Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset

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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
─Thomas Edison

Today I want to talk about a concept I find helpful and often share with clients, especially when teaching new coping skills.

The terms growth mindset and fixed mindset were developed by psychologist and researcher Carol Dweck, PhD who has studied success and learning for over 30 years. Through her research with children she found those who got the best grades generally had a growth mindset while those who did poorly tended to have a fixed mindset.  People with a fixed mindset believe intelligence, talents, and abilities are set at birth and can’t be changed much. Those with a growth mindset think these  can be strengthened and enhanced with determination and hard work. They tend to see challenges as things to be overcome and may even find that exciting, while people with a fixed mindset tend to see challenges as roadblocks and often give up easily.

Dr. Dweck and her research team administered tests to fifth graders, which were too hard for them.  When the team gave students the results and interviewed them about their experiences, two distinct groups emerged. In one group students were positive and said things like, “I love a challenge” and “I was hoping this would be informative.” Dr. Dweck used the term “Growth Mindset” to describe them. In the second group students were discouraged, and said they would cheat rather than study for the next test, or would look for someone who did worse than they did to make themselves feel better. These students were said to have a “Fixed Mindset.” Dr. Dweck and her team replicated this study many times and consistently found that students with a fixed mindset get discouraged more easily and have lower motivation and poorer grades than those with a growth mindset. Results also indicated mindset was a better predictor of success than IQ or socioeconomic factors.

The good news is that Dr. Dweck and her team went on to conduct further studies which demonstrated a fixed mindset can be changed to a growth mindset by praising students for their progress, perseverance and improvement rather than for their intelligence, talent, and correct answers. She also talks about the “Power of Yet,”  and suggests telling students, “You don’t get it yet“ rather than “You’re failing. Using “wise praise” as she calls it motivates students to work harder instead of giving up when they feel discouraged.

If you have a fixed mindset and want to change it, you can start working today. Choose something you’d like to learn. Make it something small and interesting. If it gets difficult be kind to yourself and say, “I don’t get it yet.” Encourage yourself to keep working at it. You will help yourself develop a growth mindset and learn something fun in the process.

Links

Dr.  Deck’s TED TALK: https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

Dr. Deck’s Book:  Mindset: The New Psychology of Success https://mindsetonline.com/

If you have children and want to introduce them to the concept of growth mindset, watch this 3 minute video with them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2ar6AKvGc. I’ve used it with children as young as second grade, and they get it.

Test your Mindset: https://www.mindsetonline.com/testyourmindset/step1.php

Note: As I was finishing this blog for publication, I heard a TED Radio Hour Podcast that had a short segment on Growth Mindset. In it, Dr. Dweck told the interviewer that her 6th grade teacher seated the students from highest IQ to lowest IQ. She said that when a new girl joined the class she didn’t think “Maybe I’ll be her friend,” but “I hope she has a lower IQ than me”. That podcast had some other interesting information about learning besides the segment with Dr. Dweck. You can check it out here.https://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=483131601:483242474

Peace