Chapter 1 What promotes adaptive motivation? Four beliefs and four truths about ability, success, praise, and confidence -- Chapter 2 When failure undermines and when failure motivates: helpless and mastery-oriented responses -- Chapter 3 Achievement goals: looking smart versus learning -- Chapter 4 In intelligence fixed or changeable? students' theories about their intelligence foster their achievement goals -- Chapter 5 Theories of intelligence predict (and create). Differences in achievement -- Chapter 6 Theories in intelligence create high and low effort -- Chapter 7 Implicit theories and goals predict self-esteem loss and descressive reactions to negative events -- Chapter 8 Why confidence and success are not enough -- Chapter 9 what is IQ and does it matter? -- Chapter 10 Believing in fixed social traits: impact on social coping -- Chapter 11 Judging and labeling others: another effect of implicit theories -- Chapter 12 Belief in the potencial to change -- Chapter 13 Holding and forming stereotypes -- Chapter 14 How does it all begin? young children's theories about goodness and badness -- Chapter 15 Kings of praise and criticism: the origins of vulnerability -- Chapter 16 Praising intelligence: more praise that backfires -- Chapter 17 Misconceptions about self-esteem and about how to foster it -- 18 Personality, motivation, development, and the self: theoretical reflections -- Chapter 19 Final thoughts on controversial issues -- References -- Appendix: Measures of implicit theories, confidence and Goal Index.

Includes bibliographical references (p.157-173.) and index.