Expectancy Value Part 1: Self Efficacy, Fixed and Growth Mindsets, Helplessness, and Cognitive Hope

    Self-efficacy is how a person perceives they can deal with a situation, given their skills and the challenges they will face. For Meredith, this relates to difficult medical situations, relationships, and personal challenges she faces throughout the show. Her self-efficacy in relationships changes between seasons one and five. Meredith also changes from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset throughout these seasons. A fixed mindset is the belief that one’s abilities cannot change, causing people to avoid challenges they face and see their setbacks as proof of their inadequacy. On the other hand, a growth mindset is where people believe that if they put effort in, they do have the ability to change through learning from their experiences. Meredith also encounters helplessness in the early seasons with her low self-efficacy. This is when a person has had similar and repeated experiences of failure or lack of control in those situations, so they think that there is no effect on the outcomes, no matter what they do. This can cause people to have low motivation and stop trying. Lastly, cognitive hope refers to an individual’s beliefs that they can reach their goals and that they have the strategies and confidence to do so. Meredith’s ultimate goal is to marry Derek, although there are a lot of personal obstacles for her along the way.

    In seasons one through three, Meredith has low self-efficacy in relationships; she believes that she is not capable of having and keeping a healthy and loving relationship. The source of her low self-efficacy regarding emotionally intimate relationships is the emotional abandonment by her mother and the physical abandonment by her father. She continuously tells herself that she is “broken” and “not built for love.” In this instance, Meredith also has a fixed mindset because she believes that she is stuck with these traits and will not be able to change them, causing her to avoid her relationship with her boyfriend, Derek. Meredith also feels helpless and has almost no cognitive hope because of her sense of powerlessness in her relationships and perceives low control over them. This low self-efficacy, fixed mindset, helplessness, and her experiences cause her to have extremely low motivation in maintaining relationships since she truly thinks that they are unreliable and none of them will ever last anyway. Meredith completely avoids deep emotional conversations and refuses to communicate about any serious issues. This is stringent on her relationship with Derek. She is constantly trying to push him away and does not want to accept or keep the stable relationship he is trying to help build for them. 

    Then, in season four, we see her self-efficacy begin to grow. She sees that the skills needed to maintain relationships can be learned and practiced, and she is not necessarily “doomed” because of her childhood trauma. This begins Meredith’s growth mindset as she goes to therapy and starts reframing her beliefs. She sees that her actions can influence outcomes because of her small successes in therapy. Meredith now does not allow her mistakes to make her think that she is unworthy and cannot be loved. She is experiencing cognitive hope as she is now able to picture a future with Derek and believes it is possible to achieve it. Meredith’s motivation starts to go up once she believes that she can change and learn how to handle the emotional challenges she faces in letting people in, not self-sabotaging, and working with Derek to continue to build a strong and stable relationship. 

    Finally, in season five, she reaches high self-efficacy in her ability to maintain her relationship with Derek. Meredith has high motivation and now basically fully believes in herself to support Derek, communicate effectively and honestly with him, and eventually take the step in their culture of getting married. Her growth mindset continues to develop, and her internal thoughts shift from “I will ruin this, I can’t do this” to “I can do the work and make this relationship successful.” This continues to help her move away from helplessness, which can be seen in how she communicates honestly with Derek and takes some emotional risks by having conversations with him about how she wants a future with him, and she even tells him that she wants to be the person he can do that with.  

    Meredith’s self-efficacy regarding relationships has a major shift from extremely low to pretty high over the course of the first five seasons. It is evident that her motivation simultaneously increases with her self-efficacy. Through this, she is able to reach her goal of marrying Derek, even though the path to get there was not easy.