MINDSETS OF INTELLIGENCE AND PRACTICE EFFORT IN THE FACE OF SETBACK: AN AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The implicit theories of intelligence model (i.e., fixed and growth mindsets) has been widely demonstrated to influence students’ achievement outcomes, particularly through their response patterns and attributional styles. While students with higher growth mindsets are considered to be more motivated in general, little is known about the qualitative nature of their motivation (i.e., controlled vs. autonomous). In light of this, the present study adopted a longitudinal design with a novel task paradigm (i.e., change blindness task) to investigate autonomous motivation as an underlying mechanism between mindsets of intelligence and practice effort. As the presence of setbacks was previously suggested as a potential boundary condition for growth mindset to be effective, we randomly allocated participants into Track A and Track B—which represent the absence and presence of a setback respectively. In line with our hypotheses, growth mindset predicted greater amount of practice effort only when an initial setback was present. More importantly, autonomous motivation was found to mediate the relationship between growth mindset and greater practice effort in the presence of an initial setback. Implications and future directions pertaining to the present findings were discussed.