What is Mindset: The Power of Mindset

Do you have faith in your ability? Is the situation you are in can be handled properly on your own? Do you need constant validation from others before doing anything? These questions pertain to your kind of mindset.

What is Mindset?

Mindset is a self-viewpoint on how an individual handles their situation. It describes their flexibility to adapt or how they control circumstances present in their lives.

Carol Dweck (2006), a psychologist from Stanford University, is a well-known figure due to her experiment towards the beliefs and abilities of her participants. This investigation, later on, led her to distinguish the two types of mindset. A fixed mindset is a type of mindset that your capabilities such as intelligence, personality, and character are in a way certain. The intelligence in this mindset remains static and constant. A growth mindset, on the other hand, it is a state of belief that the intelligence being adopted can develop and cultivate more. The difference between them is that a fixed mindset focuses more on the desire to appear smart in front of others but does not exert ways to deepen their knowledge.

Characteristics of a Fixed Mindset

• Tend to give up easily and avoid challenges
• Sees effort as a waste of time and energy
• Ignores criticism or loses interest due to criticism
• Feel threatened by other’s success as they focused more to appear smart rather than to develop intelligence

Characteristics of a Growth Mindset

• Appreciates challenges
• Determined and does not give up easily
• Sees effort as a way to cultivate intelligence
• Takes criticism as a way to learn from previous mistakes
• Views other’s success as an inspiration to build up their progress

Effects of Mindset

A mindset is a powerful tool that creates a pathway on how you accomplish things. It is mind control on how you can transform those beliefs to handle life situations. On Carol Dweck’s research, her investigation shows a correlation of self viewpoint to adapt can affect the way you lead life.

Thus, research conducted by Schroder et al. (2017) stated that mindset serves as predictors of the resilience of a person. The study, later on, supports the research of Carol Dweck (2006). It was determined that a person with a fixed mindset may have problems in mental health or is highly associated with stress. The relationship of having chronic stress can have a psychological response and outcomes towards life. It appears that mindset plays a vital role due to its impact on life events. In contrast, the growth mindset has shown a positive outcome in terms of school performance or work. These show that mindset is in a way plays a contribution to a person’s performance.

Ways To Develop a Growth Mindset

As research has shown, having a growth mindset has a positive correlation with academic or work performances, developing a proper routine is a way to evolve a growth mindset. The following tips given are based on the characteristics given by Carol Dweck:

• Stop seeking approval from others. Based on the definition of a fixed mindset, people with this kind of mindset are always seeking others’ approval as they want to appear smart. By eliminating validation from others, this will encourage you to be less tense to come out of your comfort zone. Thus, helping you to step up your game.
• Treat feedback as a tip to enhance your craft. Feedbacks are always given. Though at times, these are associated with criticism. A change of approach towards criticism is needed to adopt a growth mindset. As you proceed to consider it as a way to strengthen your work and knowledge, it will be a step to let you go further for improvement.
• Embrace your imperfection. The perception of perfection is what limits the action of an individual to further step up as they fear to make an erroneous act. But committing errors are part of learning and cannot be removed. An example of this is after taking an exam. During the process of rechecking of answers, your incorrect answers appear to be remembered in comparison to your correct ones. This event just proves that errors can serve as a way of learning.
• Take challenges as a step to nurture your intelligence. Challenges are always present in a life situation. To reach the top, you need to step up and face obstacles. Fear is a normal reaction when it comes to uncertainty but don’t let it stop you to reach your goal to grow.
• Always find purpose in what you do. Purpose serves as a driving force to continue. It is a way to build up the motivation to keep going. As you determine the purpose of growing in what you do, this will help you to stay focused and reach your goal.

“Believe in the power that you can.” – Albert Bandura

References:

Becker-Blease, K. A., & Bostwick, K. C. (2018, April 16). Quick, Easy Mindset Intervention Can Boost Academic Achievement in Large Introductory Psychology Classes. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1475725718766426

Dweck, C. S., (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. (1st. Ed., pp. 7-8).  Random House.

Klein, G. (2016, May 1). Mindset: What they are and Why they matter? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/seeing-what-others-dont/201605/mindsets

Popova, M. (2020, February 16). Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/

Schroder, H., Yalch, M., Dawood, S., Callahan, C., Donnellan, M., & Moser, J. (2017, January 18). The growth mindset of anxiety buffers the link between stressful life events and psychological distress and coping strategies. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019188691730017X

Reference for Albert Bandura’s quote:

Velasco, J., (2013, March). The Impact of Self-efficacy towards Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills Among Inmates of New Bilibid Prison Muntinlupa City. https://www.academia.edu/9518394/The_Impact_of_Self_efficacy_towards_Acquisition_of_Knowledge_and_Skills_Among_Inmates_of_New_Bilibid_Prison_Muntinlupa_City