Introduction

The present paper focuses on the analysis of attribution theory and its relation to praise. The investigation is based on the assumption that praise can have both positive and negative effects. However, previous studies found a wide range of explanations for the direction of the influence of praise. Thereby, the paper expands the observations by discussing the factors that determine the exact effect of praise. The aim of the study is to identify the situations when praise can have positive effects versus the negative effects.

Attribution and Attribution Theory

Attribution theory is a topic that is concerned with the areas of human relationships, collaboration, dispositional ascriptions and personal interdependence along with inferential processes (Martinko, 1995, p.3).

Attribution Theory and Praise

The effects of praise on motivation and achievements in view of attribution theory were first explored by Dweck et al. (1978, p.268). The authors noted that according to attribution theory individuals tend to develop associations between praise and their performance or behaviour. This suggests that praise that is contingent on the behaviour or performance may imply discouragement or embarrassment. Besides, praise may be a motivator that replaces intrinsic motivators, such as self-reinforcement (Mumm and Mutlu, 2011, p.1643). However, Malle (2011, p.297) argued that attribution theory failed to take into consideration individuals’ ordinary explanations of behaviour. The author analysed actor-observed asymmetries in behaviour explanations to reject some of the assumptions of attribution theory. The assumptions were that behaviour explanation implied selection between situational and person cases and that behaviours were similar to all other events (Malle, 2011, p.297).

Attribution theory in some areas deals with the concept of praise and explores the benefits and pitfalls of praise. In terms of education, some forms of praise can clearly harm the process of learning, while other forms of praise can support motivation and learning. However, there is no simple explanation to the effects of praise, as its influence depends on different factors which are different for each individual and within every single relationship (Robins, 2012, p.58). For example, according to attribution theory some children may blame a poor test result on poor teaching, while other would think of themselves as the cause because of lack of intelligence. An investigation of Henderlong and Lepper (2002, p.774) argued that praise should not be defined from purely a behavioural perspective. Instead, the authors suggested that praise could undermine, improve, or have no effect on the intrinsic motivation of a child. The outcome was associated with a set of conceptual variables. Normally adults refer to praise both to impact children’s behaviour and to approve of it. The study also showed that motivational effects of praise could depend on the individual characteristics of the recipient, including age, culture and gender. Meanwhile, when praise was perceived as sincere, it contributed to motivation and encouraged performance attributions (Henderlong and Lepper, 2002, p.774).

In expansion of the findings of Henderlong and Lepper (2002, p.774) it can be added that the effects of praise in view of attribution theory depend on the contents of the praise. Specifically, the effects of verbal praise for talent and verbal praise for effort could be different (Droe, 2013, p.63). The research of 87 students who took a simple test was performed by assigning three treatments to the students. The first group received verbal praise for effort, the second group received verbal praise for talent, and the third group received no praise. The findings demonstrated that students who received praise for effort stated that they had a higher attitude toward task persistence. The study reported that students praised for their intelligence tended attribute the success to their smartness, while students praised for effort attributed their success to effort (Droe, 2013, p.63).

The effects of praise on motivation can be explored from the viewpoint of beliefs in the relationship between effort and ability. Attribution theory suggests that ability praise encourages ability attribution. At the same time, this praise would imply higher motivation than effort praise for individuals who wish to prove their ability in ego-involved circumstances. Meanwhile, effort praise encourages effort attribution and it is more motivational than ability praise for individuals who tend to improve their skills by working hard in relevant situations (Lam et al., 2008, p.694). However, the factors of gender and age that were mentioned in the study by Henderlong and Lepper (2002, p.774) were also explored in the research of Corpus and Lepper (2007, p.487). The authors compared person and performance praise and showed that these types of praise could lead to different attributional styles. The research showed that person praise could be associated with ability attributions, while this can imply helpless reactions in the cases of failure. However, performance praise could imply more effort or strategy attributions, thus leading to adaptive reactions in the situations of both failure and success. In addition, the research showed that gender and age affected motivational consequences of praise. Process, person, and product praise all had positive impact on motivation for preschool children. However, process and product praise was harmful for upper-elementary school girls (Corpus and Lepper, 2007, p.487).

The relationships between motivation and attributions for failure and success were confirmed by the research of McClure et al. (2011, p.71), but in expansion of previously reviewed works the authors associated the relationship with cultural differences. The study was based on the analysis of the behaviour of over 5,000 secondary students from different countries and the ratings of for common attributions, such as effort, ability, task difficulty and luck. Besides, three social effects were included, namely teachers, family and peers. The research concluded that students tended to rate social attributions as high as the four classic attributions. Furthermore, both attributions and motivation orientations were significant determinants of achievement. Motivation orientations were stronger predictors, but attributions explained significant variance after the motivation orientations were taken into consideration (McClure et al., 2011, p.71). These empirical observations confirm the schema of attribution theory that posits the dependence of behaviour on person and environment forces. Therefore, the prediction of behaviour implies a forward inference from information about these two aspects (Anderson, 2014, p.166).

Attribution theory suggests that motivation and behaviour to a great extent depend on the attributions that people make as to the causes of the failures and successes. With application to students, they often ask themselves why they performed well or poorly on a particular task. Future behaviour on similar tasks depends on the answer to this question (Bear, 2010, p.113). In this regard, the concept of dispositional praise can be figured out. Dispositional praise implies that people are praised for the dispositions that are relatively stable and to which these people are encouraged to attribute their behaviour (Bear, 2010, p.113). By contrast, situational attribution is related to external attribution. At the same time, mood may affect achievement attributions. Empirical findings of Forgas and Bower (1990, p.809) showed that dysphoric mood implies self-critical attributions, while happy mood led to self-enhancing attributions. These observations demonstrated that praise could have positive effects only when praise was associated with an individual’s views on her or his believes in the abilities (Forgas and Bower, 1990, p.809).

Conclusion

The paper shows that attribution theory can explain the benefits and pitfalls of praise. Attribution is determined as the explanation that an individual attaches to own behaviour and the behaviour of others. Praise can positively affect the effort of an individual when it is relevant for the situation. Nevertheless, there are numerous dimensions that may reverse the effects of praise. Empirical findings showed that both individual-specific and environment-specific characteristics determined the effects of praise. The individual-specific characteristics include age and gender, while environment-specific characteristics are related to culture and situation. Furthermore, praise can have various effects depending on the contents of praise, as effort praise and talent praise affected people differently. The study implies the necessity to take into consideration different factors when it is required to determine the effects of praise.

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