Abstract (eng)
This research work examines the connection between intelligence mindset be-liefs (about holding a growth mindset) and psychophysiological effort during a learning phase. It further investigates a mediating role of task enjoyment between growth mindset and learning. In line with recommendations from literature, this study uses an implicit measure to assess implicit growth mindset, aiming to over-come the limits of explicit measures and reveal a more automatic layer of growth mindset. Measurement of physiological parameters was included to assess effort. During the study procedure, physiological arousal was captured through test per-son’s heart rate and blood pleasure by using mechanical devices such as elec-trodes and a blood pressure machine. To answer the research question whether holding a growth mindset makes peo-ple enjoy tasks more and thus results in a higher psychophysiological arousal dur-ing a learning phase, a quantitative correlational study was conducted on university students (N = 170) at the labor for motivational psychology of the University of Vienna. The results of the study failed to demonstrate a significant correlation be-tween growth mindset and the psychophysiological effort during a learning phase. Nor could a mediating role of task enjoyment be found. Further, there was no con-nection between growth mindset and age as well as gender. However, differences in the distribution of explicitly and implicitly measured growth mindset were found and are discussed. To put non-significant results into perspective, limiting factors as well as practical relevance of this research field are debated.