a Western Kentucky University.
b Bard College.
J Gen Psychol. 2019 Jul-Sep;146(3):299-324. doi: 10.1080/00221309.2019.1585320. Epub 2019 Mar 24.
Past research has shown negative effects of chronic self-doubt on psychological and performance outcomes. Recent correlational evidence suggests that incremental beliefs about ability ameliorate certain self-doubt effects. The current research examines whether these correlational findings are robust when subjected to experimental testing. In Experiment 1, we manipulated beliefs about ability (incremental vs. entity) and demonstrated that changing beliefs about ability altered responses to self-doubt. For individuals primed with entity beliefs, higher self-doubt was associated with greater nervousness and poorer anagram performance; for individuals primed with incremental beliefs, self-doubt had no significant effects. Experiment 2 was a 2 (manipulated belief: incremental vs. entity) × 2 (self-doubt: doubt induction vs. control) factorial design. The result showed that self-doubt induction lowered self-esteem relative to control when people were primed with entity beliefs but did not affect self-esteem when incremental beliefs were primed. However, Experiment 1 results on affect and performance were not replicated in Experiment 2. Thus, although we provide some causal evidence that inducing individuals to adopt an ability-is-malleable mindset reduces the negative effects of self-doubt, further experimental work is required to study the moderating role of mindsets for self-doubt effects.
过去的研究表明，慢性自我怀疑对心理和表现结果有负面影响。最近的相关证据表明，对能力的增量信念可以改善某些自我怀疑的影响。本研究检验了当这些相关发现受到实验测试时是否稳健。在实验 1 中，我们操纵了对能力的信念（增量与实体），并证明改变对能力的信念会改变对自我怀疑的反应。对于被实体信念激发的个体，更高的自我怀疑与更高的紧张感和更差的字谜成绩相关；对于被增量信念激发的个体，自我怀疑没有显著影响。实验 2 是一个 2（操纵的信念：增量与实体）×2（自我怀疑：怀疑诱导与控制）的因子设计。结果表明，当个体被实体信念激发时，自我怀疑的诱导会降低自尊，而当被增量信念激发时，自我怀疑不会影响自尊。然而，实验 2 并没有复制实验 1 中关于情感和表现的结果。因此，尽管我们提供了一些因果证据表明，诱导个体采用能力是可塑的心态可以减少自我怀疑的负面影响，但需要进一步的实验工作来研究心态对自我怀疑影响的调节作用。
