Mindset
Mindset is also believed to influence a person's behavior, having deliberative or implemental action phases, as well as being associated with technical or adaptive approaches to leadership.
[6] A mindset could create an incentive to adopt (or accept) previous behaviors, choices, or tools, sometimes known as cognitive inertia or groupthink.
This review also identified some of the traditions of research and practice that are closely related to the origins and history of mindset psychology, some of which span back hundreds and thousands of years.
Some of the earliest studies to explicitly include mindset as an area of focus were conducted in the 1910s and 1920s, primarily within a psychology and education context.
[9] Between the 1980s and 2000s, mindset research and its applications began to expand into other areas, including Glen Fisher’s (1988) studies in international relations, Ellen Langer’s (1989) research on mindfulness, Peter Gollwitzer’s (1989) psychology of action phases,[10][11] Donella Meadows’ (1991) theory of systems change, Stephen Rhinesmith’s (1992) work on global mindsets, Ronald Heifetz’s (1994) practice of adaptive leadership, Carol Dweck’s (2006) concept of implicit theories, and Robert Kegan’s and Lisa Lahey’s (2009) theory of adult development.
[15] Modern military theory attempts to challenge entrenched mindsets in asymmetric warfare, terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
[19] Collective mindsets are described in Edwin Hutchins's Cognition in the Wild (1995)[20] and Maximilian Senges' Knowledge Entrepreneurship in Universities (2007).
[21] Hutchins analyzed a team of naval navigators as a cognitive unit or computational system, and Senges explained how a collective mindset is part of university strategy and practice.
Hitt cites the five dimensions of an entrepreneurial mindset as "autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness".
[8] Sagiv and Schwarts defined cultural values[28] to explain the nature, functions, and variables which characterize mindset agency.
[29][30] They posited three bipolar dimensions of culture, based on values:[28] cognitive (embedded or autonomous), figurative (mastery or harmony), and operative (hierarchical or egalitarian).
[34] They tend to embrace challenges, persevere in the face of adversity, accept and learn from failure, focus on process rather than outcome, and see abilities as skills which are developed through effort.
Their 2019 study found that people with lower economic status had a greater chance of success if they had a growth mindset and were willing to work through tribulation.
[39] According to Dweck, "Praising students for the process they have engaged in—the effort they applied, the strategies they used, the choices they made, the persistence they displayed, and so on—yields more long-term benefits than telling them they are 'smart' when they succeed".
[39] A second strategy to promote a growth mindset in the classroom is more explicit, establishing personal goals, and having students "write about and share with one another something they used to be poor at and now are very good at.
[39] Dweck and Jo Boaler indicate a fixed mindset can lead to sex differences in education, which can partially explain low achievement and participation by minority and female students.
[41] Boaler builds on Dweck's research to show that "gender differences in mathematics performance only existed among fixed mindset students".
Boaler said, "The key growth mindset message was that effort changes the brain by forming new connections, and that students control this process.
These studies illustrate how educators can intervene, encouraging a growth mindset, by allowing students to see that their behavior can be changed with effort.
Moreau et al. (2019) suggest "that overemphasizing the malleability of abilities and other traits can have negative consequences for individuals, science, and society.
[51] In a number of studies, Dweck and her colleagues noted that alterations in mindset could be achieved through "praising the process through which success was achieved",[52] "having [college aged students] read compelling scientific articles that support one view or the other",[51] or teaching junior-high-school students "that every time they try hard and learn something new, their brain forms new connections that, over time, make them smarter.
"[54] A study by Patrick and Joshi explored how teachers explain growth and fixed mindsets, with two major findings in 150 semi-structured interviews.
The benefit mindset describes society's leaders, who promote individual and collective well-being: people who discover their strengths to contribute to causes greater than the self.
[57] Originating from the study of organizational leadership and coinciding with the growth of multinational corporations during the 1980s, organizations observed that executive effectiveness did not necessarily translate cross-culturally.
[58] Cross-cultural leaders were hypothesized to need an additional skill, ability, or proficiency (a global mindset) to be effective regardless of culture or context.
[63] Mehta and Zhu found that an "abundance mindset makes people think beyond established functionalities to explore broadly for solutions, thereby heightening creativity.
People with a prevention mindset are characterized as being cautious and careful, avoiding risks and any course of action that could potentially cause failure in reaching a goal.
[67] In 2019 a larger randomized controlled trial by the Education Endowment Foundation for growth mindset training showed no significant increase in numeracy or literacy.
