Beyond IQ: An Inner Compass towards Success

We just took a closer look at some quieter forces shaping our success - our beliefs about our own abilities, how much control we feel over what happens in our lives, and the mindset we carry about learning and growth. They’re like settings on our internal compass, pointing us toward action, shaping how we respond to challenges, and helping us navigate toward goals we care about.

IQ might may be om the spotlight when we talk about predicting success, but it’s far from the whole story. Psychology research shows many things matter. Things like self-efficacy, locus of control, and growth mindset can predict performance, persistence, and well-being in powerful, personal ways. And importantly, we can grow them. We navigate.

Self-efficacy is our belief we can do what we need so we succeed in a particular situation. It's not just optimism and confidence. It’s about trusting our ability to act, adapt, and follow through (Bandura, 1977).

People with high self-efficacy tend to earn better grades, stay in school longer, perform better at work, manage stress more effectively, and even recover faster from health setbacks (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001; Zajacova, Lynch, & Espenshade, 2004; Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998; McAuley, 1992; Ewart et al., 1983).

Bandura (1977) identified four keys unlocking our self-efficacy:

1. Mastery experiences (having success when we try)
2. Social modeling (seeing others we identify with succeed)
3. Encouragement (from others)
4. Our Emotional responses (e.g., experiencing excitement vs anxiety)

Improving Our Self-Efficacy
Do you have high self-efficacy right now (Table 1). If not, remember it doesn't mean you're stuck without it. Maybe you just haven't found enough keys to open it. We can be intentional about improving our self efficacy! Take some of your goals and make them concrete and attainable, and break them into smaller manageable goals (e.g., Bandura, 1997). Start with steps you can succeed with, and not only will you be succeeding, but you'll be watching yourself succeed. Seek out people with the skills you admire and study how they got there (Bandura, 1986). And reflect on efforts, even when you "fail" for insights into how you can do things differently (Usher & Pajares, 2009). And find supportive people to encourage you (e.g., Lent & Lopez, 2002; Ilgen & Davis, 2000).

Locus of Control reflects our beliefs about what causes our life’s outcomes. Do we feel that our actions shape what happens? Or do we believe fate, luck, or powerful others mostly determine our path?

An internal locus of control means we believe our actions matter. An external locus means outcomes feel out of our hands. People with an internal locus tend to experience greater academic and career success, better health, more resilience, and less depression (Lefcourt, 1982; Benassi, Sweeney, & Dufour, 1988; Whyte, 1977).

This belief is especially powerful for students from marginalized backgrounds. When we believe we can steer - even in tough systems - we’re more likely to stay in school, persist through setbacks, and shape our futures (Whyte, 1980).

Let's look at our internal versus external locus of control scores (table 2) and reflect about how we see what drives our life.

We all make sense of life in different ways. Some of us believe we can shape what happens through effort and choices—that’s a strong internal locus of control. Others see outcomes as more dependent on luck, fate, or powerful people around us—that’s more external.

If you would like to reflect more deeply about your Locus of Control, notice you have three more scores

• Internal Control: most people score 4.2 to 5.4
• Belief in Chance: most people score 3.0 to 4.8
• Belief in Powerful Others: most people score about 2.8 to 4.6

It’s totally normal to have a mix. We might feel internally in control when it comes to studying, but feel external when dealing with financial aid or health systems. What matters most is knowing our patterns, and deciding what beliefs help us move forward.

Fostering an Internal Locus of Control

We're not stuck if we have an external locus of control and we would like to change. I don't mean be delusional. There are things outside our control, always. But not everything. Consider challenging thoughts of hopeless by reframing situations to emphasize your agency (Seligman, 1991). I personally like the serenity prayer, which is popular among 12 step groups (e.g., AA, CoDA).

Growth mindset is the belief our talents and abilities can be developed with effort, learning, and support. It contrasts with a fixed mindset seeing talents and abilities as something we're born with, unchangeable, and we either have it, or we don’t (Dweck, 1999).

Psychology research shows a growth mindset is associated with academic resilience, greater persistence, and a stronger willingness to engage with challenges and feedback (Yeager et al., 2019). It’s linked with better mental health outcomes and deeper gains from therapy too (Schleider et al., 2015). In college settings, students of color perform significantly better in STEM classrooms where professors model a growth mindset, helping to reduce racial achievement gaps regardless of the instructor’s own ethnic background (Canning et al., 2019).

How we praise matters too. When parents and teachers focus on effort ("Wow, you worked so hard and did it!") instead of traits ("Wow, you're so smart; you did it!"), we’re more likely to take academic risks and persist longer when we have trouble (Rhodes, 2015).

Let's look at our Growth versus Fixed Mindset scores (table 3) and reflect about how we understand abilities and talents.

Mindsets exist along a spectrum. Some of us believe ability is mostly fixed - we either have it or we don’t. Others believe talent grows with effort, time, and the right strategies. Most of us fall somewhere in between.

If you would like to reflect more deeply about your growth versus fixed mindset, notice you have two more scores

• Fixed "Entity" Mindset: most people score 1.9 to 3.9
• Growth "Incremental" Mindset: most people score 4.5 to 6.3

It’s totally possible to have a mix. We might feel like growth matters for standard school curriculum, like reading, but be fixed about things society treats as talents. "Oh I can't draw. I'm not an art person." But please remind yourself everyone starts somewhere so instead of saying something like, "I'm not an art person," you might say, "I haven't chosen to dedicate the time and effort to build artistic skills." Just reframing your thoughts lets you know, you have a choice. Our goal is noticing and purposely deciding what our goals are - without feeling shame we lack abilities.

Self-efficacy, locus of control, and growth mindset aren’t simply buzzwords popular in schools. They’re windows into how we relate to challenge, effort, and possibility. Together, they form an inner compass. It doesn’t just tell us where we are, but helps us choose where we go next.

We might score high on one scale and lower on another. That’s okay. These aren’t fixed traits. They’re patterns of belief we can shift over time, with care, reflection, and experience. We don’t need perfect scores to grow. We just need a willingness to explore.

Developmental psychology refers to this adaptable, real-world understanding as practical intelligence - an ability to navigate everyday problems, make sound decisions, and apply what we know in changing contexts (Sternberg, 1985). And It’s not about memorizing facts. It’s about learning how to learn, and growing through action.

So please don't take what we learn here as a judgment, but as an invitation:

• To believe in our capacity to learn and lead
• To notice where we feel capable, and where we might reclaim our power, and
• To treat every challenge not as proof we can’t, but as a sign we’re still becoming

We're not fixed. We're in motion. And that’s a beautiful place to be.

Uneasy Feelings about Your Results?
Please remember your results with any activity are not who you are. Your results are a 'snapshot' of a moment when you did an activity. It's just one measure, a single thread, of the many strands of who you are. Any result is a guess with statistical error. And it's possible the measure is flawed in a way so it doesn't work for you. Please do not think of your results as definitive dogma. Instead they're a starting point for our self reflection. Please keep in mind too, self-reflection can feel uncomfortable. "Bad" feelings are not actually bad. They're information. So, even if your activity result is inaccurate and flawed, you might ask yourself what your feeling is trying to tell you? Trusted teachers, friends, and therapists can be helpful. I wrote an essay elaborating with concrete examples how we can appreciate uneasy feelings about our activity results.

Scholarly Information?
You're welcome to use Copernican Revolution activities and essays for your thesis and studies. Having information about scholarly aspects like psychometric data, activity design details, and norm calculations may help. The primary focus of my essays is connecting educated laypersons with psychology. To help people like you, with advanced academic interests, I add an appendix with each activity.

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Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2019). To what extent and under which circumstances are growth mindsets important to academic achievement? Two meta-analyses. Psychological Science, 29(4), 549–571.

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