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The writing of this essay was supported by the William T Grant Foundation Scholars Award, the National Institutes of Health (R01HD084772 and P2CHD042849), and the National Science Foundation (1761179). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.
David S. Yeager received a 2020 APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. In association with the award, David S. Yeager was invited to submit a manuscript to American Psychologist, which was peer reviewed. The article is published as part of the journal’s annual Awards Issue.
David S. Yeager conceptualized the article, conducted data analysis, produced data visualizations, and wrote the first draft of the article. Carol S. Dweck collaborated on the conceptualization and writing of the article. David S. Yeager served as lead for funding acquisition, project administration, visualization, and writing – original draft and contributed equally to investigation. Carol S. Dweck served in a supporting role for writing – original draft. David S. Yeager and Carol S. Dweck contributed to conceptualization equally. David S. Yeager and Carol S. Dweck contributed to writing – review and editing equally.
The growth mindset is the belief that intellectual ability can be developed. This article seeks to answer recent questions about growth mindset, such as: Does a growth mindset predict student outcomes? Do growth mindset interventions work, and work reliably? Are the effect sizes meaningful enough to merit attention? And can teachers successfully instill a growth mindset in students? After exploring the important lessons learned from these questions, the article concludes that large-scale studies, including preregistered replications and studies conducted by third parties (such as international governmental agencies), justify confidence in growth mindset research....