Gunderson et al

• Gunderson et al (2013)


  Aim- To investigate how the kind of praise given to a child can impact or predict the kind of motivational framework that a child may have.

  Sample- 53 children from Chicago from a sample of 63 families. This represented the demographics of Chicago.

  Naturalistic study

  Participants visited at 14 months, 26 months and 38 months for 90 minute recordings, double blind study, the speech was transcribed and encoded. Later (7-8 years later) participants were given verbal questionnaires.
• Gunderson calls growth mindsets 'incremental motivational frameworks'.
• Gunderson calls fixed mindsets 'entity motivational frameworks'
• Gunderson results

  Process praise was 0.59% of all utterances and 18% of all praise utterances. Person praise was 0.45% of total utterances and 16% of all praise utterances. Other praise was 97% of all utterances and 66% of praise utterances.
• Gunderson conclusions

  • Process praise was linked to an incremental motivational framework
  • There was no link between person praise and entity motivational framework.
  • Boys received more process praise than girls.
  • Boys tended to have more of an incremental framework than girls.
• Gunderson strengths

  • Reliable due to the double blind aspect
  • Sample was diverse so it's generalisable.
  • Naturalistic so it had ecological validity.
• Gunderson weaknesses

  • Could be regarded as unethical due to the double blind
  • Longitudinal study so was time consuming and expensive
  • Questionnaires are limiting as they're self reporting and so could show demand characteristics.