Who is Successful?

What are some common traits of

successful people?
Organized
Persistent
Consistent
Resilient
Positive
Focused
Brave

Confident
Curious
Perseverance
Balanced
Enthusiastic

Gritty

The Grit
Scale
Gabby Monteiro and KK Frazier

What is Grit?
Angela Duckworth Ted Talk 2:48-3:27
Grit is trait-level perseverance and passion for
long-term goals; capacity to sustain effort and
interest in long term goals
Grit scale aims to measure perseverance as a
predictive factor
Different from Big Five personality- focuses on
stamina rather than completion of short term
goals
Individuals high in grit do not stray from goals
regardless of positive feedback

Reliability
& Validity

Overall Results
Internally consistent: =.73 to .84
Grit score predicted outcome regardless of evaluator

Consensually valid
This means that two or more people can independently observe
the someones grit score and report similar results

Face valid
For adolescents and adults (vs. Perseverance Scale for Children
[Lufi & Cohen, 1987] or the Tenacity Scale [Baum and
Locke,2004])

Construct is valid
Measures the 2 domains is says it measures

Study 1
Used to extract subset of items from the Grit-O
Scale to create a (more) brief version (Grit-S).
Computed item level correlations of Grit-O with
outcomes of 4 samples
Compared each domain and examined which
items consistently was above median in
predicting an outcome (predictive validity)
Outcome
After 4 items were excluded, internal consistency
alpha ranged from .73 to .84 across samples

Study 1

(contd)

Study 2
Used to 1.) confirm factor structure 2.)
identify relations with Big Five personality
dimensions and 3.) establish predictive
validity for career changes
Participants
Outcome
Confirmatory factor analysis supported twofactor model of Grit
Grittier individuals had higher education level
and fewer career changes

Study 3
Used to validate informant report
Consensual validity

Participants were asked to nominate

one friend and one family member to
rate them
Outcome
Internal consistency (rating between
family, peers and self) = .84, .84,
and .83

Study 4
Sought to establish test-retest reliability
Test was given 1 year later
Outcome
Relatively stable over time r=.68, p<.001
Good internal consistency at = .82 in
2006 and .84 in 2007
Grit scores in 2006 predicted GPA and
hours spent watching TV 1 year later

Studies 5 & 6
Used as predictive measurements
Scripps National Spelling Bee Finalists- who
would advance?
Those with higher grit were 38% more likely to
advance

Given to West Point Military Academy freshmen

to predict who would make it through training
Those that scored 1 SD higher on grit were 99%
more likely to complete
The Whole Candidate Score did not predict
retention

Our
Results

Grit Scale: Gab

R= -.68
R2= .41

Grit score and hours per day watching TV have a moderate negative
correlation; however we cant really use this a predictor for another
point.

Grit Scale: Gab

(contd)

R= .84
R2= .70

Grit Score and GPA have a strong positive

correlation and we could possibly use this a

Grit Scale: Kaelia

R= .21
R2= .045

Almost no correlation between Grit score and hours watching TV.

Grit Scale: Kaelia

(contd)
R= .91
R2= .82

Strong positive correlation between grit score and GPA and we

could possibly use this a prediction for future scores

Proposed Validity
Current research does not examine any long-term
longitudinal studies
We propose 7th grade through college graduation
Examine if grit score changes over long period of
time and if it is an accurate predictor for long-term
success
50 females; 50 males; representative sample
Follow participants through major milestones: middle
school graduation, high school graduation, college
graduation and examine respective grades
Implications & future studies

Conclusion
Grit is unrelated and sometimes
inversely correlated with intelligence
Internally reliable
Accurately measures consistency of
interest and perseverance of effort
Predicts future success
Easily administered and scored

References
(2014). Pearson correlation coefficient calculator. Retrieved
from Social Science Statistics website:
http://www.socscistatistics.com/tests/pearson/Default2.asp

Duckworth, A., & Quinn, P. (2009). Development and validation

of
the short grit scale (grit-s).Journal of Personality
Assessment,91(6), 166-174.
Matthews, M. D., Kelly, D. R., & Duckworth, A. L. (2007). Grit:
Perseverance and passion for long-term goals.Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology,92(6), 1087-1101.
Strayhorn, T. L. (2013). What role does grit play in the academic
success of black male collegians at predominantly white
institutions?Journal of African American Studies,18(1), 1-10.