Dealing with Social Difficulty During Adolescence: The Role of Implicit Theories of Personality.

Social difficulty during adolescence contributes to internalizing problems (e.g., depression, stress) and spurs cycles of aggression and retaliation. In this article, I review how implicit theories of personality-beliefs about whether people can change their socially relevant characteristics-can help explain why some adolescents respond to social difficulty in these ways while others do not. Believing an -the belief that people cannot change-causes people to blame their own and others' traits for social difficulty, and predicts more extreme affective, physiological, and behavioral responses (e.g., depression, aggression). Interventions that teach an -the belief that people can change-can reduce problematic reactions to social difficulty. I discuss why interventions to alter implicit theories improve adolescents' responses to conflict and propose suggestions for research.