Children's Implicit Beliefs About Intelligence

Young children are commonly perceived as highly optimistic and confident, and therefore seldom arouse concern as to how they are impacted by academic failure. However, there is evidence to suggest that young children can indeed be negatively affected by failure experiences. Implicit theories of intelligence can provide individuals with a framework by which to perceive failure, though little is known about when these theories begin to develop. The current study explores whether children as young as three and a half to four years of age demonstrate patterns indicative of incremental or entity theories of intelligence as a response to challenge following failure. Children worked on a series of puzzles, some of which were impossible to solve. Children then chose puzzles to do again and provided reasons for their choices. Procedures were adapted from Smiley and Dweck (1994), with an added feedback condition of effort or ability. Descriptive comparisons confirmed the hypotheses that children would differ in their approach to challenge following failure; children who chose to approach challenge more often chose insoluble puzzles and those who avoided challenge more often chose soluble puzzles. In addition, challenge approach children expressed less performance concern, negative self-evaluation, and disengagement than children who avoided challenge. Finally, children who received ability related feedback more often chose soluble puzzles than those who received effort feedback. This study suggests that even at three and half years old, children react differently to achievement related information. It is possible that at this time, children are in the process of developing implicit theories of intelligence that could direct their future cognitions, affect, and behavior in the classroom. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, for taking me under her wing in my second semester here and providing continued mentoring and support throughout my program. I also want to thank Dr. Roger Bruning for taking time out of his summer to be my second reader. Lastly, I'd like to thank Amanda Prokasky, program coordinator on the Toddler Sleep Study, for her tireless recruitment, without which my study would not have been possible.