A Comprehensive Investigation Into The Effects of Mindset
Authors:   , Nieuwenhuis Smiddy 
Published: February 2025

Why do some adolescents struggle more with academic setbacks and challenges than others? Professor Carol Dweck’s research highlights the importance of mindset—beliefs about one’s abilities—on a continuum. Individuals with a fixed mindset view abilities like intelligence as static, often avoiding challenges and interpreting failure as incompetence. Conversely, those with a growth mindset see abilities as malleable, developed through effort and perseverance, and view setbacks as opportunities for growth. Extensive research since Dweck’s early work shows that mindset significantly influences motivation, engagement, and academic well-being, particularly in challenging educational environments.

In today's world, adolescents often face increasing academic pressures, contributing to stress and high dropout rates. Understanding how mindset influence the way adolescents cope with such challenges is crucial, as a growth mindset can help transform stress into a motivating challenge rather than a threat. This dissertation explored the influence of mindset on learning behavior and academic well-being through a comprehensive approach, integrating behavioral, physiological, and neural perspectives to provide a deeper understanding of how mindset shapes educational outcomes during adolescence.
The primary goal of this dissertation was to investigate the neurocognitive processes involved in adopting a growth mindset and how these processes impact learning behavior, such as effort investment and academic well-being in adolescents. Building on the foundational work of Professor Carol Dweck, which highlights the role of ability beliefs in academic success and resilience, this research aimed to deepen the understanding of these ideas through a multi-level approach. The dissertation examined behavioral, physiological, and neural levels that together influence adolescents' learning and outcomes related to their mindsets

Chapter Summaries
Chapter 2 investigated the relation between mindset and effort investment in a challenging arithmetic task among adolescents. Using behavioral measures, the study revealed that growth-minded students were likelier to choose more challenging tasks, with gender differences moderating responses to errors. However, effort profiles derived from latent profile analysis did not predict academic achievement. The study emphasized individual and contextual variations in effort strategies.

Chapter 3 focused on physiological correlates of effort, using pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity as an indicator of autonomic nervous system engagement. Contrary to hypotheses, growth mindset and PEP reactivity did not significantly influence task difficulty choices. Mistakes, however, led to reduced effort in subsequent rounds. The findings underscored the complexity of physiological influences on mindset-related behaviors.

Chapter 4 examined the relationship between growth mindset and school burnout symptoms, exploring vagal activity as a potential mediator. While growth mindset correlated with fewer burnout symptoms, no significant association was found between mindset, vagal activity, or their mediating relationship. This highlighted growth mindset’s protective role against burnout but suggested other mechanisms at play.

Chapter 5 assessed neural correlates of growth mindset using resting-state functional connectivity analyses. No significant associations were observed between mindset and connectivity patterns in reward or executive control networks, contrasting with prior findings. The stability of neural correlates of mindset is quested, emphasizing the need for diverse, longitudinal approaches.

Chapter 6 explored error-monitoring processes through event-related potentials (ERPs). While initial results suggested that fixed-minded individuals exhibited greater error awareness, these effects were not significant anymore when correcting for stimulus-overlap. The findings highlight the situational and context-dependent nature of mindset-related neural processes.

Conclusions
The dissertation demonstrates that mindset is not a fixed trait but rather a dynamic, context-dependent construct. While behavioral studies highlight its influence on effort and resilience, physiological and neural analyses reveal limited evidence for stable, trait-level associations. These findings challenge traditional views of mindset as an inherent characteristic and suggest a need for integrative, context-sensitive research to better understand its role in education.