Honors Theses

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Carey Dowling

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

The study of mindset is relevant to various outcomes that occur across the span of a college student's career. There are two different mindsets that all students view themselves through the lens of, a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The fixed mindset implies that traits are unchangeable, whereas the growth mindset implies that traits are malleable (Dweck 2015). The current study sets out to examine the relationship between mindset and academic achievement, mindset and resilient behaviors, and the potential meditational variables between mindset and academic achievement, in an undergraduate population. Participants completed a Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) release form for their official semester GPA and measures assessing mindset, procrastination, study habits, self- handicapping habits, depressive symptoms, and intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Participants completed questionnaires in a lab in the Psychology department for research credit. Mediational analyses were not run due to a lack of variability in the data that produced a negative relationship between growth mindset and GPA in participants. The predicted relationship between emotion growth mindset and lower levels of depressive symptoms was found. Further research on this topic is necessary to explore results that are inconsistent with the present literature on the topic.

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Included in

Psychology Commons

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