One of the best predictors of academic success

Do you believe that your academic ability is fixed from birth? To what extent do you think that luck plays a part in your academic success? Can one significantly improve their academic ability with effort?

All the questions posed above, when answered would expose what psychologist call your locus of control. The locus of control that one has is an excellent predictor of one’s academic performance. Individuals for the most part either have an external locus of control or an internal locus of control. Students with an external locus of control tend to attribute their results to factors outside of themselves. When they perform poorly they may blame it on bad luck, or the teacher’s incompetence. While students with an internal locus of control believe that their effort matters. That what they do (like studying or working hard in general) will have an impact on their results. These students look within and take responsibility for the outcome of their academic pursuits.

The locus of control concept was beautifully expanded on by renowned psychologist Carol Dweck. Her work with students led to the conclusion that students either have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Students with a fixed mindset typically believe that their ability is fixed form birth. While students with a growth mindset believe that their abilities can be improved with consistent hard work. She worked with groups of students, some of which were told that their efforts mattered and that with hard work and persistence they could improve their ability. The other group of students were given no information regarding being able to improve their abilities. What she found was that when both groups were given challenging tasks, the group that was told that hard work would improve their abilities, persisted longer in the assigned task and many were able to solve the problems given. The other group on the other hand, had several students who eventually gave up and only a few were successful in completing the assigned task.

From Carol Dweck’s work we see that how we view the impact of hard work is crucial to our academic success. If we believe that hard work matters (and it does) then we will be motivated to continue putting in the requisite study needed to achieve academic success. We will recognize that failure is an inevitable ‘bump’ in the road to success. When we put the onus on us to do all we can to increase our probability of success, we will find that our efforts will be worth the while in the long run.

Here is the good news, if you currently have an external locus of control, by putting in the work, you can develop an internal locus of control. I suggest that you read the work of Carol Dweck that is easily found on the internet. 

Your ability is not fixed, but rather fluid and can be significantly improved with practice and hard work, put in the work and experience the academic turn around that you have been longing for.