Early Adolescence (12-14 years)
Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A longitudinal Study and an Intervention
Two groups of students attended short workshops on the brain and study skills. Students in an experimental group were also taught that intelligence is malleable and can be developed. Students in the control group, in contrast, had a lesson on memory. After the sessions, teachers reported that students in the intervention group were more motivated to do schoolwork than those in the control group. On math scores, the common grade slide between sixth to seventh grade was halted in the experimental group.
Improving Adolescents’ Standardized Test Performance: An Intervention to Reduce the Effects of Stereotype Threat
In an experiment that tested how to reduce the anxiety-inducing effects of stereotype threat, seventh grade students were divided into four groups to be mentored by college students. Three groups heard different messages about the malleability of intelligence, how difficulties in seventh grade were normal, or both. A control group was given a message about the harm of drug use. Girls in both experimental conditions did better on standardized math tests.
Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance
Researchers gave 128 fifth graders a set of math problems. All were told they did well, but some were told they did well because they “must be smart,” while others were told they “must have worked hard.” Still others were not praised at all. To inject a psychological hurdle and test for perseverance, the students were then given a second test and told they’d performed poorly. They were then asked whether they wanted to try again. The children initially praised for intelligence were significantly less interested in persisting than the others.
