Picture of the Week!

Below is a silly picture of a recent participant! 

Excessive Praise May Actually Be Harmful to Children

    Over the years, more and more research has focused on the effects of praise across a variety of situations. Praise has been used as a motivator and it often acts as a reward for children, but recent research raises questions about the effects of excessive praise on children's behavior. Turns out that excessive praise may be detrimental to children with low self-esteem. Adults are twice as likely to use excessive praise towards children with low self-esteem, in comparison to children with high self-esteem. This makes sense because adults often want to give additional praise to the children that seem to need it most, however, this appears to have the opposite effect on children with low self-esteem.
    In one recent study, children drew a Van Gogh picture, and were either given: inflated praise (e.g. "You did an incredibly great job!"), non-inflated praise (e.g. "You did a great job!"), or no praise by a professional painter. Then, children were given the choice to draw one of two types of pictures: an easier picture where they wouldn't learn much, or a difficult picture where they would make lots of mistakes but would also learn a lot. Children with low self-esteem who received inflated praise were more likely to choose the easier picture to draw.
    So what exactly is inflated praise doing to children with low self-esteem? Praise sends a message about future standards and expectations. When a child with low self-esteem hears excessive, inflated praise, they feel that they must do exceptionally well or else they will disappoint others, therefore they shy away from challenges that could result in failure. So, it seems that, like with many things, the best practice is to praise in moderation - don't overdo it.

    To learn more about these studies and what others are saying about them, please visit the following links:

“Stop Heaping Praise on Your Kids”  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/stop-heaping-praise-on-your-kids/2014/01/06/84a9a2fe-7710-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html

“When Praise Hurts: The Psychology of Gushing”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/when-praise-hurts-the-psy_b_4269342.html

Understanding Children's Emotions

    Understanding the importance of emotions in children is crucial to understanding how emotions guide their thoughts and behaviors. Recent research has defined interest as a key emotion that may be the first to develop in infancy, then later stimulates children’s curiosity, motivating them to explore the world around them and to learn from their experiences.  Parents are encouraged to respond enthusiastically to their children’s interests, increasing opportunities for meaningful conversations which builds stronger family relationships.

     Although some children don’t show “typical” interests (e.g. reading or school work), parents are encouraged to determine what does interest their child, and to engage in their interests. Over time, parents can help their child turn theses interests into constructive projects, but parents must meet them half way through support and encouragement.

To read a more detailed article about this concept of understanding children's emotions, click on the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenneth-barish-phd/understanding-childrens-e_b_3594455.html .

What interests and activities do your children enjoy? How do you encourage your children to pursue their interests? Submit your comments below! 

Project Update!

The MSU Minds, Attitudes, and Parenting project is pleased to announce that we've reached the midpoint of our study, and have had a great turn out thus far! Over 65 children and their parents have participated in our study over the last six months. Interesting results between children's behaviors, their brain activity, and their parents' attitudes are beginning to emerge. We will be presenting some of these findings at the upcoming meetings of the Association for Psychological Science in San Francisco and at the Intellectual Humility conference in Saint Louis. We're very excited about the data we have collected already and are even more excited to see what the next six months will bring! Thank you to everyone who has already participated in this study and to those that have helped spread the word about our research! It has been a pleasure working with the families and we hope the results of our study will provide helpful information in return in the not too distant future. In the coming year, we hope to begin posting results from our study and, begin providing workshops and events to inform the public about our research. Until then, we are still looking for children and parents to participate over the next six months, so please continue spreading the word about the MSU MAP project. For more details about this research study, feel free to e-mail us at msukidlab@gmail.com or visit our website at www.msumap.org .