Teaching difficult students can be taxing – suggesting that emotional health and perseverance (e.g. grit) may predict teacher performance in poor neighborhoods. In this study, Teach For America teachers, who are required to teach in mostly poor neighborhoods, were assessed for 4 qualities: grit, life satisfaction, optimism, and performance. Performance was objectively assessed by averaging the academic gains of … Read more
Across six studies, the authors of this article attempted to prove the predictive validity of a new questionnaire which they created, the Grit Scale. In the first study, grittier adults were more likely to have attained a higher level of education. In addition, grit was shown to increase with age, although because this study was … Read more
Have you ever seen those cartoons where a character has an devil on one shoulder telling it all the bad things it should do; and an angel on the other shoulder telling it all the good things it should do and the reasons it shouldn’t do them. I have always thought of self-control as that … Read more
IQ tests, in their ideal form, accurately measure intelligence. In the real world, they don’t, for several reasons. First, many portions of an IQ assessment test crystallized knowledge – that is, they test for facts that have already been memorized. Although knowledge is a component of intelligence, intelligence, as it is usually used, means, ‘how fast can this person learn?’ The … Read more
This study tests the hypothesis that report cards and standardized assessments test different things – specifically, that report cards focus more on testing self-control, and standardizes assessments on testing intelligence Their reasoning is that the individual components which build into a report card grade, like paying attention in class, doing homework, and showing effort, primarily require self-control. … Read more
Positive Psychology Scales and Measurements The Brief Self-Control Scale (Tangney et al., 2004) is a 13-item questionnaire, which asks participants to endorse statements on a 5-point scale where 1 = not like me at all and 5 = very much like me (e.g., “I have a hard time breaking bad habits” and “I do certain things … Read more
Given the increasing evidence that self-control influences academic performance, it is important to try to increase the self-control of children. Of most interest are motivation strategies which have an immediate impact and don’t require a substantial time investment (e.g. unlike meditation). This study evaluated the impact of the combination of mental contrasting and implementation intentions on … Read more
Do levels of self-control in young children predict future weight status? Maybe. The level of self-control contained by an eight-grader four years earlier explains 8% of the variance of their weight. But after controlling for their BMI four years earlier, self-control explains just 1% of the variance of their weight. This suggests that self-control starts … Read more
Do girls achieve better than boys when it comes to self-discipline, grades and achievement? Using the same data as in this study, the idea that girls have higher average levels of self-discipline than boys were tested and confirmed. Adolescent girls were found to have 5 to 20% more self-control than adolescent boys, explaining in part why they do … Read more
Some combination of personality, intelligence, and environmental factors determine success. Intelligence and environment are usually considered to have a much larger role than personality. This study shows that personality may play a larger factor in academic performance than previously thought. Some background: The research behind IQ and performance in adolescents Greater ability to delay gratification measured at … Read more