Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is an informative take on some of the author’s thoughts on the nature of success. The author spend many years at Yale before joining the faculty of Stanford, and during her career, she came up with a number of theories on what makes people successful and what does not. Her book deals with psychological mindsets, and perhaps more importantly, it deals with the way a person’s classification can impact that person’s ability to find success, deal with disappointment, and find a content life. The book has many strengths, including the author’s willingness to challenge the status quo, as well as the fullness of the research that the author put in before penning this work.
In her book, Dweck makes a number of points that she has made over the course of her career. One of those points is that people can be classified by one of two mindsets. People can either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset, and depending upon which the person has, it may have a substantial impact on how a person’s life ultimately plays out. A person with a fixed mindset has certain fixed theories about where their intelligence comes from. With a fixed mindset, a person tends to believe that intelligence and competence are functions of innate ability. They believe that these things are fixed, which means that they can scarcely be improved upon. The author also identifies something called a “growth” mindset. A person with a growth mindset will believe that his or her intelligence is based upon factors within their control, including experiences, training, hard work, or even perseverance. The author notes that a person might not necessarily know which of these the person truly believes in. Rather, the person’s real beliefs on the source of the intelligence will be reflected in that person’s actions. Specifically, Dweck believes that people who have a growth mindset tend to find success more often, and they tend to deal with the difficulties of life a little bit better. A person with a fixed mindset will be more often to get frustrated or discouraged by failures. This is because, with a fixed mindset, a person tends to believe that every failure is reflective of that person’s lack of innate ability, and there is little reason to believe that things will get better in the future. One with a growth mindset will tend to see these experiences as being formative. Rather than seeing failure as an indictment of their abilities, they might see disappointment and failure as being a chance to grow and get better.
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When offering a critique of this book, one must discuss the methodology that the author uses in order to prove the points in this book. In a sense, the methodology of this book is tied to its purpose. Dweck is a researcher, and because of that, her research in other contexts is highly based upon studied and quantitative data. It is clear that she understands the need for appropriate sample sizes when trying to draw these kinds of conclusions. This book, though, is written much more for the average person. While it might be a little bit unfair to call this a self-help book in the traditional sense, it does have some elements of the self-help genre. What this means, then, is that the author has, at some points, decided to go with a more anecdotal approach rather than focusing hard on the data. She tells many stories in order to relate a relatively complex topic to an average audience. This detracts from the academic quality of the book, which does not reflect the full strength of her research.
The content of this book is interesting and provides countless insights into the human psyche. She explains the ways in which people’s actions are influenced by their attitudes. Perhaps the biggest strength of this book’s content is the way in which it is able to link psychological theory to everyday action. People, she notes, are really just driven by their mindsets, and she is able to paint a clear picture of how one’s mindset might impact his or her outcomes.
This book has many practical implications in a number of different areas, including interpersonal relationships. A person with a fixed mindset may have more difficulty having those relationships, since every interaction is not seen as an opportunity, but rather, as an indictment. It might put people into more competitive relationships with those around them. From a social perspective, fixed mindsets create tremendous long-term difficulty, and they may help to explain why some people are much better in a social setting than others. From a professional standpoint, this research can help to explain much. It can serve as a guide for human resources, as it seems likely that people with the growth mindset personality are more likely to find success within a company. Likewise, this research can be helpful on an individual level for people looking to make advanced in their careers.
Ultimately, this book is a good, everyman reflection of the author’s career-long research. She notes that people can mostly be grouped in two ways, and perhaps the most interesting observation is that people often do not even understand where they fall on the spectrum. While the methodology may be somewhat loose and not reflective of a highly academic tone, this book ultimately serves its purpose quite well, and it is very readable for a person who might not be overall familiar with this sort of research.
- Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House LLC.
