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Richard Weissbourd, writing in Work & Family Life (September 2009) observes that it matters how parents praise...

"Praising children in the service of happiness and self esteem has important benefits but it can become excessive.  Children thrive on praise when it is sincere and connected to specific accomplishments, but they know when they've truly accomplished something.  Too much praise connected to tiny accomplishments can make them wonder why adults need to always prop them up.

"Children who are praised too much also feel continually judged.  Research by Carol Dweck, Ph.D., suggests that overly praised kids become more conscious of their image, more competitive, and more prone to cut others down.  And too much praise can hook kids on it:  they require higher and higher doses of compliments and feel like there's something wrong when they aren't being bombarded with kudos."

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