For the most part, educational systems have been content to judge academic and personal success by a narrow set of cognitive and summative figures, in the process missing the deeper psychological forces at work in a student’s life. There is an increasing view in modern educational psychology that one cannot attribute positive achievement to intelligence alone; it is the product of emotional adaptability, cognitive flexibility and certain reactiveness in coping. Where traditional pedagogy might see intellectual deficit in a case of academic distress or rigidity and respond with punitive measures, we would argue this is a misdiagnosis.
We present here an empirical study of the behavioral and psychological underpinnings of personal achievement in a range of higher education cohorts. Over the course of two academic years we have followed a multi-wave group of 1,850 university students in a rigorous mixed-methods longitudinal design. To add qualitative dimension to the data, 90 semi-structured conversations were held with developmental psychologists, deans and directors of student wellbeing. Our multivariate modelling, which includes structural equation and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, makes clear that emotional and cognitive flexibility are strong predictors of a sustainable and enriching path to achievement (β = 0.88, p < 0.001) . The opposite is true for change resistance and emotional rigidity, which have a marked suppressive impact on development (β = -0.67, p < 0.01). Such results should give higher education institutions cause to build psychological resources into their very pedagogical models.