Mindset is like a prow which directs someone’s acts and behavior toward something that it has set initially. Mindset in this post refers to belief regarding individual’s own nature of human attributes, for instance the ability, skill, intelligence, trait, or personality. However, shifting someone’s mindset – and therefore changing his/her belief – even for the modest aspect might have significant effect on almost every facets of his/her life. This could happen since the belief that individual has with respect to his/her quality is shaping and leading to a set of thoughts, ideas and actions which in line with the effort to accomplish his/her established objectives eventually. An individual is free to choose the perspective and mindset that he/she would like to take in facing any kind of event, nevertheless, choosing to have a growth mindset to encounter challenges and opportunities is considered as a prudent decision.
Individual’s mindset, as Dweck (2006) suggests, could be categorized into two main categories, namely fixed mindset and growth mindset. Individuals who have fixed mindset have the belief that their talents and abilities are unchanged, fixed and given. For instance, it is believed that some individuals are naturally born smart, while other people are not. Dweck further explains that the motive of people who have fixed mindset is failure and risk avoidance. As a result, should people with fixed mindset perceive themselves having a high levels of talents and abilities, they probably incline to show them off. Furthermore, individuals with fixed mindset tend to attach values to and measures success and failure with titles, numbers and grades.
On the contrary, individuals who have growth mindset have the belief that their skills and abilities could be enhanced and developed sustainably. For example, it is believed that each individual could learn and put effort to have more knowledge, to be smarter, more creative, proactive, innovative etc. The motive of individuals with growth mindset is the process and attempt to get into learning of something new and improving themselves, and hence the focal point of this mindset is on giving effort to move forward and be better gradually. Consequently, the growth mindset lead individual to view failure as something that could be reflected and learned from, and perceive challenge as an opportunity to obtain self-development. Moreover, the growth mindset could build an efficacious passion and determination to keep learning and improving, which in turn enable someone to withstand and get over struggles that he/she encounters in the process.
Comparing the two kind of mindsets, it could be inferred that the main difference between them is the belief in the fixedness of talents and abilities. This difference in state of mindset might further be manifested in behavior discrepancy. When individual perceives that his/her talents and abilities are unchangeable attributes, it is less likely for him/her to give much efforts to develop and improve his/her innate talents and abilities. Conversely, individual who believes and has the confident to change these attributes might have more willingness to give much efforts and resources to gain self-development as well as to achieve his/her objectives.
Nevertheless, Dweck (2016) reminds some points to be concerned regarding the concept of growth mindset. First, a growth mindset is not necessarily means being open-minded or optimistic or practicing flexible way of thinking, frankly, it is more specific and particular. Second, while encouraging a growth mindset is a step forward which in turn could lead to favorable outcomes, however it is not a warranty since the mindset needs to be supported by sufficient effort that is embodied through necessary and essential activities. Third, despite an appraisal and reward on efforts are appropriate acts, it has to consider the outcomes either. Hence, an unproductive effort is not to be rewarded, while learning and progress should be appreciated.
Numerous studies have shown the advantage of having the growth mindset, which mostly take example in academic context, yet could be reflected and applied to another sectors. Alvarado et al. (2019) study indicates that individuals who scored high in growth mindset – as opposed to fixed mindset – perform better and have an increased levels of well-being in school. In addition, they reveal that the well-being link the correlation between growth mindset and performance as well as that growth mindset has greater impact on grades among younger students. Moreover, a recent study by Limeri et al. (2020) suggests that academic performance influences students’ mindsets. Thus, their result shows that mindset and academic performance have a positive and reciprocal correlation. They explain that students who get over struggles perceive their experience as an evident that their intelligence has improved and thus shift their mindsets toward a growth mindset. Contrarily, students who still having struggle view their experience as an evident that they do not have the capability to develop their intelligence, and thus shift their mindsets toward a fixed mindset. The mindsets people have, ergo the beliefs they hold could impact their motivation, achievement and well-being. For instance, a growth mindset enables students to cope with more challenges (Dweck and Leggett, 1988) or having more persistent in encountering problems (Nussbaum and Dweck, 2008). Further, for several students, a growth mindset brings effect to their level of achievements e.g. grades, test scores, or school persistence (Dweck, 2019).
Furthermore, a growth mindset contributes and brings benefit to the wellness of psychological state as well. Some researchers have studied the implications of mindsets regarding personality – i.e. beliefs upon the fixedness of personal abilities and qualities – to the mental health. The result reveals that while a fixed mindset could contribute to anxiety during adolescence (Yeager, et al., 2016), a growth mindset on the other hand could help to soothe anxiety and depression (Schleider and Weisz, 2016) or help reducing the invasion of depression among teenagers (Miu & Yeager, 2015).
Recognizing the benefits of having a growth mindset, however shifting mindset towards the growth mindset could sometime be challenging. The challenge mainly comes from the inner self which unconsciously, individual shifts slightly to employ the fixed mindset by being reluctant to changes and innovations due to uncertainties and risks. Another challenge evokes from the tendency of humans to focus more on the negative as they try to make sense of the world which lead to a decision-making with the basis of negative information rather than the positive one (Cacioppo et al., 2014), or the so-called negative bias. Those challenges might hindered oneself from obtaining a growth mindset and improving his/her talents and abilities.
However, there are some ways to overcome challenges in the attempt to apply a growth mindset in daily life and in order to grab self-development, which will be briefly delivered and sourced from several references. First and foremost is through nurturing the self-awareness i.e. by being aware of skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Next, evade wondering the ‘what ifs’; keep positive thoughts since any positive thought would help in refocusing attention and thus might help in preventing negative bias; reframe perspective and point of view to focus upon things that could be done since individual may not control every circumstances, however he/she could control the response and acts to be applied – including view challenges as opportunities; recognize the learning style and employ the appropriate learning strategies; put focus on the process instead of the end result in order to be able to see long-term goals and have a larger sense of life purpose. Keep the end goal in mind and view the big picture since sometimes the devil is in the detail; appreciate efforts and actions while keep in mind that it takes time to learn; find appropriate mentors in accordance with the role carried, e.g. having supervisor as mentor when he/she is taking the role as staff; be persevere for it takes process, experience, knowledge, determination and willingness to grow, develop, and succeed.
It is worth noting that the mindset has the potential power to drive oneself towards goals accomplishment by making the prudent decision among options available. As human beings are subject to constraint of time, energy and other resources (i.e. opportunity cost), having a growth mindset is important and necessary to shape appropriate responses upon circumstances, acts and behaviors to be conducted and attitude in any kind of situation. The growth mindset gives benefits and open the opportunity to develop and improve oneself talents, abilities and qualities as an individual which in turn might lead to the fulfillment of objectives. While challenges may appear in the effort to establish a growth mindset, it should be noted that there is a way where there is a will.
References
Ackerman, C. (1 September 2020). Growth Mindset vs. Fixed + Key Takeaways From Dweck’s Book. Retrieved 4 October from Positive Psychology
Alvarado, N., Ontiveros, M. and Gaytán, E. (2019). Do Mindsets Shape Students’ Well-Being and Performance? The Journal of Psychology, 153:8, 843-859
Bradberry, T. (6 February 2014). How Successful People Stay Calm. Retrieved 4 October 2020 from Forbes
Cacioppo J., Cacioppo S. and Gollan, J. (2014). The negativity bias: Conceptualization, quantification, and individual differences. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(3):309-310.
Dweck, C. and Leggett, E. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256–273.
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books.
Dweck, C. (13 January 2016). What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means. Retrieved 4 October 2020 from Harvard Business Review
Dweck, C. (2019). The Choice to Make a Difference. Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 14(1) 21–25
Killian, S. (11 September 2019). Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset: Does It Really Matter?. Retrieved 4 October 2020 from https://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/growth-mindset-vs-fixed-mindset/
Limeri, L., Carter, N., Choe, J. et al. (2020). Growing a growth mindset: characterizing how and why undergraduate students’ mindsets change. IJ STEM Ed 7, 35
Miu, A., and Yeager, D. (2015). Preventing symptoms of depression by teaching adolescents that people can
change: Effects of a brief incremental theory of personality intervention at 9-month follow-up. Clinical Psychological
Science, 3, 726–743
Multon, K., Brown, S. and Lent, R. (1991). Relation of self-efficacy beliefs to academic outcomes: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 38(1), 30–38
Nussbaum, A. and Dweck, C. (2008). Defensiveness versus remediation: Self-theories and modes of self-esteem
maintenance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 599–612
Schleider, J. and Weisz, J. (2016). Reducing risk for anxiety and depression in adolescents: Effects of a single-session intervention teaching that personality can change. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 87, 170–181
Yeager, D., Lee, H. and Jamieson, J. (2016). How to improve adolescent stress responses: Insights from
integrating implicit theories of personality and biopsychosocial models. Psychological Science, 27, 1078–1091
hope. 