Self-theories by Dweck Carol S

Author:Dweck, Carol S. [Carol S. Dweck]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317710325
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

□ Evidence for Helpless Reactions in Young Children

The first or our studies to look for, and find, helpless responses in young children was a study by Charlene Hebert and me (Hebert & Dweck, 1985; see Dweck, 1991). In this study, we gave preschool children (aged 3.5 to 5 years) four jigsaw puzzles to solve. The puzzles were large and colorful, and all depicted children's favorite cartoon characters. With a jigsaw puzzle, it is abundantly clear when you have completed it or failed to complete it.

The first three of these puzzles were too difficult to solve within the allotted time, although all of the children made good progress on them. The fourth puzzle was of the same type, but we made sure that all the children solved the fourth one successfully. (Again, extreme care was taken to make sure that all children left the situation feeling proud of themselves and their performance, and at the end of the session, children were given mastery experiences on all of the puzzles.)

The first thing we were interested in was whether children would show persistence in trying to solve the unsolved puzzles. So after they had worked on the four puzzles (three unsolved and one solved), we asked children which one they wished to rework. We told them that we had some extra time and that they could choose any of the puzzles to work on again. We assured them that any choice was fine, and that in the past, different children had made all kinds of choices.

It the children selected one of the unsolved ones, we considered this to indicate persistence, because they were trying to pursue the task to completion. If children selected the puzzle they had already solved, we considered this to be the nonpersistent choice. In this study, 37% of the children made the nonpersistent choice. Interestingly, children of this age do not yet feel inhibited about choosing the one they've already done. A few years later, even children who sorely wish to avoid challenge are too embarrassed to declare this as their choice.

Could it be that these nonpersistent children found the already-solved puzzle to be challenging or that they wanted to practice a little more on this puzzle before moving on to the more challenging ones?

We tested tor these possibilities in two subsequent studies that used very similar procedures, one by Pat Smiley and me (Smiley & Dweck, 1994) and one by Kathleen Cain and me (Cain & Dweck, 1995). In these studies, after children selected a puzzle to work on again, we asked them to explain their choices. We said, "Good choice! Why'd you pick that one?" Not one of the nonpersistent children (those who chose to redo the already completed puzzle) ever gave a challenge-seeking reason for their choice or ever indicated that they thought this was a good way to practice their skills. Instead, the great majority of them clearly said they were picking this one because it was easy or because they didn't know how to do the other ones.

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