Mindsets
Your feelings about your abilities, skills, and outlook on the world around you influence your opportunities and successes. Do you have a fixed or growth mindset?
Mindsets Survey
based on the concepts developed by Dr. Carol Dweck
mindsetonline.com/
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve
mindsetonline.com/
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve
"Where You Are" |
"We Know the Way" |
Locus of Control:
WHERE is the deciding factor in success or failure?
People who base their success on their own work and believe they control their life have an internal locus of control. In contrast, people who attribute their success or failure to outside influences have an external locus of control.
External: Environment, the actions of other people, fate, or luck decide what happens."That's all very well, but is he lucky?"--General Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon, when told of the virtues of a new General--the man's heroism, bravery, skill in battle and so on--waved his hand impatiently. "That's all very well," he said, "but is he lucky?"
Napoleon regarded luck or chance as the deciding factor. A lucky person would always win out over adverse circumstances, he believed, whereas an unlucky person, even a general who was expert in the techniques of war, was fated to meet with failure and disaster on the battlefield. |
Internal: Your knowledge, skills, effort, or motivation can influence the situation."The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself."--General Douglas MacArthur In the first months of the Korean War, with U.S. and allied forces surrounded and outnumbered by the North Korean Army in the far southern city of Pusan, General Douglas MacArthur planned a daring amphibious landing at Inchon to retake Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and cut off the North Korean Army from their home territory. It succeeded due to the knowledge and experience of veteran soldiers of World War II despite strong tides and hilly terrain.
|
Individuals who identify with an internal locus of control tend to take more responsibility for their actions, whether those actions or the end results are good or bad. They do not accept outside influence for the outcomes, no matter what they are. The results of the action are theirs and theirs alone to bear.
On the other hand, a person who identifies with an external locus of control looks at everything around them as part of the success or failure rather than themselves. When some project or undertaking fails, they may respond as if they had nothing to do with it at all.
There are drawbacks to both of these viewpoints, though. An internally-focused person will be hard on themselves and constantly analyze what they did wrong. Conversely, those that have an external focus may come off as someone who just does not accept responsibility. When the result is not a positive one, they will be the first to complain that something outside their personal control attributed to the shortfall.
On the other hand, a person who identifies with an external locus of control looks at everything around them as part of the success or failure rather than themselves. When some project or undertaking fails, they may respond as if they had nothing to do with it at all.
There are drawbacks to both of these viewpoints, though. An internally-focused person will be hard on themselves and constantly analyze what they did wrong. Conversely, those that have an external focus may come off as someone who just does not accept responsibility. When the result is not a positive one, they will be the first to complain that something outside their personal control attributed to the shortfall.
Stability:
HOW MUCH can the deciding factor be changed?
Static: Fixed or permanent,
|
Fluid: Can increase or decrease,
|
Students and families who have to make frequent moves in the military or for other family reasons are associated with an increase in creativity. The creative impulse is sparked by the need to reconcile contrasting views of the world. If we move, we compare our new home with our previous life, note the divergences and the similarities, see what we like better and what we miss. As we do, our minds become more flexible and capable of combining thoughts and ideas in new and fresh ways.
Feedback and Praise:
To Be or to Do?
Parents, teachers, and coaches often give children feedback and praise about their actions. Dr. Dweck's research suggests focusing feedback on describing outward and visible actions rather than naming internal character or personality traits. Messages about what children have done (persistence, problem-solving, practice) instead of who they are (smart, good, talented) encourage students to keep moving forward or explore alternative solutions when they encounter an unfamiliar or difficult task.
Self-Talk and Internal Dialogue
Dr. Dweck correlates parent, teacher, and coaching feedback style with a child's internal dialogue/monologue when they are confronted with a challenge that does not immediately yield to initial effort. Our messages to children about their efforts person-to-person build the foundation for their private internal response or narration of an event.
Self-Efficacy:
YOU Choose!
Flow: Learning Experiences in the Zone
"But I shall not stop to explain this in more detail, because I should deprive you of the pleasure of mastering it yourself, as well as the advantage of training your mind by working over it, which is in my opinion the principal benefit to be derived from this science."--René Descartes, La Géometrié, 1637.
"Nobody has a growth mindset in everything all the time. Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. You could have a predominant growth mindset in an area but there can still be things that trigger you into a fixed mindset trait. Something really challenging and outside your comfort zone can trigger it, or, if you encounter someone who is much better than you at something you pride yourself on, you can think “Oh, that person has ability, not me.” So I think we all, students and adults, have to look for our fixed-mindset triggers and understand when we are falling into that mindset."--Carol Dweck