the first set Person-praised children did worse than the first set In a later study, after initial test and praise follow-up: Person praise lead to entity mindsets Process praise leads to growth mindsets With time for only one activity before a second test: Entity children choose to find out how other students did (performance goal) Growth children choose to study (mastery goal) 15 Person vs. Process Praise/Entity vs. Growth Mindsets Carol Dweck Many children do well in primary school, but then the transition to secondary school is challenging Children with entity mindsets do not respond well to challenge. They may not try for several reasons. 1. If you fail without trying, at least you have that excuse, and not because you are dumb 2. Effort itself is a sign of not being smart enough Entity mindset children are more likely to cheat 16 Person vs. Process Praise/Entity vs. Growth Mindsets Growth mindset intervention study: Early selective secondary school students were all given a 1 semester course in strategies for improving study habits. ½ of those students were also given a lecture about the nature of the mind and intelligence, arguing that the “mind is a muscle” The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. Intelligence is achievable through practice. Not genetically fixed. 17 Person vs. Process Praise/Entity vs. Growth Mindsets Carol Dweck Growth mindset intervention: “Mind as muscle” students saw major rise in their grades compared to control students that year 18 Praise and gender differences (in USA) Research shows boys get more process praise than girls, and boys are more likely to have growth mindsets (Diener & Dweck, 1978; Gunderson et al., 2013) Children are sensitive to indiscriminate praise: if children are praised for non-academic classroom behaviors, e.g., “having a clean and organised desk” they then discount the authenticity/meaningfulness behind academic praise Girls (compared to boys) are more likely to be praised for non-academic behaviors, and criticised academically, and vice-versa for boys (Diener & Dweck, 1978) 19 Praise, Motivation, and Achievement: Summary Immediate reward and person praise can be dangerous because: 1. Reduces intrinsic motivation and mastery goals 2. Encourages entity mindsets: increases performance goals, engenders the primary concern to maintain self-image and avoid looking dumb. - Could this explain cross-generational differences in self-concern? (Twenge et al., 2012) 3. Reduces ability to cope with challenge and failure Process praise and telling students of all ages that the mind is a muscle: engenders growth mindsets which increases effort and mastery goals Girls are more likely to be praised in ways that discourages academic achievement (in USA at least) 20 Parent and teacher attitudes, and their effects on kids: The Case of Gender and Maths 21 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths 22 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Controlling for maths ability (as measured by standardised scores): female university students (compared to male university students) view maths more negatively, have higher math anxiety, and are less likely to pursue a degree that requires lots of math courses Why? How do these attitudes develop? 23 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Parents and teachers vary, but many endorse gender stereotypes: maths is for boys On average by year 6: Parents of boys have higher expectations of success in maths now and in later careers, and believe boys are “more naturally talented” at maths Parents of girls have lower minimum acceptable levels for achievement Generally rate maths as more important in a boy’s life than in a girl’s Even when controlling for objective measures of maths ability 24 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Parents who endorse gender stereotypes in general endorse that gender stereotypes apply to their children, even when they see their own children’s grades and performance counter the stereotypes Teachers who endorse stereotypes apply them to their students, even when grades are the same Equal grades are explained by adults for different reasons. They reason: – Boys achieve because they are talented or fail because of a lack of effort (or perhaps bad luck) – Girls achieve because they must have tried so extra hard (or perhaps good luck), while fail due to lack of ability 25 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Children (on average) endorse the gender stereotypes of their parents and teachers Even when their own achievement contradicts these beliefs Remember Piaget’s assimilation vs. accommodation? When it comes to gender stereotypes, people assimilate – They interpret the evidence based on their beliefs instead of changing their beliefs because of the evidence 26 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Female children more likely to have entity theories of intelligence in general, and view that they have no natural maths ability, thus: why try? Boys more likely to have incremental theories of intelligence and receive more process praise in general (not maths specific) – Detailed pattern needs explaining with more research 27 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Beilock, Gunderson, Ramirez & Levin (2010): Maths anxiety contagion Primary school teachers in USA are 90% female They tend to have low levels of maths education and often high maths anxiety Study tracked year 2 students At beginning of year, boys and girls had equally low levels of maths anxiety By end of year, girls with high maths anxiety teachers had higher maths anxiety than girls with low anxiety teachers, and performed worse 28 How adult attitudes affect kids: The case of gender and maths Boys showed no difference in maths anxiety or performance depending on teacher anxiety levels Why the gender difference in anxiety contagion? Are teachers treating girls and boys differently? Or do girls see female teachers as models to identify with and imitate while boys do not? – Remember Bandura: kids imitate models of same sex more 29 A final word from Dweck 30 Before wrapping up: A cautionary tale Unfortunately, some researchers are calling into question the predictive power of mindset and mindset interventions It looks like something was wrong with the original stats Part of the “replication crisis” where many highly influential findings in human sciences (psychology, economics, medicine) are not replicating It looks like mindset matters, but perhaps not as much as we thought 31 A cautionary tale with some optimism However, science is a relatively self-correcting system – Compared to other approaches to knowledge acquisition The field is attempting a major overhaul of how we practice For example, uploading raw data for any researcher to examine 32 A final note: What mindset definitely does not mean Some look at research on mindset, or related notions in “mindfulness” and “grit” all related to how to think about struggle Some have taken this to mean “we don’t have to change the system that is systematically making some people’s lives harder than others, we just have to change their mindset about their situation” – E.g., “don’t be mad the CEO makes over 100 times your salary, just meditate at work and put that out of your mind” It’s easy for psychologists who study individual minds to lose track of how society works on the larger scale, but recall Vygotsky and Lecture 1 on SES, etc. 33 Take home messages: To keep children motivated and hard-working praise their process, not their person Emphasize the mind is a muscle! Intelligent thinking is a skill! (this goes for you all too!) When parents and teachers endorse gender stereotypes (in maths), children adopt these views, and expectations are adopted correspondingly These attitudes are not changed by evidence but determine how evidence is interpreted Anxiety (of maths) is transmitted along gendered-lines from adults to children 34