Personal conceptions of intelligence: a developmental study in Portugal.

The aim of this work is to present the results of a 2-yr. longitudinal study with a sample of 577 Portuguese high school students, observed twice, to study the intraindividual development of personal conceptions of intelligence during adolescence and its relation to school marks and to the causal dimension of controllability. Data, tested through LISREL structural equations, indicated school marks have an important role in the development of dynamic conceptions of intelligence during adolescence. These results were compared with those from other cultural contexts and were analysed in the context of Portuguese culture.