Carol S. Dweck, 1972 - US grants

Our recent research has identified two implicit theories of intelligence that children hold, and that appear to underlie major motivational patterns in achievement situations. These theories, although independent of a child's actual skill level or measured intelligence, affect whether the child will seek, pursue, and master challenging tasks or new skills. The proposed research is designed to investigate the development of the two theories, and the extent to which children use these same theories to conceptualize other important attributes. In its broadest sense, this research seeks to illuminate the nature of what we believe may be fundamental, underlying conceptions of "self" or of one's attributes that generate major motivational patterns in a variety of domains. One hundred eighty children in grades K-5 will each participate in two sessions, one year apart. A combination of Questionnaire-Interview Measures and On-Task Problem-Solving Measures will be administered to assess (1) children's favored theories in four different domains (intelligence, physical skill, physical appearance, and morality/goodness), and (2) the behavioral and affective concomitants of the theories. In this way, one can evaluate developmental changes in the nature and generality of the theories as well as in their relationship to critical aspects of goal-directed behavior.

Students in the United States continue to show a significant gender gap in their academic achievement in mathematics. One reason for this is that females still fall victim to the stereotype of lower math ability; that is, they are vulnerable to "stereotype threat." This project applies lessons from research on student motivation to understand the academic contexts that can heighten or lessen this vulnerability. The research is designed to show that math classes conveying the idea that math ability is a fixed trait -- you have it or you don't -- will lead females to fall prey to stereotype threat. In contrast, math classes that portray math skills as acquirable should defuse the impact of stereotypes. Even someone performing poorly now can still gain ability over time. This view of math skills, in addition to fostering greater achievement, is expected to increase females' enjoyment of math and their sense of belonging to the math community.

The research addresses two key moments in students' educational lives: the transition to junior high school and to college. Educational experiences at these points lay the foundation for future interest in science, technology, engineering and math domains, and thus influence the career paths women take. The findings will have important implications for members of any group who face messages of limited ability in any area of achievement.

This project proposes to develop and study an intervention with 9th and 4th graders, with the goal of promoting motivation for science learning. The research is based on theories of growth vs. fixed mindsets. The interventions focus on promoting growth mindsets in students regarding science learning, with units on brain plasticity (the brain changes as a result of effort and experience) and scientists' struggle stories (science is not just done with little effort by geniuses). Delivery of the information will be through multi-media materials. The research design involves random assignment of students within classroom to treatment and control conditions to assess the potential impact of the interventions.

With the U.S. trailing many countries in science literacy, understanding both the psychological obstacles to better performance and pedagogical solutions to these obstacles is of the utmost importance to ensuring improved science outcomes. This research will address this issue by developing and systematically testing interventions available to educators to support science learning in the classroom that focuses on changing children's beliefs about what success in science requires (effort vs being innately gifted).

Ending long-standing conflicts is an urgent global challenge. Although intractable conflicts develop an air of inevitability over time, these conflicts are initiated and maintained by people; therefore, changing people's hearts and minds is a critical step for resolving such conflicts. The present research evaluates a new theory-based intervention designed to promote more productive emotions and attitudes in the context of an ongoing intractable conflict. The proposed project extends preliminary work by this research team, which showed that teaching in-group members that groups do not have a fixed nature (an incremental belief about groups) increased favorable attitudes toward the opposing group and, in turn, fostered greater willingness to engage in major compromises that could lead to peace. In the current project, the researchers will for the first time examine the longer term effects of this belief-based intervention in a societal context in which in-group participants are routinely exposed to negative information about the out-group. The researchers will compare this belief-based intervention to both a Perspective Taking Intervention (a common conflict resolution strategy) and a Coping Control Intervention. Before participants are randomly assigned to one of the three interventions (and then again immediately after and six months later), attitudes and emotions toward the out-group will be assessed, along with favorability toward conciliatory actions. The study design will allow an examination of the durability of the effects of each of these three intervention conditions, as well as their influence across ideological sub-groups as they confront real world conflict-related events. Importantly, the focal intervention introduces a novel way of promoting conflict resolution, in that there is no attempt to create interactions, familiarity, empathy or perspective-taking between members of conflicting groups. Instead, the focus is on promoting a change in mindset. This research will have a broader impact on society by testing a novel approach to conflict resolution that does not involve the logistical problems associated with other interventions, such as bringing parties in conflict together or running the risk of engendering resistance by explicitly trying to teach hostile groups in intractable conflicts to empathize with each other. If successful, this new belief-based approach can be disseminated easily and broadly, and can work for people with a variety of ideological stances and cultural characteristics. This approach has relevance to a large number of intra-national and international conflicts, and to efforts aimed at preventing future conflicts.