Universality of implicit theories: Are intelligence and personality both unchangeable?

Are personality, intelligence and other personal attributes inherited and unchangeable? The present study attempts to understand whether there is a general belief that governs students' view of the changeability of these personal attributes. The subjects were 555 junior secondary 1 students in China. Comparisons of a number of competitive models using structural equation modeling on the survey data were conducted. Results tended to support a common and general implicit theory across personality, intelligence and other personal attributes. That is, there is a general belief that governs students' view on the changeability of personality, intelligence and other personal attributes.