It wasn't so much a need for praise, more a need to feel superior since I think I based my identity on being smarter than anybody else. And, as others have answered here, with that came a need to make my successes seem effortless so I too couldn't form any habit of studying or even just thinking things through. Instead I formed a habit of jumping on to any first thought that would pop into my head and consider that to be correct until proven wrong beyond my capacity to rationalize. The third aspect is that I had a self image of having all the answers.

I think I've overcome all of these shortcomings to a point where they are no longer destructive. So even if we've been ruined as children we still have the ability to correct these mistakes as adults. Still, as ASpiringKnitter pointed out, to think where I could have been by now makes me sad.