Praise and Mindset – C. Dweck

In her work, Carol Dweck outlines the effects that different kinds of praise can have on the overall mindset adopted by individuals and what they come to tie their intrinsic worth to. 

In Dweck’s studies, it was found that individuals who were praised for their hard work and effort linked their worth with the process of growth. An emphasis is not placed on failure and success in and of itself, but rather views failure as a means of learning to help foster success in future endeavors, and success as an indicator that one is ready to undertake more difficult challenges. This is important because in understanding that you learn and grow either way, you draw your attention to the work itself – the process – and away from the outcome. From here, it is remarkably easy for a positive feedback loop to ensue, with students undertaking ever more complex challenges, increasing their competence while focusing on the work itself, with a corresponding increase in confidence as a result of the success had in developing their competencies that will motivate them to take on more and more difficult challenge – so the cycle repeats.

On the other hand, those who were praised for their intelligence and talent became fearful of disproving those who had attributed those labels to them – falling prey to the trap of a ‘fixed mindset.’ They came to view failure as an indication that they weren’t good at a particular task and that their skill and ability could not be improved to accomplish said task. They subsequently elected easier challenges at the expense of their long-term growth, succumbing to the inverse of the feedback loop indicated above – a negative feedback loop. By undertaking easier challenges, they are not afforded the opportunity for growth by exposing themselves to new, difficult challenges stemming from a fear of failure, tied to the fear of being judged by others, and ultimately stagnating where no learning or growth can occur. 

Her work has resonated with me in the writing of this itself. The way I view it is as a challenge to get each word right. Once I have each word right, I move on to the next challenge of getting each sentence right. Once I have each sentence right, I move onto getting the ordering of sentences right, in order to get each paragraph right, so on and so forth up to the completion of this paper. What I am doing here is undertaking increasingly difficult tasks, as part of a process to achieve the desired goal of completing this paper. 

This can make you wonder: just what can you accomplish if a sole emphasis is placed on the process, accompanied by the right mindset? What can you achieve if you diligently work to get the seemingly minutest details right and work your way up from there? Who can you be? What can you become?

I believe the possibilities are limitless.