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Updated: Jul 25, 2025

Assessment of Stress Effects on Cognitive Flexibility using an Operant Strategy Shifting Paradigm
Published on: May 4, 2020
Growth mindset and responses to acute stress
Ethan R Fischer1, Cosette Fox2, K Lira Yoon1
1Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Abstract:
Individuals with high levels of growth mindsets believe that attributes are malleable. Although links between acute stress responses and growth mindsets of thought, emotion, and behaviour are central to the conceptualisation of psychological disorders and their treatment, such links have yet to be examined. Undergraduate participants (N = 135) completed a modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and their salivary cortisol and anxiety were assessed throughout the session. Hierarchical linear models revealed that higher growth mindset of behaviour was associated with lower cortisol levels at 25-min after the TSST onset (i.e. peak cortisol stress reactivity) in men, but not in women. Considering one's gender may be critical in understanding the relationship between growth mindset and stress responses.
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