Mindset A study led by Columbia University showed that 85% of American parents believe it is important to praise their children's intelligence. This reassurance is, in the parent's mind, an attempt to increase the children's self-esteem and boost their performance. The opposite might be true. According to psychologist Carol Dweck: “praising brains and talent does not foster self-esteem and accomplishment, but jeopardizes them.” Through years of research, Dr. Dweck has discovered the concept of Mindset. She asserts that in a fixed mindset, people believe their abilities or intelligence are innate and set. Individuals with a growth mindset on the other hand, believe that they can acquire these capabilities through hard work and self-improvement. In my own personal experience, I had a very fixed mind set as I was growing up. Everyone around me always talked about how smart I was. I did well in school, so it seemed like a given that I was “the smart one.” In spite of this strong belief in my …show more content…
Now that I know this concept, it can help me identify when I am reverting to a fixed mindset state. There are a lot of times when I say, “Wow, I guess I am more of a fixed mindset than I thought.” After saying this to myself, I can switch to a growth mindset approach. As an example, I am currently taking a class in Ethnic Studies. When I found out at the beginning of the semester that I had to write my papers for this class in APA format, I had a full-blown fixed mindset episode. I had convinced myself that I wasn't good at writing, even though I had not even given it a try yet. So the prospect of doing something new terrified me. Instinctively though, I thought about reaching out for reassurance to my AAA instructor. She encouraged me to embrace the challenge. I did some research in order to learn about APA writing, and everything is going great with my Ethnic Studies class