Korean American Preschoolers' Motivational Helplessness and Its Associations With Beliefs About Goodness/Badness.

Lee, Kyung Hee

Abstract. Until recently, researchers believed that young children were not vulnerable to maladaptive ("helpless") responses to failure. However, Heyman, Dweck, and Cain (1992) showed that a sizable proportion of young children did, in fact, exhibit helpless responses (e.g., self-blame, negative affect, and non-constructive coping in response to failure). Moreover, such children, compared to more "mastery-oriented" children, believed that failure meant they were bad and that badness was a stable trait. A major purpose of the present study was to see whether the two patterns, "mastery-oriented" or "helpless," would be revealed in Korean American samples, and whether these motivational patterns would be associated with general beliefs about goodness/badness. One hundred fifty-three KoreanAmerican kindergarten children (ages 5 to 6 years old) participated as subjects. The findings were that 1) KoreanAmerican children revealed more vulnerabilities in the face of negative feedback, and 2) they had more global, stable, and adult-oriented general beliefs about goodness, regardless of motivational patterns. Differences were discussed in terms of different cultural contexts.

Recently, American children around the age of 5 and 6 have been shown to exhibit two motivational responses to failure, either "helpless" or "mastery-oriented" (Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992; Smiley & Dweck, 1994), both of which were once believed to only affect children older than age 9 (Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980; Dweck, 1991; Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Parsons & Ruble, 1977). The helpless pattern is characterized by the child's decreasing expectations for his/her performance, the experiencing of negative affect, the avoidance of challenging tasks, and the making of negative judgments about the self. The mastery-oriented pattern, in contrast, involves experiencing more positive affect during challenging tasks, maintaining on-task performance, and enhancing positive self-judgments.

Previous research on older children (Erdley & Dweck, 1993; Nicholls, 1978; Stipek & Hoffman, 1980) suggests that children of the helpless pattern viewed their difficulties as indicative of failures or low ability and further effort as insurmountable. These children tended to demonstrate the "entity theory of intelligence": they believed that intelligence is a fixed or uncontrollable trait. Compared to this, mastery-oriented children appeared to view "failures" as challenges to be mastered through effort, and to not think or feel that they were failing at a task. These children favored an "incremental theory of intelligence," in which intelligence is a malleable, increasable, controllable quality.

This linkage was not widely accepted, however, for children below the age of 6. The younger children did not seem to exhibit patterns of helplessness or mastery-orientation, which older children revealed in many situations. Younger children, it was reasoned, do not yet understand ability in the sense of a fixed quantity (Nicholls, 1978; Nicholls & Miller, 1984; Stipek & Maclver, 1989) and, therefore, will not see failure as a reflection of a fixed trait and will not fall into a helpless pattern. For example, younger children tend to expect their performance to be higher than older children do (Parsons & Ruble, 1977; Stipek, 1984; Stipek & Hoffman, 1980). Indeed, it has been argued that young children may not even have a clear idea of what intelligence is, nor that they are vulnerable to helpless reactions in the face of failure (Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Stipek & MacIver, 1989).

Recently, however, a series of studies (Cain & Dweck, 1995; Erdley, Cain, Loomis, Dumas-Hines, & Dweck, 1997; Heyman & Dweck, 1998; Heyman et al., 1992; Smiley & Dweck, 1994) has revealed that a sizable proportion of preschoolers and kindergartners showed the following aspects of the helpless pattern when they encountered salient failure or criticism on tasks that were meaningful to them: negative self-judgment, lowered expectancies, negative affect, and decreased persistence. Some young children, just as some older helpless children do, showed patterns of experiencing negative affect, engaging in negative self-cognition, and giving up easily, while others, just as older mastery-oriented children do, revealed patterns of displaying positive affect and of actively engaging in problem-solving.

In contrast to older children, moreover, Heyman et al. (1992) suggested that the motivational patterns of these young children were closely related to their own implicit theories about "goodness" and "badness." In other words, while older children used information from the achievement domain to figure out how "smart" or "dumb" they were, younger children used the same information to reflect on how "good" or "bad" they were. Accordingly, when faced with negative feedback or failure that is motivationally relevant and salient to them, young children with helpless responses tended to blame their failure on their overall level of goodness and viewed the obstacles as stable and global characteristics of themselves. For example, when asked how they inferred or judged another's specific "bad/good" behavior, the young children who revealed helpless patterns made more stable and global inferences from one specific situation. In contrast, young children giving mastery-oriented reactions did not believe in stable goodness/badness, and instead focused more on effort when encountering obstacles.

This finding, however, raises some important questions, especially within the context of a cross-cultural study, because concepts of right or wrong and good or bad are basic to socialization and depend on cultural codes and contexts that are not universal entities, but rather are bound up with sociocultural factors such as history, culture, family values and personal experiences (Edwards, 1987; Snarey, 1985; Song, Smetana, & Kim, 1987). One logical question can be asked: Does social context make a difference in young children's conceptions of "goodness and badness" and/or their motivational patterns? It may well be the case, since behaviors are judged to be acceptable or not within a cultural context and are formulated through culturalization. For example, some children live in a social context in which "good" behavior is considered being thoughtful but not talkative, whereas others live in a social context that encourages being assertive and outspoken (De Vos & Suarez-Orozco, 1986). Similarly, some children live in an educational environment in which mistakes in class are frowned upon, whereas others live in an educational environment that encourages experimentation and considers mistakes to be an essential tool for learning.

The purpose of the present research was to investigate whether different sociocultural backgrounds result in different implicit theories of traits, and whether they make any differences in children's motivational behaviors, especially with regard to negative feedback. To perform this task, young Korean American children were selected and examined for their patterns of reactions associated with helplessness in the context of their perceptions of goodness and badness. Although the Korean American population has increased remarkably in the United States, very little is known about them (Farver, Kim, & Lee, 1995). Moreover, because of a focus on European American children, Asian American children, and particularly Korean American children, have been practically neglected by psychological research. Therefore, in attempting to generalize about what is typical children's behavior, researchers frequently have misinterpreted cultural and ethnic differences observed in children as signs of deficiency rather than variation.

The present study of Korean American children's motivational behaviors examined the influence of culture on children's early development, and how culture shapes and organizes the environments in which children's motivations take place. The findings on Korean American children were compared to findings on European American children, which were investigated by Heyman et al. (1992). More specifically, the goals of this study were three-fold:

First, the study was designed to determine whether the patterns suggested by Heyman et al. (1992) would emerge in young Korean American children. Are the two motivational patterns--mastery-orientation and helplessness--present in the face of negative outcomes in Korean American children as well as in European American children? Would young Korean American children show similar affective reactions and make similar types of self-evaluations that have been associated with helplessness? It was hypothesized that Korean American children would exhibit different patterns of motivational responses.

Second, this study investigated the relationship between motivational responses and belief of goodness in Korean American children. Does the belief of goodness serve as a universal indicator for young children's achievement motivation? Previous research has suggested that Korean children develop an understanding of moral transgressions more clearly and earlier than Western children (Song et al., 1987). Other research indicated that Asians tend to experience greater anxiety and guilt over negative outcomes (Zane, Sue, Hu, & Kwon, 1991). Does this earlier moral development of feelings of guilt or anxiety over criticism make them more vulnerable to negative criticism and cause them to infer different associations between motivational responses and beliefs about goodness? It was hypothesized that Korean American children, regardless of motivational patterns, would reveal more global, stable, and adult-oriented beliefs about goodness.

Third, young Korean American children's motivational responses and concepts of goodness were compared to European American children, based on Heyman et al.'s (1992) study. It was hypothesized that, compared to European American children, Korean American children would show more negative affect and lower self-judgment and would hold more global, stable, and adult-oriented beliefs about goodness.

The subjects participating in the following research were 153 Korean American children, age 5-6, who lived in New York. Typically, their families had been at a middle-class occupational level in Korea but had dropped to working-class status since immigrating to the United States (Kim, 1993; Rohner, 1992). According to a survey conducted by the Korean Overseas Information Service (1995) and by the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (1999), their median income was more than $32,000 and most mothers (83%) had a high school education. Although the young Korean American children in the sample had been exposed to Western culture, they had not completely assimilated Western values (Park, 1995; Yum, 1988). Unlike other ethnic communities, Korean Americans maintained the cultural ethos of Korea, although they lived in America. Empirical research (Harris-Hastick, 1990, 1996; Hurh & Kim, 1984; Kim, 1991; Patterson & Kim, 1992) showed that Korean immigrants have maintained their own culture by "adhesive adaptation"; that is, aspects of the new host society are added onto the immigrants' traditional culture without replacing or modifying any significant part of the former. Therefore, the results of this study have some implications to draw upon as to how young Korean American children form beliefs and social behaviors differently from

European American children, possibly due to cultural differences.

Korean society is guided by traditional Confucian ethics. Loyalty to the ruling class, respect for elders, obedience to parents, courtesy in human relationships, and duty to community over individual rights are all Confucian maxims that regulate individual behavior in Korean society. Thus, Korean culture has been characterized as more traditional, conforming, authoritarian, and status-oriented than Western culture (Goldern, 1990; Park, 1995; Park & Johnson, 1984; Stewart, 1993). As indicated by previous research, this social context might cause the concept of goodness to develop differently in Korean culture than in American culture, and enhance or diminish an individual's ability to cope with criticism and other negative outcomes.

Method

Subjects

Subjects in this present study were 153 five-and six-year-old Korean American kindergartners (93 boys and 60 girls) who had less than one year of regular school experiences and were born to Korean American parents. Subjects (living in New York) were drawn from one summer school and two after-school programs in Queens, and one after-school and one Saturday school in the Bronx. All five schools were taught mostly by Korean teachers (90%) and consisted mostly of Korean American children (98%). Children attended after-school programs that featured, in part, extracurricular activities. One summer school and one Saturday school were full-day schools designed to teach Korean language and history. A consent form was given to all parents to obtain permission for their children's participation in the study. Of the 203 who met the above criteria, the parents of 32 children (15%) did not consent to have their children participate in the study. Among 171 children who had the consent of their parents, 23 were withdrawn from the study due to absences, and 5 were dropped due to incomplete answers. The final sample consisted of 153 subjects.

Procedure

The children were interviewed individually by the experimenter at their school settings. Prior to running the actual experiment, the researcher spent at least two half-days in each of the schools becoming familiar with the children. The interviews lasted a maximum of3O minutes so as not to interfere with school activities. First, children were asked questions on their general beliefs about goodness. Second, the experimenter read a story in which a child (a girl, if the interviewee was a girl; a boy, if the interviewee was a boy) makes a mistake in a drawing he or she is doing. Then, the children were asked to rate their product rating, affects, and self-ratings. Third, the experimenter read the story again but added a paragraph at the end in which the child's teacher criticizes the drawing. Following this reading, the children responded to the same series of questions related to their product rating, affects, and self-ratings. To elicit meaningful responses, a special procedure was devised. First, the researc her asked questions through role-playing, using toy figures (Mize & Ladd, 1988). Second, the children engaged in drawing, and negative feedback was stated by the researcher again using the toy figures.

Measures

General beliefs about goodness. To assess their general beliefs about goodness, children were asked three questions: To examine whether children would hold "global" beliefs about goodness, the experimenter stated, "Imagine a new boy is in your class. You look over at his schoolwork and see that he got lots and lots wrong and that the teacher has drawn a big frown on his paper. Does this mean that he is bad?" Next, to diagnose whether children tended to see patterns of misbehavior as likely to persist over time (stable goodness), they were asked: "Imagine a new boy is in your class. He steals your crayons, scribbles on your paper, and spills your juice. Then he teases you and calls you names. Do you think this new boy will always act this way?" Finally, to test whether the children tended to make a negative assessment oriented to self, as compared to adults, the children were asked: "You are having fun listening to some new music you really like. You tell your father, 'I really like that music.' Your father says, 'I don't like that music one bit.' Who is right?"

Each of the three general beliefs was scored either 0 or 1: 0 for negative assessment and 1 for positive assessment. Children were given a score of 0 if they made a negative assessment of other children as a result of an instance of poor academic performance, if they tended to see patterns of misbehavior as likely to persist over time, or if they tended to accept adults' opinions as being more valid than children's opinions. Mean (M) and Standard Deviation (SD) (range) for the beliefs of global, stable, and adult-oriented beliefs were 0.31 and 0.49(0 to 1), 0.38 and 0.49(0 to 1), and 0.89 and 0.49 (0 to 1), respectively.

Story A and Story B. After the experimenter finished reading Story A (without criticism) and B (with teacher criticism), the children's product rating, affect, and self-rating were measured. The following is the text of Story A:

You spend a lot of time painting a picture of a family to give to your teacher. You pick out colors you think are nice and carefully draw each person. As you are about to give it to your teacher, you say to yourself, "Uh, oh, one of the kids has no feet." But you worked really hard on the picture and want to give it to her. You say, "Teacher, here's a picture for you."

Story B repeats Story A, but ends with the teacher responding as follows:

"There are no feet on that child. That's not what I call drawing people the right way. I'm disappointed in you."

Product-rating. After Story A, the children were asked to rank what they had done on a scale from 1 (a big frown) to 6 (a big smile). They were told: "Really think again about everything that happened with the painting. Should you get a smile or a frown for what you did?" They were asked to pick one of two envelopes, one with a smile and the other with a frown on the front. One of these had three drawn smiles within it (one big, one medium, and one small) and the other had three drawn frowns (one big, one medium, and one small). Children then were asked to choose the appropriate face on one of the envelopes and then the researcher coded their response according to their choice, from 1 (a big frown) to 6 (a big smile). The same procedure was repeated for Story B. M and SD (range) for the product rating were 4.72 and 1.61 (1 to 6) at prior to criticism, and 2.43 and 1.32 (1 to 6) at post-criticism.

Affect. To obtain a general assessment of children's affect during the stories, they were told, "I want to know about how you feel about what happened with the painting." Children were shown pictures of smiling, frowning, and angry faces. Children selected the closest affect they experienced during the stories. Children were given a score of 1 for an angry feeling, 2 for a sad feeling, and 3 for a happy feeling. This was later recorded for further analysis as 0 for a negative feeling (either a frowning or an angry face) and 1 for a positive feeling (a happy face). M and SD (range) were 2.80 and 0.51 (1 to 3) prior to criticism, and 1.88 and 0.22 (1 to 3) at post-criticism.

Self ratings. To examine the degree to which children saw their performance as reflecting negatively on their traits and abilities, they were asked a set of three questions related to different aspects of themselves: 1) "Think about everything that happened with the painting. Did everything that happened make you feel like you were good or not good (task ability) at painting? 2) Did everything that happened make you feel like you were a nice or a not nice (goodness) person? 3) Did it make you feel like you were a smart or a not smart (intelligence) person?" Self-judgment comprised three subscales (task ability, goodness, and intelligence). M and SD (range) for task ability, goodness, and intelligence were 0.79 and 0.41 (0 to 1), 0.88 and 0.33 (0 to 1), and 0.95 and 0.22 (0 to 1) prior to criticism, and 0.25 and 0.43 (0 to 1), 0.28 and 0.45 (0 to 1), and 0.29 and 0.46 (0 to 1) at post-criticism.

Analysis

Because of the high number of Korean American subjects who rated themselves low before criticism, subjects were classified into three groups. The first group of children (low-low) comprised those who rated their product low both at pre- and post-criticism (33.5%). The second group (high-low) was composed of those who rated their product high prior to criticism but low at post-criticism (55%). The third group (high-high) consisted of those who rated it high both at pre- and at post-criticism (10.5%).

First, to see how the three groups were different in their motivational patterns, the means of affect and self-judgment were compared by one-way analysis of variance. Tukey post-hoc tests then were used to compare each contrast (low-low vs. high-low, low-low vs. high-high, and high-low vs. high-high). Second, Ordinary Linear Regression Analysis (OLS) was used to see how their product ratings at pre- and post-criticism would predict their affect and self-judgment. For the regression, the ratings in pre- and post-criticism were entered separately and stepwise, after controlling for the site, gender, and age of children. Third, to see how each general belief about goodness (global and stable) was related to motivational response overtime (pre- and post-criticism), Chi-square tests were conducted. Finally, as a comparative analysis between European American and Korean American children, the high-low and high-high groups of Korean subjects were compared to Heyman et al.'s (1992) findings for European American children. For this comparison, the Korean low-low group was excluded in this part of the analysis (n=51), which had no parallel comparison group in Heyman et al.'s study.

Results

Group Differences Between Product Rating and Motivational Responses

ANOVA revealed that the children's product ratings were significantly associated with their motivational responses. First, in affect, the high-low group revealed the most vulnerabilities among the three groups (see Table 1). After teacher criticism, the group differences were revealed in product rating (F=12.17 (2),p [less than].001). Tukey post-hoc tests at the p = .05 significant level indicated that the high-low group changed more (change of M = 1.01) than the low-low (change of M = 0.85) and the high-high groups (change of M = 0.73). That is, prior to criticism, the high-low group reported the same degree of positive affect (M = 2.92, SD = 0.38) as the high-high group (M = 2.93, SD = 0.26). However, at post-criticism, the high-low group dropped much more toward negative affect (M = 1.91, SD 0.42) than the high-high group (M = 2.20, SD = 0.68). Since the low-low group tended to experience more negative feelings at both conditions (M and SD were 2.55 and 0.67, 1.70 and 0.54, respectively), the difference be tween low-low and high-low was not found as significant.

Second, as shown in Table 1, the high-low group revealed the most vulnerabilities (more changes mean greater vulnerabilities) among the three groups for self-ratings of traits and abilities (sum of task ability, intelligence, and goodness). Prior to criticism, the three groups judged themselves similarly high (M = 1.91, SD = 0.29; M = 1.96, SD = 0.27; M = 1.98, SD = 0.20; Low-Low, High-Low, High-High) and not significantly different from each other (F = 0.72 (2), p = ns). However, at post-criticism, the high-low group (M = 0.22, SD = 0.23) showed significantly lower scores than the low-low (M = 0.27, SD = 0.40) and the high-high (M = 0.58, SD = 0.44; F = 6.22 (2), p [less than] .01) groups. That is, change toward negative self-judgment in the high-low group (change of M = 1.74, p [less than] .05) was significantly greater than in the high-high group (change of M = 1.40, p [less than] .05). Low-low and high-low were not significantly different at post-criticism.

In a separate analysis of self-judgment for task ability, intelligence, and goodness, the same trends were revealed. That is, prior to criticism, the three groups were not significantly different from each other, judging themselves relatively high, while at post-criticism, the high-low group showed the lowest scores for task ability (M = 0.24, M = 0.20, M = 0.53; low-low, high-low, high-high; F = 4.02 (2), p [less than] .05), intelligence (M = 0.30, M = 0.22, M = 0.67; F = 6.57 (2), p [less than] .001), and goodness (M = 0.28, M = 0.23, M = 0.53; F 2.93 (2), p [less than] .10). Although the difference between low-low and high-low was not significant, the post-hoc test (Tukey post-hoc test at p = .05) showed that the vulnerability(change) of the high-low group was significantly greater than the high-high group (ability: 0.65, 0.18, p [less than] .05; intelligence: 0.73, 0.33, p [less than] .05; goodness: 0.65, 0.47, p [less than] .05; high-low, high-high, respectively).

OLS analysis. Ordinary regression analysis was conducted, in which differences in scores for affect and self-judgment, from pre- to post-criticism, were regressed with product ratings at pre- and post-criticism as explanatory variables, controlling for school site and child's gender and age (in months). As shown in Table 2, the regression analysis showed that Korean children's affect was significantly predicted by both product ratings, while their self-judgment was significantly predicted by post-product ratings. First, in affect, product ratings at post-criticism (b = .27, p [less than] .001) and at prior to criticism were significant (b = .25, p [less than] .01) to predict the children's feelings. That is, children who rated their products higher at both for their own mistakes and their teachers' criticism tended to feel less negative affect.

Second, in the children's self-judgment, only product ratings at post-criticism (b = .25, p[less than].05) significantly predicted their self-judgment. Regardless of their product ratings prior to criticism, high product raters at post-criticism tended to hold significantly higher self-judgment. In a sub-analysis of the self-judgment of their task ability, intelligence, and goodness, those who gave higher ratings for their product after teachers' criticism tended to hold more confident self-judgment of their intelligence (b = .28, p[less than].01) and goodness (b = .2l, p[less than].05). However, their judgment of task ability was associated with their product rating prior to criticism (b = .28, p[less than].01) before entering their product rating at post-criticism. The significance of this association disappeared after entering product rating at post-criticism into the equation (b = .15, p[less than].10).

Group Differences in Motivational Responses and General Beliefs About Goodness

As shown in Table 1, the three groups were not significantly different in beliefs about goodness. The high-low group (41%, 36%, 45%; F = 0.76 (2), ns) revealing the most vulnerabilities held similar global, stable, or adult-oriented beliefs about goodness to the low-low (33%, 43%, 29%; F = 0.69(2), ns) and the high-high groups (38%, 40%, 27%; F = 4.38 (2), ns). Further analysis conducted separately at pre-criticism revealed that general beliefs about goodness were significantly related to the children's level of affect prior to criticism. For example, prior to criticism, those who inferred global goodness from specific situations reported significantly more negative affect for their own mistakes (F = 6.06 (1), p[less than].05). The children who had stable beliefs (80%) felt more negative affect for their own mistakes than those (20%) who did not. The similar trends toward significance between general beliefs and motivational response prior to criticism also were found in the relationships between task ability and stable beliefs (F = 3.57 (1), p [less than] .10) and between goodness and self-oriented beliefs (F = 3.74 (1), p [less than] .10). Children who had stable beliefs or who had adult-oriented beliefs tended to doubt their task ability or their goodness more than those who did not. However, these differences were not revealed at post-criticism.

Comparative Analysis Between European American and Korean American Children Young Korean American children were compared to the young European American children studied by Heyman et al. (1992) in terms of their product rating, affect, self-judgment, and general beliefs. First, in European American samples, most subjects rated their product high prior to criticism (94.4%). As a result, only two groups were formed based upon the product rating after criticism: the first group (the high product raters), who remained high (rating 5 or above, 60.7%) after negative criticism, and the second group (the low product raters), who downgraded their product (rating 4 or Less, 39.3%). As shown in Figure 1, significantly more Korean American children rated their product as low even before teacher criticism (33.5%, Korean American; 5.6%, European American), as well as after teacher criticism (Korean American, 89.5%, European American, 39.3%). Accordingly, Korean American low-low raters, who rated their product low in both conditions (prior to and after criticism), were excluded from the following comparative analysis.

First, as indicated in Figure 2, Korean American children overall expressed more sadness and anger, and less happiness, than European American children. M and SD for Korean American children's happiness were significantly lower than for European American children (M = 0.17, SD = 0.20, Korean American; M = 1.25, SD = 0.28, European American; t = 31.92 (206), p [less than] .001). Korean American children expressed significantly more sadness (M = 1.55, SD = 0.20; M = 0.73, SD = 0.21; t = 28.20 (206), p [less than] .001) and more anger (M = 0.57, SD = 0.19; M = 0.28, SD = 0.01; t = 15.54 (206), p [less than] .001). However, similar patterns of affect were revealed in both samples. That is, the low raters from both samples reported more sadness (M = 1.63, M = 1.00; Korean American low raters, European American low raters, respectively) than the higher raters (M = 1.07, M = 0.56; Korean American high raters, European American high raters). Anger (M= 0.28, M = 0.81; Korean American low raters, European American low r aters) was more prevalent in low-product raters than in high-product raters (M = 0.26, M = 0.42; Korean American high raters, European American high raters), while happiness was more dominant in high-product raters (M = 0.66, M = 1.47; Korean American high raters, European American high raters) than in low-product raters (M = 0.09, M = 0.91; Korean American low raters, European American low raters).

Second, as shown in Figure 3, Korean American children judged their abilities and traits significantly lower than European American children did (M = 2.17 and M = 6.32; Korean American and European American, respectively; t = 24.93 (206), p [less than] .001). More Korean American children reported negative judgment about their task ability (75% vs. 36%; t = 22.26 (206), p [less than] .001), their intelligence (71% vs. 30%; t = 13.83 (206), p [less than] .001), and their goodness (72% vs. 20%; t = 29.17 (206), p [less than] .001). This difference was far greater for high-product raters. For example, 47% of Korean American high-product raters doubted their task ability and goodness and 33% doubted their intelligence; only small percentages of European American children doubted their task ability (25%), intelligence (10%), and goodness (8%).

Finally, as shown in Figure 4, regardless of their product rating, Korean American children held significantly different beliefs about goodness. Significantly more Korean American children had global beliefs about goodness than European Americans (59% vs. 35%, t = 20.02(206), p [less than] .001). Korean American children had more stable beliefs about goodness (55% vs. 31%, t = 17.56 (206), p [less than] .001) and adult-oriented beliefs about goodness (57% vs. 28%, t = 40.12(206), p[less than].001) than European American children. The difference between high-product raters in the two samples was greater: 60% of Korean American high-product raters had a stable belief about badness versus 25% of European American high-product raters. For global beliefs about badness, 60% of the Korean American high-product raters believed that low academic performance was bad, while only 20% of the European American high-product raters believed this. In adult- vs. self-oriented beliefs of goodness, 74% of Korean American childr en held adult-oriented views of goodness, while 31% European American children held these views. Because both high- and low-product raters in the Korean American sample held more stable, global, and adult-oriented general beliefs about badness, a significant relationship between general beliefs about goodness and the product rating was not replicated in Korean American children.

Discussion

The purpose of this research was to determine whether young Korean American children exhibited patterns of reactions associated with helplessness, and, if so, how such reactions are related to concepts of goodness and badness. The two types of motivational responses after a negative outcome certainly emerged as a framework for identifying and interpreting the differences among young children. The dimensions of the two types of responses--helplessness or mastery-oriented patterns--in affect and self-judgment seem to apply across widely different cultural groups. Most interesting, however, is the way the present results diverge from those obtained by Heyman et al. (1992), despite the fact that the two distinct patterns of motivational responses were replicated.

First of all, the ways in which young Korean American children perceived the negative outcomes, which were used as a baseline dividing the groups, are remarkably different from European American samples. Two negative outcomes--the mistake they made (Story A) and the criticism the teacher mentioned (Story B--were perceived differently by Korean American and European American children. For European American children, self-mistake was not perceived as a negative outcome at all; only 6% of the sample rated their product low after Story A. For their own mistakes, a significant number of Korean American children (34%) rated their product much lower, just as they did for teachers' criticism. Self-mistake was salient enough for the Korean American children to rate their product lower, while it might be conceived as permissible or part of the learning process for European American children. Korean American children seemed to be more sensitive to any mistakes or criticism (Chang & Myers, 1997; Park, 1995). Perhaps tea chers, who are considered more influential in Korean culture, affect this relationship. Unlike European American children, Korean American children viewed teachers as authority figures to be respected. This attitude might foster what otherwise would constitute "proper" behavior in a more strict culture as self-blame, in the American culture for their own mistakes in the teacher-student relationship (Stone, 1992).

Second, the ways in which Korean American children felt emotions were remarkably different from European American children within the two distinctive motivational patterns. Korean American children appeared to express more negative and simple feelings compared to European American children, who chose multiple emotions during the experiment. One possible explanation might be that European Americans are encouraged to learn and exhibit more facial and bodily expressions of happiness, sadness, praise, or criticism in everyday life, while Korean Americans might not accept these traits as desirable behaviors (Lee & Kelly, 1996; Smith, 1996). In traditional Korean culture, the neutral affect may have been the more culturally appropriate way for children to express emotions in a social context. In addition, in Korean culture, it is considered a virtue to hide one's feelings instead of outwardly displaying emotions (Becker, 1986; Choy, 1979; Tyler, 1995).

One difficulty throughout this research, related to expressive nonverbal behavior, was that Korean American children were less talkative and more silent when asked to express feelings or give answers. For instance, when asked about the mothers' pretended responses to what happened to them, they gave limited answers such as "I don't know" or "Mother might say, 'Do better,' or 'Do not make the same mistake.'" In contrast, American children's responds were very logical and presented in a third-person perspective. Heyman et al. (1992) provided this example: "Well, there's one thing that can cheer you up. If you really tell your teacher that you tried your best, she wouldn't be mad at you. We're not mad, are we?" (p. 413). This difference also could be interpreted as being influenced by different parental attitudes. Research has indicated that European American mothers believe that social interactions or expressions are important for children's learning and development, and that they engage in more pretend activi ties to enhance their children's social skills, while Korean American mothers consider pretend play to be a way to escape boredom or amuse children (Farver & Howes, 1993; Farver et al., 1995; Farver & Wimbarti, 1995; Rubin, 1977).

Third, although the patterns of helpless and mastery-orientation were revealed in young Korean American children, the ways that Korean American children judged self-traits were different from American children. They seemed to evaluate their self-traits as being much lower, and they showed more vulnerability in self-judgment than did their American counterparts. Asians, including Koreans, are considered to have higher standards in academics than other ethnic groups (Stevenson, 1984; Stevenson, Chen, & Uttal, 1990; Stevenson etal., 1985). These studies have shown that Asian American mothers predicted lower scores for their own children's performance, although their children outperformed; European American mothers predicted higher scores for their children's performance, but they underperformed. Other research indicates that Asians tend to experience greater and earlier anxiety and guilt over negative outcomes (Kitano, 1982; Motecinos, 1994; Zane et al., 1991). Perhaps this earlier moral development into feelings of guilt or anxiety over criticism makes them feel more vulnerable to negative criticism and leads them to have doubts about their self-traits.

Fourth, regardless of their product ratings, Korean American children hold more entity beliefs about goodness: more global, more stable, and adult-oriented beliefs. Overall, 80% of low-product raters (60% of European Americans) and 40% of high-product raters (20% of European American) tended to make stronger global goodness/badness inferences, and used the stable initial evidence for determinations of goodness/badness. The global inference of goodness might be related to the significant influence of the dominant philosophy of their mother country, Korea. For more than 5,000 years, Koreans have held global, idiosyncratic, strict, and absolute societal values about "what is good" and "what is bad." They are not allowed to negotiate between those two extremes (Choy, 1979; Howe, 1988; Kim, 1991). For example, when a new empire subdued an old empire, the soldiers and servants of the old regime committed suicide to remain loyal to the old empire rather than be a part of the new order. The stability of goodness/badness in Koreans is well-presented in such traditional Korean proverbs as "The bad habits of a three-year-old will last a lifetime" or "The pilferer who steals the needle will take the cow."

The adult-oriented beliefs of young Korean American children's beliefs might be related to Confucian maxims. It has been emphasized in Korean culture that children have to respect their parents, which is one of the five Confucian maxims (loyalty to the ruling class, respect for elders, obedience to parents, courtesy in human relationships, and duty to community over individual rights) that regulate individual behavior in Korean society. Although Korean American children adapt according to the input of Westernizing values such as individualism and self-assertiveness, parental values still maintain great influence on children (De Vos & Suarez-Orozco, 1986; Lewin, 1998). Korean American children possibly reason what is good or bad in terms of "interpersonalism" rather than "intrapersonalism," which focuses more on the relationships between mother/father and self. This implicit concept of goodness, rooted in Korean philosophy, which holds to a more stable, global, and adult-oriented value, is actively present in children's daily lives and transmitted from mother to child. In this cultural setting, it is not surprising that young Korean children revealed mostly static and global beliefs about goodness, and that they viewed badness in a nonmalleable way.

In summary, the present study supports evidence that differences exist across cultures in the helpless and mastery-oriented patterns among young children's motivational responses to negative feedback. However, the findings suggest that culture is an important influence on children's social behavior and their cognition. The dissociated relationships between helpless motivational patterns and more entity beliefs about goodness clearly suggest that the divergence of reactions is, in part, a function of culture. Because culture is inherited as a positive value and permeates everyday life, it is natural to assume that children are expected to accept, internalize, and act in accordance with culture. This study, therefore, cautions against making a universal claim across cultures in the sociocognitive domains without considering a wide range of intracultural variability and individual differences within any cultural group. Understanding the development of children cannot be complete without considering the influenc e of culture, which helps to form and affect their implicit theories and behaviors. Although this study is far from conclusive, its findings suggest that culture is an important influence on children's sociocognitive behaviors.

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Zane, N. W., Sue, S., Hu, L., & Kwon, J. H. (1991). Asian American assertion: A social learning analysis of cultural differences. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 38, 63-70. Means and (SD) by Product Rating Groups Low-Low High-Low Product Raters Product Raters n 51 (34%) 86 (55%) 15 (11%) AffectA 2.55 (.67) 2.92 (.38) AffectfB 1.70 (.54) 1.91 (.42) Self JudgmentA 1.91 (.29) 1.96 (.27) Task AbilityA .72 (.45) .85 (.36) IntelligenceA .93 (.25) .95 (.22) GoodnessA .84 (.37) .88 (.33) Self JudgmentB .27 (.40) .22 (.23) Task AbilityB .24 (.43) .20 (.40) IntelligenceB .30 (.46) .22 (.42) GoodnessB .28 (.45) .23 (.42) Global Belief About Goodness .33 (.48) .41 (.49) Stable Belief About Goodness .43 (.50) .36 (.48) Adult Oriented Belief About Goodness .29 (.46) .45 (.50) High-High p Product Raters ([less than].05) n 51 (34%) AffectA 2.93 (.26) a,b AffectfB 2.20 (.68) b Self JudgmentA 1.98 (.20) Task AbilityA .71 (.47) IntelligenceA 1.00 (.00) GoodnessA 1.00 (.00) Self JudgmentB .58 (.44) b,c Task AbilityB .53 (.52) c IntelligenceB .67 (.49) b,c GoodnessB .53 (.52) c Global Belief About Goodness .38 (.49) Stable Belief About Goodness .40 (.51) Adult Oriented Belief About Goodness .27 (.46) Note: A: Prior to Criticism; B: After Criticism. a = constrast between Low-Low vs. High-Low, b = constrast between Low-Low vs. High-High, and c = constrast between High-Low vs. High-High. Summary of Regression Analyses Predicting Children's Motivational Responses (N = 153) Affect Self Judgment Standardized Coefficient (Beta) Task Ability Intelligence Product Rating Prior to Criticism 0.25 [**] 0.15 0.01 Product Rating After Criticism 0.27 [***] 0.11 0.28 [**] Multiple R 0.40 0.21 0.50 Constant 0.03 [***] 0.24 [**] 0.28 [***] Standardized Coefficient (Beta) Goodness Product Rating Prior to Criticism -0.02 Product Rating After Criticism 0.21 [*] Multiple R 0.49 Constant 0.21 [***] Note: Model controlled child gender, age and school site. (*.)p [less than].05; (**.)p, .01; (***.)p, .001. Pre-criticism Percentages of children in product rating Ratings American Korean 5.6 33.5 94.4 66.5 Post-criticism Percentage of children in product rating Ratings American Korean 39.3 89.5 60.7 10.5 Mean Scores of Affect Low product raters Mean scores Affect American Korean 0.91 0.09 1 1.63 0.81 0.28 High product raters Mean scores Affect American Korean 1.47 0.66 0.563 1.07 0.42 0.26 Mean Scores of Self-judgment Low product raters Percentages of self-judgment Self American Korean 52.5 80.3 61.9 78 38.1 76.8 High product rates Percentage of self-judgement Self American Korean 25.1 46.7 10.2 33.4 8 46.7 Mean Scores of Self-judgment Low product raters Percentages of stable, global and adult-oriented beliefs about goodness Beliefs about goodness American Korean 50 59.3 47.6 54 23.8 54.7 High product raters Percentages of stable, global and adult-oriented beliefs about goodness Beliefs about goodness American Korean 24.6 60 19.5 60 30.8 73.5