1. Self-Regulation and Implicit Theories of Writing Ability and Willpower: The Importance of the Amount of Revision Needed
Brian Smith, Graceland University Sal Meyers, Simpson College
Implicit Theories
Results
Discussion
Implicit Theories of Writing Ability
When writing is pretty good…
For students who were told their paper was pretty good overall, helpless writing strategies and negative emotions were predicted by a fixed mindset of writing ability.
Students with an entity theory see their writing ability as static and unchangeable
Students with an incremental theory see their writing ability as something that can improve with effort (Limpo & Alves, 2014).
Helpless writing strategies and negative emotions were best predicted by an implicit theory of ability
Instructors should thus
Point out that effort increases ability
Frame specific suggestions for changes as ways of focusing their effort
Helpless Writing Strategies
Pretty Good Overall
Needs Substantial Revision r β
Fixed Mindset
.43***
.39***
.13
.11
Limited Mindset
.19*
.17
.46***
.50***
Implicit Theories of Writing Willpower
Students with a limited theory believe writing willpower is a limited resource. After writing for awhile, these students believe they need to take a break and rest to replenish their store of writing energy
Students with an unlimited theory believe that working hard at writing gives them the energy to keep working (adapted from Job et al., 2015; Miller et al., 2012)
When writing needs substantial revision…
For students who were told their paper needs substantial revision, helpless writing strategies and – marginally - negative emotions were predicted by a limited mindset of writing willpower.
Helpless writing strategies and negative emotions were best predicted by an implicit theory of willpower
Instructors should thus
Point out that doing hard mental work can be energizing so that students can work longer
Encourage students to start early to implement the specific suggestions offered for revising the paper
Negative Emotions
Pretty Good Overall
Needs Substantial Revision r β
Fixed Mindset
.30***
.32***
.03
Limited Mindset
.05
.02
.16
.23†
175 students at a small Midwestern college completed an online survey including measures of implicit theories of both writing ability and writing willpower
Feedback
References
The more students reported having both a fixed mindset of writing ability and a limited mindset of writing willpower, the less confident they were that their final paper would be well written.
Participants imagined they had just received feedback on a draft of a 12-page paper; the final paper was due in 2 weeks. They were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions.
Job, V., Walton, G. M., Bernecker, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Implicit theories about willpower predict self-regulation and grades in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108,
Limpo. T., & Alves, R. A. (2014). Implicit theories of writing and their impact on students’ responses to a SRSD intervention. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 84,
McGrath, A. L., Taylor, A., & Pychyl, T. A. (2011). Writing helpful feedback: The influence of feedback type on students’ perceptions and writing performance. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(2), Article 5.
Miller, E. M., Walton, G. M., Dweck, C. S., Job, V., Trzesniewski, K. H., & McClure, S. M. (2012). Theories of willpower affect sustained learning. Plos ONE, 7(6), doi: /journal.pone
Nurmi, J., Aunola, K., Salmela-Aro, K., & Lindroos, M. (2003) The role of success expectation and task-avoidance in academic performance and satisfaction: Three studies on antecedents, consequences and correlates. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28,
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the positive and negative affect schedule – expanded form. Retrieved from
Pretty good overall
Needs substantial revision
Self-Efficacy
Pretty Good Overall
Needs Substantial Revision r β
Fixed Mindset
-.27**
-.24*
-.21†
Limited Mindset
-.20*
-.22*
-.28**
-.30**
Responses
Helpless Writing Strategies such as procrastination and task avoidance (Nurmi et al., 2003)
Negative Emotions (PANAS-X, Watson & Clark, 1994)
Writing Self-Efficacy is the confidence that the revised paper will be well written (McGrath et al. 2011)
† p < * p < ** p < *** p < Note. When β is statistically significant, that type of mindset predicts the response to feedback even when controlling for the other type of mindset.
Poster presented at 17th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA. January,