Running head: Psychological Book Analysis Paper

The Influence Of Grit

Gabrielle Raichle

Wall Township High School

Psychological Book Analysis Paper

Some people, when exploring topics and hobbies that they enjoy, say that they have a

drive to achieve their goals. If you ask that person what the word “drive” means or where it

comes from, however, they might not be able to answer. Angela Duckworth researched for years

and applied a word to what these people felt: Grit. Grit as I discovered in the book is the balance

of passion and perseverance that allows people to go and achieve the things they want to

accomplish. However, how is Grit determined? Does everybody have Grit?

There are many different ways to approach psychologically looking into a topic. One of

those factors is psychological perspective. Psychodynamic perspective is defined as “how

unconcious drive and experiences from childhood are the root of behaviors'. A psychodynamic

perspective is beneficial to researching a topic because whatever information a child receives

when they are younger helps shape their mental health and personality. It also is easier to notice

what motivates a child to get what they want. Duckworth states, “In our family, we live by the

Hard Thing Rule. It has three parts….first is that everyone...has to do a hard thing…second...you

can quit… finally...​you​ get to pick your hard thing” (Duckworth, 2016, p. 241). Duckworth gave

an example of how her “Hard Thing Rule” can shape a child into being prepared later in life by

making a child challenge themself in a topic they are interested in. She is teaching her children

Grit in a simpler way. Another perspective is a humanistic approach. Humanistic perspective is

defined as “individual improvement influences behavior”. A humanistic approach insinuates that

all people are good until proven bad. Duckworth used this same idea by saying all people have

Grit until they are proven to have more (or less) than they expected. Much like the traditional

humanistic approach, you can grow and improve your Grit. By knowing the background of Grit

and thinking that you have a passion for at least one thing automatically lets a person know that
Psychological Book Analysis Paper

they have some grit. A lot of people tend to view themselves as average, not the best and not the

worst, just average. Most people view others, and themselves, this way until proven otherwise.

Lastly, one of those ways is a behavioral perspective. Behavioral perspective is defined as

“external environment stimuli influence your behavior”. A behavioral approach is beneficial

because you can see how a person was molded to respond to certain things. You can also observe

the difference between people and their reactions depending on how and where they were raised.

Through these observations you can see what method is most beneficial to raise children to be

the best they can be. According to Duckworth,“All the children got pennies and praise...children

who’d trained on difficult (rather than easy) tasks worked harder on the copying task”

(Duckworth, 2016, p. 239-240). These tasks, both easy and hard, allow a person to see what a

child accomplishes with praise. Although there is a easy task and a hard task, because of the

praise the child is receiving, they try harder on their specific task to earn more praise. This

pushes a child harder because they believe that they are doing good at their job.

Having multiple different research methods allows the researcher to gather varied

information as well as different information from each method. Although it is wonderful to have

multiple methods, there are advantages and disadvantages that come with each one. One of the

methods is a Case Study: “in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or community

overtime”. The advantage of the case study is that it allowed Duckworth to gather a lot of data

and to watch how the data changed over large periods of time. The disadvantage is that the study

was not as long as Duckworth hoped it would be because it had only been going on since she

started researching it so she could have gotten a larger scale of information and more details on

how the Grit changed overtime and grew with people. Another one of the methods is an
Psychological Book Analysis Paper

Interview: “asking a person or group questions and perspective on the topic”. The advantage of

the interview is that Duckworth was able to gather a lot of one on one data as well as the

perspective that Coach Carroll, the Seattle Seahawks coach, had on Grit before he knew the

word. Duckworth also got to gather his information on the Seahawks and what they did in

practice that displayed that they had Grit. Duckworth wrote,​ ​“...me on one end of the line, sitting

at my desk in Philadelphia, and Pete and his staff on the other, huddled around a speakerphone in

Seattle. I told him what I was learning in my research, and Pete reciprocated by telling me about

what he was trying to accomplish with the Seahawks.” (Duckworth, 2016, p. 244). This

interview didn’t allow Duckworth to see the facial expressions of Coach Carroll, or the dynamic

of their team and how they interact and practice. A disadvantage is that it is usually a one time

interview so you never get to see how the sample group responded after they received your

feedback. Another method is a Questionnaire: “a series of questions, usually given out to a large

group of people of different ages, to help determine a larger scale of information to research”.

The advantage of a questionnaire is that it allows both the psychologist and the patient to be able

to see how they did and act on that and develop more Grit or be satisfied with where they are. A

disadvantage is that a person is not able to see/hear the thought process of the patient as well as

the timeliness and their experiences. It is a very impersonal way of gathering information.

Finally, the last method is Experimental: “when one applies (a) test(s) to a group, or individual,

and sees how they respond and react”. The advantage of an experiment is that Duckworth can

observe past experiments and apply her topics to it to be able to gather information on her topic

without having to rerun the experiment. “130 sophomores were asked to run on a treadmill for up

to 5 minutes. The treadmill was set at such a steep angle and cranked up to such a fast speed that
Psychological Book Analysis Paper

the average man only held on for only four minutes. ...the Treadmill Test was exhausting….”

(Duckworth, 2016, p. 46). This test, although not originally meant to measure the Grit level of

the patients, allowed Duckworth to use her research to gather the information that she needed in

order to create base experiments of their own. The disadvantage is that Duckworth never ran her

own experiment so she is not able to get the direct information she wants as well as it is difficult

to run an experiment for a long period of time.

While the information in this book was intriguing, the book raises some questions about

the ethics of this topic and research methods. One of my first questions was “Is there an ideal

time in childhood to push someone to develop Grit?”. This raised concerns on the ethicality

because when a person is younger they take more of that information into consideration and it's

what helps shape them into the person they become. Pushing a child to develop Grit too soon

may crush them and cause them to be under a great deal of pressure and stress at such a young

age. My other question was “Is Grit necessary to be successful?”. This question raised concerns

because the book makes it seem like every successful person had Grit, it made it seem that the

only way to be successful was if a person had Grit. With this attitude it can easily be perceived as

being pushed and forced into developing a certain skill because one would likely fail without it.

Although this book was very thorough there are still some questions that were left

unanswered. I decided to answer those questions myself with the information that I have learned

from the book. My first question was “whether a child, coach, parent and/or person should be

pushing themselves or others to develop Grit?” I would say that it depends on if you, or

whomever you decide to push is ready for that. They might be too young or going through other

issues or maybe still considering their interest on the topic. They also might not respond well to
Psychological Book Analysis Paper

someone pushing them and they might respond better to figuring it out on their own and asking

for help later on in the process or once in a while having someone check on them. My second

question was “Should you focus all of your intent on Grit? (it made it seem like not having Grit

was morally wrong)” I would answer this by saying that no, you don’t need to focus all of your

intent on Grit. A person should be more concerned with their topic of interest and if they truly

are invested and interested then they should be worried about that. Usually those who are super

invested and interested have Grit but they might be super driven to that one topic and only

slightly invested in every other project and only have a small interest in those. On the Grit scale

it might show they don’t have a lot of Grit but if you know that you are super invested in a topic

and definitely want to go through with it, don’t worry about your Grit Level cause it will get you

distracted and preoccupied with your Grit level rather than you original topic.
Psychological Book Analysis Paper

References

5 Research Methods Used in Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2020, from

https://www.bestdegreeprograms.org/lists/5-research-methods-used-in-psychology/

Cherry, K. (2019, November 27). The 7 Major Perspectives in Psychology. Retrieved

August 21, 2020, from

https://www.verywellmind.com/perspectives-in-modern-psychology-2795595

Conrad, S. (2012). What are Ethical Issues? - Definition: Meaning: Example. Retrieved

August 21, 2020, from

https://www.myaccountingcourse.com/accounting-dictionary/ethical-issues

Duckworth, A. (2016). ​Grit: The power of passion and perseverance​. New York, New

York: Scribner.

Mcleod, S. (1970, January 01). Psychology Perspectives. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.html

Mcleod, S. (2017). Research Methods. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/research-methods.html