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.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Sports: The Mindset of a Champion”
To further illustrate the impacts of mindset, Dweck delves into the world of sports, using her theory to explain why some stars rise quickly and burn out, but others slowly and steadily rise and become larger-than-life legends by the end of their careers. Dweck’s interest in studying sports is rooted in the ease of assuming fixed-mindset beliefs about them. Everyone in sports, she argues, believes in talent: sportscasters, analysts, coaches, fans, and the players themselves. Dweck observes that the physical realm of sports makes early talent, physique, and achievement visible in ways that can overshadow equally important aspects of athletics such as strategy, conduct, practice, and training. Sports, she says, is full of fixed mindsets. While those who have them, like tennis player John McEnroe, may reach the top, they rarely stay there because of the pressure to live up to their own hype.
Not only does mindset matter, Dweck argues that it is the common theme in all the stories of the underdog who rises to the top, from Larry Bird to Muhammad Ali to Michael Jordan. Each of these superstars was discounted because they did not meet the physical standards for their sport but became a legend through hard work, conduct, and strategy.
Instead of talent, these sports stars have what Dweck calls “character.” She borrows a study by Stuart Biddle regarding the mindsets of adolescents in sports and uses examples of great athletes to illustrate that the growth mindset directly contributed to the highest outcomes and achievement for the youth and the superstars. Dweck says athletes with character focus on growth and improvement rather than on their momentary successes. They also use setbacks as a wake-up call that helps them stay motivated instead of becoming demotivated. They also take charge of processes that further their success, instead of making excuses and blaming outside circumstances. Fixed-mindset players like Darryl Strawberry, Mike Tyson, Martina Hingis, and John McEnroe tend to have great starts, but these athletes fell off quickly because they let setbacks define them and sabotaged themselves by skipping practice, blaming instead of growing, and avoiding personal responsibility for improvement. Great athleticism comes, says Dweck, “from the growth mindset and its focus on self-development, self-motivation, and responsibility” (107), not from raw talent.
To help readers reflect, Dweck concludes the chapter with another set of exercises organized around themes of sports, talent, and character. These are all traits that the growth mindset cultivates through the belief that improvement—not only winning—is the point of their efforts. By contrast, says Dweck, in the fixed mindset, the point of playing is winning and validation, a player with talent doesn’t see the need to work, and superior players win on their own, not by supporting the team.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Business: Mindset and Leadership”
Dweck next uses mindset to answer the question of why some business leaders succeed while others do not. Dweck details a case study by Robert Wood and Albert Bandura, who put business graduate students into either a fixed or growth mindset and then had them complete a difficult computerized simulation by setting their “employees” to the right task and then properly motivating them (111). They received feedback on their progress and could use it to improve their outcomes. They told the fixed-mindset group the task measured individual capabilities but told the growth-mindset group it was a learning experience in which they could sharpen their management skills. The growth-mindset groups did far better because they used feedback to improve, but the fixed-mindset groups, believing the task measured their inherent abilities, lashed out and ignored feedback.
Dweck compares the results in the study to the careers of fixed-mindset business executives like Lee Iacocca of Chrysler, Albert Dunlap of Scott Paper, and Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron. She observes that they share several traits: a focus on personal talent over personal growth; a belief that the company reflects their own success and superiority, rather than the collaborative work of many; an unwavering belief in their own intellect and ability to lead; a focus on maintaining appearances over delivering results; and inflated egos that are easily bruised by criticism.
Because the fixed mindset is a worldview that presumes people are either born geniuses with talent or they are not, CEOs with a fixed mindset see their rise to the top as proof of their own superiority. However, they fall into patterns of using the company as a platform for proving their own greatness. The consequences are so stark, says Dweck, because CEOs view their companies as extensions of their success and have the power to use them as a personal platform. As a result, fixed-mindset CEOs tend to motivate from the top with fear and abuse because they fear looking bad, and they ridicule or fire their best employees because they fear being upstaged by bigger talent. Because they detest critiques, they cultivate a culture of harsh judgment and groupthink that cannot innovate. They promise big results but do not learn the necessary skills to build the capacity within the company to deliver results. They also blame others when things go wrong and may even sabotage a company they are leaving to save face by making the fall look inevitable. Growth-mindset CEOs, in contrast, naturally grow business because they believe in development, effort, and teamwork for everyone. Thus, they tend to foster the belief that growth creates a capacity for more growth. Dweck is quick to point out that this does not mean that growth-mindset bosses are easy or do not require much of their employees. She uses the hard work and results-based cultures created by CEOs like Anne Mulcahy of Xerox and Lou Gerstner of IBM as examples.
Dweck ends the chapter with a look at how leaders can improve. She cites a follow-up study by Robert Wood, who primed whole groups of business students with fixed or growth mindsets and then set them to the same computerized business simulation. Dweck points out that the fixed-mindset groups struggled to perform both because they ignored feedback and due to a lack of open and honest conversations about how to switch approaches. They did not share their ideas freely due to fear of looking foolish or unworthy. The growth-mindset groups not only learned from feedback but also from each other and carried on productive—sometimes contentious—conversations to figure out the best course of action. Growth-mindset leaders, Dweck says, naturally encourage people to speak and critique freely because it is possible to learn from everyone; thus, they avoid the trap of groupthink that fixed-minded leadership encourages by punishing dissent.
Dweck also proves that abstract business skills and acumen are not simply a result of talent but can be improved through adopting strategies. In a study, Laura Kray and Michael Haselhuhn stirred a growth or fixed mindset in business students through an article that explained negotiation as either a fixed skill or a developable skill. They then had them perform negotiation tasks. Those who believed in developable negotiation skills outperformed those who thought negotiation was a talent, because they could apply strategies to the task.
To conclude, Dweck points out that the solution to better business is not simply training employees in job skills, because fixed-mindset people, especially managers, will not take advantage of the training. To solve this issue, she points to a study by Heslin, VandeWalle, and Latham that taught managers a growth mindset through a workshop. They began to coach instead of reprimand, and workers began to take cues to learn and improve rather than muddling through. In addition, Dweck uses her own study of companies to prove that employees in businesses with a development culture feel more trust, empowerment, and commitment at their jobs, but employees of fixed-mindset companies are more likely to say they want to work elsewhere. Because innovation and risk-taking grow businesses and provide the flexibility to pivot under pressure, Dweck concludes that only the growth mindset grows companies. To help readers reflect, she concludes the chapter with another set of exercises organized around themes of leadership and workplace cultures.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Relationships: Mindsets in Love (or Not)”
Dweck applies her mindset theory to relationships to discover why some people manage to build healthy, lasting relationships while others do not. Fixed mindsets undermine relationship success, she says, by setting up a mistaken belief that a successful relationship requires no effort and creates no friction. Dweck explains that those with a fixed mindset view human traits as static, so they often take any sign of conflict as proof that a relationship was doomed from the start. Worse, says Dweck, in a case study in which she interviewed responses to breakups, she observed that people with fixed mindsets are less likely to bounce back after rejection because they feel permanently rejected and unlovable. These feelings often lead to bitterness and anger. In fact, Dweck says, with bitterness comes the desire to wound others, a revenge-oriented solution that she later explores in more depth regarding interrelationships in schools.
Dweck points out that for fixed-mindset individuals, problems with a relationship do not indicate a need to pause and communicate, as they do for growth-minded partners. Rather, they view these issues as deep-seated flaws, either with the self or with the partner. They often respond by blaming the problem on a partner’s personal flaws, which leads to feelings of anger and disgust toward the other person. Other fixed-mindset dynamics include viewing the partner as the enemy or as a competitor; this leads individuals to live in a constant state of conflict or to avoid apologizing to absolve themselves of all blame. Dweck states that these unspoken dynamics, not character flaws, doom relationships. Thriving relationships require open communication and a willingness to adapt and change. People with growth mindsets, Dweck argues, are already primed to communicate and learn from conflict because they believe they and their partner can change and grow, and they do not view every problem as a sign of inherent personal defects.
Dweck points out that just like sports or business, building relationships is a skill set, and everyone can grow their relationship skills. Because of their far-reaching impact, these social-emotional skills are perhaps some of the most important ones to develop. Citing a study by Jennifer Beer, Dweck explains that even personality traits like shyness can be mitigated by adopting a growth mindset regarding social skills. Furthermore, the study showed that those with a growth mindset displayed more social skills and opened up after time spent in a social task, whereas fixed-mindset participants displayed fewer skills and continued to show avoidance and lack of social engagement through the task.
Dweck believes the consequences of remaining fixed in beliefs about relationships of all kinds spell trouble for society. She cites a study by Sheri Levy that measured adolescent boys’ self-esteem before asking them how much they believe in negative stereotypes about girls and then measured their self-esteem again afterward (164). Boys with fixed mindsets, said Dweck, not only were more likely to agree with stereotypes but also showed a boost to their self-esteem after thinking about those negative views. Lowering others to boost the self is unnecessary with a growth mindset but is a common fixture of the fixed mindset, which must constantly prove its own worth.
Regarding interpersonal phenomena such as bullying, Dweck is clear about the detrimental impact of a fixed mindset for both bullies and their victims. Bullies feel a need to elevate themselves and provide an external boost to their self-esteem. However, they can change. Often, Dweck says, the proliferation of bullying at a school is a result of a school’s culture that promotes a fixed mindset through inconsistent discipline or ignoring the problem. Schoolwide development-oriented programs work wonders, Dweck says, citing therapist Stan Davis’s schoolwide antibullying model, because they teach all students the skills needed to stand up for others. At the same time, they change the bullies, not by shaming them but by making them feel welcome and praising their efforts to change. She states that bullies’ victims with fixed mindsets can also become a danger. Citing her own study in which she asked eighth graders to respond to a fictional incident as a bullying victim, she explains that victims with a fixed mindset are more likely to initially internalize mistreatment as a sign of their own flaws but to later seek revenge. She points to Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to illustrate the consequence of bullying leveled at fixed-mindset victims.
Developing a growth mindset, Dweck points out, is a recipe for both individual and societal success. In an effort to promote growth, she provides reflection exercises at the end of the chapter that are organized around themes of relationships and social skills.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In Chapters 4-6, Dweck applies her mindset theory to three important realms of success in the American psyche: sports, big business, and relationships. Dweck believes that all avenues of success can be observed through the lens of mindset theory and sets out to prove that perspective, not talent or ability, accounts for the greatest stories of success. Organizationally, Dweck uses each chapter to gradually raise the stakes of mindset theory in the real world. She begins with a focus on sports, an area in which most people connect individual success to natural ability. She then examines and connects individual mindsets to company culture. Finally, she explores relationships, which ultimately illustrate the social ripple effect of individual mindsets on society at large. By expanding the range of her discussion, Dweck hopes to convince the reader that changing their own mindset serves the dual good of personal and societal improvement. This primes the reader for the final chapters, in which she coaches her audience to develop its own growth mindset and help youth develop one as well.
Chapters 4 and 5 follow a similar format. Dweck chooses famous figures and deconstructs their successes and failures, citing other psychologists’ studies of youth sports and business students, as well as her own, to connect each story to mindset theory and round out her evidence. In Chapter 4, Dweck relies on the reader’s familiarity with sport legends and their successes to deconstruct familiar success-oriented narratives and replace them with process-oriented narratives that reveal growth-minded character as the real key to success. To this end, Dweck tells the story of fixed-minded athletes like McEnroe. Rather than dwelling on his tennis abilities, Dweck focuses on him as an individual with anger-management issues who eventually falls under the pressure of his own hype, losing passion for the sport and lashing out at every failure. For those who are familiar with McEnroe’s extraordinary talent, this alternate narrative forces a reappraisal of the definition of success. In contrast, Dweck presents legends such as Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Jordan, highlighting key obstacles each faced on their rise to stardom. These include Rudolph’s early life paralysis, Ali’s suboptimal physique, Jordan’s initial lack of talent, and Joyner-Kersee’s asthma. Dweck focuses on the processes each undertook to reach the top, showcasing their mental and physical work.
Similarly, Dweck explores fixed-minded leaders and their stories to tease out the ways their fixed mindsets led to behaviors that actively undermined success, for themselves and their companies. Dweck links fixed mindsets, not greed, to corporate failures like Enron’s, in which the CEOs created a culture of groupthink that prized appearances over production. People fail, she implies, not due to innate character flaws, but because they look at the world from a certain perspective. These fixed-mindset narratives in each chapter serve as cautionary tales, but Dweck also uses them to humanize those who fail spectacularly and point to an actual solution for negative and self-defeating behaviors. By deconstructing and reconstructing narratives of success and failure, Dweck provides the reader with the necessary alternative narrative for viewing their own success and failures as a result of perspective, not talent or flaws.
In Chapter 6, Dweck relies less on narratives and more on anecdotes taken from her own experiences and studies and those of other psychologists to illustrate the ways in which perspectives prime people for successful or unsuccessful relationship experiences. Expanding her argument to the personal realm raises the stakes for adopting one mindset over the other. Though the reader is unfamiliar with Dweck’s characters, she selects anecdotes that sound familiar, as they feature types of people the reader is likely to recognize. For example, in the subsection “Each One a Loser,” Dweck shares an anecdote about Penelope, who falls quickly and madly in love only to later reject partners over minor traits such as putting ketchup on food, wearing white shoes, and bad phone etiquette. These anecdotes serve as both cautionary tales and opportunities for reflection. They also create opportunities for the reader to humanize people in their own world who might irritate or annoy them. Dweck carefully supports her deconstruction and rationale of each relationship behavior with studies and field data to tie growth mindsets to successful relationships.
Though the majority of Dweck’s anecdotes feature these recognizable character types, Dweck escalates the stakes when she shifts from romantic relationships to broader interpersonal ones. After connecting fixed-mindset responses to rejection with revenge, Dweck examines a troubling study in which adolescent boys with fixed mindsets not only more readily subscribed to stereotypes of female peers but also boosted their self-esteem when they believed girls had naturally inferior traits (164). Next, Dweck links this behavior to bullying, pointing out that “it’s not that bullies are low in self-esteem, but judging and demeaning others can give them a self-esteem rush” (169). This subverts the common narrative that bullies lack self-esteem; instead, it connects feelings of low self-esteem and subsequent rage to victims of bullying who have fixed mindsets. The Power of Perspective, Dweck proposes, is not just about success and failure but also about life and death.
