godsendE
Oct 10, 2008
Writing Feedback / Praising others - necessary part of life? Sat Essay [2]
topic:
Is praising others, even if the praise is excessive or undeserved, a necessary part of life?
Essay:
Historically, flattery has been used as a standard form of discourse when addressing people in a high position. Inn the Renaissance, it was common to flatter the monarch, as Edmund Spensor flattered Queen Elizabeth I in The Faeria Queene and Shakespeare flattered King James in Macbeth.
Nowadays, flattery has become more common in all kinds of relationships. Even though some people keep holding a negative attitude towards adulation, I cannot help but believe that, praising is a necessary part of life, and undue flattery can do good to people.
Often, people need to be praised to make progress, even the praise itself may be undeserved sometimes. One excellent example of this is children. Hurlock E.B, an American Psychologist, once carried out an experiment in which 20 students were randomly separated into 2 groups with some same math problems. Both of the group did wrong at the first time: in one group the teachers kept encouraging them and praising their hard work, even they didn't come up with the correct answer, while teachers in the other group was rather cruel: they kept blaming the kids. The result is clear: children with praise are more motivated and positive, even though they seemed not deserved that praise because they didn't get the right answer. Another example of the positive effect of praising can be seen in an office. Imagine yourself an employee who made some typing errors in a document. You were afraid to be blamed by your boss and his angry face was already on your mind. Then Surprisingly, when calling you into the his office, the boss said:" Great Job, Lucy! It's really neat and well organized. Just pay more attention to the spelling next time." You had supposed him to say "How can you make such stupid mistakes?", and, though you know the "neat" and "well organized" are just a kind of excessive praise, you are still happy about that and you know you will definitely focus more on details next time. Therein lies the reason why seemingly unnecessary praise is important in daily life.
A lot of people feel that if you praise somebody, you are admitting defect, and therefore it is better to maintain a critical approach, which is both socially and psychologically false. An excessive flattery, anyway, is better than an acrid criticism, while the former can smooth the relationships, but the latter will only destroy them.
So praise: be it parent/child, husband/wife, employer/employee, or friend to friend. It is just simply a more comfortable way of living.
topic:
Is praising others, even if the praise is excessive or undeserved, a necessary part of life?
Essay:
Historically, flattery has been used as a standard form of discourse when addressing people in a high position. Inn the Renaissance, it was common to flatter the monarch, as Edmund Spensor flattered Queen Elizabeth I in The Faeria Queene and Shakespeare flattered King James in Macbeth.
Nowadays, flattery has become more common in all kinds of relationships. Even though some people keep holding a negative attitude towards adulation, I cannot help but believe that, praising is a necessary part of life, and undue flattery can do good to people.
Often, people need to be praised to make progress, even the praise itself may be undeserved sometimes. One excellent example of this is children. Hurlock E.B, an American Psychologist, once carried out an experiment in which 20 students were randomly separated into 2 groups with some same math problems. Both of the group did wrong at the first time: in one group the teachers kept encouraging them and praising their hard work, even they didn't come up with the correct answer, while teachers in the other group was rather cruel: they kept blaming the kids. The result is clear: children with praise are more motivated and positive, even though they seemed not deserved that praise because they didn't get the right answer. Another example of the positive effect of praising can be seen in an office. Imagine yourself an employee who made some typing errors in a document. You were afraid to be blamed by your boss and his angry face was already on your mind. Then Surprisingly, when calling you into the his office, the boss said:" Great Job, Lucy! It's really neat and well organized. Just pay more attention to the spelling next time." You had supposed him to say "How can you make such stupid mistakes?", and, though you know the "neat" and "well organized" are just a kind of excessive praise, you are still happy about that and you know you will definitely focus more on details next time. Therein lies the reason why seemingly unnecessary praise is important in daily life.
A lot of people feel that if you praise somebody, you are admitting defect, and therefore it is better to maintain a critical approach, which is both socially and psychologically false. An excessive flattery, anyway, is better than an acrid criticism, while the former can smooth the relationships, but the latter will only destroy them.
So praise: be it parent/child, husband/wife, employer/employee, or friend to friend. It is just simply a more comfortable way of living.
