The Inverse Power Of Praise Book Review

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Hello, this is Alanna Argudo, and I will be discussing Chapter 1 The Inverse Power of Praise from Nurtureshock written by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. The Inverse Power of Praise explains that new research suggests that actually telling your child they're special will ruin their chances at succeeding at subjects they struggle with because they refuse to even try if they believe they will fail.

For example, Thomas, a 5th grader at the competitive Anderson School in New York City, has been told nearly all his life that he is brilliant. He has been told not only by his parents but also by the adults around him as well. However, now that he is aware of his brilliance, he is afraid of failure and disappointment, instead of having this tremendous self-confidence. His father has even said, quote "Thomas didn't want to try things he wouldn't be successful at...Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn't, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, 'I'm not good at this,'" unquote. He will sometimes refuse outright to do his homework …show more content…

Praise of intelligence had backfired. Dr. Dweck had suspected this would happen. She explained that quote, "Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control...They come to see themselves in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to failure," unquote. Children who believe intelligence is the key to success discredit effort and don't seem to understand its importance. When labeled "smart," kids think, "I'm smart, I don't need to put effort." Dr. Dweck repeated her experiments on different groups of students, and results were the same, regardless of socioeconomic status, age, or gender. Preschoolers even showed the same

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