Fixed Versus Growth Mindset

Intelligence and Talent: Are They Nature or Nurture Based?

Why are some people smarter? Better at mathematics, or literature, violin or basketball? Is there a physical basis for these differences, making them permanent and unchangeable? Or are they simply a product of hard work, training, or different learning strategies? This is one of the most discussed questions in developmental psychology: nature versus nurture… genes versus environment. Who is right?

Carol Dweck, a professor of Developmental Psychology at Stanford University, coined the terms fixed and growth mindset based on the fixed theory of intelligence and the incremental/growth theory of intelligence, and throughout her career she has investigated the impacts of both mindsets on children and adults. After decades of research on this topic- concludes that it is not either-or.

She suggests that “it is a constant give and take between them. Each person has a unique genetic endowment. People start with different temperaments, different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, personal effort take them the rest of the day.” In other words, it is our genes that define where we start but our commitment, and hard work determine the end result.

“A few modern philosophers… assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest, react against this brutal pessimism… With practice, training and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgement and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.”

These are the words of Alfred Binet, the inventor of the IQ test, from his book ‘Modern Ideas about Children’. When we think of the IQ test, we usually think that the test is supposed to assess children’s unchangeable intelligence. However, Alfred Binet designed the IQ test to identify the children who were behind at school so new educational programs can be developed to support these children’s school attainment. Like Dweck, Binet believed that each person is born with a genetic endowment, yet education and practice could bring significant changes in intelligence and skills. This can be seen in academia as well as in sports and music.

We tend to believe that people who are extraordinarily successful at arts, music or sports are born with natural talent and that makes them great at what they are doing. However, when we look at successful people, more often than not, they talk about the hard work they put in, trying new strategies when things go wrong and never giving up as the reason for their success, indicating that they have adopted a growth mindset.

“I had a summer where I played basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old. And I don’t score one point the entire summer. I was terrible. From there I just went to work. And then I was just killing everyone. And it happened in two years. What I had to do was to work on basics and the fundamentals. Right when I was turning 14, I became the best player in the state. It’s simple… If you are obsessively training 2 to 3 hours a day over two years you make quantum leaps. That’s it. Show up everyday and do the work.” Kobe Bryant

“When I was a young actor at drama school I was told I was not naturally gifted and I would have to work at it, so I did.” Francis McDormand , 4-time Oscar winner.

The Two Mindsets

Growth mindset suggests that talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and perseverance, whilst fixed mindset suggests that one’s talents and abilities are defined at birth by one’s genes and they cannot be changed. People are a mixture of two. We do not usually believe in one mindset or the other completely. In fact, most of the time we tend to support growth mindset in one area, whilst supporting fixed mindset ferociously on another.

The view we adopt is critical in every aspect of our lives. People who believe in fixed mindset simply believe that they either have a talent or not; whether the talent is mathematics or music. Dweck argues that this can be problematic because it causes these people to feel they need to do everything well even the first time they do it. “If you are naturally talented, you should not need to work hard at it!”

Anything they attempt to do becomes about proving themselves to the rest of the world how smart/talented/skilled they are. Every situation becomes an evaluation of one’s skills and aptitude. You can imagine how stressful this becomes especially to young people’s physche. Research suggests that people with a fixed mindset tend to stay away from difficult tasks, challenging assignments and stick to easy projects and tasks, to make sure that they look smart and talented at all times. When tasks are not whithin their skills, they lose interest as they do not feel smart. They are not interested in the process of learning or problem solving; they are focused on the end results, as for fixed mindset sucess is all about the end result.

On the other hand, people with growth mindset believe that people start from different positions due to initial skills and aptitude but they can grow and improve through education and practice. Obviously, this does not mean that everybody can be a Mozart or Einstein, but through hard work and good coaching everybody can improve their skills. This is a very optimistic and reassuring view. There is no constant pressure to prove or validate your skills or talent. You do not have to be great at everything first time. Effort, in other words, repetitive experiences, makes you smart and talented. Dweck suggests that people with growth mindset do not shy away from challenging tasks, as for them, success is not about the end result but is about learning and becoming better, making progress.

Just as the meaning of success is different for the two mindsets, the definition of failure is also quite different. For fixed mindset, failure can be a catastrophe; a loss can be a permanent failure, a significant hit to one’s self-perception. Dweck indicates that students with fixed mindset report that following a failure, they would consider cheating next time so they don’t fail the exam. It’s understandable! If you think that every exam you take is for you to prove how smart or talented you are, you cannot risk failing again. Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a difficult experience, however as your failure doesn’t define you, it’s not a catastrophe. You see it as a setback, a challenge that you need to face, deal with and learn from.

You can imagine, that fixed mindset may lead to several problems, including perfectionism, as it is about immediate perfection. If our children treat every exam, every assignment as an outlet to define their talents and intelligence, they treat each task as a magnum opus. They can’t afford to make a mistake, as mistakes make them feel like they are a failure.

Passing on the Growth Mindset

Dweck suggests that many adults who believe in growth mindset do not necessarily pass it on to their children, as believing it may not be enough. Actions speak louder than words. We need to be careful about the verbal and non-verbal messages we send to our children about success and failure. Praise is a very important factor in passing on the growth mindset. Dweck states that “parents’ praise molds their children’s mindsets.” It is important that we take notice of hard work and effort that our children put in. When we praise, our main focus should be on the effort/process, not on the talent, intelligence or the end results like grades or scores. Our children have control over the effort they make, but the scores they get from an exam is not entirely under their control. Focusing and promoting things that our children can control, reduces anxiety that may come with assessments.

Telling them that we are proud of them for studying so hard for the exam would be a good start, but it’s not enough. It is paramount that we praise mainly the effort but we need to make sure that we tie our praise to the end result. “I am so proud that you worked really hard for that exam and in the end, you did really well” bears a different message than “You are very smart, you had A+ from that exam”.

Our reaction to our children’s mistakes and failures is another very important factor. Instead of seeing failure or mistakes as setbacks that our children can learn from, if we react to our child’s failure with anxiety and worry about their skills, we would unwittingly promote fixed mindset. Depending on our reactions to our children’s failures and misteps, we are actually teaching them mistakes and obstacles are either good or bad.

What if our child studied very hard for an exam and did not do well, in fact failed? What then? Do we simply praise the effort as a consolation prize? “I am so proud of the hard work you put in, hopefully, you will do better next time!” Absolutely not. Just as we do with the success, we praise the effort and tie it to the end result, in this case failure. This is very important, because when we still praise the effort and tie it to failure, it opens up a discussion for improvement. This is where we should engage in a conversation with our child about what went wrong: maybe they needed more practice or different study methods and strategies, which is usually the case with neurodivergent kids. Providing constructive criticism and helping our child to fix the problem and come up with a better strategy for the next exam is key to growth mindset.

Therefore, growth mindset is not about lowering the standards so children feel better about themselves… The standards are still very much high there. Growth mindset is about believing that through hard work, adequate coaching, and trying new strategies -when previous ones did not work-, each child can show significant progress and improvement. Rather than focusing mainly on the end result, we should enjoy the journey, the struggles, challenges.

“Loving the process. Loving the daily grind of it. And putting the puzzle together. It seems like this generation seems to be really concerned with the end result of it versus appreciating the journey to get there, which is the most important. The trials and tribulations that come along with it. What I see a lot of time from young players is they’ll try, they’ll push and all of a sudden hit with some adversity. Nah. Lemme do something else. Instead of staying with it. Just stay with it!” Kobe Bryant

If you wish to read further resources on this topic;

Mindset Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, Dweck C., 2017, Robinson, London

Developing a Growth Mindset