Mindset and Praise: Dweck and Gunderson

Can You Change How Smart You Are?

Some people believe that intelligence is fixed — you are born with a certain amount and that is that. Others believe that ability can always be built through hard work and better strategies. Psychologist Carol Dweck argued that which of these two beliefs a person holds has a powerful effect on how they learn, how they cope with failure, and how far they progress.

Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset

Dweck proposed that learners explain their own success or failure using one of two frameworks. A fixed mindset attributes performance mainly to inborn ability: you either have talent for something or you do not, and effort cannot change that very much. A growth mindset attributes performance mainly to effort: ability can be built through practice, strategy and persistence.

A learner with a fixed mindset treats failure as a threat, because a poor result feels like proof of a permanent limit on their ability. These learners tend to avoid difficult challenges where they risk looking incapable, and they are more likely to give up quickly when work becomes hard.

A learner with a growth mindset treats failure as useful information rather than a verdict on their worth. A mistake shows where more effort or a different strategy is needed. These learners are more likely to choose challenging tasks, to keep trying when work is difficult, and to improve over time as a result.

The Role of Praise

Dweck’s research suggested that the type of praise a child receives can shape which mindset they build. Process praise focuses on effort and strategy — for example, telling a child they worked hard or found a clever way to solve a problem. Person praise focuses on a fixed personal trait — for example, telling a child they are clever or talented.

According to Dweck’s theory, process praise should encourage a growth mindset, because it teaches the child that success comes from effort. Person praise should encourage a fixed mindset, because it teaches the child that success comes from an inborn quality that can just as easily be lost. This idea has important implications for parents and teachers: a well-intentioned compliment about ability may, over time, make a child more anxious about attempting difficult work.

Gunderson et al. (2013): Parent Praise and Later Motivation

Gunderson and colleagues tested Dweck’s praise prediction directly. Their aim was to find out whether the praise that parents naturally give their toddlers predicts the child’s motivational framework years later. In the procedure, researchers observed parents interacting naturally with their children at home during ordinary play when the children were between one and three years old. They recorded and coded the praise parents gave, sorting it into process praise and person praise.

Around five years later, when the children were of primary school age, the same children completed measures of their motivational framework — including their beliefs about whether ability can change and how they respond to challenging tasks. The results showed that children who had received more process praise as toddlers were more likely to show a growth-mindset framework five years later: they believed ability could be developed and were more willing to take on challenges. Person praise did not show this same link to a growth mindset. Gunderson et al. concluded that early praise focusing on effort and strategy, rather than fixed ability, helps to build a growth mindset that lasts for years.

Evaluating Dweck’s Mindset Theory

Dweck’s mindset theory has been influential in education, leading many schools to run ‘growth mindset’ programmes that encourage effort-based praise and a focus on strategy. It is supported by evidence such as Gunderson et al.’s study, which links a specific parenting behaviour to a real difference in children’s later beliefs about ability. However, some researchers have questioned whether classroom interventions based on mindset theory always produce the large improvements in attainment that the original theory implies, and replication studies have sometimes found smaller effects than expected. Mindset theory also uses fairly broad categories — real learners may show a mixture of fixed and growth beliefs depending on the subject or situation, rather than fitting neatly into one mindset all the time.