We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Difficulty-as-Improvement: The Courage to Keep Going in the Face of Life's Difficulties.
- Authors
Yan, Veronica X.; Oyserman, Daphna; Kiper, Gülnaz; Atari, Mohammad
- Abstract
When a task or goal is hard to think about or do, people can infer that it is a waste of their time (difficulty-as-impossibility) or valuable to them (difficulty-as-importance). Separate from chosen tasks and goals, life can present unchosen difficulties. Building on identity-based motivation theory, people can see these as opportunities for self-betterment (difficulty-as-improvement). People use this language when they recall or communicate about difficulties (autobiographical memories, Study 1; "Common Crawl" corpus, Study 2). Our difficulty mindset measures are culture-general (Australia, Canada, China, India, Iran, New Zealand, Turkey, the United States, Studies 3–15, N = 3,532). People in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD)-er countries slightly agree with difficulty-as-improvement. Religious, spiritual, conservative people, believers in karma and a just world, and people from less-WEIRD countries score higher. People who endorse difficulty-as-importance see themselves as conscientious, virtuous, and leading lives of purpose. So do endorsers of difficulty-as-improvement—who also see themselves as optimists (all scores lower for difficulty-as-impossibility endorsers).
- Subjects
COURAGE; AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL memory; KARMA
- Publication
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 2024, Vol 50, Issue 7, p1006
- ISSN
0146-1672
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/01461672231153680