But hadn�t the conclusion that vacuous praise can lead to fear of failure been widely accepted by psychologists decades ago?
Yes, but the more interesting point is that there's reason to think that it's not just "vacuous" praise that can be counter-productive, but any praise. In fact, I've read criticism of the experiment mentioned in the article, or one very like it, which pointed out that they should have had a control group of children who were not praised in any way, neither for intelligence nor for effort. People tend to think at least one of:
(a) it's fine to praise provided there's genuinely something impressive to praise; or
(b) that praising a child for effort is beneficial even if praising them for intelligence isn't.
As I understand it, the evidence isn't there to support either idea. The counter-theory is that
any praise lowers the child's intrinsic motivation for the activity (e.g., making them less likely to choose the activity next time they have a genuinely free choice, which they expect to be unrewarded by praise). Buying this idea really requires a fundamental reorganisation of how to relate to children! I think it's a complicated area, and the research is certainly confusing at times and more needs to be done. I do think that every parent ought to read Alfie Kohn's book "Punished by Rewards", and no, I'm not his alias nor his publisher :-)
