Investigating effects of intelligence and stress mindsets on
system engineer's mental health and learning motivations

2020
Annual Report
Original Article

Keigo Iwamoto (Okubo)（Toyo University, PERSOL RESEARCH AND CONSULTING Co., Ltd. ）Hiroki Takehashi（Nara Women’s University ）Yuka Ozaki（Toyo University ）Noriyuki Narita（PERSOL CHALLENGE CO., Ltd. ）This study examined whether intelligence and stress mindsets moderate the influence of difficulties inherent
in obtaining qualifications on learning motivation and mental health among system engineers. Questionnaires
were completed by 188 Japanese system engineers working in a large IT company. The survey revealed that (a)individuals with an intelligence mindset tend to exhibit higher learning motivation for obtaining qualifications, while
individuals with a fixed mindset exhibit equal learning motivation based on the degree of setback experienced (b)individuals with a “stress-is-debilitating” mindset exhibit more mental illness when they perceive higher setback,while individuals with a “stress-is-harmless” mindset equally exhibit mental illness based on the degree of setback
experienced. These results suggest that mindsets regarding intelligence and stress may be useful references for
system engineers, who are required to continuously adapt to new technologies in busy environments while acquiring
qualifications in a healthy and challenging manner.

Keywords : Mindset, Motivation, Stress, Mental Health1

Crum et al. (2013) evaluated the stress mindset as a one-dimensional scale, with low scores "stress-is-debilitating
mindset" and high scores "stress-is-enhancing mindset".
2

Mental health was worse in women than in men. This result is consistent with findings in previous studies thatrevealed women are more likely than men to harm their mental health. (see review by Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001)

I n t h e I T i n d u s t r y, w h e r e a d v a n c e m e n t s i ntechnology are remarkably fast, workers in the field(i.e., system engineers; SE) are always required toacquire new knowledge and skills. For SE employees,
acquiring qualifications is an evidence of knowledge
and skills in technology. A survey carried out by theJapanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in2017 found that almost 70% of enterprises regarded
qualifications as important, indicating that challenging
qualification tests are necessary for SE careers.
Companies also provide training and financial support
in order to encourage employees obtain qualifications
for their own SE positions, and some companies list
such qualifications as one of the requirements forreceiving promotions. As such, the burden of obtaining
qualifications may become quite challenging. In thisstudy, we focused on the psychological factors that
continue to challenge the acquisition of qualifications
and, simultaneously, mental health.
Research has demonstrated that job stressors areassociated with employees’ health. In several crosssectional studies, an association was found between
job stress and depressive symptoms or disorders(Karasek, 1979; Kawakami et al, 1990). In fact, SE
employees have many job stressors, thus, their mental

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health is poor. The average number of overtime
hours per month for SE positions exceeds 30 hours(Persol Career, 2018). Therefore, the treatment rate
and number of labor accident applications for mental
disorders are higher among system engineers thanother occupations (Sugisawa et al., 1993; Ministry of
Health, Labor and Welfare, 2018).
In this study, we focused on intelligence and stressmindsets as potential moderators in the influenceof difficulties inherent in obtaining qualifications onlearning motivation and mental health. A mindset
is defined as a mental frame or lens that selectively
organizes and encodes information, thereby orienting
an individual towards a unique way of understanding
an experience and towards corresponding actions andresponses (Crum, Salovey, & Achor, 2013). In fact,
previous research suggests that mindsets moderate
the negative effects of stressors faced in goal pursuit(e.g., Crum et al., 2013; Dweck, 2012).
Although several types of mindsets have been
proposed by theorists, the most researched ones seemto be regarding intelligence. Research suggests that
individuals hold one of two explanatory mindsets
of intelligence: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset(Dweck & Leggett, 1988). The fixed mindset describes

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intelligence as stable and asserts that individuals havelittle control over their intelligence; on the other hand,
the growth mindset portrays intelligence as fluid andwithin an individual’s control. Growth mindset leads toimprovement action (Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan,
1999) and persistent motivation (Nussbaum & Dweck,2008) when faced with difficulty. Further, metaanalysis suggests that individuals with fixed mindsets
show more pronounced mental health problems(Schleider, Abel, & Weisz, 2015). Thus, the intelligencemindset is one of the potential factors that may havemoderating effects on difficulty in supporting themental health of employees.
Interestingly, recent studies have proposed new
mindsets about the nature of stress and examined
their relationships with mental health. In a survey ofabout 30,000 Americans, individuals who reported
higher stress levels showed increased mortality at
8 years of follow-up only when they had an “stressis-debilitating” mindset, as opposed to individuals
with higher stress levels but a "stress-is-harmless"mindset (Keller et al., 2012). Later, Crum et al. (2013)
conducted a survey on employees working at a bankthat was dramatically downsizing and restructuring
because of a recession, and found that “stress-isenhancing” mindset is significantly associated withmental health, work performance, and life satisfaction.
1

However, no research has been conducted onstress mindsets among systems engineers, or on therelationship between stress mindset and learning
motivation.
In this study, a survey was conducted among IT
engineers, in order to examine whether intelligenceand stress mindsets moderate the influence ofdifficulties while obtaining qualifications on learning
motivation and mental health. The hypotheses are as
follows:
Hypothesis 1. In a person with a fixed mindset,

learning motivation lowers as a difficulty ofobtaining qualifications is perceived. However, alowering of learning motivation by a perceptionof difficulty is not observed in a person with thegrowth mindset.
Hypothesis 2. In a person with a fixed mindset,
mental health lowers as a difficulty of obtaining
qualifications is perceived. However, a lowering of
mental health by a perception of difficulty is notobserved in a person with the growth mindset.
Hypothesis 3. In a person w ith a “stress-is-debilitating” mindset, mental health lowers as a3

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difficulty of obtaining qualifications is perceived.
However, a lowering of mental health by aperception of difficulty is not observed in a personwith the “stress-is-harmless” mindset.
In addition, this study was an exploratory investigationof the relationship between stress mindset andlearning motivation for obtaining qualifications,especially in a situation where it was difficult toget qualified. In the present study, we measured
perception of usefulness for qualification learning as
an index of learning motivation, and subjective mental
illness as an index of mental health.

MethodRespondents

Respondents were 188 Japanese system engineers(117 men and 71 women) working in a large IT
company. Respondents were recruited via snowball
sampling. The age composition of the respondents
was as follows: 33 persons from ages 20 to 24, 51
persons from ages 25 to 29, 57 persons from ages
30 to 34, 37 persons from ages 35 to 39, and 10
persons from ages 40 to 49. Among respondents, thelength of service in the company was as follows: 105
persons under 3 years, 30 persons from 4 to 6 years,
36 persons from 7 to 9 years, and 17 persons over 10
years. Respondents were 138 general members, 24
core members, 15 leaders, and 11 managers. In thecompany, it was recommended to obtain qualifications
related to work, as it was one of the requirements forpromotion. In conducting the survey, staff from thehuman resource department and some SE members
supervised and approved the survey content.
Participants were informed that their cooperation in
the survey was voluntary and they should provide
answers only if they agreed with the survey objectives.
Further, an explanatory meeting on the investigation
result was held after the investigation ended.

Procedures

The survey was conducted anonymously in December
2015. First, respondents chose answer choices from1 (completely disagree) to 6 (completely agree) tosurvey items. Next, they provided their age, gender,
job role, and length of service.
To measure respondents’ perception of the usefulnessof qualification learning, we listed two items: “Studying
for the qualification exam will help you improve yourspecialization” and “Studying for a qualification will

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help you improve your work ability.” These items were
designed to measure the value placed on obtaining
qualifications that typically appear in interviews at thesurveyed enterprises. The internal consistency of thismeasure was good; r =.73 (p <.01).
To measure respondents’ subjective mental illness,
we listed two original items based on a questionnaire
used in psychiatry: “I feel that I tend to feel sick thesedays” and “I feel depressed these days.” The internalconsistency of this measure was good; r =.60 (p <.01).
To measure respondents’ perception of the difficulties
involved in obtaining qualifications, we listed two
original items: “If you try to get a qualification, youwill be burdened with a lack of time” and “If you try
to get a qualification, you will be burdened mentally.”
The internal consistency of this measure was good; r=.63 (p <.01).
To measure respondents’ intelligence mindset, weused the three-items measure in Hong et al. (1999),
as translated by Oikawa (2005). These items were:“You have a certain amount of intelligence and you
really can't do much to change it,” “Your intelligenceis something about you that you can't change very
much,” and “You can learn new things, but you can't
really change your basic intelligence.” The higher thescores, the greater the belief that intelligence is a fixed
entity. The lower the scores, the greater the belief that
intelligence is incremental. The internal consistency ofthis measure was good; α=. 83.
To measure respondents’ stress mindset, we listed
two original items based on Keller et al.’s study (2012):“In my experience, having a lot of work causes bad
effects on my health,” and “In my experience, working

hard causes bad effects on my health.” The higher thescores, the greater the belief that stress is debilitating;the lower the scores, the greater the belief that stressis harmless. The internal consistency of this measure
was good; r =. 75 (p <.01).

ResultSoftwareData analysis was conducted using HAD (Shimizu,2016) version 16.0.

Descriptive statistics and correlations
Table 1 presents descriptive statistics andcorrelations for the variables used in this study.
The intelligence mindset has no correlation withperceptions of qualification learning’s usefulness(n.s. ). However, the intelligence mindset isweakly correlated with a perception of difficultyin obtaining qualifications (r =.18, p <.05) andsubjective mental illness (r =.19, p <.01). The results
suggest that the more an individual has a fixed
mindset for intelligence, the more the individual
experience difficulty in obtaining qualifications, andthe more mental illness is experienced. Meanwhile,the stress mindset was weakly correlated witha subjective mental illness (r =.35, p <.01) andperception of difficulty in obtaining qualifications(r =.36, p <.01), which means that the greater anindividual has a “stress-is-debilitating” mindset, themore the individual experiences mental illness andperceives difficulty in obtaining qualifications.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics, Correlations

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Hierarchical multiple regression analysis
The results of the hierarchical multiple regression
analysis for perception of qualification learning’s usefulness and subjective mental illness arepresented below. The standardized betas and
R-Squared values regarding two models arepresented in Table 2. Variables such as sex, age,length of service, role, perception of difficulty inobtaining qualifications, and intelligence and stressmindsets, were entered at step 1. Interaction terms(regarding mindsets and the perception of difficultyin obtaining qualifications) were entered at step 2.

Table 2. Coefficients of hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis

First, we focused on the analysis in which theperception of qualification learning’s usefulness is theobjective variable. The interaction between intelligencemindset and the perception of difficulty in obtaining
qualifications is significantly negatively associatedwith perception of usefulness for qualification
learning (β= -.208, p <.01). For the growth mindset
on intelligence, the slope is positive with a significant
trend (Figure 1). The results suggest that individuals
with a growth mindset tend to be more perceptive

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Annual Report 2020of the usefulness of qualification learning when they
perceive higher setback, while individuals with a fixed
mindset are equally perceptive of the usefulness ofqualification learning based on the degree of setback
experienced. Hence, H1 is partially supported. Further,
the interaction between stress mindset and perceptionof difficulty in obtaining qualifications is significantly
neg at ively asso ciated w ith the percept ion ofqualification learning’s usefulness ( β = -.182, p <.05).
For the “stress-is-harmless” mindset on intelligence,

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the slope is positive and a significant trend (Figure1). This means that individuals with the “stress-isharmless” mindset are more perceptive of qualification
learning’s usefulness when they perceive higher

setback, while individuals with a “stress-is-debilitating”
mindset are equally perceptive of qualification
learning’s usefulness based on the degree of setback
experienced.

Figure 1. The interaction between mindsets and perception of difficulty in obtaining qualifications in terms ofperception of qualification learning’s usefulness.

Secondly, we focused on an analysis in which
subjective mental illness was the objective variable.
In step 1, sex and stress mindset are significantly
positively associated with subjective mental illness(ps <.05). 2 In step 2, in addition to step 1, perceptionof difficulty in obtaining qualifications, intelligencemindset, and the interaction terms (regarding whichmindsets and the perception of difficulty in obtaining
qualifications) are all significantly associated withsubjective mental illness (ps <.05). The interaction

and significant. This means that individuals who
have a stress-is-debilitating mindset tend to haveworse subjective mental health when they perceive
higher setbacks, while individuals who have a stressis-harmless mindset are of equal subjective mental
health based on the degree of setback. Therefore, H3
is supported.

between intelligence mindset and the perception ofdifficulty in obtaining qualifications is significantly
negatively associated with subjective mental illness( β = -.264, p <.01). For the growth mindset on
intelligence, the slope is positive and significant. Thismeans that individuals with a growth mindset tend
to have better subjective mental health when they
perceive lower setback, while individuals with a fixed
mindset have equal subjective mental health basedon the degree of setback (Figure 2). Hence, H2 is notsupported. Further, the interaction between stressmindset and the perception of difficulty in obtaining
qualifications is significantly positively associatedwith subjective mental illness ( β = 321, p <.01). For
the stress-is-debilitating mindset, the slope is positive

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Figure 2. The interaction between mindsets and the perception of difficulty in obtaining qualifications in terms ofsubjective mental illness

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to examine whether
intelligence and stress mindsets moderate theinfluence of the difficulties involved in obtaining
qualifications on learning motivation and mental
health among system engineers. The survey revealed
that (a) individuals with a growth mindset ofintelligence tend to exhibit higher learning motivationin regards to obtaining qualifications, while individuals
with a fixed mindset have equal learning motivation
based on the degree of setback experienced (b)individuals with a “stress-is-debilitating” mindset
exhibit more mental illness when they perceive
higher setback, while individuals with a stress-isharmless mindset equally exhibit mental illness basedon the degree of setback. These results suggest that
intelligence and stress mindsets may be useful forsystem engineers, who are required to continuously
adapt to new technologies in a busy environment
while acquiring qualifications in a healthy andchallenging manner.
This study expands the literature on mindsets bydemonstrating that mindset may also matter in thedomain of employees’ learning. Previous studies
have investigated the role of intelligence mindset
on students’ learning motivation (e.g., Hong et al.,1999), and investigated the role of stress mindset
on bank employees who ultimately are affected byfinancial crisis (e.g., Crum et al., 2013). In this study,
we examined the association between the intelligencemindset and employees' learning motivation; also, we

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examined the association between the stress mindset
of SE employees and mental health. Furthermore, thisstudy also provided new insights by indicating thata growth mindset cannot protect health. The mental
health of respondents with a growth mindset wasworse in situations where the burden of obtaining
qualifications was relatively high compared tolow—although it was not particularly compared torespondents with the fixed mindset.
This study has several limitations that should be
addressed by future research. First, this study was
conducted using a survey design at a single point
in time and all data in this study were correlational.
To test the causal relationships assumed in thisstudy, future research should test the model using
an experimental study design. Second, data werecollected from only one company, where obtaining
qualifications is recommended. It is necessary toinclude employees from various enterprises as
respondents in future research. Third, only the
relationship between mindset and value perception
was clarified because it deals with the recognitionof usefulness as an index to measure motivation.
In future research, it is necessary to clarify these
relations with performance testing. Fourth, basedon Keller's mindset index, this study measured
stress mindset in the dimension of whether stress isdebilitating or harmless. It has been pointed out thatstress mindsets range from debilitating to enhancing(e.g., Crum et al., 2013). Future research should
examine how “stress-is-enhancing” affects motivationand health protection in obtaining qualifications.

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日本語まとめ本研究では、システム・エンジニア（SE）を対象に、知能とストレスに関するマインドセット（MS）が、資格取得の困難さが学びへの動機づけと精神的健康に与える影響を調整しうるかについて検討した。188名のSEを対象に調査を実施したところ、まず、知能について増大的MSを持つ者では、資格取得の困難さを知覚するほど学びへの動機づけが高いが、固定的MSを持つ者では、困難さの知覚に関わらず動機づけが一定であった。また、ストレス有害MSを持つ者では、資格取得の困難さを知覚するほどに精神的健康が損なわれたが、無害MSを持つ者では困難さの知覚にかかわらず精神的健康が一定であった。

キーワード：マインドセット、モチベーション、ストレス、精神的健康―2019.11.29 受稿 , 2020.01.28 受理―

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