Undergraduate Thesis

The following is an excerpt from my undergraduate thesis titled Implicit Mindset, Ability Beliefs and Academic Entitlement: Implications for Improving Student Outcomes

"Politicians, parents, and students themselves have all long been interested in improving student outcomes. In an effort to understand how to improve students outcomes, researchers have sought to understand the influence of students’ attitudes toward learning. Are students enjoying learning? Scared of learning? Discouraged by academic failure? Research about learning styles, motivational types, self-esteem and self-efficacy, and mindset have all sought to help answer questions about academic attitudes and achievement. Carol Dweck spent decades developing implicit mindset theory before publishing her book declaring mindset “The New Psychology of Success.” Indeed, a student’s mindset, the way they see the world, can impact their success. However, student success is not quite that simple. Many factors can impact student success, including academic entitlement (AE). AE is a much newer concept than mindset theory, but early research indicates a student’s level of AE may be related to their achievement in college. Given that both mindset and AE levels may be related to student success, understanding how these concepts interact with one another is crucial to our ability to improve student outcomes.

This study first offers a review of the literature on AE and mindset theory. Then, a new variable termed perceived ability discrepancy (PAD) is introduced. The goals of this study are to (1) provide a theoretical justification for a link between AE, mindset theory, and PAD, (2) develop a scale for PAD, and (3) demonstrate an empirical link between the three variables."