Are students’ math and verbal motivational beliefs malleable? The role of praise in dimensional comparisons

To determine their academic strengths and weaknesses, students compare their own performance across domains (e.g., math vs. English), a process referred to as dimensional comparisons. For example, individuals’ higher-scoring English performance may negatively affect their math motivational beliefs (competence self-concepts and intrinsic values), resulting in favoritism toward English. Students’ motivation can also be affected by praise from adults. However, praise in one domain (e.g., English) may have unexpected negative effects on motivation in the contrasting domain (e.g., math) through dimensional comparisons. We experimentally investigated the impact of receiving praise in only one domain on students’ domain-specific motivational beliefs. We hypothesized that students would have higher motivational beliefs in the praised domain and lower motivational beliefs in the non-praised domain compared with students who received no praise. Seventh- to ninth-graders (10- to 15-year-olds; N = 108; 46 girls; 92 living in the United States; 84.8% White, 2.9% Asian or Asian American, 2.9% Black or African American, 9.5% multiple races; parents’ education range: 13–18 years) showed heightened verbal competence self-concepts after receiving praise on either verbal or math performance. College students (first to fifth year; N = 109; 89 women; 105 living in the United States; 58.9% White, 21.5% Asian or Asian American, 10.3% Black or African American, 5.6% multiple races, 3.7% other races) showed higher verbal intrinsic values after receiving praise on verbal performance. Results supported positive effects of praise in the verbal domain only and were inconsistent with the predicted negative effects on the non-praised domain. We suggest that students’ verbal motivational beliefs are more malleable than math beliefs when receiving disproportionate praise.