Carol Dweck Explained

Carol Dweck
Birth Name:Carol Susan Dweck
Birth Date:17 October 1946
Thesis Title:The Role of Expectations and Attributions in the Alleviation of Learned Helplessness in a Problem-Solving Situation
Thesis Url:http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/9849217
Thesis Year:1972
Nationality:American
Field:Social psychology
Developmental psychology
Work Institutions:Stanford University
Columbia University
Harvard University
University of Illinois
Alma Mater:Barnard College
Yale University (PhD)

Carol Susan Dweck (born October 17, 1946) is an American psychologist. She holds the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professorship of Psychology at Stanford University. Dweck is known for her work on motivation and mindset. She was on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Harvard, and Columbia before joining the Stanford University faculty in 2004. She was named an Association for Psychological Science (APS) James McKeen Cattell Fellow in 2013, an APS Mentor Awardee in 2019, and an APS William James Fellow in 2020, and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2012.

Early life and education

Dweck was born in New York. Her father worked in the export-import business and her mother in advertising. She was the only daughter and the middle sibling of three children.[1]

In her sixth grade class at the P.S. 153 elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, students were seated in order of their IQ; some responsibilities like erasing the blackboard and carrying the flag were reserved to students with the highest IQs.[2] [3] She later described becoming "increasingly afraid to risk her reputation as one of the most intelligent children in the class", by avoiding participation in a spelling bee and a French competition.

She graduated from Barnard College in 1967,[4] and earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University in 1972.[5]

Career and research

After obtaining her PhD, Dweck joined the faculty of the University of Illinois, eventually reaching the rank of associate professor. In 1981, she became a professor at Harvard's Laboratory of Human Development, then returned to the University of Illinois in 1985.[6] In 1989, she joined the faculty of Columbia University, and in 2004 became a Lewis and Virginia Eaton professor of psychology at Stanford University.[7] [8]

Dweck's research focuses on mindset and motivation.[9]

Mindset work

See also: Implicit theories of intelligence. Dweck's key contribution to social psychology relates to the concept of implicit theories of intelligence and personality, which she first introduced in a 1988 paper.[10] [11] In the academic literature, the term "implicit theories" is often treated as synonymous with "implicit beliefs", "self-theories", or "mindsets", and is defined by Dweck as "core assumptions about the malleability of personal attributes". Dweck later popularized the concept in her 2006 non-academic book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

According to Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their implicit views of where ability comes from; those believing their success to be based on innate ability are said to have a "fixed" theory of intelligence (fixed mindset), and those believing their success is based on hard work, learning, training and doggedness are said to have a "growth" or an "incremental" theory of intelligence (growth mindset). In 2012, Dweck defined fixed and growth mindsets, in interview, in this way:

According to Dweck, individuals may not necessarily be aware of their own mindset, but according to Dweck, their mindset can still be discerned based on their behavior, being especially evident in their reaction to failure. Dweck has described fixed-mindset individuals as dreading failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals don't mind or fear failure as much because they realize their performance can be improved and learning comes from failure.[12] According to Dweck, these two mindsets play an important role in all aspects of a person's life; she argues that the growth mindset allows a person to live a less stressful and more successful life.[13]

As explained by Dweck, a growth mindset is not just about effort. Dweck has written that a common misunderstanding is that the growth mindset is "just about effort". She states, "The growth mindset was intended to help close achievement gaps, not hide them. It is about telling the truth about a student's current achievement and then, together, doing something about it, helping him or her become smarter."[14]

Dweck warns of the dangers of praising intelligence as it puts children in a fixed mindset, and they will not want to be challenged because they will not want to look stupid or make a mistake. She notes, "Praising children's intelligence harms motivation and it harms performance."[15] She advises, "If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don't have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence."[16]

Recent work

In 2017, she stated "I am now developing a broad theory that puts motivation and the formation of mindsets (or beliefs) at the heart of social and personality development."[17] Later that year she published the theory in a paper titled "From Needs to Goals and Representations: Foundations for a Unified Theory of Motivation, Personality, and Development."[18]

Criticism

Dweck's findings have been reported in journals such as Psychological Science and Nature, with research teams led by Dweck.[19] [20]

Some critics have said that Dweck's research can be difficult to replicate; for instance, a 2017 opinion piece by Toby Young, associate editor of The Spectator, states that:

Nick Brown, who co-developed the GRIM statistical test, argued in 2017: "If your effect is so fragile that it can only be reproduced [under strictly controlled conditions], then why do you think it can be reproduced by schoolteachers?" Brown points out that most of the research in this area has been conducted by Dweck or her collaborators. After Brown's application of the GRIM method showed that some of the means reported in the 1998 study were "impossible", he reviewed the original study data and found some errors in the recording of data, which Dweck publicly acknowledged. Brown praised Dweck's "openness and willingness to address the problems".[21]

Other education and psychology researchers have expressed worry that "mindset" has simply become another aspect to be assessed and graded in children; Matt O'Leary, an education lecturer at Birmingham City University, tweeted that it was "farcical" that his six-year-old daughter was being graded on her attitude towards learning. David James, professor of social sciences at Cardiff University and editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education, says "it's great to dwell on the fact that intelligence is not fundamentally genetic and unchangeable", but he believes the limitations of mindset outweigh its uses: "It individualises the failure'they couldn't change the way they think, so that's why they failed'." James notes that a study in 2013 showed no statistically significant effect of mindset theory.[22]

In July 2019, a large randomized controlled trial of growth mindset training by the Education Endowment Foundation in England, involved 101 schools and 5018 pupils across the country. After the trial they found that pupils in schools receiving the intervention showed no additional progress in literacy or numeracy relative to pupils in the control group. These findings were determined by the national Key Stage 2 tests in reading, grammar, punctuation, and spelling (GPS), and mathematics.[23]

Awards and recognition

Dweck was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002,[24] and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APS) in 2011.[25] She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.[26] [27] Dweck was named an APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow in 2013.[28] On September 19, 2017, the Hong Kong-based Yidan Prize Foundation named Dweck one of two inaugural laureates, to be awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Research, citing her mindset work. The prize includes receipt of approximately US$3.9 million, divided equally between a cash prize and project funding.[29] [30] Dweck received an APS Mentor Award in 2019,[31] and was named an APS William James Fellow in 2020.[32]

Selected publications

Papers

Books

Personal life

Dweck is married to David Goldman, who is a national theatre director and critic and the founder and director of the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University.[33]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: McInerney, Laura . Dweck, Carol . June 25, 2015 . Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology, Stanford University . SchoolsWeek.co.uk . interview . June 21, 2023 . April 21, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190421020713/https://schoolsweek.co.uk/carol-dweck/ . live .
  2. News: Hill . Andrew . 2019-12-06 . Psychologist Carol Dweck: 'Everyone is a work in progress' . Financial Times . 2023-09-06 . 2023-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230906074436/https://www.ft.com/content/fd3e920e-0f7d-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e548a . live .
  3. Web site: Trei, Lisa . February 7, 2007 . New Study Yields Instructive Results on How Mindset Affects Learning . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20190826204231/https://news.stanford.edu/news/2007/february7/dweck-020707.html . August 26, 2019 . June 21, 2023 . Stanford News.
  4. Web site: Barnard College Staff . April 10, 2018 . Being the First: Carol Dweck '67 . Barnard News (barnard.edu/news) . alumni feature . June 21, 2023 . New York, NY . . January 8, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200108053502/https://barnard.edu/news/being-first-carol-dweck . dead .
  5. Carol Susan. Dweck. 1972. Yale University. PhD. The Role of Expectations and Attributions in the Alleviation of Learned Helplessness in a Problem-Solving Situation. 10079/bibid/9849217. Yale.edu. 5066128. 2020-11-01. 2020-11-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20201104180055/https://orbis.library.yale.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=9849217. live.
  6. Web site: Dweck, Carol & Stanford University Staff . June 21, 2023 . Carol Dweck . June 21, 2023 . Stanford Profiles (profiles.stanford.edu) . employment autobiography . July 9, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230709102821/https://profiles.stanford.edu/carol-dweck . live .
  7. Web site: Glenn . David . May 9, 2010 . Carol Dweck's Attitude . September 6, 2023 . The Chronicle of Higher Education . September 6, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230906074436/https://www.chronicle.com/article/carol-dwecks-attitude/ . live .
  8. Web site: Professor Carol S. Dweck . 2023-09-06 . Yidan Prize Foundation . en-US . 2023-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230906074438/https://yidanprize.org/global-community/laureates/carol-s-dweck/ . live .
  9. News: Tugend . Alina . 2020-08-12 . Feel Like You're Going Out of Your Mind? Consider Your Mind-Set . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-09-06 . 0362-4331 . 2023-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230906065506/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/well/growth-mindset-resilience.html . live .
  10. Lüftenegger . Marko . Chen . Jason A. . Conceptual Issues and Assessment of Implicit Theories . Zeitschrift für Psychologie . April 2017 . 225 . 2 . 99–106 . 10.1027/2151-2604/a000286 . 6 September 2023 . 2190-8370.
  11. Dweck . Carol S. . Leggett . Ellen L. . April 1988 . A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. . Psychological Review . en . 95 . 2 . 256–273 . 10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256 . 1939-1471 . 2023-09-06 . 2024-07-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240723033912/https://psycnet.apa.org/api/request/browsePA.getJournals . live .
  12. Web site: Team . Vandermont . 2023-03-10 . #2 Growth Mindset: What is it and how does it apply to what we do? . 2024-05-23 . Vandermont . en . 2024-07-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240723033847/https://www.vandermont.org/post/2-growth-mindset-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-apply-to-what-we-do . live .
  13. Web site: Team . Vandermont . 2023-03-10 . #2 Growth Mindset: What is it and how does it apply to what we do? . 2024-05-23 . Vandermont . en . 2024-05-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240523155441/https://www.vandermont.org/post/2-growth-mindset-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-apply-to-what-we-do . live .
  14. News: Dweck, Carol . September 22, 2015 . Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset' . Education Week (EdWeek.org) . June 20, 2023 . July 8, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230708210321/https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset/2015/09 . live .
  15. News: Syed, Matthew . April 19, 2011 . The Words That Could Unlock Your Child . BBC News (BBC.co.uk) . June 21, 2023 . September 19, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170919090929/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13128701 . live .
  16. Book: Dweck, Carol S. . 2006 . Mindset: The New Psychology of Success . 179f . New York, NY . Random House . 1400062756 . June 21, 2023 . 58546262 . June 21, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230621202302/https://books.google.com/books?id=fT6U0Ee7_kQC . live .
  17. Dweck, C. . 2017 . The Journey to Children's Mindsets–And Beyond . Child Development Perspectives . 11 . 2 . 139–144 . 10.1111/cdep.12225 .
  18. Dweck, C.S. . 2017 . From Needs to Goals and Representations: Foundations for a Unified Theory of Motivation, Personality, and Development . Psychological Review . 124 . 6 . 689– . 10.1037/rev0000082 . 28933872 . 20102505 .
  19. Paunesku, David . Walton, Gregory M. . Romero, Carissa . Smith, Eric N. . Yeager, David S. . Dweck, Carol S. . April 10, 2015 . Mind-Set Interventions Are a Scalable Treatment for Academic Underachievement . Psychological Science . 26 . 6 . 784–793 . June 19, 2023 . subscription . 10.1177/0956797615571017 . 25862544 . 13316981 . June 19, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230619213220/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797615571017 . live .
  20. Yeager, David S. . Hanselman, Paul . Walton, Gregory M. . Murray, Jared S. . Crosnoe, Robert . Muller, Chandra . Tipton, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Tipton . Schneider, Barbara . Hulleman, Chris S. . Hinojosa, Cintia P. . Paunesku, David . Romero, Carissa . Flint, Kate . Roberts, Alice . Trott, Jill . Iachan, Ronaldo . Buontempo, Jenny . Yang, Sophia Man . Carvalho, Carlos M. . Hahn, P. Richard . Gopalan, Maithreyi . Mhatre, Pratik . Ferguson, Ronald . Duckworth, Angela L. . Dweck, Carol S. . August 7, 2019. A National Experiment Reveals Where a Growth Mindset Improves Achievement. Nature . 573. 7774. 364–369. 10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y . 31391586 . 6786290 . 2019Natur.573..364Y . 199466753. free.
  21. Web site: What is Your Mindset. Chivers, Tom. BuzzFeed.com. January 14, 2017. November 26, 2019. November 9, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191109033702/https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/what-is-your-mindset. live.
  22. News: New Test for Growth Mindset. May 10, 2016. The Guardian. Rustin, Susanna. November 26, 2019. July 23, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240723033907/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/may/10/growth-mindset-research-uk-schools-sats. live.
  23. Folioano, Francesca. Rolfe, Heather. Buzzeo, Jonathan. Runge, Johnny. Wilkinson, David. July 2019. Changing Mindsets: Effectiveness Trial—Evaluation Report. London, England. The Education Endowment Foundation. 43. 2021-01-17. 2021-03-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20210316015852/https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Changing%20Mindsets_0.pdf. live.
  24. Web site: AAA&S Staff . June 2023 . AAA&S—Member Directory . directory entry—search result . AmAcad.org . June 21, 2023 . Cambridge, MA . American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S) . June 21, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230621204923/https://www.amacad.org/directory?search_api_fulltext=Dweck&field_class_section=All&field_class_section_1=All&field_deceased=All&sort_bef_combine=search_api_relevance_DESC . live .
  25. November 2011 . Carol S. Dweck: Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions . The American Psychologist . 66 . 8 . 658–660 . 10.1037/a0024397 . 1935-990X . 22082377 . 2023-09-06 . 2023-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230906095336/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22082377/ . live .
  26. Web site: Dweck, Carol S. and NAS Staff . June 2023 . Carol S. Dweck—Stanford University . NASOnline.org . Washington, DC . National Academy of Sciences (NAS) . June 21, 2023 . June 6, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230606005048/http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/20027281.html . live .
  27. Web site: APS Staff . May 2, 2012 . Four APS Fellows Elected to the National Academy of Sciences . . June 21, 2023 . April 21, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190421001155/https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/nas-2012.html . live .
  28. Web site: APS Staff . April 26, 2013 . James McKeen Cattell Fellows . . June 20, 2023 . May 30, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230530100241/http://www.psychologicalscience.org/members/awards-and-honors/cattell-award/past-award-winners . live . See also this link for the award date.
  29. Web site: Stanford professor Carol Dweck, pioneer of 'mindset' educational theory, awarded $4 million prize. 2017-09-19. SFGate.com. November 26, 2019. 2019-04-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20190421000532/https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Stanford-professor-Carol-Dweck-pioneer-of-12209833.php. live.
  30. News: Stanford psychologist recognized with $4 million prize for education research. September 19, 2017. news.stanford.edu. November 26, 2019. May 24, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230524143440/https://news.stanford.edu/2017/09/19/stanford-psychologist-recognized-4-million-prize/. live.
  31. Web site: APS Staff . March 29, 2019 . APS Mentor Award Recipients . . June 20, 2023 . June 21, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230621180056/https://www.psychologicalscience.org/members/awards-and-honors/aps-mentor-award/mentor-award-recipients . live . See also this link for the award date.
  32. Web site: APS Staff . 2020 . Awards 2020: 2020 APS William James Fellow . . June 20, 2023 . June 21, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230621180057/https://www.psychologicalscience.org/2020awards . live .
  33. Web site: Krakovsky, Marina. March–April 2007. The Effort Effect. Stanford Magazine. host university news feature. November 26, 2019. December 11, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191211185419/https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=32124. live.

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