• Taniya Gupta
• Dr. Jyoti Khajuria

The transition from school to higher education is an important stage in a student’s academic journey. At this stage, students are expected to take greater responsibility for their learning while also dealing with academic competition, regular performance evaluation, and concerns about their future careers. Such experiences place students in situations where they have to deal with success, failure, and continuous feedback about their performance. While some students are able to face these challenges positively and continue making efforts, others may adopt defensive ways of dealing with situations that could threaten their self-esteem. Understanding why students respond differently to such academic challenges has therefore become an important area of interest in educational psychology. In this context, the present study examined whether students’ beliefs about the nature of intelligence are related to the way they respond to academic difficulties and the possibility of failure. A descriptive correlational research design was used for the study. The sample comprised 75 undergraduate students, including 37 males and 38 females, who were randomly selected from three colleges in Karnal district, Haryana. The findings of the study suggest that students’ beliefs about their intellectual abilities may be related to the way they deal with academic challenges. In particular, a stronger incremental view of intelligence was associated with a lower tendency to engage in self-handicapping as a way of protecting oneself from possible academic failure.

Implicit Intelligence Beliefs; Entity Theory; Incremental Theory; Self-Handicapping; Undergraduate Students; Academic Motivation.

"EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN IMPLICIT INTELLIGENCE BELIEFS AND SELF-HANDICAPPING AMONG UNDER-GRADUATE STUDENTS IN KARNAL", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 9, page no.b726-b736, September-2026, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2609180.pdf

"EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN IMPLICIT INTELLIGENCE BELIEFS AND SELF-HANDICAPPING AMONG UNDER-GRADUATE STUDENTS IN KARNAL", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 9, page no. ppb726-b736, September-2026, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2609180.pdf