Faculty Members' Mindset Profiles in Research Career Development: Preliminary Evidence for Positive Psychology-Based Mentoring in a Muhammadiyah-Affiliated University
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Abstract
Research engagement is constrained not only by skills and resources but also by how faculty members interpret feedback, failure, and capability development. This preliminary cross-sectional survey mapped research-career mindset profiles among 32 faculty members representing five faculties at Universitas Muhammadiyah Pringsewu, a Muhammadiyah-affiliated university in Indonesia. A structured questionnaire addressed beliefs about research competence, publication challenges, academic failure, and career growth. Descriptive analysis and Wilson 95% confidence intervals were used. Three faculty members (9.4%; 95% CI: 3.2%-24.2%) were classified as fixed-mindset, seven (21.9%; 11.0%-38.8%) as growth-mindset, and 22 (68.8%; 51.4%-82.0%) as mixed-mindset. The predominance of mixed profiles indicates openness to developing research competence alongside continuing doubts about revision, rejection, and methodological demands. Rather than treating research engagement as merely a technical deficit, the findings identify a human-factors need for mentoring that combines research-skill support with strengths-based feedback, mastery experiences, and psychosocial support. The results are descriptive and cannot establish causality or psychometric validation. They provide a baseline for developing and testing a positive psychology-based research mentoring model.
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