Mindset

The New Psychology of Success

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

Bennie Lewis
Benny Guthrie
Karen Burns

The members of this group communicated via email initially. An email was sent by Karen Burns
in which she suggested using Google Docs. The members agreed to utilize Google Docs as the
initial collaboration effort for the book review. Each member added their notes in regard to each
section. The members then decided which member would be assigned to what section.
Throughout the document we gave comments, feedback, and make corrections towards each
others section.
 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

Synopsis

In her book, ​Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, ​ Dr. Carol Dweck focuses on
helping people identify not only on what they believe about themselves and others, but how
those beliefs affect their lives both positively and negatively. A great many examples are given
that apply to parents and children, business leaders and employees, coaches and athletes, and
teachers and students. Dweck divides the mindsets of people into two categories: those with a
fixed mindset and those with a growth mindset. She believes that a person can establish their
mindset as early as 4­years old.

Someone with a ​ fixed mindset ​

believes their abilities are predetermined and cannot be
changed. In short, they believe in limits. Schools often reinforce this belief by judging students
through IQ scores and standardized tests. People with fixed mindsets may often be stressed,
feeling the need to prove themselves over and over again with an underlying fear of failure. They
may hide from challenges outside of their comfort level, seeing failure as defeat, rather than an
opportunity to learn.

A​ growth mindset​ person believes there is always room for improvement and with
perseverance, one can continue to grow and learn. Stress is not so much a problem because
having a growth mindset is all about viewing life, school, work, and relationships with the belief
that you are an open book ready to be written, yet never complete. Such a person must also have
a level of self­confidence and self­esteem, which is often developed at a very young age, so the
responsibility of teaching children to have a growth mindset rest on the parents, family, and
teachers.

Each chapter presents multiple real­world examples of people who have fixed mindsets
and growth mindsets. In some cases, the mindsets are changed from fixed to growth after
learning and using methods to change. Other examples merely prove the negative consequences
of the fixed mindset.

At the end of each chapter is a section titled "Grow Your Mindset" in which Dweck asks
thought­provoking questions aimed at helping the reader evaluate their current mindset and
provides tips to create a growth mindset. Oftentimes one may not even realize how their
upbringing, thoughts, and beliefs about themselves affect their day­to­day decisions as well as
how they reflect those beliefs on others around them. At the end of the book is an especially
Changing Mindsets: A Workshop.​
helpful chapter titled ​ Here Dweck provides a series of
dilemmas and presents the fixed­mindset and growth mindset reactions. The contrasting
resolutions help the reader identify how they might have handled the problem and provides
real­world application for a growth mindset. All throughout the book, Dweck teaches us how to
speak to others in a manner that promotes a growth mindset.

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Analysis

It’s all about two different types of mindsets according to Dweck. The mindsets are
growth mindset vs fixed mindset as mentioned above. We will look at how Dweck’s emphasis
on the growth mindset is proven throughout her book. This analysis will look through the lense
of three different perspectives; business, education and personal.

First let’s look at the business world. From a business perspective, you have leaders who
are interested in how big, how rich they can become or you have a leader that cares about the
people, the product and the process and thrive to see the improvement and advancement all
mentioned.

In chapter 2, “Lou Gerstner, an avowed growth mindsetter: Who says elephants can’t
dance? Inside IBM’s historic Turnaround (New York: HarperCollins, 2002)”, we see this
explained. Gertsner who was brought in to the company to turn it around; within the first year
was called a failure. Within two years, the company was back at the top and it was due to the
fact that Gertsner did not see it as a done deal, he saw it as an opportunity for the company to
thrive. With his growth mindset leadership style the company flourished. While Albert Dunlap,
brought in to turnaround Sunbeam, took a different approach. He used the short term fix to make
everything look great and while the stocks did initially sore, the company fell apart.

In chapter 3, “Twyla Tharp, the world­famous choreographer and dancer wrote a book
The Creative Habits​
called ​ . She argues that creativity is not a magical act of inspiration. It’s the
result of hardwork and dedication.” An example that was used was that of students drawing a
picture of their self­image. The students’ seemingly had no artistic ability initially. Once they
were taught in class how to draw/paint after a short period of time; the same ones were asked to
draw a self portrait once again. This time the drawings were much more detailed and realistic.
Each person had shown creativity in their drawings. From the fixed mindset perspective, Dweck
discussed the type of praise and used an example of giving 10 fairly difficult problems from a
non­verbal IQ test. While most of them did well, they praised the students differently. The
students’ were praised in one way that led them to believe they were gifted or smart and had
something to prove while others were not praised for some special gift, but praised what it takes
to succeed. Those students’ with fixed mindset, felt as though they had to prove something,
while those with a growth mindset, saw the challenge to work harder to succeed.

From a personal perspective, Dweck discusses in chapter 6, Aaron Beck, Counselor tells
couples, “never to think these fixed mindset thoughts: My partner is incapable of change.
Nothing can improve in our relationship.” Dweck goes on to point out the affair that Bill Clinton
had with Monica Lewinsky and continued to lie to the world and his wife. Hilary on the other
side was saying that he had never lied to her. The focus in this section discusses that Hilary could
have used the fixed mindset and said he was a bad person and would never change or use the
growth mindset and believe that he could change and just needed help. While you can believe
that the partner can change, doesn’t actually mean they will, keep that in mind as well.

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 Dweck’s writing was very intuitive and research based. Her ability to persuade her
thoughts and beliefs toward the growth mindset gives much insight into our own belief system.
Her findings were empirical in nature and well versed.

Practical Application

One of the first concepts we all notice in discussing this book was the notion of fixed vs.
a growth mindset. From the other reads we know that motivation is nothing without violation.
The same is here, a growth mindset is nothing without the actual effort to do or get better. This
book is great for schools, postsecondary educators, businesses, and even a school district’s
central office personnel. Having a team of teachers or any employee/employer think about things
with the growth mindset can be wonderful for the work environment.

Relating this concept to a high school, for example, can take teachers from “Johnny the
Student will never…” to “Johnny the Student still has numerous opportunity to…”. It allows
people to be­­in a sense­­more optimistic about their situation. This is similar to the scenario
from Mindset (pg. 7) where everything is going bad for the student, but it depended on how she
viewed the situation that determined if she was using a fixed or growth mindset.

Self­awareness is a part of Carol Dweck’s concept of fixed vs. growth mindset.

Self­awareness can be applied to all settings, as well. She discusses the importance of simply
knowing about the two mindsets can be a major step. Science calls it metacognition. And once
again, simply introducing the concept to a setting can have a major impact on the environment in
which it is introduced.

A great way to utilize this book in the business or corporate world, is to take what Dweck
discusses in chapter 3 about ‘ability and accomplishments’ and challenge the workers to not only
show intelligence and ability, but persistence and determination. Continuing the application of
the same concept, it can be applied to sports. Coaching students is a hard job. Even when you are
in the growth mindset it can be hard. However, taking the examples of sports superstars that are
used in the book and verbalize them to the students can be a way of applying what Dweck used
in the book to the high school sports setting. Dweck’s concept of a ‘mindsets are beliefs, beliefs
can be changed’ can be used to help people understand that adversity of a common foe is only a
mindset. People can begin to believe that they are strong, better, and capable by changing the
belief that they are fixed in.

Use the concept of a growth mindset in elementary schools. Dweck explains that with the
growth mindset, the experience is the reward­­win or lose. We can draw from this so that we are
able to reduce the stress and embarrassment of winning and losing in early grade levels.

Overall, the concept of fixed versus growth is amazingly easy to follow. Dweck is
credited for bringing many of these wonderful points to life within the book. If we take this book
and apply it to the educational setting, whether pre­K to college level, students will be
successful.