Steve Lee, PhD

Graduate Diversity Officerfor the STEM Disciplines

Research on Success:Grit, the Growth Mindset, and

the Marshmallow Test

UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Orientation

August 29, 2014

Discuss within groups:

� Discuss a recent situation where you (or a friend) overcame a difficult challenge.

� What internal characteristics helped you to overcome the obstacle?

� Compare this to similar situations when you failed to overcome the challenge.

� What internal characteristics hinderedyour success?

2

Angela Lee Duckworth talks about grit

3

What did you think of her TED talk?

How do you respond to failure?

4

Carol Dweck proposes 2 different responses:

� I’d look at what was wrong and resolve to do better.

� I’d start thinking about working in a different way.

� stay in bed

� get drunk

� I’m a total failure

� I wouldn’t bother trying hard next time

Fixed mindset Grow h mindset

Summary of Dweck’s Mindset

Fixed vs Grow h

ability is static

avoids challenges

gives up easily

sees effort as fruitless

ignores useful criticism

threatened by others

ability is developed

embraces challenges

persists in obstacles

sees effort as necessary

learns from criticism

inspired by others’ success

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Examples of Different Mindsets

6

Losing equals death You get better whenyou lose

Dweck reveals a false dichotomy

� you have ability or you expend effort� effort is for those without ability

Fixedmindset:

Grow hmindset:

� we all need to expend effort to improve

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What are the consequences of the different mindsets?

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What are the consequences of the different mindsets?

Those who werepraised for their:

intelligence

effort

to reinforce a:

fixed mindset

growth mindset

chose to work on:

easier problems

more challenging problems

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What are the benefits of

a grow h mindset?

� Those with a growth mindset:

� achieved higher grades in a General Chemistry course

� had a more accurate sense of their strengths and weaknesses

� had lower levels of depression

10

The Marshmallow Test

� Walter Mischel (Stanford psychology faculty)

� children were offered a marshmallow, but if they waited (~15 min), they were given 2 treats

� children who waited longer for greater rewards tended to have better life outcomes

– SAT scores

– educational attainment

– body mass index

� similar to grit(!)

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Summary: Success correlates with:

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� grit

� growth mindset (vs fixed mindset)

� patience (delayed gratification)

Question: How do I apply these?

� Do I have these attributes?

� Do I assess myself accurately?

� Do I have good metacognitive skills?

Why is self-assessment so important?Don’t I know myself?

employers

alumni

faculty

students

13

In a national study, people rated student’s preparedness in professional skills from 1 to 7.

Because we often don’t assess ourselves accurately.

5.16

4.41

4.73

4.27

Marshall Goldsmith points out …

14

How will you growto get from here to there?

Practical Suggestions

15

Assess:

Apply:

� Are you responding to challenges with a fixed or growth mindset?

� How is this context different than past situations?

� Apply your assessment to new contexts, using a growth mindset

� Try new approaches when faced with challenges

&

Try these practical exercises:

� Journal about past challenges: do you think you responded with grit, a fixed or growth mindset, and patience?

� Ask close friends & mentors for honest feedback if you have these attributes.

� Learn how this program & context is different from your past experiences.

� Try new approaches using the growth mindset when you encounter challenges.

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If you wish to read further:

17

to understand mindsets to learn how to change

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Take-Home Message

Assess:

Apply:

� Are you responding to

challenges with a fixed or

grow h mindset?

� Apply your assessment

to new contexts, using a

grow h mindset

Thanks for your participation!

Any questions?

19

??

?

Survey and slides/handout at: goo.gl/J9u7Bh

1

Research on Success

Grit, the Growth Mindset, and the Marshmallow Test

Steve Lee, PhD

Graduate Diversity Officer for the STEM Disciplines

stnlee@ucdavis.edu

UC Davis Graduate School of

Management – Orientation

August 29, 2014

Summary

In this professional development workshop, my goal is to take research studies that relate to

student success and translating them into practical suggestions that will help you succeed. In other

words, my goal is to go from “papers to practice”. In this workshop, we will discuss three, interconnected

research studies that relate to student success:

• Grit – from Professor Angela Lee Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania

• Growth vs fixed mindsets – from Professor Carol Dweck at Stanford University

• Marshmallow test – from Professor Walter Mischel at Stanford University

After presenting these research studies, I hope to provide practical suggestions that will relate to your

start at UC Davis. These practical suggestions involve the importance of accurately assessing yourself and

strategically applying them into new challenges. It’s critical to first honestly assess yourself (in terms of

grit, a growth or fixed mindset, and ability to wait for delayed gratification), and then you can work on

developing and applying these attributes into your personal life. These simple steps of assessing

yourself and applying your assessment form a cyclical process to help you determine how you define

success and achieving your personal and professional goals.

References and Notes

● Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED Talk “The key to success? Grit” on April 2013

○ http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit

○ “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is stick with

your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and

working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

● Grit test on Lee Duckworth’s website:

○ https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_06f6QSOS2pZW9qR

● NPR (National Public Radio) story

○ “ On The Syllabus: Lessons In Grit” by Tovia Smith on March 17, 2014

○ http://www.npr.org/2014/03/17/290894364/on-the-syllabus-lessons-in-grit

● Carol Dweck’s book “Mindset: The new psychology of success”

○ This book provides a useful analysis to help you understand the differences between a fixed and

growth mindsets, and the benefits from having a growth mindset.

● Chip and Dan Heath’s book “Switch: How to change things when change is hard”

○ This book provides evidence-based approaches in how to change from a fixed to a growth

mindset, along with other practical suggestions on how to change yourself and organizations.

● “Comparative Analysis of Soft Skills: What is important for new graduates? Perceptions of Employers,

Alum, Faculty and Students” by Pat Crawford, Suzanne Lang, Wendy Fink, Robert Dalton, Laura Fielitz

2

○ Michigan State University, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, 2011

○ http://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=3414

● Classic publications of research studies on our lack of metacognitive skills

○ Kruger, J. and Dunning, D. 1999. “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing

One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (6): 1121–34.

○ Dunning, D; Johnson K; Ehrlinger, J; Kruger, J. “Why people fail to recognize their own

incompetence” Curr Directions Psychol Sci. 2003, 12, 83–87. ● Marshall Goldsmith’s book “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There”

● Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow test

○ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

○ Mischel describes his experiment on Charlie Rose

─ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3SWsjWzdA

Summary of Carol Dweck’s Mindset

Fixed Mindset Grow h Mindset

ability is static ability is developed

avoids challenges embraces challenges

gives up easily persists in obstacles

sees effort as fruitless sees effort as necessary

ignores useful criticism learns from criticism

threatened by others inspired by others’ success

• Thanks for listening and contributing to the workshop! I hope that it was helpful. • I would greatly appreciate your feedback to help me evaluate this new workshop and improve. You

can provide feedback, and also access a pdf of the slides and handout here: goo.gl/J9u7Bh