Mindset Paper

It's been a long time since I've added anything to this blog. I started it in Junior High, and I'm now a 21-year-old Sophomore in college. I recently had to write a one-page paper for an engineering class, and I figured I'd share it.

Carol S. Dweck’s paper “The Perils and Promises of Praise” discusses two kinds of mind-sets that can develop in people. The first is a “fixed mind-set”. People with this mind-set view intelligence as an intrinsic ability: something that a person is born with and it can’t be changed. They are more concerned with validating that intelligence than with expanding it, and this leads to pursuing challenges that require little effort because the show of effort indicates to them a lack of this intrinsic intelligence. This is a downward spiral for students in any field of study: their handicapped growth keeps them from opportunities that would only help them develop more and more, and they get stuck on the idea that they can only perform at a fixed level. Dweck juxtaposes this mind-set to a “growth mind-set.” With a growth mind-set, a person believes intelligence is “malleable” and can be developed with effort and practice. These people tend to perform better with difficult or new tasks because they view the task as something that they can personally do given enough time, effort, and help. Students with this mind-set will perform better in the long run because they don’t quit when given what seem like problems that they are currently incapable of solving.

            I see the difference the difference between these two mind-sets as the same as the difference between success and failure. In general, I think that most people in their early years set their sights high: they want to achieve great things. As they go through life, their course of development and the influences that guide them lead them into these different mind-sets. Those that develop a fixed mind-set limit themselves in their opportunities. To be successful, a person needs to move towards a goal knowing that it is the choices they make, the opportunities given, and the time and effort made that get them there and not any inherent trait that they are born with. I certainly recognize that “natural” talent and inclinations have an influence on performance, but these do not have to determine the long-term behavior. My own mind-set is very much a growth mind-set: I take difficult courses and relatively “high-risk” challenges in large doses because I know it gives me the opportunity to be better. My first year of college I failed a math class, and I had always gotten A’s in school up to that point. I didn’t quit school or change majors after that; I retook the class the next semester knowing that I needed to try again, maybe with a different approach and a different teacher, to be successful. This attitude also extends into my perception of others: I really do believe most people have a very similar potential. What determines relative success is the individual choices made and the opportunities afforded, not whether a person is “smart” or not. This perception also reaches into my interpersonal relations. I try not to look at individuals or groups and think that I don’t have the potential to “run with them.” Maybe at the moment I can’t compete with or interact on a non-superficial level with someone who has more fully mastered a problem-solving skill, an athletic ability, social influence, or any other ability that can be learned, but I don’t cut myself off from that as a future possibility. I try to limit how much I definitively categorize my own personality and others’ personalities because I know that people can change, and they will change for the better if they can be helped. A person with a negatively-impactful personality trait really can adjust their behaviors. For example, a person with poor timing of comments in conversation can, with the right opportunities, guidance, and desire to improve, become better at recognizing when it is best to speak and when not to speak. By practicing a growth mind-set and helping others do the same people within my social sphere are much more likely to make progress in whatever they choose to pursue.