3-214 - Mindset during development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

One’s mindset about whether traits such as intelligence and personality are malleable has a huge influence on academic and social outcomes (for review see Yeager & Dweck, 2013). But when do we decide that certain traits are malleable or fixed? And once we have formed theories about these traits, can they be changed in ways that positively affect behavior? Past research has focused on the relationship between mindset and behavior, but recently researchers have started to explore how these crucial mindsets form and change. In this symposium, leaders at the intersection of cognitive science and educational psychology will present groundbreaking work looking at implicit theories of effort, willpower, and personality, unpacking when these theories develop and how interventions can change them during early childhood and adolescence.

The first paper in this symposium will discuss how children begin to understand the concept of malleability by looking at children’s theories of effort. The second paper will present how an intervention targeting implicit theories of willpower affects children’s inhibitory control. The third paper will discuss how an implicit theory of personality intervention positively impacts adolescent’s physical health, stress, and cognition, collectively buffering them against academic failure. The talks will be followed by an analysis from a leader in cognitive development.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Julia Leonard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Discussant

• Laura E Schulz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Individual Presentations

• The Development of Implicit Theories of Effort - Presenting Author: Julia Leonard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Samantha Floyd, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Laura E Schulz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Implicit Theories of Willpower and Children’s Delay of Gratification - Presenting Author: Kyla Haimovitz, Stanford University; Carol S Dweck, Stanford University; Greg Walton, Stanford University

• Understanding the Dynamic Relation Between Social and Academic Competence During Adolescent Transitions - Presenting Author: Hae Yeon Lee, Univ of Texas-Austin; David Scott Yeager, University of Texas at Austin