Young Children's Vulnerability to Self-Blame and Helplessness: Relationship to Beliefs about Goodness

Abstract

Motivational helplessness, linked to conceptions of intelligence, has been well documented in older children. While some researchers have reported that children just starting school are motivationally invulnerable, others have found evidence of helplessness when these children encounter failure. The present study seeks to determine whether the reactions associated with helplessness can be identified in a new context, that of criticism, and whether any such responses are related to the child's conceptions of goodness. Subjects were 107 5- and 6-year-old children who enacted achievement situations in which teacher criticism was presented. The 39% of children whose own assessments were undermined by criticism exhibited the affect, task choices, and nonconstructive problem-solving strategies characteristic of helplessness. They were also more likely to make global negative self-judgments following criticism, including negative judgments of their goodness. Finally, these children were more likely to endorse stable and global beliefs about goodness.

The development of first graders' reading skill as a function of pre-school motivational orientation and phonemic awareness

“…This suggests that different reading careers have their starting points in both cognitive-linguistic and motivational factors that may have been formed interactively before the start of school. Although pre--schoo lers appear to be motivationally less vulnerable in the face of failure than 9-10 years old children (Rholes, Blackwell, Jordan, & Walters, 1980), and do not use social comparison information in negative self-evaluation (Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980), there are children who, as early as the age of 5-6 years, respond to criticism and salient failure feedback with global negative affect and negative judgments of how good they were, as well as with decrements in the constructiveness of their problem-solving (Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992). It is plausible that these children have undergone early learning experiences which have disposed them to cope with subsequent adult-guided performance situations through ego--defensive responses.…”

Development of Achievement Motivation

“…Dweck and her colleagues (e.g., Burhans & Dweck, 1995;Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992;Smiley & Dweck, 1994; see Dweck, 2002, for review) also have done interesting work on young children's reactions to failure; we review this work more completely later when we discuss the development of learned helplessness. Generally, their findings show that some preschool children already react quite negatively to failure, reactions that may lead to later learned helplessness in response to failure.…”

The Contributions and Prospects of Goal Orientation Theory

“…In investigating the development of theories of intelligence, Dweck and her colleagues considered the obvious possibility that parents and the home environment might play an important role in these self-schemas and therefore in the tendency to adopt mastery versus performance goal orientations. In a series of studies, Dweck and her colleagues (Cain & Dweck, 1995;Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992;Smiley & Dweck, 1994) have identified mastery and performance goal orientations in children as young as preschoolers. The work stemming from this research program suggests that a socialization process, in which adults (parents and teachers) focus more on evaluation or on learning, predisposes children to adopt an entity or incremental theory of their "goodness" and "badness" (Cain & Dweck, 1995;Heyman et al, 1992; see also Hokoda & Fincham, 1995;see Burhans & Dweck, 1995 for a review).…”

“…In a series of studies, Dweck and her colleagues (Cain & Dweck, 1995;Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992;Smiley & Dweck, 1994) have identified mastery and performance goal orientations in children as young as preschoolers. The work stemming from this research program suggests that a socialization process, in which adults (parents and teachers) focus more on evaluation or on learning, predisposes children to adopt an entity or incremental theory of their "goodness" and "badness" (Cain & Dweck, 1995;Heyman et al, 1992; see also Hokoda & Fincham, 1995;see Burhans & Dweck, 1995 for a review). Burhans and Dweck (1995) suggested that a parental evaluative focus may contribute to the child constructing a perception of self "as object of judgment with contingent worth" with traits such as goodness and badness "viewed as static entities" (p. 1722).…”