Entity and incremental theory of personality: Revisiting the validity of indicators

This article tests the validity of indicators of entitavist and incremental lay theories about the malleability of personality (Dweck, Hong, & Chiu, 1993; Levy, Stroessner, & Dweck, 1998) in a two-wave panel survey over a 12-month period. After controlling for systematic measurement error stemming from different directions of item wording, the indicators form a single dimension. Moreover, hypotheses concerning (non-)correlations with socio-demographic characteristics and psychological dispositions largely receive support from the evidence. Further, beliefs about the malleability of personality exhibit higher intra-individual stability than attributions when controlling for measurement error in structural equation modeling. However, beliefs do not influence these attributions.