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Do you have the right attitude to be the best? Researchers can measure it.

Want to be the best? It’s all in your mindset

A new test can determine if you have the right attitude to achieve your goals.

Published

It takes a lot to succeed with ambitious goals. Among other things, we need passion and belief that we will succeed. Usually, we also need support from others.

However, we also need to have the right attitude – the right mindset. One that makes us willing to do what it takes to change and improve. Experts refer to it as a growth mindset.

So, how do we know if we actually have the right mindset? How can a coach know if a talented athlete has the attitude and mindset needed to become one of the best? 

An individual’s mindset is influenced by external factors that can change, and it may also vary from day to day.

“An individual’s belief in growth is important. Individuals can change and increase their development through training. People with growth mindsets see challenges as opportunities for learning,” says Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson at NTNU’s Department of Psychology.

Imagine how useful it would be if we could measure whether we have the right mindset.

Fortunately, we can.

Professors can measure mindset

Sigmundsson has been studying the factors that help us succeed in achieving our goals for years. In a book, he presents his research over the past 30 years.

He and colleague Professor Monika Haga, from the Department of Teacher Education, have now developed a test to measure attitude and growth mindset.

Hermundur Sigmundsson is a professor at NTNU’s Department of Psychology.

“There has been a lot of discussion in academic circles about the most common test available today. We believe our new test is better at measuring growth mindset,” says Sigmundsson.

You might think that measuring whether people have the right mindset to improve or not would be difficult. However, Sigmundsson and colleagues have developed methods to measure both flow and passion. 

Flow is what you experience when you are engaged in something so deeply that time seems to fly by. This is what psychologists call a flow state. Passion is how much you like doing something or having a strong interest in an area, skill, or topic.

In light of this, it might not be so impossible to measure whether we have the right mindset either. The researchers believe they have cracked the code.

Over 700 participants

“A total of 723 participants aged 16 to 85 years old were involved in the study. This provided a representative sample of people, and there were enough of them for us to also investigate how feasible, consistent, and effective our test is,” says Sigmundsson.

The participants were presented with a series of statements that they had to consider whether they agreed with.

Test your mindset

Participants were asked to assess how much they agreed with these statements on a scale from 1 to 5.

  1. I know that with effort I can improve my skills and knowledge.
  2. I can influence and change my development in general.
  3. I can change my skills and knowledge through practice.
  4. I like to take challenges and try new things.
  5. I see learning as my goal.
  6. Effort makes me stronger.
  7. I want to spend more time and work more on an area/theme/skill to develop my skills and knowledge.
  8. I have faith in my own skills and my possibilities.

An article about the test has recently been published in New Ideas in Psychology.

“Our results show that the test is suitable for this age group. It's really encouraging and provides a better scale with which to measure growth mindset, the right attitude,” says Sigmundsson.

In other words, we have gained a new tool to identify whether we or others have what it takes to succeed.

Sigmundsson believes that the growth mindset should be all-encompassing in our society: in the family home, in sports, at school, and in the workplace. Schools should also focus on helping pupils experience mastery by adapting challenges to their level.

References: 

Sigmundsson, H. & Haga, M. Growth Mindset Scale: Aspects of reliability and validity of a new 8-item scale assessing growth mindsetNew Ideas in Psychology, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2024.10111

Sigmundsson, H. 'How we learn and become experts: Igniting the spark', Springer, 2024. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-61645-7 (Summary)

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Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no

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