Mentor(s): Vrinda Kalia, Ph.D.

Grit is sustained passion and perseverance for long term goals (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Grit consists of grit-consistency (i.e. sustained interest in a goal), and grit-perseverance (i.e. persisting with a goal despite setbacks). Grit is associated with academic success among college students (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Neurological data indicates that individuals with high levels of grit are less sensitive to reward cues which may help them maintain motivation and be less deterred by setbacks (Myers et al., 2016). The behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is an indicator of an individual’s sensitivity to punishment cues (Carver & White, 1994). Higher levels of grit may be associated with a diminished sensitivity to these punishment cues encapsulated in BIS (Liu et al., 2022). Individuals with higher grit scores persist and increase their efforts in instances where they appear to be failing at a particular task, suggesting lower reward sensitivity (Lucas et al., 2015). This diminished sensitivity for rewards is supported by neurological data and is also indicative of cognitive inflexibility (Lucas et al., 2015). After IRB approval 154 undergraduate students (N=154, Women=102) from a midwestern university were recruited. Participants completed the short grit scale (Grit-S; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009) to assess Grit-Perseverance and Grit-Consistency. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST; Berg, 1948) was used to assess cognitive flexibility. Finally, the BIS/BAS Scale (Carver & White, 1994) was used to assess two motivational systems that underlie behavior. Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. Bivariate correlations revealed significant negative association between scores on BIS and BAS-Reward, BAS-Drive, and BAS-Fun Seeking (rs ranged from -.30 to -.33), which is consistent with the original conceptualization by Carver and White (1994) that BIS and BAS represent two oppositional motivational systems. Grit-Perseverance was negatively correlated with both BAS-Reward and BAS-Drive. This finding is consistent with prior research showing that individuals with high grit are less likely to pay attention and respond to reward cues in the environment (Lucas et al., 2015; Myers et al., 2016). Finally, hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for age and gender, revealed that both Grit-Consistency (β = -.19, p = .04)and BIS (β = -.23, p < .01) predicted reduced cognitive flexibility, as measured by the total number of correct responses on the WCST.

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