Intersting childhood psychology

[general_kill]

I read one of my friend's psychology projects on childhood development yesterday and I thought his findings were pretty interesting. I thought his finding was pretty unconventional and counter intuitive. I'll tell you guys roughly what his find was in a spoiler box at the end but try doing this questionnaire honestly before you see the result:

How frequently were you praised as a child?

1 – Never
2 – Rarely
3 – Occasionally
4 – Sometimes
5 – Fairly often
6 – Frequently
7 – All the time

How frequently were you criticized as a child?

1 – Never
2 – Rarely
3 – Occasionally
4 – Sometimes
5 – Fairly often
6 – Frequently
7 – All the time

How do you feel about your self-image?

1 – Extremely negative
2 – Very negative
3 – Somewhat negative
4 – Indifferent
5 – Somewhat positive
6 – Very positive
7 – Extreme positive

How driven/ambitious do are you?

1 – Not ambitious
2 –
3 –
4 –
5 –
6 –
7 – Very Ambitious

How confident are you in your abilities?

1 – No confidence
2 –
3 –
4 – Somewhat confident
5 –
6 –
7 – Very confident

Spoiler :

He found that children who were praised more as a child grow up to have less ambition and confidence as an adult. And that children who were moderately criticized were the most ambitious adults. Of course this is mere correlation and causation cannot be proved from this alone but it was interesting nontheless.

So what do you guys think?

 

[flyingchicken]

When reality comes crashing down, so does confidence?

 

[general_kill]

When reality comes crashing down, so does confidence?

Would you mind doing the questionnaire? I'd really like to see if the conclusions are actually true. But that's why I asked people to do it before they saw the findings

 

[Synobun]

It wasn't true with me, because there is no way to get an exact psychological description of everybody... because, we are all different.

 

[Tee Kay]

I was praised fairly often, criticized frequently. I'd say have little or no confidence in myself and anything I do (except on the internet, which is why I'm posting this), although I'd say I'm moderately ambitious. My self image used to be 1 (extremely negative) and now varies between 2 - 4, depending on events around me.

It would make sense if children who were praised too often grow up to have less ambition since for them they're good the way they are and feel less need to strive to become better, and children who were criticized (not too much) would feel the need to improve themselves more. This is all generalization though since we're all different as dhighland said. I don't think it's true for me either. I'd say the opposite is true - being praised made me more ambitious, although I'm probably a depressive in which case my mind doesn't work normally.

 

[Mise]

It didn't work for me. My answers were 5,3,3,5,7.

 

[Ecofarm]

5, 2, 7, 4, 7

Not true for me.

Perhaps it's because I deserved the praise I got. It may be more about deserving the praise or criticism than how much you receive of either.

 

[emzie]

Kinda perked my interest. Though my lack of drive has to do with other things I bet.


4, 5, 6, 4, 3

 

[Lone Wolf]

4, 3, 3, 3, 4.

 

[Brighteye]

2,3,4,6,7
1 and 5 took a ride together.

 

[Mark1031]

5,3,6,6,7

Unrealistic praise just sets up false expectations that ultimately can't be met. It seems like a logical result.

 

[Godwynn]

How frequently were you praised as a child?

3 – Occasionally

How frequently were you criticized as a child?

4 – Sometimes

How do you feel about your self-image?

6 – Very positive

How driven/ambitious do are you?

7 – Very Ambitious

How confident are you in your abilities?

7 – Very confident

 

[Dachs]

My ambition and my confidence in my abilities aren't the same number at all.

 

[Mirc]

6-3-6-7-7 for me.

 

[Phlegmak]

The conclusion is correct for me. I have low confidence and low ambition, and was praised often as a child, and criticized almost never. Well, almost never by authority figures. Criticized very often by peers. Actually, in my case, I guess my confidence isn't quite so bad, but my ambition definitely is.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

How frequently were you praised as a child?

6 – Frequently

How frequently were you criticized as a child?

2 – Rarely (pretty much never for the quality of what I did, just for laziness/procrastination/unwillingness to try new things or socialize)

How do you feel about your self-image?

3 – Somewhat negative

How driven/ambitious do are you?

2 –

How confident are you in your abilities?

5 –

I've always been my own harshest critic. I tend to find praise rather shallow, and always prefer specific, detailed, constructive criticism. I tend to be extremely perfectionistic, and often put things off so long I don't get them done at all or don't turn anything in despite working on or stressing over it for a long time. Giving up often seems easier. I've let a lot of opportunity pass me by, and don't have a lot of experience to draw upon even in areas where I think I'm naturally pretty good. I'm usually smarter and more talented than my peers, but have a lot of difficulty getting started and find making decisions arbitrarily almost impossible. I'm not that driven, and don't like the stress of competition. People in elementary, middle, and high school would always compete with me, and usually loose without me every trying.

 

[aelf]

6-6-6

I'm a


PS: I just don't think there is any general trend.

 

[Zulu Impi]

5, 5, 6, 7, 7 I think you need to balance out the criticism and praise as too much praise and they'll be fragile and over confident too much criticism and it just becomes mean.
But a good balance worked for me as I am definitely ambitious and have a good sense of self image.

 

[Narz]

I think undeserved praise is worse than honest criticism.

If you're always like "ooh, honey, that's great, no leave me alone so I can't get drunk with your 2nd step dad" you'd be better off being critical.

I think more important than praise or criticism is the effort put into either & the intent behind both.