RELATIONS AMONG CHILDRENS SOCIAL GOALS, IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORIES, AND RESPONSES TO SOCIAL FAILURE

Two studies examined children's thought patterns in relation to their responses to social challenge. In Study 1, 4th and 5th graders tried o ut for a pen pal club under either a performance goal (stressing the e valuative nature of the tryout) or a learning goal (emphasizing the po tential learning opportunities). In their behavior and attributions fo llowing rejection, children who were focused on a performance goal rea cted with more helplessness, whereas children given a learning goal di splayed a more mastery-oriented response. Study 2 found that in respon se to hypothetical socially challenging situations, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who believed personality was nonmalleable (entity theorists) v s. malleable (incremental theorists) were more likely to endorse perfo rmance goals. Together, these studies indicate that children's goals i n social situations are associated with their responses to social fail ure and are predicted by their implicit theories about their personali ty.