Learn more
These promotions will be applied to this item:
Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
-
-
3 VIDEOS
-
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Kindle Edition
“Through clever research studies and engaging writing, Dweck illuminates how our beliefs about our capabilities exert tremendous influence on how we learn and which paths we take in life.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes
“It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.”
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.
In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset. She also expands the mindset concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love—to transform their lives and your own.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House
- Publication dateFebruary 28, 2006
- File size2.6 MB

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Customers who bought this item also bought
- Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?Highlighted by 18,661 Kindle readers
- Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.Highlighted by 16,933 Kindle readers
- People with the growth mindset know that it takes time for potential to flower.Highlighted by 14,114 Kindle readers
From the Publisher


Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“An essential read for parents, teachers [and] coaches . . . as well as for those who would like to increase their own feelings of success and fulfillment.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Everyone should read this book.”—Chip Heath and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick
“One of the most influential books ever about motivation.”—Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock
“If you manage people or are a parent (which is a form of managing people), drop everything and read Mindset.”—Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start 2.0
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE MINDSETS
As a young researcher, just starting out, something happened that changed my life. I was obsessed with understanding how people cope with failures, and I decided to study it by watching how students grapple with hard problems. So I brought children one at a time to a room in their school, made them comfortable, and then gave them a series of puzzles to solve. The first ones were fairly easy, but the next ones were hard. As the students grunted, perspired, and toiled, I watched their strategies and probed what they were thinking and feeling. I expected differences among children in how they coped with the difficulty, but I saw something I never expected.
Confronted with the hard puzzles, one ten-year-old boy pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips, and cried out, “I love a challenge!” Another, sweating away on these puzzles, looked up with a pleased expression and said with authority, “You know, I was hoping this would be informative!”
What’s wrong with them? I wondered. I always thought you coped with failure or you didn’t cope with failure. I never thought anyone loved failure. Were these alien children or were they on to something?
Everyone has a role model, someone who pointed the way at a critical moment in their lives. These children were my role models. They obviously knew something I didn’t and I was determined to figure it out—to understand the kind of mindset that could turn a failure into a gift.
What did they know? They knew that human qualities, such as intellectual skills, could be cultivated through effort. And that’s what they were doing—getting smarter. Not only weren’t they discouraged by failure, they didn’t even think they were failing. They thought they were learning.
I, on the other hand, thought human qualities were carved in stone. You were smart or you weren’t, and failure meant you weren’t. It was that simple. If you could arrange successes and avoid failures (at all costs), you could stay smart. Struggles, mistakes, perseverance were just not part of this picture.
Whether human qualities are things that can be cultivated or things that are carved in stone is an old issue. What these beliefs mean for you is a new one: What are the consequences of thinking that your intelligence or personality is something you can develop, as opposed to something that is a fixed, deep-seated trait? Let’s first look in on the age-old, fiercely waged debate about human nature and then return to the question of what these beliefs mean for you.
WHY DO PEOPLE DIFFER?
Since the dawn of time, people have thought differently, acted differently, and fared differently from each other. It was guaranteed that someone would ask the question of why people differed—why some people are smarter or more moral—and whether there was something that made them permanently different. Experts lined up on both sides. Some claimed that there was a strong physical basis for these differences, making them unavoidable and unalterable. Through the ages, these alleged physical differences have included bumps on the skull (phrenology), the size and shape of the skull (craniology), and, today, genes.
Others pointed to the strong differences in people’s backgrounds, experiences, training, or ways of learning. It may surprise you to know that a big champion of this view was Alfred Binet, the inventor of the IQ test. Wasn’t the IQ test meant to summarize children’s unchangeable intelligence? In fact, no. Binet, a Frenchman working in Paris in the early twentieth century, designed this test to identify children who were not profiting from the Paris public schools, so that new educational programs could be designed to get them back on track. Without denying individual differences in children’s intellects, he believed that education and practice could bring about fundamental changes in intelligence. Here is a quote from one of his major books, Modern Ideas About Children, in which he summarizes his work with hundreds of children with learning difficulties:
A few modern philosophers . . . assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism. . . . With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.
Who’s right? Today most experts agree that it’s not either–or. It’s not nature or nurture, genes or environment. From conception on, there’s a constant give and take between the two. In fact, as Gilbert Gottlieb, an eminent neuroscientist, put it, not only do genes and environment cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the environment to work properly.
At the same time, scientists are learning that people have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought. Of course, each person has a unique genetic endowment. People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way. Robert Sternberg, the present-day guru of intelligence, writes that the major factor in whether people achieve expertise “is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.” Or, as his forerunner Binet recognized, it’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR YOU? THE TWO MINDSETS
It’s one thing to have pundits spouting their opinions about scientific issues. It’s another thing to understand how these views apply to you. For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value. How does this happen? How can a simple belief have the power to transform your psychology and, as a result, your life?
Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character—well, then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.
Some of us are trained in this mindset from an early age. Even as a child, I was focused on being smart, but the fixed mindset was really stamped in by Mrs. Wilson, my sixth-grade teacher. Unlike Alfred Binet, she believed that people’s IQ scores told the whole story of who they were. We were seated around the room in IQ order, and only the highest-IQ students could be trusted to carry the flag, clap the erasers, or take a note to the principal. Aside from the daily stomachaches she provoked with her judgmental stance, she was creating a mindset in which everyone in the class had one consuming goal—look smart, don’t look dumb. Who cared about or enjoyed learning when our whole being was at stake every time she gave us a test or called on us in class?
I’ve seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves—in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?
But doesn’t our society value intelligence, personality, and character? Isn’t it normal to want these traits? Yes, but . . .
There’s another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you’re dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you’re secretly worried it’s a pair of tens. In this mindset, the hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience.
Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone with proper motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but they believe that a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.
Did you know that Darwin and Tolstoy were considered ordinary children? That Ben Hogan, one of the greatest golfers of all time, was completely uncoordinated and graceless as a child? That the photographer Cindy Sherman, who has been on virtually every list of the most important artists of the twentieth century, failed her first photography course? That Geraldine Page, one of our greatest actresses, was advised to give it up for lack of talent?
You can see how the belief that cherished qualities can be developed creates a passion for learning. Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.
A VIEW FROM THE TWO MINDSETS
To give you a better sense of how the two mindsets work, imagine—as vividly as you can—that you are a young adult having a really bad day:
One day, you go to a class that is really important to you and that you like a lot. The professor returns the midterm papers to the class. You got a C+. You’re very disappointed. That evening on the way back to your home, you find that you’ve gotten a parking ticket. Being really frustrated, you call your best friend to share your experience but are sort of brushed off.
What would you think? What would you feel? What would you do?
When I asked people with the fixed mindset, this is what they said: “I’d feel like a reject.” “I’m a total failure.” “I’m an idiot.” “I’m a loser.” “I’d feel worthless and dumb—everyone’s better than me.” “I’m slime.” In other words, they’d see what happened as a direct measure of their competence and worth.
This is what they’d think about their lives: “My life is pitiful.” “I have no life.” “Somebody upstairs doesn’t like me.” “The world is out to get me.” “Someone is out to destroy me.” “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me.” “Life is unfair and all efforts are useless.” “Life stinks. I’m stupid. Nothing good ever happens to me.” “I’m the most unlucky person on this earth.”
Excuse me, was there death and destruction, or just a grade, a ticket, and a bad phone call?
Are these just people with low self-esteem? Or card-carrying pessimists? No. When they aren’t coping with failure, they feel just as worthy and optimistic—and bright and attractive—as people with the growth mindset.
So how would they cope? “I wouldn’t bother to put so much time and effort into doing well in anything.” (In other words, don’t let anyone measure you again.) “Do nothing.” “Stay in bed.” “Get drunk.” “Eat.” “Yell at someone if I get a chance to.” “Eat chocolate.” “Listen to music and pout.” “Go into my closet and sit there.” “Pick a fight with somebody.” “Cry.” “Break something.” “What is there to do?”
What is there to do! You know, when I wrote the vignette, I intentionally made the grade a C+, not an F. It was a midterm rather than a final. It was a parking ticket, not a car wreck. They were “sort of brushed off,” not rejected outright. Nothing catastrophic or irreversible happened. Yet from this raw material the fixed mindset created the feeling of utter failure and paralysis.
When I gave people with the growth mindset the same vignette, here’s what they said. They’d think:
“I need to try harder in class, be more careful when parking the car, and wonder if my friend had a bad day.”
“The C+ would tell me that I’d have to work a lot harder in the class, but I have the rest of the semester to pull up my grade.”
There were many, many more like this, but I think you get the idea. Now, how would they cope? Directly.
“I’d start thinking about studying harder (or studying in a different way) for my next test in that class, I’d pay the ticket, and I’d work things out with my best friend the next time we speak.”
“I’d look at what was wrong on my exam, resolve to do better, pay my parking ticket, and call my friend to tell her I was upset the day before.”
“Work hard on my next paper, speak to the teacher, be more careful where I park or contest the ticket, and find out what’s wrong with my friend.”
You don’t have to have one mindset or the other to be upset. Who wouldn’t be? Things like a poor grade or a rebuff from a friend or loved one—these are not fun events. No one was smacking their lips with relish. Yet those people with the growth mindset were not labeling themselves and throwing up their hands. Even though they felt distressed, they were ready to take the risks, confront the challenges, and keep working at them.
SO, WHAT’S NEW?
Is this such a novel idea? We have lots of sayings that stress the importance of risk and the power of persistence, such as “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” and “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” or “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” (By the way, I was delighted to learn that the Italians have the same expression.) What is truly amazing is that people with the fixed mindset would not agree. For them, it’s “Nothing ventured, nothing lost.” “If at first you don’t succeed, you probably don’t have the ability.” “If Rome wasn’t built in a day, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.” In other words, risk and effort are two things that might reveal your inadequacies and show that you were not up to the task. In fact, it’s startling to see the degree to which people with the fixed mindset do not believe in effort.
Product details
- ASIN : B000FCKPHG
- Publisher : Random House
- Accessibility : Learn more
- Publication date : February 28, 2006
- Edition : Reprint, Updated
- Language : English
- File size : 2.6 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781588365231
- ISBN-13 : 978-1588365231
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,092 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #13 in Popular Applied Psychology
- #13 in Personal Success in Business
- #28 in Personal Transformation
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is widely regarded as one of the world's leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology. She has been the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and is now the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarly book Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development was named Book of the Year by the World Education Fellowship. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and she has appeared on Today and 20/20. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book highly readable and appreciate its valuable insights into the power of mindset, with practical lessons that are easily put into practice. Moreover, the material is strong and can lead to greater resiliency, making it suitable for all ages and particularly beneficial for parents. However, the book receives mixed feedback regarding its pacing, with some finding it quick while others say it drags. Additionally, several customers note that it is extraordinarily repetitive with its examples.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book highly readable and an interesting piece of work, with one customer describing it as one of the most important books of the 21st century.
"...It’s a great book, and I recommend it to anyone struggling with honing his or her skills in anything...." Read more
"This was a well-written book that shares perspectives from both the fixed and growth mindsets and the outcomes of each...." Read more
"...work, "Self-Theories" is not written in academese but in language so clear and informal, you almost begin to wonder whether this is a professor in..." Read more
"This is a good book. The central premise about the growth mindset is - focus on the effort, not (just) the outcome...." Read more
Customers find the book insightful, learning about different mindsets and how to improve their life through practice.
"...are a lot of case studies of some great people in this book – Famous athletes, Actors, Politicians, Musicians, Teachers, Coaches – and each case..." Read more
"...I didn’t learn anything new about mindset, but found the anecdotes and research interesting and will use some of the information with my high..." Read more
"...Bandura's prose is also clear, and conceptually rigorous, but his prose bears an elegant conciseness or compactness of insight, which would not..." Read more
"...now I've been enjoying and at the same time agonizing over the book, MINDSET, The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck, PH.D., a Professor..." Read more
Customers find the book's content easy to apply, with clear directions and definite steps provided.
"...this book to friends or classmates, due to the fact that is was an easy and entertaining read, as well as very informative Overall, Mindset: The..." Read more
"I liked the simple and definitive steps added to make the mindset achievable. I disliked how many stories were included especially early on...." Read more
"...What it will do is give you the words and tools you need to overcome that sabotaging self that tries to undermine your successes and achievements..." Read more
"...book, mindset, there are no secrets, there is no method, there are no steps. It is based on social research...." Read more
Customers find the book beneficial for parents and young adults, with one customer noting it provides practical advice for all ages.
"...Dweck shares actionable advice for parents, educators, coaches, and individuals seeking personal development...." Read more
"...strategies for developing a growth mindset, making it invaluable for parents, educators, and professionals seeking personal development...." Read more
"...I highly recommend it for teachers, parents and coaches and for anyone looking to expand their wisdom. Thank you Dr Dweck!" Read more
"...to the care, nurturing, and growth of happy, self-confident children, teens, and young adults." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and fulfilling, with one mentioning it's a great read for those wanting to achieve more in life.
"Illuminating and engaging. Easy to read and with practical lessons that can be applied to everyday situations...." Read more
"...and collaborations by emphasizing the value of learning, constructive feedback, and supporting others' development...." Read more
"...Sophisticated, funny, articulate, accessible and well-researched, "Mindset" should become a standard requirement in understanding and improving..." Read more
"...fixed traits is a major step toward being able to lead a healthy, fulfilling life...." Read more
Customers find the material of the book strong and solid, noting that it can lead individuals to greater resiliency.
"...The supporting material was great, I’d read about what fixed mindset looks like, why people think like they do, and why it’s a problem...." Read more
"Firstly the idea behind the book is without a doubt very strong and useful. It highlights how you can move from a fixed mindset where you -..." Read more
"...that our capacity can be developed, embrace challenge, persist in spite of difficulties, understand that effort is the path to mastery, learn from..." Read more
"This book provides a solid blueprint and the steps you can take to make friends with your mind!..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it quick while others say it drags.
"...a Growth Mindset believe that our capacity can be developed, embrace challenge, persist in spite of difficulties, understand that effort is the path..." Read more
"...The problem is that this argument is stretched thin to become a "book" and Dweck's writing doesn't maintain enough interest on its own and..." Read more
"...you to balance your checkbook, check the oil in your car, and time management...." Read more
"...I rated it a 4 because it was a slow start but very good information. Will be referring back." Read more
Customers find the book extraordinarily repetitive, with many noting that it uses the same examples throughout.
"...I found this book quite repetitive and the number of examples were too many and unnecessary...." Read more
"Decent Audiobook. It feels kind of repetitive after a while, and it’s not too engaging. She seems to talk about the same things over and over...." Read more
"...Then I dove into Mindset. It was a terrible slog...." Read more
"...I had trouble getting through these chapters, wasn't impressed with them. The last two chapters are kind-of interesting again...." Read more
Reviews with images

Well worth it
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2015Mindset is another book in the seemingly endless production line of self help Psychology books available. Amazon recommended it to me based on my past purchases, and I decided to give it a try. I can honestly say that this book was eye opening for me. It’s based on the premise that there are two mindsets present in all human beings: The Fixed Mindset and The Growth Mindset. People with the fixed mindset, according to the author, are people who would rather not challenge themselves because it may reveal to them any inadequacy or weakness in their skill level or knowledge base. Conversely, people who possess the growth mindset are people who, regardless if they fail, crave the opportunity to better themselves even if it means admitting that they do not know as much as they thought they did in a particular subject or discipline. The author also dispels the myth of intelligence and natural talent, bringing to light the evidence-based realization that intelligence can be nurtured and cultivated through study and constant, unremitting learning. One’s learning ability, or intelligence, much like the brain itself, is indeed malleable. Fascinating stuff. By the way, another book in the same vein as this one is “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin. I may have reviewed it a year or two ago – I will have to check the archives of my blog.
Halfway through the book I realized that I possessed traits and elements from both the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. I’m a lifelong learner, there’s no question about that. I’m ridiculed by most of my peers and friends for always reading and trying to learn more, but it’s who I am and who I've always been, unbeknownst to some. That being said, however, I can remember many times in my life when I was afraid to challenge myself because I felt like it would reveal weaknesses in my knowledge or skill. When I was younger, I used to abhor criticism; I felt like if someone criticized me it was a direct attack on who I was, so I’d respond by becoming defensive. Granted, most people will criticize you just to make themselves feel better or to put you down because they see you’re actually trying to do something; but if someone is more skilled than you are in something and he or she offers some constructive criticism, you should pay attention because that’s an invaluable tool for growth. I've learned that over the years without question. When I first started studying Karate (I was probably 11 or 12 years old), I was so full of passion for it. I used to go to my classes with a zest and zeal that rivaled the most enthusiastic of students, but I quickly realized, even though I thought I was a natural, that I had a lot of work to do before I could even consider myself a real student of the martial arts. At first I refused to accept that I wasn't as strong or as fast as I thought I was. I was stuck in the fixed mindset. I knew I was good at throwing kicks and punches because I taught myself how to fight. I didn't want to hear anything anyone else had to say. Eventually I learned the hard way that I would have to acquiesce to the instruction of my teachers, but the fixed mindset plagued me for many more years. It wasn't until I met my Jujitsu instructor about 5-6 years ago that I finally broke the fixed mindset outlook when it came to the martial arts. I was put on my back, painfully, over and over again by my instructor and learned, seemingly for the first time, about “emptying my cup” as the saying goes. I had to unlearn about 15 years of martial arts training and absorb, as a beginner, the teachings of my Jujitsu instructor. Let’s just say ice became my best friend.
My fixed mindset even found its way into my guitar studies. I was always a decent guitar player, I guess, but I didn't start growing as a guitarist until I met someone who shattered my view of my skill level while working at my last job. This guy was the most skilled guitarist I had ever met, and I was humbled by his expertise. I’m still no way near his level of guitar playing, but because of the little time I spent with him I am a much better guitarist than before I met him. It was after meeting this person that I decided to start playing with people who were substantially better than I was. I sought out guitarists all over the place and asked to learn from them. I’d walk around Union Square in the city listening to the other musicians; I'd pay real attention to what they were playing and how they were playing it. I’d walk up to a few guitarists who I thought played beautifully and pick their brains. Some were eager to teach and some didn't want to be bothered. All in all, I became good friends with two of the guitarists I met. They still reach out to me and teach me technique and theory, and, when I can, I continue my own independent music study. Growth mindset in action.
I've been sending a lot of my short fiction to professional, established writer friends of mine so that they can criticize and guide me in the hopes that I can be a better writer. A few weeks ago I sent one of my short stories to a writer I work with, and I asked him to be brutal. He read my story and sent me some feedback. I felt like when I was a little kid in school and one of my teachers gave me back one of my writing assignments adorned with her red markings. "Redundant!" "Comma here!" "Be more concise!" "Verb-subject agreement!" Good times. Anyway, my colleague gave me some useful advice and I immediately incorporated his suggestions into some of the stories I've already written. Consequently, I have also asked my uncle, who is an award-winning apologetics writer, to advise me and critique my writing. He’s been generous with his time and constructive with his advice. I will keep badgering him with grammar and syntax questions until he disowns me. It’s a price I’m willing to pay.
So, back to the book. There is a lot of truth in this book, and I’m probably going to read it again soon. At the end of the book there is a chart that outlines the fixed mindset pathway of thinking versus the growth mindset pathway of thinking. It briefly outlines what someone with each mindset would do, or how they would think, given a circumstance. I have printed this chart out and I keep it hanging on my wall in my room so that I can look at it every day. I still have some fixed mindset elements that seem to permeate my thinking, but I’m more cognizant about them now. I’m working toward becoming a fully growth mindset focused person. I’m a work in progress, like most people, so bear with me.
There are a lot of case studies of some great people in this book – Famous athletes, Actors, Politicians, Musicians, Teachers, Coaches – and each case study lends more credence to the author’s message: The Growth Mindset will help you achieve whatever it is you want to achieve. It’s a great book, and I recommend it to anyone struggling with honing his or her skills in anything. The author discusses how the fixed mindset and growth mindset is evident in every facet of life. Whether it is in parenting – how some parents instill a belief in their children that they are geniuses, and these children refuse to grow because they think there is no more growing to be done – or in our professional lives - how to learn from and adapt to unethical and dishonest colleagues (something I live with).
- Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2025This was a well-written book that shares perspectives from both the fixed and growth mindsets and the outcomes of each. The book contains research and findings, the use of growth mindset in life such as work and relationships. Finally it gives ways to use the growth mindset in the readers life.
I didn’t learn anything new about mindset, but found the anecdotes and research interesting and will use some of the information with my high schoolers.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2025the book gives a succint examples of how fixed mindset can cause problems in business or relationships or work.
I wish the book would have provided more examples or material on how the mindset can be changed. 80% of the book is on why fixed mindset is a problem and individual bias on why someone can have fixed mindset but not realize it.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2008Carol Dweck's work Self-Theories. She has written another book, written for a more general, less academic readership called Mindsets, in which she applies the entity/incremental construct to a broad range of domains: business, interpersonal relationships, etc. I've read both. In Self-Theories Dweck's target are academic or educational contexts in which she argues that the difference in academic performance can plausibly be explained by distinguishing between two conceptions of ability, the entity theory and the incremental theory. According to the incremental spin, the abilities you possess are of a certain quantity which is FIXED (for all time) and therefore unalterable; which is to say your abilities cannot really be altered or changed; they are not really responsive to EFFORT. On the incremental view, abilities you possess are not FIXED and ARE RESPONSIVE TO EFFORT over time. One huge payoff, which Dweck points out frequently, is that in voluntarily adopting an incremental view of ability, you put yourself in a position to be FAR less vulnerable to self-blame, helplessness patterns, and self-despair in the event of failure, which can futher undermine your ability to execute your abilities. People of a more perfectionistic turn of mind have MUCH to gain by adopting a incremental spin on ability for the reasons just mentioned. "An ability is only as good as its execution"--Bandura.
Dwecke's an exceptionally lucid writer, and even her more academic work, "Self-Theories" is not written in academese but in language so clear and informal, you almost begin to wonder whether this is a professor in psychology at Columbia University. She's that good, at least I think so. (Bandura's prose is also clear, and conceptually rigorous, but his prose bears an elegant conciseness or compactness of insight, which would not incline me to describe as informal. But I digress. Long story short, the answer to your question is, I think, 'yes', Dweck's work is closely related to Bandura's.
I'm not sure if Dweck's work should be seen as "derived" from Bandura's, however. Dweck draws three key distinctions:
a) between learning goals and performance goals,
b) between helplessness pattern and task-orientedness
c) between incremental and entity theory of ability
Dweck's claim is this: People who hold an entity view of their abilities TEND to also to be people who adopt performance goals over learning goals. A performance goals is one which is more concerned about "looking or appearing smart" than in taking steps to insure greater informedness at the cost of looking stupid or uninformed. Thus, adopting a performance goal is AT CROSS PURPOSES with a learning goal. Second, entitiy theorists, when persuaded of their own failure, have MUCH REASON TO DESPAIR over their failed performances because performance failure (for them) JUST IS a demonstration of the fact that they do not possess (and what's more NEVER can possess) the capacities required to succeed; for they believe that their abilities are FIXED structures inhering in them which are not alterable by effort. Knowing this, you'd expect that, prior to performance, entity theorists SHOULD FEEL GREAT anxiety about their future performances and ABOUT THE THREAT OF FAILURE AND WHAT IT IS DIAGNOSTIC OF. Failure is a PERMANENT DIAGNOSIS for which NATURE HOLDS NO APPELLATE COURT. If you fail at math once, twice. You're a math idiot. If you fail at a relationship; you're no good at love and romance. Period. The awareness of these prospects can't help intrude on one's performances, and keep on from doing anything which could be contrued (in your eyes) as failure, even if that means that, in the short term, you have to admit incompetence or admit nonknowledge in a subject matter, or nonunderstanding. And this is self-defeating. The situation is according to Dweck much different for those people who hold an incremental theory about ability. For these people, failure is not diagnostic of something - a wanted capability to produce desired effects in a cared-about domain of human life - which they can't EVER possess; no, failure doesn't MEAN (for them) that whatever it is in people taht allows them to produce exceptional EFFECTS in the world, in any cared-about domain of performance--that thing, call it an "ability"--is something whose possess and "size" or quantiy or magnitude is something over which you can exercise some control over and the way you can do this is through EFFORT. The entity theorist does not see personal exertion as diagnostic of LOW ability; she sees it as the MEANS to ACQUIRE greater capabilities, a means to enhance her personal causation. By contrast, the entity theorist views exertion as diagnistic of Low ability; like a doctor who sees a patient and says "Those spots mean measles," the entity theorist views exceptional effort to mean "low ability."
Bandura's view (in SE) is, similar to Dwecks, in that he thinks that it is functionally optimal to view abilities as developmentally responsive to effort. Abilities ARE things one possesses - powers one can personally exericise to produce desired effects in the environment - but for learners it is self-limiting to think of abilities as innate or in-born capabilities rather than as things which can be obtained though "acquireable means" and guided mastery. Bandura's general approach to learning seems to be that complex or difficult performances can be decomposed into simpler tasks; learners can learn and gain competence at the simpler tasks (increasing perceived self-efficacy incrementally as they go), then, once actually in possesion of those simpler skills, move on to tackle more difficult tasks, and so on until they actually possess the skills to perform the complex performances. This is what goes on in med schools, trade schools, most all graduate schools. On B's view, abilities are entities you possess, but the trick is to incrementalize your ACQUISITION OF THEM, using your skills acquired at lower and medium levels to boot youself up to higher levels. But of course, this means your conception of your ability has to be adequate to get you to the highest level of performance, or you have to locate the means and strategies which will elevate your performances to higher levels, and once these are identified you have to acquire them. And acquiring competency in the simpler tasks, lower skills, are, so far as I can tell from SE, the means to acquiring the skills to perform at higher levels; which is as much to say they are the means to acquiring greater abilities.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2025I’ve naturally had an inclination to learning, curiosity, and problem solving. But I had some blind spots that this book opened me up to. I know I’ll be a better leader, husband, and father because of this book.
Top reviews from other countries
- BrendaReviewed in Canada on May 2, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
Love this book. It's been a while since I bought it so going to read it again.
-
Cliente KindleReviewed in Brazil on August 24, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Mindset
Livro incrível, capaz de mudar vidas!! Apresenta diferentes situações da vida: escola, trabalho, relacionamento, amizades e nos faz refletir sobre nossas atitudes em cada uma delas!!
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Japan on April 7, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Mindset
Great insights are written. I have just started reading it but I could recommend it to anyone who is looking for life detour inorder to live a meaning and purposeful life!
Amazon CustomerMindset
Reviewed in Japan on April 7, 2025
Images in this review
- Arron TolanReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars The book we should all read.
It's tough to imagine a book that could have a more profound impact upon a person's self-perception than Mindset, it is a truly phenomenal work that is both easy to read and packed with in-depth research and justifications for the author's hypothesis on learning and development.
The book shelf for self-help/useful psychology is incredibly bloated and it always seems like the next book has more ringing praise than the last and, whilst I've read some excellent books on clinical psychology that are peerless, this will always be the book that I remember most fondly for changing my *own* mindset to one where failure was a necessary bump in the road to success, and not an irreversible breakdown. Bear in mind, this isn't a book that will simply inform you, it's a book that will actively change you.
The core concept that Dweck puts across is that humans generally fall into two types of mindset when it comes to achievement, success, learning and ability; the growth mindset and the fixed mindset.
Quintessentially the growth mindset is the "Practice makes perfect"/"Try, try and try again"/"Back in the saddle" school of thought whereas the fixed mindset is typically the "I've either got a knack for it or I haven't"/"Talent is born, not developed"/"If I need to practice then I can't be that good".
Needless to say in the pages within Dweck tries to detach people from a fixed mindset and steer them towards the growth version, giving plenty of real life and 'laboratory' examples of her conceptions and why they do, and should, matter to us.
This is not just a book aimed at children either, we should never stop growing as people and everyone from students to seasoned academics or established athletes to those just joining an MMA club will find much to mull after reading this.
The only gripe I had when reading was the author's irritating habit of stuffing politics, particularly gender politics, into her extrapolations about different peoples attitudes to learning and the impact this has on the academic, corporate and political world. With this being Dweck's life's work as a psychologist I would have preferred she keep her political conjugating to herself to instead focus on the fascinating subject matter, she is free of course to release numerous other books covering such other topics as she so wishes.
In summary, if you want to be convinced (within reason) that 'Effort is what creates success' then buy this book immediately.
-
Thomas MorusReviewed in Germany on May 25, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Profunde Analyse
Lektüre lohnt für alle Studierende und Heranwachsende.