Week 8: Growth Mindset

Since my post of Growth Mindset in Week 1, I would like to say that I have somewhat enhanced my mindset and adopted a strategy of mastering materials. This semester, I have officially switched my major to psychology and have decided that I want to become a counseling psychologists, which means I definitely needed to adopt a growth mindset in my psychology classes for my future career. So far, it's going pretty well, and I have been able to accomplish different dimensions of growth, although I have my moments of slacking and procrastination. As for this class, I came in not knowing anything about Indian mythology and not having a serious passion for it. However, since I've been trying to be a better student, I've learned so much about Indian epics, gods, and culture, which is so much more than I could ask for in terms of knowledge. At times, I fall behind my work in this class and not apply any growth mindset challenges because I am too focused in other classes, and/or I am working too much buuuuut I'm able to get back on track soon enough! Now for the second half of the semester, I might try to do more work ahead of time so I am not as overwhelmed, especially when there are tests coming up. I also might try studying at least one week prior to the test to I can actually absorb and learn the material. This way, I can take the steps I need to make the grades I want and learn the material I need for the future.

Growth Mindset Steps

Growth Mindset & Mastery Goals

            After watching Carol Dweck talk about growth mindset and the power of yet, I’ve started to rethink how I and the people around me think and learn. For me, I believe I’m somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, but maybe leaning more toward the fixed side depending on the circumstances. However, with this newfound information about the benefits of a growth mindset, I might attempt to push myself into taking failure as an opportunity and learn regardless of the outcomes. Last semester, I learned about an interesting concept similar to fixed/growth mindset – mastery and performance goals. Mastery goals, like having a growth mindset, are based on the desire to learn and take in information to “master” something. Performance goals, like having a fixed mindset, focus on temporarily achieving or “performing” something without the desire to fully learn. For instance, if you want to take a class in order to learn the material and use it in the future, you may have mastery goals; if you want to take a class simply because it is a requirement and you need to pass it, you may have performance goals. A person can have both mentalities for different occasions, but one may be more predominantly used than the other. Since learning those goals, I have been aiming to become more involved in mastering material, and now I have a new aim to look for challenges and grow from them.

Growth vs. Fixed Mindset