POTENTIAL & NON-LEARNERS vs. LEARNERS & MINDSETS

How self beliefs affect motivation and thus achievement. What we believe about ourselves can greatly influence our ability to get what we want out of life. Carol Dweck and her associates have for many years investigated what people believe about themselves and how this affects their motivation, and their ability to accomplish tasks, achieve goals, and function successfully in life. She proposes, that people tend to have two extremes of belief about themselves, that are the key to their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. One extreme is of a self that is an unchanging entity and the other extreme is of a self that is constantly changing in varying increments. Dweck asserts that one theory is highly adaptive for the human condition (the theory of an incremental changing self) while the other is maladaptive for the human condition (the theory of a self that is an unchanging entity). These self theories can be termed respectively a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Curiously, this applies regardless of whether the motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic. Although, as we shall see, people with an extrinsic orientation tends to also have a fixed mindset, and people who have an intrinsic orientation tend also to have a growth mindset.

"Benjamin Barber, an eminent sociologist, once said, 'I don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures... I divide the world into learners and nonlearners.'What on earth would make someone a nonlearner? Everyone is born with an intense drive [I prefer need] to learn. Infants stretch their skills daily. Not just ordinary skills, but the most difficult tasks of a lifetime, like learning to walk and talk. They never decide it's too hard or not worth the effort. Babies don't worry about making mistakes or humiliating themselves. They walk, they fall, they get up. They just barge forward.

What could put an end to this exuberant learning? The fixed mindset. As soon as children become able to evaluate themselves, some of them become afraid of challenges. They become afraid of not being smart. I have studied thousands of people from preschoolers on, and it's breathtaking how many reject an opportunity to learn." 

[On the other hand a]"...growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way - in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests or temperaments - everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone with proper motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but they believe that a person's true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil and training." 

A percentage sample of humanity. Carol Dweck tested a sample of people over time who were quite diverse, from preschoolers to people of university age. She found that while people may vary greatly as to how much they are inclined toward a fixed theory or a growth theory, roughly 40% seemed more inclined toward a growth theory and 40% seemed more inclined toward a fixed theory. The other 20% were undecided. This seems to this site, to be remarkable, because personal experience seems to place the large majority of people in the fixed mindset group. This site suspects that Dweck's sample group may be inaccurate, because the sample of humanity it was taken from was mostly young. The subjects ranged only from university students to preschoolers and this excludes the majority of the adult population. Also, if this site's major concerns are correct, it may well be that society tends to mold people into a more fixed mindset as they get older.

Self theories 'entity' versus 'incremental'. If Carol Dweck's survey is correct, about 40 percent of the people in the world, would believe that they each are an unvarying entity and thus impossible to change. They would believe that their intelligence is an unvarying entity, that their abilities are an unvarying entities, and that they are helpless to change any of it. On the other hand about 40 percent of the people in the world would believe the opposite, that they gradually improve by increments. They would believe that their intelligence increases in increments of knowledge and that their abilities increase in increments according to how much effort they apply to improving them.

Mindset 'fixed' versus 'growth'. (This is a slightly more generalized reformulation of the self theories.) If Carol Dweck's survey is correct, about 40 percent of the people in the world would believe that people are fixed to their genetic heritage, and thus impossible to change. They would believe that intelligence is fixed, that abilities are fixed, and that they, and all other people are fixed, and that we are all helpless to change any of it. Conversely, about 40 percent of people in the world would believe that they, and all others, gradually develop and grow over time. They would believe that intelligence grows with knowledge, and that abilities improve and grow according to how much effort we apply to improving them.

World theories orientation 'constant' versus 'malleable'. (The fixed/growth mindsets tend to change people beliefs about the world.) If Carol Dweck's survey is correct, about 40 percent of the people in the world would believe that everything is constant and thus impossible to change. They would believe that people are constant and that the world is constant and that we are all helpless to change any of it. Conversely about 40 percent of the people in the world would believe that people are malleable and that they and others can change if they so wish. They would believe that the world is malleable and that anyone in the right place at the right time, with sufficient effort, can change the world or contribute to changing it.

Behavior 'performance' versus 'mastery'. The people who believe that everything is fixed, tend to be set on maintaining and validating their abilities, their intelligence and their position in the world, by performing in order that others may judge their intelligence, abilities and status. The people who believe that everything develops and grows, set out to learn all they can and to improve all their skills so that their intelligence will increase and their abilities will develop and their status increase. They judge themselves against their previous selves to see how much they have improved

"You can even see the difference in people's brainwaves. People with both mindsets came to our brainwave lab at Columbia. As they answered hard questions and got feedback, we were curious about when their brain waves would show them to be interested and attentive.

People with a fixed mindset were only interested when the feedback reflected on their ability. Their brainwaves showed them paying close attention when they were told whether their answers were right or wrong.

But when they were presented with information that could help them learn, there was no sign of interest. Even when they'd gotten an answer wrong, they were not interested in learning what the right answer was.  

Only people with a growth mindset paid close attention to information that could stretch their knowledge. only for them was learning a priority."

Common sense is often wrong. Ability, intelligence and confidence are not enough.

The belief that students with high ability are more likely to display mastery oriented qualities is wrong.

The belief that success in school directly fosters mastery oriented qualities is wrong.

The belief that praise, particularly praising a student's intelligence, encourages mastery oriented qualities is wrong.

The belief that student's confidence in their intelligence is the key to mastery oriented qualities is wrong.

Belief, 'fixed' verses 'growth'. After extensive research on numerous groups, Dweck and her colleagues gained an understanding that this division of people into fixed or growth mindsets tended to predict how successful, how accomplished, how healthy and how happy people were. People with a growth mindset were more successful, accomplished and happy. Carol Dweck explains how people with a fixed mindset manage to function as follows:

"Sure, people with the fixed mindset have read books that say: success is about being your best self, not about being better than others; failure is an opportunity, not a condemnation; effort is the key to success. But they can't put this into practice because their basic mindset - their belief in fixed traits - is telling them something entirely different: that success is about being more gifted than others, that failure does measure you, and that effort is for those who can't make it on talent."

Some of the other conclusions Dweck and her colleagues reached are the following:

Fixed mindset people.

1. Intelligence. Fixed mindset people believe we are born with our level of fixed intelligence, and that it changes little over the course of our lives. They tend to see how their intelligence is now as how it is going to be in the future.
2. Intelligence and trying hard. Fixed mindset people believe that if we have to try hard to understand or to solve problems, that this shows how low our intelligence is. They believe that if our intelligence is high, everything will be easy to understand and problems will be easy to solve.
3. Abilities. Fixed mindset people believe we are born with our various fixed levels of ability and that these change little over the course of our lives.
4. Abilities and trying hard. Fixed mindset people believe, that if we have to try hard to do things or to build a skill, that this shows how inferior our abilities are. They believe that if our abilities are great, everything will be easy to do and that skills will be easy to build.
5. Change. Fixed mindset people believe they are born a certain way, and that neither they, nor anybody else, can do anything to change them. Likewise, they believe other people are also born a certain way and also cannot be changed. They see no point in trying to change themselves or others. Fixed mindset people are therefore more likely lump people into stereotype straitjackets.
6. Change the world. Fixed mindset people believe, though it seems to defy common sense, that the world cannot be changed and that it especially cannot be changed by them. Though they see the world as changing, they believe this is outside the ability of anyone to influence. They see no point in trying to change the world if nothing they do has any effect.
7. Validation. Fixed mindset people believe their purpose in life is to validate and live up to the statuses that others have conferred on them. They do this by continually trying to perform at the expected level of various standards.
8. Challenges. Fixed mindset people tend to avoid challenges and risk. They are willing to pass up learning opportunities if they are likely to reveal inadequacies or entail errors.
9. Performance. Fixed mindset people tend to perform for others to judge, and not for their own edification. They are more interested in the appearance of being knowledgeable or skilled at work, rather than the actuality of it. They can pass exams, get degrees, but only a minimal amount of real learning trickles through.
10. Effort. Fixed mindset people tend to believe that things should be accomplished with little effort. They believe that having to exert effort indicates that people have insufficient knowledge, skill, or intelligence. They therefore tend to minimize effort, and feel it shows their lack of intelligence and ability when they find it necessary to try hard.
11. Obstacles. Fixed mindset people see obstacles as a threat. They see mistakes, difficulties in understanding and doing, as signs of weakness in their intelligence and abilities. They tend to want to avoid obstacles if they can, preferring to do easy work rather than hard work.
12. Failure. Fixed mindset people see failure as the refutation of the statuses that have been conferred on them. They see failure as indictment of their stupidity and incompetence. They are thus ever afraid of failure which threatens their feelings of worth, status and esteem.
13. Response to failure. In response to failure, fixed mindset people tend to indulge in negative self talk. They tend to over estimate the amount or extent of the failure. They tend to lose faith in their abilities and intelligence to be able to still do things they have already accomplished.
14. Giving up. Fixed mindset people tend to give up easily when faced with obstacles or difficulties. They give up before they have exhausted their strategies. They are more likely revert to wild guesses. They are more likely to lose interest in things they are failing at or finding difficulty with.
15. Success. Fixed mindset people revel in any successes which they see as validating their high intelligence and competence. They are thus ever seeking successes which bolsters their feelings of worth, status and esteem.
16. Conditional. Fixed mindset people live lives that are conditional. Their confidence, self worth and self esteem rise and fall on what others hold as standards, and on their performance ability in obtaining or passing those standards. This this may go back to their childhood where the love and esteem provided by their parents was probably conditional.
17. Learning. Fixed mindset people do not see learning of value in itself, but rather see it as only having value if assessed.
18. Motivation. Fixed mindset people are not usually motivated by intrinsic motives and are mostly motivated by extrinsic motives. Whether they are trying for an external reward, or they are trying to gain the approval of some others, or they are trying to pass a standard, or they are simply trying to live up to expectations, it is all extrinsic motives.
19. Cheating. Fixed mindset people are so concerned with appearance and status that they are more likely to consider cheating.
20. High Achievement. Some fixed mindset people start off strong early in life accomplishing much, but become more and more fearful of risk and so take less and less chances as time goes by. This causes their accomplishments to gradually diminish till often they are no better than average or even worse. Their academic achievements are often spectacular when young, but diminish as they find the work difficult or as they have to deal with failures.
21. Low Achievement. Some fixed mindset people are what are often referred to as losers. Such people feel generally helpless in most situations. Such talent as they have is so overwhelmed by their fixed mindset that they never achieve anything of worth.

Growth mindset people.

1. Intelligence. Growth mindset people believe, that we a born with a malleable intelligence, and that it changes in response to accumulation of knowledge and understanding over the course of our lives. They tend to see how their intelligence is now, as just that now, and in no way indicating anything about the future.
2. Intelligence and trying hard. Growth mindset people believe that in order to increase our intelligence we have to try hard to improve and understand or to solve problems, that intelligence is a function of learning. They believe that our intelligence can only become high by putting every effort into the accumulation of knowledge and understanding, because intelligence is knowledge and understanding.
3. Abilities. Growth mindset people believe we a born with various malleable potentials, and that the only way to turn those potentials into abilities is to work hard to develop the skills necessary to those abilities through constant learning. They tend to see abilities as ever developing and evolving over the period of their life. Even potential they do not see as fixed because they believe it is unknowable.
4. Abilities and trying hard. Growth mindset people believe that we have to try hard to do things or to build skills, and that the only way to develop abilities is to put in the effort to learn and maintain them. They believe that nothing is worth doing or worthy of them if it is accomplished to easily. They believe that anything worth doing must stretch and challenge them, so that they are always leaning the most they possibly can.
5. Change. Growth mindset people believe they are born with infinitely flexible and malleable bodies, like silly putty, that they can change and mold into whatever they wish. They believe that the environment can change them, but only if they allow it to. Likewise, they believe other people are also born as flexible and malleable as them, and though they can be changed by others, that they should be changed by themselves. They see the only point of living is to try to change themselves or others for the better. Growth mindset people are remarkably free of prejudice, and far less likely to think of people in terms of stereotypes, because they believe in this ability of all people to change.
6. Change the world. Growth mindset people believe that the world is in constant change and that anybody and everybody can and should contribute to that change. They are especially sure that the world is open to improvement, and that they can be highly instrumental in bringing about such improvements. They see the world as changing mostly through the efforts of people like themselves who try to change it and believe it can be changed by them. They see the main point of living in trying to change the world for the better.
7. Validation. Growth mindset people see no purpose in trying to validate others opinions of them, or to try and live up to the statuses that others have conferred on them. They feel validated only by their own judgment of their own continual improvement. They are uncaring of the opinions of others and only perform to standards of others, when society seems to present no other course of progressing.
8. Challenges. Growth mindset people tend to love challenges and are willing to take reasonable risks in order to improve. They are often bored by tasks that are so easy as to offer no challenge. They are quite willing to risk looking stupid if the opportunity to learn seems sufficiently challenging. They will sacrifice opportunities to look smart in favor of challenging their intellect.
9. Performance. Growth mindset people tend to perform only for themselves and for their own edification. They are more interested in the increasing their knowledge than of being thought knowledgeable. They are more interested in being skilled than being thought skilled. They would rather do quality work, than be thought to have done quality work. They can pass exams, get degrees, but are only interested in doing this in so far as society is likely to prevent them from doing what they want otherwise.
10. Effort. Growth mindset people tend to believe that the only way to improve is through effort. They believe that exerting effort is how knowledge, understanding and abilities are acquired. They therefore tend to maximize their efforts to learn, and feel that is how they expand their intelligence and skills.
11. Obstacles. Growth mindset people see obstacles as challenges. They see mistakes, difficulties in understanding and doing, as signs that they need to try new strategies and work harder. They tend to want tasks that involve obstacles, so they can be challenged and overcome those obstacles. They prefer hard work to easy work.
12. Failure. Growth mindset people see failure as the ultimate challenge, as an opportunity to really dig in and try something new, to work harder and to persist by trying again. They basically redouble their efforts in the face of failure. They see failure as an opportunity to learn. They are thus never afraid of failure, and only more resolved to do better next time when it occurs.
13. Response to failure. In response to failure growth mindset people tend to indulge in positive self talk. This is usually in the form of self instructions to work harder and increase effort and try new strategies, but sometimes it takes the form of talk to reinforce their self theory such as, "I love a good challenge". They tend to under estimate the amount or extent of the failure, to become more determined to succeed, and remain confident in their ability to do so.
14. Giving up. Growth mindset people tend not to give up even when faced with many obstacles or difficulties and persist, often to an unreasonable extent. They may give up using one strategy only to try many others. They are more likely to increase their concentration. They are more likely to become even more interested in things they are failing at or finding difficulty with.
15. Success. Growth mindset people, like others, enjoy their successes, which they see as the outcome of their strategies, effort and hard work. They are thus, far more often successful in any of their undertakings and creative in overcoming their failures.
16. Conditional. Growth mindset people live unconditional lives. Their confidence, self worth and self esteem, are very stable and independent of conditions others try to place on them. This is because they are always perceiving evidence of their own improvement. Their confidence is not confidence in abilities or intelligence, but rather confidence in their aptitude to improve through trying various strategies, applying more effort, and persisting. Their esteem and self worth are generated by their own perception of themselves as being increasingly successful, despite perhaps, a current temporary failure. This likely goes back to their childhood, where the love and esteem provided by their parents was always unconditional.
17. Learning. Growth mindset people see learning as of value in itself. As a result their learning tends to be meaningful, well integrated into their cognitive structure, and not easily forgotten. They tend to enjoy and love learning, which in turn, makes them good candidates for being life long learners.
18. Motivation. Growth mindset people are motivated by intrinsic motives and are hardly ever motivated by extrinsic motives. Though they are normally motivated by intrinsic motives, they tend to be flexible, in that they are able to tackle performance goals or growth goals with equal enthusiasm, if they perceive the performance goals to be necessary to their intrinsic motivation. Whether they are trying gain entry to a school, or pass a standard required for entry to a profession of choice, they are still primarily internally motivated.
19. Cheating. Growth mindset people are very unlikely to cheat, as they see value only in knowing and understanding and see no value in demonstrating skills, abilities or knowledge that they do not have.
20. High Achievement. Some growth mindset people start off strong early in life, accomplishing much early. They tend to continue in this manner throughout their lives like Mozart. The number of prodigies this happens to seems to be far smaller than the those that fall by the wayside. These high achieving growth theorist's academic achievements may take no spectacular leaps, but show a steady growth and improvement. Despite this, they are often at their best when facing difficulties.
21. Low Achievement. Some growth mindset people start off weak early in life, but slowly become more and more skillful and knowledgeable as time goes by. Their absolute faith in the eventuality of success enables them to gradually catch up to others, even prodigies, and eventually surpass them. They do this by effort and hard work. When young their academic achievements are often inferior, but gradually they overcome their flaws and learn the necessary skills

Your brain grows by being exercised. Carol Dweck and her associates have developed a workshop for students who were losing interest and motivation in schoolwork. The purpose of the workshop is to move students from having a fixed mindset to having a growth mindset by lending academic authority to the growth mindset. The following is a excerpt from what those students are taught in part to instigate that change:

"When they do think about what intelligence is, many people believe that a person is born either smart, average, or dumb - and stays that way for life. But new research shows that the brain is more like a muscle - it changes and gets stronger when you use it. And scientists have been able to show just how the brain grows and gets stronger when you learn."

"When you learn new things, these tiny connections in the brain actually multiply and get stronger. The more that you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow. Then, things you once found very hard or even impossible - like speaking a foreign language or doing algebra - seem to become easy. The result is a stronger smarter brain."

True or false. The point of this above passage, was to change what people believed was possible, so its actual truth or falsity was unimportant as long as people believed it. However, if you take a look at our section on the plastic brain, you will see that there is considerable evidence that this is true.

1. Knowledge of self theories. Carol Dweck has just written a book called "Mindset", a popular non technical book for the general public, and she did this a the behest of her students. Her students felt transformed by her lectures on mindsets, which they felt moved their self theories from entity theories to incremental self theories. Because they felt so transformed, they felt the general public needed to be informed about Dweck's work. This site concurs with the belief of those students to the point where everyone should read "Mindset", especially parents and teachers.
2. Nature versus nurture. Are we born with a fixed amount of intelligence, or does our intelligence build in increments over time constantly growing and becoming more with our growing knowledge? Are we born with fixed abilities, or are these too developed over time in increments depending on the amount of effort we put in and the persistence we maintain? If so, does this have any bearing on how great we can become as people, or what contribution we can make to society and humanity? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, but Carol Dweck and her associates have shown that what we believe about nature and nurture, is essential in the structuring of our self theories. Are our abilities provided by our genes or are abilities developed by our intentions and our environment? Is our intelligence provided by our genes or is intelligence developed by our intentions and our environment?

Ultimately it does not matter whether nature or nurture is correct, and it is best we never know the answer, unless it is nurture. Because, if we believe nurture is correct, this gives us an advantage in life, it allows us to be inclined toward a growth mindset, which in turn, enables us to change and become more competent in everything we do.  

3. Facilitation by praise. Growth praise. In terms of Carol Dweck's mindsets, good praise means the reinforcing of the idea that you can change what you are. If you seem less intelligent you can learn and become more intelligent. If you lack skills you can learn them. If you are socially incompetent you can learn how to be socially competent. If you are not so beautiful you can do something about that also. Here is what Dweck said, "If the wrong kinds of praise lead kids down the path of entitlement dependence and fragility, maybe the right kinds of praise can lead them down the path of hard work and greater happiness." How do you convey this? You praise the process not the person. Praise how the person has improved and is improving. Praise the amount of challenge that is being attempted, the problem solving strategies that were used, the hard work, the

4. Facilitation by criticism. Growth Criticism. As with praise, criticism can be a way of reinforcing the mindset of the person being criticized. If the person seems less intelligent you can help them come to feel they can learn more and so become more intelligent. If they lack skills they can be made to feel they can learn them. If they are socially incompetent you can convince them they can learn how to be socially competent. If they are not so beautiful you can make them believe they can do something about that also. How do you convey this? You can criticize them by concentrating the process of change. Criticize how the person is working or has been working, how the person has improved and is improving. Criticize the amount of challenge that is being attempted, the problem solving strategies that were used, the amount of hard work, the persistence and especially the amount of effort put in. One of the simplest ways Dweck and co. found to help move people from an entity theory to an incremental theory, was to simply point out that the reason people had failed was because they hadn't tried hard enough. They then pointed out that the people should therefore try harder the next time. Here are some examples:

5.  Improvement. Drawing attention to improvement is the easiest way of facilitating the development of a growth mindset. It is just a matter of, instead of saying how good something is, you say how much better it is than it was before. If you want to say how clever someone is, say instead how clever they have become. If you want to say how well your child has done in his school work, simply tell him how much better he has done this year compared with last year. If you want to say how beautiful and creative a piece of artwork is, you simply say how much more beautiful and creative it is compared with work the person has done in the past. It is easy for teachers to say how much some work has improved or how much more the person knows than just a few months back, because at school, we are in a position to be absorbing knowledge at a phenomenal rate. (Although many of us unfortunately are forgetting it at the same rate.) Still the knowledge we have is always greater than before. The skills we have, are always more than before.

6.  Attitudes. Children with a growth mindset usually turn out to have grown up in a in a household where at least one of their parent has had a growth mindset. Some such children when facing difficulties say things like, "I hoped this would be informative." or, "Mistakes are our friends." or, "I love a good challenge." Such children have clearly grown up in a household where such comments are often heard and so repeated. Such households, must have been places where the unexpected was embraced, challenges enjoyed and where failure triggered determination to try again and do better.