Praise for Mindset
¡°Everyone should read this book.¡±-Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Switch and Made to Stick
¡°Will prove to be one of the most influential books ever about motivation.¡±-Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock
¡°A good book is one whose advice you believe. A great book is one whose advice you follow. I have found Carol Dweck¡¯s work on mindsets invaluable in my own life, and even life-changing in my attitudes toward the challenges that, over the years, become more demanding rather than less. This is a book that can change your life, as its ideas have changed mine.¡±-Robert J. Sternberg, IBM Professor of Education and Psychology at Yale University, director of the PACE Center of Yale University, and author of Successful Intelligence
¡°If you manage any people or if you are a parent (which is a form of managing people), drop everything and read Mindset.¡±-Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start and the blog How to Change the World
¡°Highly recommended . . . an essential read for parents, teachers [and] coaches . . . as well as for those who would like to increase their own feelings of success and fulfillment.¡±-Library Journal (starred review)
¡°A serious, practical book. Dweck¡¯s overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome.¡±-Publishers Weekly
¡°A wonderfully elegant idea . . . It is a great book.¡±-Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., author of Delivered from Distraction
Introductionp. ix
The Mindsetsp. 3
Why Do People Differ?p. 4
What Does All This Mean for You? The Two Mindsetsp. 6
A View from the Two Mindsetsp. 7
So, What's New?p. 9
Self-Insight: Who Has Accurate Views of Their Assets and Limitations?p. 11
What's in Storep. 11
Inside the Mindsetsp. 15
Is Success About Learning-Or Proving You're Smart?p. 16
Mindsets Change the Meaning of Failurep. 32
Mindsets Change the Meaning of Effortp. 39
Questions and Answersp. 45
The Truth About Ability and Accomplishmentp. 55
Mindset and School Achievementp. 57
Is Artistic Ability a Gift?p. 67
The Danger of Praise and Positive Labelsp. 71
Negative Labels and How They Workp. 74
Sports: The Mindset of a Championp. 82
The Idea of the Naturalp. 83
"Character"p. 91
What Is Success?p. 98
What Is Failure?p. 99
Taking Charge of Successp. 101
What Does It Mean to Be a Star?p. 103
Hearing the Mindsetsp. 105
Business: Mindset and Leadershipp. 108
Enron and the Talent Mindsetp. 108
Organizations That Growp. 109
A Study of... Mindset and Management Decisionsp. 111
Leadership and the Fixed Mindsetp. 112
Fixed-Mindset Leaders in Actionp. 114
Growth-Mindset Leaders in Actionp. 124
A Study of Group Processesp. 133
Groupthink Versus We Thinkp. 134
The Praised Generation Hits the Workforcep. 136
Are Negotiators Born or Made?p. 137
Corporate Training: Are Managers Born or Made?p. 139
Are Leaders Born or Made?p. 141
Relationships: Mindsets in Love (Or Not)p. 144
Relationships Are Differentp. 147
Mindsets Falling in Lovep. 148
The Partner as Enemyp. 157
Competition: Who's the Greatest?p. 158
Developing in Relationshipsp. 159
Friendshipp. 160
Shynessp. 163
Bullies and Victims: Revenge Revisitedp. 163
Parents, Teachers, and Coaches: Where Do Mindsets Come From?p. 173
Parents (and Teachers): Messages About Success and Failurep. 174
Teachers (and Parents): What Makes a Great Teacher (or Parent)?p. 193
Coaches: Winning Through Mindsetp. 202
Our Legacyp. 211
Changing Mindsetsp. 213
The Nature of Changep. 213
The Mindset Lecturesp. 216
A Mindset Workshopp. 218
Brainologyp. 221
More About Changep. 224
Taking the First Stepp. 226
People Who Don't Want to Changep. 230
Changing Your Child's Mindsetp. 234
Mindset and Willpowerp. 239
Maintaining Changep. 242
The Road Aheadp. 246
Notesp. 247
Recommended Booksp. 267
Indexp. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.>
Growth-Mindset Leaders in Action
p. 124
A Study of Group Processes
p. 133
Groupthink Versus We Think
p. 134
The Praised Generation Hits the Workforce
p. 136
Are Negotiators Born or Made?
p. 137
Corporate Training: Are Managers Born or Made?
p. 139
Are Leaders Born or Made?
p. 141
Relationships: Mindsets in Love (Or Not)
p. 144
Relationships Are Different
p. 147
Mindsets Falling in Love
p. 148
The Partner as Enemy
p. 157
Competition: Who's the Greatest?
p. 158
Developing in Relationships
p. 159
Friendship
p. 160
Shyness
p. 163
Bullies and Victims: Revenge Revisited
p. 163
Parents, Teachers, and Coaches: Where Do Mindsets Come From?
p. 173
Parents (and Teachers): Messages About Success and Failure
p. 174
Teachers (and Parents): What Makes a Great Teacher (or Parent)?
p. 193
Coaches: Winning Through Mindset
p. 202
Our Legacy
p. 211
Changing Mindsets
p. 213
The Nature of Change
p. 213
The Mindset Lectures
p. 216
A Mindset Workshop
p. 218
Brainology
p. 221
More About Change
p. 224
Taking the First Step
p. 226
People Who Don't Want to Change
p. 230
Changing Your Child's Mindset
p. 234
Mindset and Willpower
p. 239
Maintaining Change
p. 242
The Road Ahead
p. 246
Notes
p. 247
Recommended Books
p. 267
Index
p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter 1
THE MINDSETS
As a young researcher, just starting out, something happened that changed my life. I was obsessed with understanding how people cope with failures, and I decided to study it by watching how students grapple with hard problems. So I brought children one at a time to a room in their school, made them comfortable, and then gave them a series of puzzles to solve. The first ones were fairly easy, but the next ones were hard. As the students grunted, perspired, and toiled, I watched their strategies and probed what they were thinking and feeling. I expected differences among children in how they coped with the difficulty, but I saw something I never expected.
Confronted with the hard puzzles, one ten-year-old boy pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips, and cried out, ¡°I love a challenge!¡± Another, sweating away on these puzzles, looked up with a pleased expression and said with authority, ¡°You know, I was hoping this would be informative!¡±
What¡¯s wrong with them? I wondered. I always thought you coped with failure or you didn¡¯t cope with failure. I never thought anyone loved failure. Were these alien children or were they on to something?
Everyone has a role model, someone who pointed the way at a critical moment in their lives. These children were my role models. They obviously knew something I didn¡¯t and I was determined to figure it out¡ªto understand the kind of mindset that could turn a failure into a gift.
What did they know? They knew that human qualities, such as intellectual skills, could be cultivated through effort. And that¡¯s what they were doing¡ªgetting smarter. Not only weren¡¯t they discouraged by failure, they didn¡¯t even think they were failing. They thought they were learning.
I, on the other hand, thought human qualities were carved in stone. You were smart or you weren¡¯t, and failure meant you weren¡¯t. It was that simple. If you could arrange successes and avoid failures (at all costs), you could stay smart. Struggles, mistakes, perseverance were just not part of this picture.
Whether human qualities are things that can be cultivated or things that are carved in stone is an old issue. What these beliefs mean for you is a new one: What are the consequences of thinking that your intelligence or personality is something you can develop, as opposed to something that is a fixed, deep-seated trait? Let¡¯s first look in on the age-old, fiercely waged debate about human nature and then return to the question of what these beliefs mean for you.
WHY DO PEOPLE DIFFER?
Since the dawn of time, people have thought differently, acted differently, and fared differently from each other. It was guaranteed that someone would ask the question of why people differed¡ªwhy some people are smarter or more moral¡ªand whether there was something that made them permanently different. Experts lined up on both sides. Some claimed that there was a strong physical basis for these differences, making them unavo...idable and unalterable. Through the ages, these alleged physical differences have included bumps on the skull (phrenology), the size and shape of the skull (craniology), and, today, genes.
Others pointed to the strong differences in people¡¯s backgrounds, experiences, training, or ways of learning. It may surprise you to know that a big champion of this view was Alfred Binet, the inventor of the IQ test. Wasn¡¯t the IQ test meant to summarize children¡¯s unchangeable intelligence? In fact, no. Binet, a Frenchman working in Paris in the early twentieth century, designed this test to identify children who were not profiting from the Paris public schools, so that new educational programs could be designed to get them back on track. Without denying individual differences in children¡¯s intellects, he believed that education and practice could bring about fundamental changes in intelligence. Here is a quote from one of his major books, Modern Ideas About Children, in which he summarizes his work with hundreds of children with learning difficulties:
A few modern philosophers . . . assert that an individual¡¯s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism. . . . With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.
Who¡¯s right? Today most experts agree that it¡¯s not either£¿or. It¡¯s not nature or nurture, genes or environment. From conception on, there¡¯s a constant give and take between the two. In fact, as Gilbert Gottlieb, an eminent neuroscientist, put it, not only do genes and environment cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the environment to work properly.
At the same time, scientists are learning that people have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought. Of course, each person has a unique genetic endowment. People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way. Robert Sternberg, the present-day guru of intelligence, writes that the major factor in whether people achieve expertise ¡°is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.¡± Or, as his forerunner Binet recognized, it¡¯s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR YOU? THE TWO MINDSETS
It¡¯s one thing to have pundits spouting their opinions about scientific issues. It¡¯s another thing to understand how these views apply to you. For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value. How does this happen? How can a simple belief have the power to transform your psychology and, as a result, your life?
Believing that your qualities are carved in stone¡ªthe fixed mindset¡ªcreates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character¡ªwell, then you¡¯d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn¡¯t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.
Some of us are trained in this mindset from an early age. Even as a child, I was focused on being smart, but the fixed mindset was really stamped in by Mrs. Wilson, my sixth-grade teacher. Unlike Alfred Binet, she believed that people¡¯s IQ scores told the whole story of who they were. We were seated around the room in IQ order, and only the highest-IQ students could be trusted to carry the flag, clap the erasers, or take a note to the principal. Aside from the daily stomachaches she provoked with her judgmental stance, she was creating a mindset in which everyone in the class had one consuming goal¡ªlook smart, don¡¯t look dumb. Who cared about or enjoyed learning when our whole being was at stake every time she gave us a test or called on us in class?
I¡¯ve seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves¡ªin the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?
But doesn¡¯t our society value intelligence, personality, and character? Isn¡¯t it normal to want these traits? Yes, but . . .
There¡¯s another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you¡¯re dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you¡¯re secretly worried it¡¯s a pair of tens. In this mindset, the hand you¡¯re dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on
Dweck, Carol S. [Àú]
Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is widely regarded as one of the world's leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology. She has been the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and is now the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarly book Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development was named Book of the Year by the World Education Fellowship. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and she has appeared on Today and 20/20. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.