[3] Praise is distinct from acknowledgement or feedback (more neutral forms of recognition) and from encouragement (expressedly future-oriented).
The concept of praise as a means of behavioral reinforcement is rooted in B.F. Skinner's model of operant conditioning.
[11][12] The strategic use of praise is recognized as an evidence-based practice in both classroom management[11] and parenting training interventions,[7] though praise is often subsumed in intervention research into a larger category of positive reinforcement, which includes strategies such as strategic attention and behavioral rewards.
[13] Praise may have cognitive influences on an individual, by attracting attention to the self, or by conveying information about the values and expectations of the praiser to the recipient.
In one camp, praise is thought to decrease intrinsic motivation by increasing the presence of external control.
[16] Over the past several decades, researchers have distinguished between praise for a person's general abilities and qualities (e.g., "You're such a good drawer.")
[2] Traditionally, person(trait)-oriented praise was thought to instill a child's belief that they have the capacity to succeed, and thus help motivate them to learn.
[18] However, social-cognitive theorists have more recently suggested that person-oriented (as opposed to process-oriented) praise may have detrimental impacts on a child's self-perceptions, motivation and learning.
[17] For example, praising children for their personal attributes, rather than specifics about their performance, may teach them to make inferences about their global worth,[19] and may thus undermine their intrinsic motivation.
Henderlong and Lepper[2] suggest that person-oriented praise may function like tangible rewards, in that they produce desired outcomes in the short-run, but may undermine intrinsic motivation and subsequent perseverance.
Proponents of cognitive evaluation theory (Deci & Ryan[15][24]) have focused on two aspects of praise thought to influence a child's self-determination: information and control.
For example, Pittman and colleagues[26] found that adults demonstrated more free-choice engagement with a task after receiving informational ("e.g., "Compared to most of my subjects, you're doing really well.
Though these studies demonstrate the possible positive influence of social-comparison praise, they have been criticized for inadequate control groups.
[33] Beyond methodology, the primary criticism to social-comparison praise is that it teaches children to evaluate themselves on the basis of the performance of others, and may therefore lead to maladaptive coping in situations in which one is outperformed by others individuals.
[15] Contrastingly, it is suggested that praise that focused on a child's competence (mastery) rather than social comparison may be important for fostering motivation.
Thus, mastery praise may be more conducive than social-comparison to fostering intrinsic motivation, particularly for females,[33] though more research is needed to tease apart these relationships.
The words are also applied to objects, sights and sounds and whatever can be heard about and thought about, such as an institution, an achievement or failure, or a virtuous or vicious action; kalos expresses a favourable reaction (‘admirable’, ‘creditable’, ‘honourable’) and aischros an unfavour-able reaction (‘disgraceful’, ‘repulsive’, ‘contemptible’).
[37]Dover states there is a distinction of aesthetic and the moral senses of the term; "It must be emphasized that the Greeks did not call a person ‘beautiful’ by virtue of that person's morals, intelligence, ability or temperament, but solely by virtue of shape, colour, texture and movement".
Some posit that younger children do not experience the negative effects of certain types of praise because they do not yet make causal attributions in complex ways,[40] and they are more literal in their interpretations of adult speech.
[43] Gender differences may be attributable to normative socialization practices, in which people generally emphasize dependence and interpersonal relationships for girls, but achievement and independence for boys.