57 pages • 1 hour read
Carol S. DweckMindset: The New Psychology of Success
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Carol S. Dweck
Dweck graduated from Barnard College and obtained her PhD in psychology from Yale in 1972. She took a faculty position at the University of Illinois before moving on to Harvard’s Laboratory of Human Development in 1981. She later returned to the University of Illinois as a full professor before becoming the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology at Colombia University. She has been the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University since 2004. Dweck has been inducted to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and she received the 2011 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. She was also awarded the $4 million Yidan Prize for Education Research.
Mindset theory has profoundly impacted the field of education since the publication of Dweck’s first book. Many of her early studies indicate that simply learning about neuroplasticity and growth mindset has deeply positive effects on adolescent learners, increasing their motivation and sparking their desire to learn. She reports that her workshops that share the same material profoundly impact the well-being and mental health of college students. Thus, she and others began to market intervention modules and curricula such as Brainology—Dweck’s workshop for adolescents—to school districts as a product for closing achievement gaps and motivating unmotivated youth. Her book and popular TED talks related to mindset theory are included in the curriculum for many teacher education programs, as well as in mandatory professional development programs for practicing teachers in some districts.
In addition to introducing the terms “fixed” and “growth mindsets” to the national dialogue in education, Dweck inspired a new generation of psychologists, including Angela Duckworth, who used mindset theory to explore and measure human resilience and coined the term “grit” to describe the type of stick-to-it skill humans can cultivate to stay motivated and achieve more. Together with Dweck, these scholars created the Mindset Scholars Network, which is now called the Student Experience Research Network, to advance research aimed at developing and promoting school systems that work for and value all students.
John McEnroe
Dweck paints John McEnroe, a former American tennis player who is the only male player in history to hold the number-one title in both singles and doubles at the same time, as the quintessential fixed-mindset athlete. At 18, McEnroe swept through the French Open as an amateur, winning the mixed-doubles title with Mary Carrillo in 1977. His success earned him entry to Wimbledon’s singles. Though he eventually lost the tournament to Jimmy Connors, his record-setting performance as an amateur attracted fame and scouts. Coach Dick Gould of Stanford recruited him, and he took the team to the NAACP championship and won the singles the following year. By 1980, he was the top-ranked singles player in tennis, and he remained ranked number one for 170 total weeks throughout his career.
However, McEnroe is as known for his volatile temperament and unsportsmanlike conduct as he is for his success. Using his autobiography as source material, Dweck focuses on this side of the player, pointing to his belittling and abusive treatment of his coaches and his penchant for making outlandish excuses when he performed poorly as signs of a fixed mindset at work. Dweck uses McEnroe as a cautionary tale that early success encourages pressure and fear of judgment in those with fixed mindsets. She also cites his temper and conduct as a warning that the belief in fixed traits and talents contributes to real feelings of superiority, and this superiority complex leads to real-world consequences. For Dweck, McEnroe serves as a stark contrast to the underdogs who become legends, growth-minded athletes who display real character and determination such as Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Wilma Rudolph, Muhammed Ali, and Michael Jordan.
Lee Iacocca
Born Lido Anthony Iacocca, he was an automobile executive who began at Ford in 1946, working under Henry Ford. By the 1960s, he had moved up the ranks, overseeing the operations that created the popular Mustang, the Continental Mark III, and the Pinto. Like McEnroe’s, Dweck uses Iacocca’s story to illustrate the ways in which a fixed mindset can dampen success. At Ford, Iacocca built a name for himself as an innovator and a savvy executive. Though American consumers of the 1970s loved his Pinto for its fuel economy and sporty feel, making it a best-selling vehicle, a design flaw with the gas tank ended the model’s run prematurely. Iacocca left Ford to run Chrysler as its CEO. The company was teetering toward collapse when he joined it, but Iacocca secured federal bailouts and saved Chrysler from ruin.
As Dweck points out, he also lived like a prince, and as time passed, he spent less time innovating. He surrounded himself with yes-men and refused to change automobile designs, even though he had hard numbers proving that Japanese models were outselling Chrysler’s. Instead of innovating, he spent company money on an advertising campaign that failed to rally sales. He was asked to retire in 1992 and did, but he attempted a hostile takeover of the company in 1995. For Dweck, Iacocca’s story serves as another cautionary tale about the fixed mindset’s negative impact on the culture of institutions from the top down and its result of ultimately undermining individual success. Dweck explains Iacocca’s entitlement, which stemmed from his fixed-mindset belief in his own superiority and his fear of failure, as the driving force behind his diminished motivation to learn from criticism and innovate to compete against Japanese manufacturers. She tells his story, alongside those of other discredited CEOs such as Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron, to prove that those with fixed mindsets can and often do make it to the top, but they rarely stay there.
Marva Collins
American educator Marva Collins created Westside Preparatory school in 1975, a private school serving the low-income neighborhood of Garfield Park in Chicago. Collins previously taught in Chicago’s inner-city schools as a permanent substitute and saw failure everywhere—not of the students, but of the education system that didn’t promote high-quality learning or provide support for low-income students of color. Taking money from her own pension, Collins opened a low-cost private school to correct the deficiencies of the public schools. She focused on taking her model to low-income children of color who were labeled as having learning disabilities or as unteachable. Believing that these labels were a result of stereotyping and low expectations, Collins taught them a robust classical education, including the Socratic method. The children thrived. In her many books, Collins claimed that the keys to her methodology lay in a genuine connection with each child, high expectations, a nurturing environment, and connecting effort to success. Her results were so dramatic that she was hired to supervise three schools facing probationary action and was even courted by President Ronald Reagan for the position of Secretary of Education. Collins and her daughter ran the school for 30 years, though declines in funding and enrollment permanently closed the doors in 2008.
Dweck uses Collins’s success story to support her claims regarding the impact of growth mindsets for both children and teachers. That Collins could see beyond negative labeling and help children see beyond their own negative labels demonstrates two key points. First, labeling plus a fixed mindset leads to a lack of achievement. Second, people can overcome the impact of their label if they are nurtured and supported. Collins used her school and the data gathered from her students to prove that all children are teachable, an idea that Dweck echoes in her book again and again. Dweck also holds Collins up as an example of the components needed to create a growth-minded learning environment in which children thrive.
