Growing a Growth Mindset
We all have an ideal version of ourselves, a vision of a future in which we have greater control over our behavior, manage our resources more judiciously, set and enforce personal boundaries, or in which we’re working our dream job. The extent to which we believe we are capable of becoming the best versions of ourselves, however, is a bit more variable. Sadly, the less we believe we are capable of change, the less we are able to change. This is where having a growth mindset can change everything. In this course, we will learn what a growth mindset is, why it is important, and how we can develop the kind of self-belief that will grant us the space and the power to live our best lives.
What Is A Mindset?
A mindset is a set of expectations about ourselves and our world that help us make sense of our experiences. Similar to a worldview or what is known in psychology as a schema, they offer a sort of shortcut that allows us to respond to a situation quickly, easily, and – most of the time – appropriately. For example, imagine you walk into a friend’s house and their dog starts running toward you as you make your way through the front door. If you’ve had good experiences with dogs, you will likely expect the dog to be friendly, interpret its behavior as an enthusiastic greeting, and bend down to greet it in return. On the other hand, if you’ve had negative experiences with dogs, you might expect the dog to be aggressive, interpret its behavior as a threat, and either flee or move to protect yourself. In each of these examples, you have constructed a schema for what to expect from dogs and are able to quickly select a course of action that is consistent with your expectations.
Mindsets are similar to schemas but are commonly understood as pertaining more broadly to our general experiences rather than being specific to particular people, places, or events. For example, when we have a positive mindset, we might move through the world with the assumption that people are nice, and we are safe. We develop mindsets over time through personal experience and the influence of other people. If we have negative experiences with others or are consistently taught by an authority figure that people are untrustworthy, we are likely to develop a mindset in which we generally anticipate the worst from others. Mindsets can be really useful in that they help us interpret our behavior and the behavior of others, and react in an adaptive manner. However, our mindsets don’t always correspond closely with reality and can sometimes work against us, especially when we get what we expect.
Research has shown that our expectations of ourselves are often self-fulfilling. For example, studies investigating a phenomenon called stereotype threat, have shown that by putting people in a context in which they doubt themselves or feel as though they don’t belong, they will actually perform worse than when they are in a context where they feel capable (Spencer et al., 2016). Similarly, studies have also shown that you perform better when you expect to perform better. For example, one research group showed that gymnasts with a higher self-concept, or greater self-belief, improved their skills more in a training program than gymnasts with a lower self-concept.
What Is Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset is a set of expectations that generally reflect a belief in your ability to intentionally develop yourself intellectually, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. It is essentially believing that you are capable of more, whatever the particular ‘more’ may be.
Growth mindset is a concept that was first developed by psychologist Carol Dweck. It emerged from her observation that school-aged children who believed in their ability to grow were more likely to succeed academically than children with a fixed mindset, who believed that their abilities were fixed and couldn’t be developed (Dweck, 2006).
What Are the Benefits of a Growth Mindset?
The benefits of a growth mindset are vast and diverse. This frame of reference is based on a view of yourself as a capable and autonomous agent in the world. In other words, you move through the world with confidence in your ability to exert control over your experiences. A growing body of research demonstrates a number of other benefits of having a growth mindset including (Dweck, 2006):
- ● Enhanced creativity and problem-solving ability
- ● Greater self-esteem
- ● Resilience
- ● Improved relationships
- ● Academic and career success
- ● Courage to try new things
- ● Improved health, well-being, and life satisfaction
- ● Ability to receive criticism
- ● Increased motivation
- ● Greater overall enjoyment of life
- ● Lower risk of depression
The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset
Our capacity to develop our cognitive abilities, such as intelligence, emotional regulation, and self-control, is supported by the neuroscientific principle of plasticity. Plasticity is essentially the ability of your brain cells to rewire themselves to support new or different functions. The extent of plasticity observed in the human brain is remarkable. For example, when a seeing person goes blind, much of the brain that previously supported vision is rewired to support other senses such as touch and hearing (Amedi et al., 2005). Plasticity is also the principle that underlies all forms of learning. Any time you gain a new skill or learn something new, your brain is changing in an observable way.
Neuroscience studies specifically focused on growth mindset also provide support for the notion that our mindset can affect our brain activity. Studies using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which allows you to see changes in activity in particular brain regions, have shown that a growth mindset is associated with greater activity in regions that are important for emotional regulation, learning, self-control, identification of errors, and behavioral adaptation (Ng, 2018).
Can Mindsets Change?
A substantial body of evidence supports the effectiveness of programs to change mindsets. For example, research from growth mindset pioneer, Carol Dweck, demonstrates that following interventions in which children were taught about growth mindset and their capacity to improve, mathematical ability and reading comprehension skyrocketed (Dweck, 2006). These results demonstrate not only that mindsets can be changed, but that a mindset has a powerful effect on performance. Other studies corroborate these findings and suggest that a growth mindset can be instantiated relatively easily. For example, a national study that included more than 12,000 students revealed that after participating in an online growth mindset course lasting for only an hour, academic achievement improved in students that were previously performing poorly (Yeager et al., 2019). All this is to say that mindset matters, and growth mindset is an extremely useful mindset to develop.