This introduction is based on the book listed in the Resources for the UnDissertation Group by Carol Dweck.
(Based on elements of Chapter 2 on Fixed vs Growth MindSets)
Your Brain Shows the Difference
The permanence mindset can actually create a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think that what you are now is all you can be, you limit yourself from becoming even more.
And these mindsets aren’t just concepts. They are reflected in the activity of your brain.
Dweck and her students brought a number of people into their lab and looked at what was happening in their brain when they were a series of difficult questions and given feedback. They looked specifically at when the brain activity of these individuals suggested they were the most attentive and interested.
Individuals with a fixed mindset generally paid close attention only when they were told whether their answers were right or wrong. They weren’t interested in information that could help them learn, even when that information was the right answer to the question.
In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset paid close attention to information that could stretch their current knowledge.
Mindset can Change the Brain
Dweck gives the example of Christopher Reeve, the actor who suffered a broken neck after being thrown from a horse. Reeve didn’t accept the “permanence” mindset of his medical team, who told him that the damage was permanent and that he needed to learn to cope and adapt for the rest of his life.
Reeve had a “growth” mindset par excellence. Instead of just coping, he started an intensive exercise program combined with electrical stimulation to re-teach his brain and spinal cord to control the muscles of his body.
Although the physicians thought this was a sign of “denial” and a bad sign for his adjustment, five years after starting his program Reeve started to re-gain some movement — first in his hands, then his arms, then legs, then torso.
What is particularly interesting is that tests showed his brain was actually sending signals to his body that his body was responding to. His growth mindset not only affected his own recovery from a “permanent” injury, it had an impact on the way researchers think about spinal cord injury.
Here’s a quick summary of the Fixed Traits vs Changing Mindsets:
| Fixed Traits — Being | Changing Qualities — Becoming | |
| Success is about… | Validating or Proving yourself | Developing or Stretching yourself |
| Failure happens when…. | you’re not smart or talented; it’s a setback | you’re not growing and reaching |
| Effort… | means lack of talent | makes you talented |
| Challenge | Avoid it | Seek it out |
| You feel smart when… | you do something quickly and the best | you try and progress at something |
| Success creates a sense of… | Superiority over others | Pleasure in your accomplishment |
| Failure is about… | Identity — I’m a failure | Action — I failed to… |
| Failure is… | Traumatic | a Learning Opportunity |
| Focus is on… | Outcome | Process regardless of outcome |
More on “Winning”
What many of us think of as “being competitive” is actually more a reflection of a Fixed Mindset that measures the inherent talents and abilities of one person against others. Dweck shares a memory of learning to fly-fish. She was the only one in her group that actually caught a fish. Her husband (a Growth mindset kind of guy) was delighted for her. Other men in the group came to commiserate with him having the attitude that her success was their failure. That is, that she succeeded where they did not made her “talented” at fly-fishing and them all just “ordinary” or even “failures”. How often have you or others you know measured “success” by other people’s performance?
More on “Effort”
According to the fixed mindset, one shouldn’t really need to put in a great deal of effort. Effort is a reflection of lacking talent, so the more effort you need to put in, the less natural ability/intelligence/talent you have.
But even more than that, if you do try and Fail, that’s proof positive that you really aren’t up to the challenge, that you are really nothing more than a loser. Better not to give it your full effort, than to try and fail.
On the other hand, those with a Growth mindset believe that being able to change and improve and grow is all about trying — trying new things, trying new ways to do old things, going on trying when things seem difficult.
Are Our Own Mindsets Permanent or Can They Be Changed?
Here’s the good news.
Our mindsets can be changed by paying attention to which we are using and making the choice to switch to a Growth mindset.
But it’s also true that even if you have a Fixed mindset, you’re not always using that mindset. In fact, for specific activities, you can be put, or put yourself, into a Growth mindset — so it’s not an all-or-nothing kind of thing.
Many people find that they have elements of both the Fixed and Growth mindsets or different habitual mindsets in different areas. So, for example, you may find that you believe artistic mindsets are Fixed — either you’re creative or you’re not, either you have drawing ability or you don’t — and at the same time believe that sports abilities can be developed. Or maybe you think your personality is Fixed and your creativity is something that can be developed. The beauty of this is that if you have practice with a Growth mindset in one area, it’s easier to practice it in another area (like dissertations ;-).
What Good Does it Do to Have a Growth Mindset?
The Growth mindset is a learning mindset. It’s about undertaking things to learn and to stretch oneself and, importantly, to enjoy the process of getting there.
It takes the pressure off to always “succeed” — i.e., to have a “winning” outcome — and that allows a number of things to happen.
First, it lets you have fun at what you are doing. It lets you establish a passion for getting better and better at it, rather than giving up when difficulties arise and the Fixed mindset would say to stop before failure is obvious.
And because the Growth mindset is not about the outcome, per se, you can value what you do regardless of whether you’re the “best”or not. You may indeed become the best, but this will be a side-product of loving the process of getting to be better and better at what you do. (Think how much easier “satisficing” can be…)
And most importantly, in my opinion, it leads you to do things that are meaningful to you and not to do things because you need to prove your innate value to anyone, including yourself.
So — why are you doing that dissertation? What got you started or where do you want it and/or your degree to take you?