Stanford university psychologist, Carol Dweck has published a book entitled “Mindset. The New Psychology of Success” (ISBN 978-0-345-47232-8). Guy Kawasaki posted about it, and wrote a commendation which is printed on the front page. And Stanford Magazine did an article about it last year.
She’s identified two “mindsets” in relation to how people approach challenges and effort.
When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world – the world of fixed traits – success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other – the world of changing qualities – it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.
One point she made which struck me as surprising at first was that people with a fixed mindset often have had lots of praise. She makes the point that just telling your child they are clever, or wonderful, or whatever, sets up a belief system in them which can become fixed and she recommends instead praising children for their effort, for what they’ve learned. This is her key point really – that when you have a mindset about loving learning you can grow, but when you have a mindset where you think talents are fixed then you get stuck.
The fixed mindset limits achievement. It fills people’s minds with interfering thoughts, it makes effort disagreeable, and it leads to inferior learning strategies. What’s more, it makes other people into judges instead of allies. Whether we’re talking about Darwin or college students, important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning. This is what the growth mindset gives people, and that’s why it helps their abilities grow and bear fruit.
Heroes Not Zombies 
Very nice article.
A fixed mindset can also develop from an atmosphere of little praise… I speak from experience. I grew up with a feeling that I needed little help from others due to that atmosphere thus cutting myself off from part of the learning process. My confidence was a false front. It took me a long time to sort through that mess of emotional pain.
Mindsets can be set or set to change…
Do we spend our lives trying to validate ourselves or to develop ourselves? The answer could very well explain why mediocrity might outweigh meaning in our lives, or why the super talented may not reach their full potential.
At the blog Heroes not Zomb…
I tried to enter a trackback on my post today about the quote in your post, but it looks rather funny. Guess I need to read up on trackbacks.
Anyhow — loved the perspective!
Lori
Thanks for the post. Interesting to consider and wery useful in all areas of my life.
Thought provoking clarification of the differing perspectives!
Interesting concept
[…] She’s a great example of what Carol Dweck calls “the growth mindset“. Asked about her parents divorce when she was young and being sent away to school, she […]
I have noticed in my classes (I teach creative writing at a university) that the people who have been praised as “good writers” tend to have rigid “styles” of writing and are very resistant to learning new strategies for narrative — or even to seeing that there may, in fact, be something to learn about narrative. But the people who take my class “just to see what it’s like” tend to be much more daring and produce vastly more interesting work.