How Growth Mindset Impacts Motivation and Achievement

Credit: Adobe Stock/Davide Angelini

People with a strong growth mindset show significantly higher levels of passion and grit, highlighting its importance for motivation, achievement and personal well-being.

A mindset is the collection of a person’s thoughts and beliefs in their own traits, including personality and intelligence. People with a fixed mindset believe these attributes are permanent qualities, while people with a growth mindset view intellectual ability as malleable and able to be enhanced through effort, education, strategy and practice.

Previous research has indicated individuals with a growth mindset are more likely to succeed in both work and play. Also, a growth mindset combined with grit and passion is widely regarded as a key factor for success in sports.

Passion is defined as a strong desire or enthusiasm for something or a value/preference that motivates a person’s intentions and behaviors. Grit is characterized as determination and a passion for one’s goals, along with the energy and diligence that is needed to maintain interest and effort.

“The development of positive attributes such as passion, grit, and growth mindset are important for development of skills and knowledge throughout life; however, research on the associations between these significant non-cognitive factors has been rather scarce,” wrote lead investigator Hermundur Sigmundsson, Ph.D., associated with the Department of Psychology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, and the Research Center for Education and Mindset at the University of Iceland, Iceland.

To explore how passion and grit differ between people with high and low growth mindsets, investigators recruited a group of over 1,500 participants aged 13 to 77 years. Mindset was measured using the Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS) and passion was evaluated using an eight-item survey designed to determine a person’s passion for achievement. Grit was assessed using the Norwegian version of the Grit-S Scale, in which consistency of interest and perseverance of effort were evaluated.

The sample was further split into a selection of people who scored high on the growth mindset scale (GMH) and one with those who scored low (GML). The GMH group had the 5% highest scores on the scale, with a mean score of 5.96, while the GML group had the 5% lowest scores, averaging 1.43. Patients in the high-scoring group were slightly older than those in the low-scoring group (31.29 years vs 27.32 years, respectively).

Individuals with a high growth mindset scored much higher in passion (4.14 vs 3.78, respectively) and grit (3.61 vs 3.23, respectively) than those with a low growth mindset.

The study explored how mindset, grit and passion relate to performance and success across different age groups, using well-validated tools and a large, diverse sample. However, it didn’t measure these traits in specific areas (like sports or academics) or assess practical outcomes, and its cross-sectional design cannot determine cause-and-effect relationships. Investigators said these findings might not apply universally beyond the Nordic region, and noted self-reporting bias as a potential limitation as a limitation of the study due to its reliance on questionnaires.

“This shows the significance of growth mindset for passion and grit or vice versa,” investigators concluded. “This elucidates the importance of a comprehensive understanding of the path to improved performances and expertise. Thus, growth mindset may be an important asset to promote and strive for both in the everyday life in school, sports, working life and at home during the whole life span.”