General linear model analyses reveal that ability praise is a stronger predictor of self-efficacy, and sincerity only moderates frequent ability praise but not frequent effort praise. These results are discussed in terms of how educators and parents should use praise as a form of social persuasion to reinforce students’ self-efficacy. | ABILITY PRAISE VERSUS EFFORT PRAISE ON SELF-EFFICACY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Vu Bich Phuong1 Quach Diem Phuc1 Nguyen Thi Thach Thao1 Doan Quoc Thuong1 Abstract Much research has explored the differential effects of ability and effort praise on young students self-efficacy but is limited to explore this relationship in the adult student population. This is an important gap because praise and self-efficacy are largely relevant for university students and there are some developmental differences between children and adults in perceiving different types of praises that should be considered. Moreover cultural differences in how Vietnamese people and people from other countries perceive praise may hinder the generalization of previous findings. Thus this cross- sectional study aims to explore whether ability and effort praises are related differently to the self-efficacy of Vietnamese young adults and whether these relationships are moderated by the sincerity of the praise. A total of 403 university students completed an online survey that measures their general self-efficacy academic self-efficacy frequencies of receiving ability and effort praises and sincerity of the ability and effort praises. General linear model analyses reveal that ability praise is a stronger predictor of self-efficacy and sincerity only moderates frequent ability praise but not frequent effort praise. These results are discussed in terms of how educators and parents should use praise as a form of social persuasion to reinforce students self-efficacy. Keywords ability praise effort praise sincerity of praise general self- efficacy academic self-efficacy 1 University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. Corresponding email phuongvu@ 573 LỜI KHEN NĂNG LỰC VÀ LỜI KHEN NỖ LỰC ĐỐI VỚI SỰ TỰ TIN VÀO NĂNG LỰC CỦA SINH VIÊN Tóm tắt Nhiều nghiên cứu đã khám phá ảnh hưởng khác biệt của lời khen năng lực và lời khen nỗ lực đến sự tự tin vào năng lực .
