Question

Try to summarize Dweck's "Brainology"

Answer 1

In Carol S. Dweck’s article Brainology, Dweck discusses the different mindsets children tend to have and describes how they work. These two mindsets that she discusses about are fixed and growth mindsets. Intelligence, being the main subject between these two mindsets is viewed differently. Having a fixed mindset leads the individual to believe that, there is a certain amount of intelligence a person contains. A growth mindset on the other hand, makes the individual believe that through effort, intelligence can be grown. Dweck argues that if these mindsets were to be praised in different ways, they would show different result. To test that theory, Dweck conducted a research in which two groups of children were given problems from an IQ test and were praised. One group was praised based on “intelligence” and the other one based on effort. The results concluded, that a fixed mindset will find it difficult to overcome challenging tasks and a growth mindset will find it accepting to encounter challenging tasks and grow from them. However, Dweck declares that the concept of a growth mindset can be taught to those who believe intelligence is fixed and be inspired by motivation.

Although I agree with Dweck’s idea that the concept of a growth mindset can be taught to those with a fixed mindset, up to a point. I cannot accept her overall conclusion about her theory of inspiring motivation, to a full extent. What if these mindsets have already developed their motivation, being the reason why these two mindsets were developed in the first place? In Brainology, Dweck identifies the act of praising children and its outcomes. A research that she conducted in the 1990’s, concluded that 85 percent of children that were praised by their parents were more confident about themselves. In conducting this research Dweck herself writes, parents ask me why their children won’t work hard in school, could all of this come from well-meant praise. In other words she asks, if the act of praising is the incentive to children behaving this certain way. In chapter 12 of the book “Psychology in Action”, by Karen Huffman and Katherine Dowdell, there is research conducted by (Babula , 2013 ;Deci & Moller, 2005; Deci & Ryan, 2012), regarding two types of motivations; extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is based on rewards and or threats of punishments that’s act as an incentive for us to engage in a task or activity. Intrinsic motivation is completing a task or activity based on personal enjoyment and satisfaction. The connection between these two mindsets and their motivation is that an individual with a fixed mindset is motivated by extrinsic motivation to a certain extent and an individual with a growth mindset by extrinsic motivation to a certain extent as well. A fixed mindset is motivated to perform the best it can, based on receiving an external reward, such as an “A” grade, whereas a growth mindset is motivated to complete a task to his/her best effort because of personal satisfaction. Therefore, I believe that each of these two mindsets are driven by two different incentives in the first place; intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.

In response to partially agreeing /disagreeing with Dweck’s idea, I for example developed an intrinsic motivation to becoming a neonatal nurse before developing the mindset I have now. That intrinsic motivation being, the idea of me achieving the goal of working with premature newborns along with their challenging complications. Working my way to becoming a neonatal nurse has been one of my biggest passions of all, regardless. My personal satisfaction is knowing that I will be able to care and help these premature babies. Therefore, I now consider to have traits of being an individual with a growth mindset because of that incentive I developed first, and believe that through effort and dedication I can obtain personal satisfaction for helping others.