Tamarah Smith, PhD

        Mindset refers to one’s beliefs about whether intelligence is innate and fixed or developed over time and therefore malleable.  A fixed mindset is the belief that ability is innate and static while a growth mindset is the belief that ability is developed overtime.  Research has shown the existence of mindset is both easily influenced and has a strong impact on our performance.  For example, in a foundational study, Mueller and Dweck demonstrated with a group of elementary aged children that simply praising good work one time as due to “being really smart” or “working really hard” leads children to react in different ways. Those children who received the fixed praise of being smart were more likely to choose easier tasks in the future, perform worse and lie about their performance. On the other hand, children who received growth praise that acknowledged their effort led them to chose more difficult tasks in the future, perform better and be less likely to lie about their performance.
 

        When we believe ability is fixed, we feel less in control of our performance and therefore avoid difficult challenges, have higher levels of anxiety (which contributes to lower performance) and try to hide our lack of ability from others.  Those with a growth mindset embrace mistakes as they know that trial and error is how learning occurs.  As such, students with a growth mindset are more engaged, seek out difficult tasks and are not shamed by their mistakes.
 

        Many of us continue to believe that we are or are not “wired” for certain tasks and this belief (which is a fixed mindset) hinders our ability to achieve.  This is the certainly the case in the math domain and has been demonstrated many times.  Researchers have shown that brief interventions that explain how intelligence is in fact malleable and tied to brain development can help individuals move to a growth mindset and this improves their academic performance.  It is on that research that I have based my intervention for statistics and research methods students in psychology.

 

You can access more information about my mindset intervention here: https://osf.io/79uq4/