Praise facts for kids

Praise is when you tell someone you think they did something great or that you admire them. It's a way of showing you noticed their good actions or qualities. You can praise someone with words, like saying "Good job!" or with your body, like a smile or a thumbs-up.

When you praise someone, you're often saying that what they did was good based on certain rules or ideas. Praise can also be a way to encourage someone to keep doing something. It's like a reward that makes a behavior more likely to happen again. How much praise affects someone depends on many things. This includes where it happens, what the praise means, and how the person receiving it understands it.

Praise is different from just saying "okay" or giving neutral feedback. It's also different from encouragement, which is more about future actions. People give praise up and down the social ladder. It helps groups stay together and understand who's in charge. When someone in charge praises you, it's often a sign of approval. When someone praises a person in charge, it shows respect or admiration. Praising gods is also a big part of many religions.

How Praise Helps You Learn and Grow

Praise is a powerful tool that helps people learn and repeat good behaviors. Think of it like a reward system. When you do something well and get praised for it, you're more likely to do it again. This idea comes from B.F. Skinner's work on how we learn.

Many studies show that praise works! For example, teachers and parents use praise to help kids behave better and do well in school. It also helps adults perform better at work. Sometimes, even watching someone else get praised can make you want to do well too. This is called "vicarious reinforcement."

For praise to really work, it needs to be given at the right time. It should happen right after the good behavior. It also needs to be specific. Instead of "Good job," say "Good job sharing your toys!" And most importantly, it must be real and honest.

Because praise is so effective, many programs use it to help people change their behavior. It's a proven way to help manage classrooms and teach parenting skills.

More Than Just Changing Behavior

Praise does more than just make you repeat actions. It can also affect how you think and feel.

When you get praised, it can make you think about yourself. It also tells you what the person praising you values. Good praise can make you feel happy, joyful, or proud. It shows you that you've met a high standard. This can give you a good feeling about yourself. But if praise doesn't feel real, it can make you feel bad or manipulated.

Praise can also affect your motivation. Some people think too much praise can make you rely on others' opinions. This might make you less motivated to do things just because you enjoy them. However, praise can also set clear goals and expectations. This can push you to work harder to meet those goals.

Praise also helps build relationships. When people praise each other, it can make them like each other more. This can strengthen friendships and other connections.

Different Kinds of Praise

Praising the Person or the Effort?

There are two main ways to praise someone:

• Person praise: This focuses on who someone is. For example, "You are such a smart kid!"
• Process praise: This focuses on what someone did or how they did it. For example, "You worked so hard on that drawing!" or "You used a great strategy to solve that problem!"

For a long time, people thought praising a child's abilities (person praise) would make them feel confident. But newer ideas suggest that person praise can sometimes be harmful. If you always tell a child they are "smart," they might think their worth depends on being smart. This can make them afraid to try hard things. They might worry about not looking smart if they fail.

Studies have shown that kids who get person praise might feel more helpless after a failure. They might blame themselves. But kids who get process praise tend to focus on their effort or strategies. They learn that they can improve by trying different things or working harder. This helps them deal with setbacks better.

However, process praise isn't always perfect. If a task is super easy, praising effort too much might make older kids think you believe they aren't very smart. They might think you're saying, "You had to work hard on that easy thing, so you must not be good at it."

Praise That Guides Versus Praise That Controls

Another way to look at praise is whether it feels like it's guiding you or controlling you.

• Informational praise: This kind of praise gives you helpful information. It tells you what you did well. For example, "You did really well on that puzzle; you figured out the tricky parts quickly." This helps you feel like you are in control of your own actions.
• Controlling praise: This kind of praise feels like someone is trying to make you do something. For example, "I'm so proud of you for finishing your homework; now you can play." This can make you feel like someone else is pulling your strings.

Studies show that informational praise often makes people more motivated from within. They do things because they want to. Controlling praise, however, can make people less motivated. They might only do things because they feel forced to.

It can sometimes be tricky to tell the difference between these two types of praise. Also, it's hard to know if the overall effect of praise will be good, bad, or neutral.

Comparing Yourself to Others Versus Focusing on Your Own Skills

In school, people often compare themselves to others.

• Social-comparison praise: This tells you how you did compared to others. For example, "You did better than most students in the class!"
• Mastery praise: This focuses on your own progress and skills. For example, "You've really improved your drawing skills!"

Some studies suggest that social-comparison praise can motivate students. But critics say it can teach kids to always compare themselves. This might make them feel bad if someone else does better. It might also make them feel like their actions are controlled by external comparisons.

Many experts believe that mastery praise is better. It helps kids focus on their own learning and growth. This can build stronger inner motivation. Some research suggests that girls might respond better to mastery praise, while boys might respond more to social-comparison praise. More research is needed to fully understand these differences.

Praise and Beauty

Sometimes, we praise things just because they are beautiful. This kind of praise is about the beauty itself. It's not about giving credit to the person who happens to be beautiful.

Sir Kenneth Dover, a scholar, explained this well. He said that in ancient Greece, the word for "beautiful" (kalon) was used for people, objects, sights, and sounds. It meant "admirable" or "honorable." The opposite word (aischros) meant "ugly" or "disgraceful."

Dover pointed out that the Greeks did not call someone "beautiful" because of their morals or intelligence. They only used the word for physical looks, like shape, color, and movement.

What Changes How Praise Works?

Age

How praise affects kids can change as they get older. For very young children, many types of praise seem to boost their motivation. But for older kids, some types of praise, like person praise, can actually have a negative effect.

Why the difference? Younger children might not think about cause and effect in complex ways yet. They might take adult words more literally. Older children start to understand more complex ideas about effort and ability.

Gender

Praise can also affect boys and girls differently. Some studies suggest that girls might be more sensitive to the negative effects of certain types of praise. For example, praise that makes them feel less independent might affect girls more.

Some researchers think this is because girls are often taught to focus more on relationships and fitting in. Boys are often taught to focus more on achievement and being independent. These different ways of growing up can change how they react to praise.

Culture

Different cultures use and understand praise in unique ways. In Western cultures, like the United States, people often value being independent. They use praise to encourage individual success.

But in some Eastern cultures, like China and Japan, praise is used much less often. People there might think too much praise can harm a child's character. In these cultures, people are often motivated by self-improvement and fitting into the group. For example, one study found that Canadian students worked harder after positive feedback. But Japanese students worked harder after negative feedback, as it pointed out areas for improvement. This shows how different cultures can see praise very differently.

See also

• Gratitude
• Praise and worship (disambiguation)