Citation

Yeager DS. Child Dev. Perspect. 2017; 11(3): 196-201.

Affiliation

University of Texas at Austin.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/cdep.12234

PMID

28983325

PMCID

PMC5624341

Abstract

Social difficulty during adolescence contributes to internalizing problems (e.g., depression, stress) and spurs cycles of aggression and retaliation. In this article, I review how implicit theories of personality-beliefs about whether people can change their socially relevant characteristics-can help explain why some adolescents respond to social difficulty in these ways while others do not. Believing an entity theory of personality-the belief that people cannot change-causes people to blame their own and others' traits for social difficulty, and predicts more extreme affective, physiological, and behavioral responses (e.g., depression, aggression). Interventions that teach an incremental theory of personality-the belief that people can change-can reduce problematic reactions to social difficulty. I discuss why interventions to alter implicit theories improve adolescents' responses to conflict and propose suggestions for research.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescence; coping; implicit theories; mental representations; psychological intervention; social-cognitive development