Late Adolescence (15-18 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.
