This month I am featuring a book called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. You may be familiar with some of the concepts in her book as her work has become quite mainstream in popular psychology circles, particularly in the areas of parenting and education.
Dweck sorts people into two categories: those with a fixed mindset, and those with a growth mindset. Those with fixed mindsets believe that personal qualities such as intelligence, artistic ability, athleticism, and communication skills are predetermined and cannot be changed. Those with growth mindsets believe that we can improve our qualities and abilities through practice and hard work.
Some people have a fixed mindset regarding one particular ability (or lack thereof) but are growth minded in other areas. For example, I had plenty of evidence early in my life that I could get better at sports or math by practicing and studying. However, for most of my childhood I believed that I was not artistic. This may have been because it did not come as easily or naturally for me as athletics and schoolwork did. It was not until adulthood that I became interested in photography and realized that perhaps I shouldn’t have labeled myself as unartistic or uncreative without first trying harder to improve in these areas. As I developed my photography skills, I was able to become more growth-minded about art. It finally occurred to me that perhaps I was no good at drawing because I had never received much instruction in that area and had never really put any significant effort into getting better at it. This learning experience has helped me become growth-minded in other areas of my life as well.
In Mindset, Dweck explains her research in fascinating detail and then explain the implications of her work. People stuck in a fixed mindset often find themselves afraid to try anything challenging because failure confirms their notion that they are not good, whereas growth minded individuals take setbacks as opportunities to learn.
I find this framing useful in therapy when trying to help people understand the problematic nature of their fixed mindset and how it has affected their view of themselves and their relationships with others. Dweck gives great advice to parents on how to praise effort over outcome to help children learn to enjoy and appreciate the struggle as part of the path to success rather than a sign of failure.
I enjoyed this book and if you are a person that likes inspiring examples of coaches, athletes, business leaders, and other prominent figures, you will find plenty of compelling and inspiring case studies in the book.
