Developing and Sustaining a Growth Mindset

Developing and Sustaining a Growth Mindset

Given the multiple existential threats that are arrayed against humanity, the temptation to simply muddle through life is strong today. This temptation is readily understandable during a period in human history when a global pandemic is still ongoing, nuclear-equipped belligerents are rattling their swords and climate change is threatening to destroy the world by the end of the century. Against this backdrop, it is clear that people need to develop and sustain a growth mindset in themselves and their children if humankind is going to have a fighting chance to survive. To determine how this eventuality can be achieved, the purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature to describe how people can develop a growth mindset in themselves and their children, followed by a discussion concerning what types of problems are trying to be solved through this growth process and why American community need more people to have a growth mindset. Finally, the paper provides a summary of the research and important findings concerning developing and sustaining a growth mindset in the conclusion.

Developing a Growth Mindset

First coined by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset (2006), the term “growth mindset” has “swept psychology, mainstream media, and organizations by storm [and] companies such as Microsoft have gone all-in on promoting a growth mindset within their ranks” (Rogers et al. 2023, 68). As the term connotes, a growth mindset refers to the process by which people exercise their brains and make empirical observations to make their reasoning power and critical thinking skills stronger. For instance, according to Zhao et al. (2023), “A growth mindset is an individual’s belief that human intelligence can be changed through continuous practice and effort” (2). This definition suggests that every experience contributes to mental growth to some extent and that even glaring mistakes and major failures can provide valuable lessons for a growth mindset scenario.

While the debate over the extent to which human intelligence can be increased continues, Yacoub (2021) maintains that according to a growth mindset, “We aren’t bound by a limited set of talents or level of intelligence that we were born with. We can actually grow these areas” (2). In many ways, these assertions are fairly intuitive. After all, everyone knows that people learn through new experiences and practice, but the core issues involved in the growth mindset calculus include the capacity to increase the corresponding intellectual ability to better handle similar situations in the future. Moreover, a growth mindset also includes the ability to improve other attributes that have long been thought to be unchangeable, including even personality and morality. In this regard, Zhao et al. emphasize that, “The growth mindset is the belief that a person can improve intelligence, ability, morality, or personality. Such individuals view difficulties and failures from a more positive perspective and can effectively cope with helpless reactions such as anxiety, depression, and challenge avoidance” (2).

The malleability of these types of human attributes is a distinguishing characteristic of the growth mindset concept (Zhao et al.). In sharp contrast to other psychological theories that maintain human attributes such as intelligence and personality are fixed, the growth mindset concept holds that these and other attributes can be changed over time if people are willing to invest the time and effort that is required. As Zhao and his associates put it, “We conceptualize mindsets as a spectrum reflecting the extent to which individuals are more or less ‘growth-oriented,’ with those high in growth orientation holding more of a ‘growth mindset,’ or the belief that attributes can be developed with time and effort” (68). This assertion indicates that a growth mindset exists along a continuum, and the extent to which learning through various experiences is made a priority is the extent to which growth will be achieved.

In reality, most humans have always been striving to achieve a growth mindset, even if they were unaware of it and it did not go by that term. Indeed, the survival of the fittest dictum has always demanded a growth mindset just to live long enough to successfully reproduce, and this reality has allowed humanity to climb up Maslow’s hierarchal ladder. For example, Zhao et al. (2023) point out that, “The meaning in life signifies that individuals understand or see the meaning of their own life and are aware of their own goals and the values of their own life” (2). In other words, humanity’s ancient ancestors consistently demonstrated a growth mindset by confronting and overcoming the multiple challenges they faced in a hostile world and prevailing by learning from their experiences so that modern humans would have the opportunity to write about it. Indeed, the learning curve was far sharper when humans were not at the top of the food chain, and developing the set of talents that were needed to bring down a mastodon or defeat a warring tribe was obligatory.

It is especially noteworthy that inculcating a growth mindset involves many of the same things today that they did in antiquity. For example, as noted above, experiential learning has always been recognized as an effective teaching strategy, and the human condition comes complete with no end of threats and challenge that must be overcome throughout the lifespan. This means that teaching young people how to develop and sustain a growth mindset requires providing them with the opportunity to learn from their successes and failures by taking risks, by encouraging them to work hard, welcome new challenges, and to accept such challenges with an open mind and positive attitude.

In addition, and perhaps most importantly of all, children should be reminded to learn from their successes and failures (Yacoub). Certainly, learning from successes is a painless and even enjoyable proposition, but learning from mistakes is a daunting exercise and many people must make the same mistakes repeatedly before they finally get the message. This is especially true in young children whose world is still magic and outcomes are unpredictable and inexplicable, but far too many adults never achieve a growth mindset despite the devastating effects of self-destructive behaviors.

While the problems facing American communities today differ in type and severity, they share many of the same challenges including most especially hunger and homelessness, but also crime, substance abuse, mental health and social inequalities. Because people who develop and sustain a growth mindset are better equipped to formulate innovative solutions to complex problems and are more willing to actually do something about them, American community need more people with a growth mindset as discussed further below.

Why Communities Need More People with a Growth Mindset

The massive ball of problems that are facing many Americans communities make it seem impossible to effect any meaningful changes, but it is not as if they have not tried. Trillions of taxpayer dollars have been allocated to addressing major public health issues over the past century, with varying degrees of success. Although it is true that a number of transmissible diseases have all but been eradicated and progress has been made in reducing hunger, many of the same types of problems that were prominent a century ago are still plaguing American communities today. For instance, homelessness has been a major issue in multiple American cities for decades, and this problem was further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and skyrocketing housing costs.

While the pundits wring their collective hands and lament that the homeless problem is just getting worse, people with a growth mindset recognize that even these types of seemingly intractable problems can be addressed with innovative solutions. In fact, a growth mindset can be readily discerned in the introduction of the “Housing First” approach to addressing a myriad of social problems in American communities. According to a study by Sullivan et al. (2023), “The Housing First model is predicated on the belief that helping people obtain stable housing before addressing other concerns makes dealing with these other issues more manageable, and the evidence has strongly supported this claim” (396).

Here again, the effectiveness of this approach may seem obvious, but it is exactly opposite to the costly strategies that are used by the vast majority of American communities that require applicants to make progress in their mental health or employment situation, for example, before they can even be accepted into the system. It is difficult or even impossible, though, for some people to secure employment without a permanent address and a place to shower and those suffering from mental health or substance abuse problems may never make the progress needed to receive housing assistance. Public and private sector leaders with a growth mindset recognize that if one approach is not working, something else needs to be tried and this type of “outside the box” thinking is exactly what American communities need today (Calvete et al. 2023).