1. Discuss the relationship
between the child’s sense of selfefficacy and cognitive
development.
HD FS 631: Learning &
Cognitive Development
•How might overestimations of ability
contribute to the child’s later cognitive
performance?
•How do individual differences in self efficacy influence children’s behavior?
Social Cognition
November 4, 2002
1
2
2. Describe the development of a
child’s sense of self.
3. Describe the development of
gender identity.
•Include a description of research
methods used to determine sense
of self.
•In what ways does the child’s
understanding of gender concepts
influence his/her social/play
behavior.
3
Dominant Theorists
•
•
•
•
4
Theories of Perceived Control
Rotter (Locus of Control)
Seligman (Learned Helplessness)
Bandura (Self-Efficacy)
Weiner (Causal Attributions)
Areas Addressed:
• Regulative Beliefs
• Actions
• Outcomes
• Perceptions
• Interpretations
• Consequences
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6
1
Actions
Locus of Control:
Learned
Helplessness:
Self-Efficacy:
Outcomes
• Effort, Intensity,
Persistence, Response
Initiation
• Motivational Deficit
• Effort, Anxiety, Intensity,
Response Inflation
Causal Attributions: • Effort, Persistence,
Response Inflation
7
Locus of Control:
• Success or Failure
Learned
Helplessness:
• Contingency:
Failure or bad outcome
Self-Efficacy:
• Performance,
Accomplishments
Causal Attributions:
• Failure or Unexpected
Success
Interpretations
Consequences
Locus of Control:
Learned
Helplessness:
• Outcome contingent on
effort
• Attributions:
Internal/External
Stable/Unstable
Global/Specific
•
Cognitive Appraisal
Self-Efficacy:
•
Causal Attributions: Attributions:
Internal/External
Stable/Unstable
Controllable/Uncontrollable
Locus of Control:
9
Learned
Helplessness:
• Cognitive Deficit
Affective Deficit
Self-Esteem: Chronic,
pervasive
Self-Efficacy:
• Self Efficacy
Causal Attributions: • Expectancy Shifts
Means
E. Skinner
Strategy
Beliefs
Control
Beliefs
Ends
11
Capacities
Strategies
Means-Ends Unknown
Agent
10
Measuring Control, Strategy, and Capacity
Beliefs: Academic Domain
Three kinds of Beliefs
Capacity
Beliefs
8
I know what it
takes to do well
and avoid failure
in school.
I don’t
know
Effort
Powerful
Ability Others
I have to
try hard
I must
be smart
I can
try hard
I am
smart
Agent-Means
I have what it
takes to do well
and avoid failure
in school
Luck
For me to
do well, the
teacher must
like me
It takes
luck
I can get
the teacher
to like me
I am
lucky
E. Skinner
12
2
Development of
Competence System
Control
Beliefs
Action
Perceived
Control
Performance
Engagement
Motivation
Attributions
Control
Beliefs
Correct
Effort
Ability
Unknown
Perceived
Luck
Perceived
Performance
Control
Performance
Task Difficulty
Coping
Effect of Praise on Learning
Error
Effort
Ability
Unknown
Luck
Anxiety
Mediational Variables
13
Good & Brophy:
Praise NOT an Effective Reinforcer of
Learning
Ineffective Praise
• Pleases Others: “I like the way...”
• Comparative: “You’re the best…”
• Vague “Nice Job”
Effective Praise
• Relates Effort to Outcomes
Facilitating Positive Capacity,
Strategy, & Beliefs
14
Context & Competence
Adult Roles
• Expectation
Regulative Function
Interpretive Function
– “You can…”
Strategy
Beliefs
• Contingency
– “Let’s just use these.”
Control
Beliefs
• Help
Action
Capacity
Beliefs
– “Maybe if you touch each one as you
count…”
Expectations Contingency Help
• Translation of Outcomes
15
– “You worked hard and you did it!”
Control
Beliefs
Outcomes
Context
Skinner
Translation
of Outcomes
16
Development of
Perceived Control
Age Differences in Strategy
Beliefs
3.5
Before 8 years
9 & 10 years
11 & 12 years
Means-Ends Beliefs
3.25
3
Effort
2.75
Ability
2.5
Effort =
Ability =
Luck =
Chance =
Unknown
2.25
Powerful Others
2
Luck
1.75
Unknown
source
Effort =
Ability
High
Academic Achievement
Powerful Others
Luck
Low
Academic Achievement
1.5
7's
8's
9's
Age
Skinner, 1991
10's
11's
12's
17
Low
Academic Achievement
Low
Academic Achievement
18
3
Ease of Change
Low ------------------------- High
How easily can adults alter the
child’s perceived control?
Influences on Motivational
Beliefs in Young Children:
A Longitudinal
Study
Susan
Hegland & Karen
Colbert
5's
7's
9's
11's
13's
Age
19
Department of Human Development & Family Studies
Paper Presented to the Society for Research in Child
Development
Minneapolis, Minnesota
April 2001
20
Summary
Background
• Motivation is a cognitive mediational variable
• Nearly all children believed
– Constructed by the child through success/failure
experiences
– Influenced by adults who interact with him/her
– Influences subsequent efforts in similar activities
– Working hard is the best way to get good grades
– They can work really hard in school
• Little variance in promoting control beliefs
• Children’s undermining control beliefs in third
grade predicted by:
–
–
–
–
• Skinner (1995): Children
– Show developmental changes in motivational beliefs
– Change their understanding of the roles that academic
outcomes result from:
Kindergarten language skills
Parenting responsiveness
Second grade mathematical problem solving
R 2 = .39
21
Background
luck,
effort,
ability
unknown factors
22
Participants
• Motivational beliefs reflect children’s
– Beliefs in the effectiveness of each strategy
– Beliefs in own capacity to use each strategy successfully
• Child exerts effort in the classroom depending on
belief in the
• 157 families and their children
• Predominately lower income sample:
– 90%: below 200% of poverty guidelines
– 56%: single parent families
– 50%: below 100% of poverty
– 35%: reported being depressed
– Effectiveness of the strategy
– His/her capacity for such effort
– 17%: four or more children in household
– 14%: moved more than once annually
• Study purpose:
– Assess the parenting, teaching, and cognitive
contributors to children’s motivational beliefs in third
grade
•
•
•
•
– 13%: less than high school diploma
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24
4
Parent Measures
Child Measures
Academic Achievement (kindergarten; 2nd grade)
•
• Father presence
• Parent education
Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Psycho-Educational Development
– Reading (Rasch, or W-ability scores)
– Mathematics (Rasch, or W -ability scores)
•
–
–
–
–
Language: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
Social Skills (3rd grade)
– Social Skills Rating Scale (Gresham & Elliott, 1990) (Teacher
ratings; raw scores)
• Parenting Dimensions Inventory (Slater & Power,
1987)
Motivational Beliefs (3rd grade)
•
Less than high school diploma (13%)
High school diploma or GED (35%)
Some college (37%)
AA or higher degree (15%)
Student Perception of Control: Academic Domain (Skinner, 1995)
– Promoting Engagement Beliefs (α = .30)
– Undermining Engagement Beliefs (α = .67)
25
– Nurturance subscale (α = .75)
“My child and I have warm, intimate moments together.”
– Responsiveness subscale (α = .68)
26
“I encourage my child to express his/her opinions.”
Undermining Control
Beliefs Scale (α = .76)
Results
Statement
• 90% of children labeled “very true”:
I’m not very smart when it comes to schoolwork.
– “The best way for me to get good grades is to work
hard.”
– “I can work really hard in school.”
• Two scales:
– Promoting control beliefs (α = .30)
– Undermining control beliefs (α = .76)
• Only 20% children stated that majority of
undermining control statements were usually or
very true for them
• Gender unrelated to undermining beliefs scores 27
Predictors of undermining
beliefs (R2 = .39)
Family
Parent
Education
Responsiveness
Father
present
Nurturance
Problem
solving
Problem
solving
Teacher
Kindergarten
Second Grade
I can’t seem to try very hard in school.
Capacity Effort
To do well in school, I have to be lucky.
Strategy Luck
I am unlucky at my schoolwork.
Capacity Luck
I don’ t know what it takes for me to get good
Strategy Unknown
grades.
I won’t do well in school if the teacher doesn’t like Strategy Others
me.
Skinner, 1995
28
Discussion
β =-
– Language skills (kdg)
– Math skills (2nd grade)
– Parent responsiveness
-.1
7*
Reading
Child
Type
• Best predictors of undermining control beliefs:
β=
β = -.30**
Language
Belief
Capacity Ability
Control
Beliefs
.23*
Academic
rating
Third Grade
29
• Results consistent with evidence that beliefs
develop for academic failure earlier than do beliefs
about academic success
• Beliefs on academic success may buffer child
from failures
• Undermining control beliefs are predictive of future
30
academic performance
5
Strategy Beliefs in Three Math
Achievement Groups (N = 147)
4.00
Susan Hegland & Karen Colbert
Paper Presented to the American Educational Research
Association
April 2000
Mean Item Responses
3.50
Motivational Beliefs and
Academic Performance
3.00
Low
Middle
High
NS
NS
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
Effort
31
Ability
Others
Unknown
Luck
32
Means
Negative Capacity Beliefs in
Three Math Achievement
Groups
Predictors of
math problem solving (R2 = .56)
Mean Item Responses
4.00
Parent
Education
Low
3.50
Middle
3.00
Family
High
2.50
Father
present
2.00
Child
1.50
Problem
solving
β = +.12*
β=
Effort
Ability
Others
Luck
Means
33
Kindergarten
Motivational Beliefs and
Academic Performance
Early
Math Problem
Solving
*
β=
***
.27
Third Grade
34
Next Week
Research articles:
Early
Language
Skills
Parent
Responsiveness
2**
Control
Beliefs
1.00
Internal
+ .5
Problem
solving
• Kuklinski & Weinstein
Reading
Skills
Intelligence
Undermining
Control Beliefs
Math
Problem
Solving
35
36
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