Developing a growth mindset

To slightly paraphrase William Shakespeare, the course of doctoral research never did run smooth. As with most things in life, you are likely to come across challenges in your journey as a postgraduate researcher. One way that might help you cope with challenges is cultivating a growth mindset.

The ‘growth mindset’ concept was first developed by the American psychologist Carol Dweck and describes the belief that human abilities are not fixed, but malleable, and that “intelligence can be developed, for example, through personal effort, good learning strategies, and lots of mentoring and support from others” (Dweck and Yeager, 2019).

Research has shown that having a growth mindset can help students to be more resilient and better prepared to take on challenges (Yeager and Dweck, 2012; Wang, Shi and King, 2026). Other studies have shown a link between growth mindset and academic achievement (Linklater-Steele, Colthorpe and Ainscough, 2025; Ouyang et al., 2025).

How, then, can you nurture a growth mindset as a doctoral researcher? Here are some suggestions.

• When confronted with setbacks, don’t be too hard on yourself. Be kind to yourself, practice self-compassion and talk to yourself as you would to a friend.
• Acknowledge that it is OK to struggle. It is also perfectly natural to feel upset about setbacks.
• Having said that, try to reframe failure when you encounter it: try to see it as an opportunity to learn. See if there is some feedback that can help you with this.
• Remember that mastery of research skills takes time. Continue to put in the effort. Remind yourself of everything you have already learnt on your PhD journey.

Research has shown that peer support, as well as supervisor support, can help doctoral researchers develop a growth mindset (Wang, Shi and King, 2026). It has also shown that peer mindsets can be ‘contagious’ (Seo et al., 2025). This might lead you to ask how doctoral researchers can support each other to nurture a growth mindset.

• Do not be afraid to ask for help, for example from somebody who has already mastered a particular technique you are currently struggling with. Be open to learning from each other. Conversely, offer your help to others if you think they might benefit from it!
• We all struggle at certain points in our lives. This is a normal part of learning and does not mean that you lack the ability to succeed in your studies. Sharing your struggles with your peers can help to normalise this.
• Try to be mindful of the language you use around others when talking about your work.

To hear more from other doctoral researchers, have a look at MIT’s Flipping Failures website. There, you can find videos in which graduate students talk about their experiences of using the growth mindset as a strategy to cope with difficult situations.

A final note: mindsets exist on a continuum. It is very much possible for people to have a growth mindset in one area of their life and not in another. Also, mindsets do not grow in isolation and depend on other factors such as the support available to you (Le, 2026). So, if you struggle, please make use of the support networks around you.

Editor’s note: for full-text access to the references cited in this post, install the LibKey Nomad extension in your browser.