Hard Work Trumps Intelligence
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids in Scientific American:
Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners—helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence. The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.” Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.
The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and hard work. They want to learn above all else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth mind-set, we predicted, were destined for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts.
Later in the article, the author’s hypotheses were verified: your innate IQ has very little to do with your grades, and even less to do with mastery of skills and understanding of academic materials. This concept even extends to sports, careers, etc. I think it is common sense. What isn’t common sense is how to engender this “hard work trumps innate ability” idea in our children (emphasis mine):
Although many, if not most, parents believe that they should build up a child by telling him or her how brilliant and talented he or she is, our research suggests that this is misguided.
In studies involving several hundred fifth graders published in 1998, for example, Columbia psychologist Claudia M. Mueller and I gave children questions from a nonverbal IQ test. After the first 10 problems, on which most children did fairly well, we praised them. We praised some of them for their intelligence: “Wow … that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.” We commended others for their effort: “Wow … that’s a really good score. You must have worked really hard.”
We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed mind-set more often than did pats on the back for effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for example, shied away from a challenging assignment—they wanted an easy one instead—far more often than the kids applauded for their effort. (Most of those lauded for their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from which they would learn.)
I’ve found I usually tend towards the more difficult problems — for example, in DDR, I always want to fail the fast, difficult songs (to try to learn as quickly as possible) rather than shine at an easier song. I wonder if my parents took conscious steps to instill this hard-work-over-talent attitude in me, or if it is simply a core belief of their own that was passed on to me. Perhaps I’ll ask.
Comments
Mykala
We just had a discussion about something similar in my Theories of Personality class. There was a well-known parenting theory (and book) in the 70’s developed by Rudolf Driekurs that pretty much advocated for democracy in the family, and treating children like their opinions and ideas matter, including them in family decisions, etc. He also recommended that parents avoid praising their kids (as I think we get SO caught up in today) and instead recognize the effort they put in. It’s a very small nuance, but the danger lies in building kids up to believe that their value lies in their ability to do something rather than in giving it their best shot. Then, the next time the child doesn’t perform as well (get’s a B instead of an A on a test), they equate this with a decrease in their self-worth, resulting in the opposite effect of the initial praises given.
It’s an interesting concept, and it seems to be supported again and again— both empirically and anecdotally. Definitely something for me to keep in mind in my professional and personal lives!
Nils
I think an abundance of praise should be avoided, but praise in itself should not be wholly thrown out the window in raising kids. But I guess the more I think about it, how do you recognize the effort put into something without praising? The two seem to be almost identical. Maybe a better way of phrasing it would be to say that it’s important to stress the importance of perseverance; that is immediate success at anything is usually pretty far-fetched and that attaining any realistic goal takes time and work. So praising effort is a good thing, praising purely success is a poor practice.