The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
How Firm Are the Foundations of Mind-Set Theory? The Claims Appear Stronger Than the Evidence
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Mind-set refers to people’s beliefs about whether attributes are malleable ( growth mind-set) or unchangeable ( fixed mind-set). Proponents of mind-set theory have made bold claims about mind-set’s importance. For example, one’s mind-set is described as having profound effects on one’s motivation and achievements, creating different psychological worlds for people, and forming the core of people’s meaning systems. We examined the evidentiary strength of six key premises of mind-set theory in 438 participants; we reasoned that strongly worded claims should be supported by equally strong evidence. However, no support was found for most premises. All associations ( rs) were significantly weaker than .20. Other achievement-motivation constructs, such as self-efficacy and need for achievement, have been found to correlate much more strongly with presumed associates of mind-set. The strongest association with mind-set ( r = −.12) was opposite from the predicted direction. The results suggest that the foundations of mind-set theory are not firm and that bold claims about mind-set appear to be overstated.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The overall empirical evidence does not support the claim that holding a growth mindset leads students to adopt learning goals, increase effort to pursue challenges, and be resilient following failure.
“Yet, the overall empirical evidence does not support this claim.”
From Do growth mindset interventions impact students’ academic achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis with recommendations for best practices. (2023) · cites this paper as Burgoyne, Hambrick, & Macnamara, 2020
Given the weak links between mindset and motivational processes and between these motivational processes and achievement, one cannot infer the effect of mindset on academic achievement based on mindset's relationship to a motivational process.
“However, given the weak links between mindset and motivational processes (e.g., Burgoyne et al., 2020;Burnette et al., 2013;Payne et a., 2007) and between these motivational processes and achievement (e.g., Burnette et al., 2013), one cannot infer the effect of mindset on academic achievement based on mindset's relationship to a motivational process.”
From Do growth mindset interventions impact students’ academic achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis with recommendations for best practices. (2023) · cites this paper as Burgoyne et al., 2020
The strongest association was counter to mindset theory.
“The strongest association was counter to mindset theory.”
From Do growth mindset interventions impact students’ academic achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis with recommendations for best practices. (2023) · cites this paper as Burgoyne et al., 2020
The foundations of mind-set theory are not firm and many assumptions made about the importance of mind-set are called into question.
“We concluded,”
From Do growth mindset interventions impact students’ academic achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis with recommendations for best practices. (2023) · cites this paper as Burgoyne et al., 2020
In a preregistered, large-sample, direct test, Burgoyne et al. (2020) found weak and null relationships between mindset and several motivations and behaviors assumed to originate from mindset.
“Likewise, in a preregistered, large-sample, direct test of mindset's associations with several motivations and behaviors assumed to originate from mindset (e.g., goal orientation, challenge seeking, resilience), we (Burgoyne et al., 2020) found weak and null relationships.”
From Do growth mindset interventions impact students’ academic achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis with recommendations for best practices. (2023) · cites this paper as Burgoyne et al., 2020
Citations
Cites
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/bf03193146 · Cited by 65,971
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
(2006) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.44-2397 · Cited by 7,804
Motivational processes affecting learning.
Dweck, C. S. (1986) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.41.10.1040 · Cited by 6,971
Cohen, J. (1994) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.49.12.997 · Cited by 4,003
Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance.
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33 · Cited by 1,709 · cited 2×
“…to failure by “helpless” and “mastery-oriented” children (with no measures of mind-set; e.g., Diener & Dweck, 1978) or after manipulating praise (Mueller & Dweck, 1998) have been interpreted as evidence of mind-set’s relationship with resilience (see e.g., Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Good, Rattan, &…”
BackgroundEquivalence Testing for Psychological Research: A Tutorial
Lakens, D., Scheel, A. M., & Isager, P. M. (2018) · Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2515245918770963 · Cited by 1,560 · cited 1×
“We tested whether β s were significantly smaller than |0.20| via inferiority tests (Lakens, Scheel, & Isager, 2018).”
MethodInfluentialOne Hundred Years of Social Psychology Quantitatively Described
Richard, F. D., Bond, C. F., & Stokes-Zoota, J. J. (2003) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/1089-2680.7.4.331 · Cited by 1,558
Mind-sets matter: A meta-analytic review of implicit theories and self-regulation.
Burnette, J. L., O'Boyle, E. H., VanEpps, E. M., Pollack, J. M., & Finkel, E. J. (2013) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0029531 · Cited by 1,367
Mindsets: A View From Two Eras
Dweck, C. S., & Yeager, D. S. (2019) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691618804166 · Cited by 1,259
A meta-analytic examination of the goal orientation nomological net.
Payne, S. C., Youngcourt, S. S., & Beaubien, J. M. (2007) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.128 · Cited by 1,242
Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2018) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797617739704 · Cited by 1,159
Self-citationWhy do women opt out? Sense of belonging and women's representation in mathematics.
Good, C., Rattan, A., & Dweck, C. S. (2012) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0026659 · Cited by 1,113
Schäfer, T., & Schwarz, M. A. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00813 · Cited by 774
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 18
- 10.2304/forum.2013.55.1.143 · DOI
- 10.1177/1476718X09102650 · DOI
- Cattell R. B., 1949, Test of “g”: Culture fair
- Cohen J., 1988, Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
- 10.1037/0022-3514.36.5.451 · DOI · Paper page
- Dweck C. S., 2000, Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development
- Dweck C. S., 2002, Why smart people can be so stupid, 24
- Dweck C. S., 2009, Olympic Coach, 21, 4
- 10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256 · DOI · Paper page
- Ekstrom R., 1976, )
- 10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.218 · DOI
- 10.1037/xge0000669 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1037/h0026141 · DOI
- 10.1177/0963721418797300 · DOI
- 10.1177/1745691615599383 · DOI
- Raven J., 1998, Manual for Raven’s progressive matrices and vocabulary scales
- 10.1080/15298860290106805 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1080/00461520.2012.722805 · DOI · Paper page
Cited by
Sorted by citations
What can be learned from growth mindset controversies?
Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2020) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/amp0000794 · Cited by 868
Macnamara, B. N., & Burgoyne, A. P. (2023) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000352 · Cited by 415
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Burgoyne, A. P., Hambrick, D. Z., & Macnamara, B. N.
- Affiliations
- Michigan State University (US)
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Macnamara, Brooke N.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-02-03
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 258-267
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W3003915767
- Cited by
- 164
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 19
- FWCI
- 26.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports
- Keywords
- attributional beliefs, self-efficacy, need for achievement, achievement motivation
- MeSH terms
- Academic Success, Attitude, Female, Humans, Intelligence, Male, Motivation, Self Concept, Students, Theory of Mind
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
