Developmental psychology of praise

Abstract

From cradle to college, young people are evaluated—and often praised—by parents, teachers, and other well-intentioned adults. In fact, infants are already praised from well before they have developed any verbal understanding (e.g., “look at you, you’re so cute!”). If receiving praise is ubiquitous across development, one might perhaps assume that its consequences—e.g., in terms of well-being, learning, and behavioral adjustment—are also similar across development. Is this indeed the case? This chapter provides an overview of current knowledge of developmental differences in the consequences of praise for young people’s adjustment. It focuses on how social and cognitive maturation, from infancy into emerging adulthood, influences the consequences of praise. We conclude that the consequences of praise are, at least in part, developmentally heterogeneous. A priority for future work is to use longitudinal approaches to help build an increasingly accurate understanding of developmental continuity and change in how praise impacts youth adjustment.