Children’s Thinking about Traits: Implications for Judgments of the Self and Others Gail D. Heyman and Carol S. Dweck Child Development, April 1998, Volume 64, Number 2, Pages 391-403The relation between the way in which children interpret human behavior and their beliefs about the stability of human traits is investigated. Results suggest that beliefs about the stability of traits may serve an important role in think- ing about and functioning within the academic and sociomoral domains.
Overall, fixed-entity views tend to increase perception of helplessness. Children made predictions about future behavior based on current behavior. Children who saw opportunity for people to change with time tended to allow for other kinds of change with time.
Results: "We suggest that when important traits are thought to be stable, attention is focused on categorizing people based on their abilities and personality attributes rather than on understanding the relevant social and motivational processes."
Bottom line: even children develop beliefs about mutability and attributes, and at very young ages.
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