UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR: Mindset

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Don't give up too easily; persistence pays off in the end." (Thomas H. Palmer) 

"I can accept failure.  Everyone fails at something.  But I can't accept not trying." (Michael Jordan)

"Failure is so important.  We speak about success all the time.  But it is the ability to resist or use failure that often leads to greater success."  (JK Rowling)

"It's not that I'm so smart.  It's just that I stay with problems longer." (Albert Einstein)

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill)

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.  The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." (Thomas Edison)

What do each of these successful individuals have in common?  They share an understanding of what they're capable of, view failures as learning opportunities, and the willingness to keep trying until they get it right.  They each have a growth mindset.  

                  

Dr. Carol Dweck, the researcher and expert on developing this concept, explains a growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable...they can be learned. That nothing is fixed.  That we can change everything--intelligence, creativity, athleticism, and even our character--through persistent and adaptive effort. 

At the other end of this spectrum is a fixed mindset, which assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are predetermined--we're born with them--and can't be changed. Success, then, is the proof of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard. Striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the illusion of being smart or talented.

A significant portion of our behavior comes from these two mindsets, along with our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.

Do people with a growth mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone with proper motivation or education can become Einstein, Beethoven or Kobe Bryant?  No, but they believe that a person's true potential is unknown--that it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, perseverance, hard work, and training.

What makes the growth mindset so appealing is that it creates a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval. 

At its core is the belief that human qualities like intelligence and creativity, and love and friendship can be cultivated through effort and deliberate practice. Not only are people with this mindset not discouraged by failure, but they don’t actually see themselves as failing in those situations — they see themselves as learning. 

Dr. Dweck quotes a seventh-grade girl, who captured the difference between the mindsets beautifully:

I think intelligence is something you have to work for.  It isn't just given to you.  Most kids, if they're not sure of an answer, won't raise their hand to answer the question.  But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I'm wrong, then my mistake will be corrected.  Or I'll raise my hand and say, "How would this be solved?" or "I don't get this. Can you help me?"  Just by doing that, I'm increasing my intelligence.

 

In my 40-plus years working in higher education, I've heard countless students angrily state (or tearfully admit) that they didn't think they were "college material."  That they weren't smart enough.  That the work was too hard and they'd never "get it."  That failing was an excuse to throw in the towel.

Until I got familiar with Dweck's work on mindsets, I felt sorry for those students who believed with all their hearts that completing a college education wasn't in the cards for them.

Now when I heard these kinds of rumblings, I challenge students' mindsets.  I have a version of the graphic above hanging on the wall in my office, and point it out often to students who lean toward a fixed mindset. I've loaned out more copies of Dweck's book than I can count.  I tout the benefits of growth mindsets every semester I teach Intro to Psychology.

Have my efforts miraculously shifted students' mindsets from one end of the spectrum to the other?  Hell no.  But at least I give them another perspective to consider and offer hope.  That failures are learning opportunities. That any passing grade less than an A still means they learned something they didn't know at the beginning of a semester.  That just because something is difficult, it's still worth seeing through to the end.  That the hard work will eventually pay off and they'll be better for it.