Important adolescents’ career-related decisions might be influenced by their beliefs about malleability of intelligence and learning (mindset). We combined quantitative and qualitative data to provide in-depth insights in the beliefs that 13- and 14-year olds hold about learning and intelligence, the factors influencing these beliefs, and the consequences of these beliefs in relation to classroom behavior and study choices. To establish students’ mindsets quantitatively, we categorized theory of intelligence (TOI) questionnaire averaged scores into three levels: entity, intermediate, or incremental mindsets, to provide insight into the distribution of the different mindset types in our sample (N = 492). The results of this quantitative study show that more than half of the students believed intelligence is “fixed” (entity mindset), these data showed no effect of gender. To gain more in-depth insight in the views of these students, focus groups about mindset and its influences and consequences were held in a subsample (n = 176). The qualitative data provide more nuanced insights, for example, they reveal subtle gender differences regarding effort beliefs and motivation. Integrated discussion of the quantitative and qualitative results demonstrates that this multimethod approach reflects the complexity of the concept mindset better than only the widely used TOI questionnaire.

重要的青少年与职业相关的决定可能会受到他们对智力和学习的可塑性（心态）的信念的影响。我们将定量和定性数据结合起来，深入了解 13 岁和 14 岁儿童对学习和智力的信念、影响这些信念的因素，以及这些信念对课堂行为和学习选择的影响。为了定量地建立学生的心态，我们将智力理论（TOI）问卷的平均分数分为三个级别：实体心态、中间心态或增量心态，以深入了解我们样本中不同心态类型的分布（N= 492)。这项定量研究的结果表明，超过一半的学生认为智力是“固定的”（实体心态），这些数据显示没有性别影响。为了更深入地了解这些学生的观点，在一个子样本（n = 176）中举行了关于心态及其影响和后果的焦点小组。定性数据提供了更细致入微的见解，例如，它们揭示了关于努力信念和动机的细微性别差异。定量和定性结果的综合讨论表明，这种多方法方法比仅广泛使用的 TOI 问卷更能反映概念思维的复杂性。