Abstract
Objectives
Growth mindset beliefs promote adaptive motivations to learn and challenge seeking; however, the learning process promoted by a growth mindset is not always positive. Adverse experiences may be especially true if one faces harsh criticism. However, mindfulness may be a potential adaptive mechanism in a situation that evokes harsh criticism. The present research examined the interplay between growth mindset beliefs and trait mindfulness regarding the motivation to learn from harsh criticism.
Method
We hypothesized that three forms of engagement with criticism (over-engagement, disengagement, and constructive engagement) could be potential setback-specific mediators between growth mindset, trait mindfulness, and motivation to learn from criticism. Cross-sectional, self-report methods have been used on a diverse Hungarian sample (n = 1469).
Results
We found that a growth mindset and trait mindfulness are positively and directly related to the motivation to learn from criticism. Having a growth mindset was unrelated to constructive engagement. At the same time, disengagement and over-engagement negatively mediated the link between a growth mindset and the motivation to learn from setbacks. In contrast, the link between trait mindfulness and learning from setbacks was negatively mediated by both disengagement and over-engagement and positively mediated by constructive engagement.
Conclusions
The results suggest that growth mindset beliefs do not let individuals disengage from criticism and may promote constructive or a potentially harmful form of over-engagement with criticism. Complementarily, trait mindfulness is associated with the struggling way of learning characterized by constructive engagement and inhibits the suffering path of learning characterized by over-engagement the criticism.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available online in the supplement.
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The first author was supported by Northern French Strategic Dialogue (Phase 1 & 2), STaRS and Chaire de Professeur Junior Grants. Special thanks to the Schmidt foundation postdoc grant that made it possible to study the links between growth mindset and mindfulness at Stanford University.
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Gábor Orosz: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, writing—original draft, writing review and editing
Kristopher Evans: writing—original draft, writing—review and editing
Lilla Török: visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Beáta Bőthe: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, project administration, writing—original draft
István Tóth-Király: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, data curation, software, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing
Kata Sik: project administration, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing manuscript
Éva Gál: project administration, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing
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This work was supported by the Hungarian Research Fund (FK 124225), the Schmidt Foundation, and also for the Young Researcher STARS and the DSG2 2021 grants from Conseil Régional Hauts de France.
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Orosz, G., Evans, K.M., Török, L. et al. The Differential Role of Growth Mindset and Trait Mindfulness in the Motivation of Learning from Criticism. Mindfulness 14, 868–879 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02117-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02117-4