Section 7: Middle to Late Childhood
Supplemental: The Development of Motivation–Mindsets
Human Development Teaching and Learning Group
The Development of Motivation: Mindsets
Mindsets are organized sets of beliefs people have about the nature of ability and what they themselves are capable of learning. They are convictions people come to hold about how competent they are and whether there are limits to how much more competent they can become.
Where do mindsets come from?
According to theories of mastery motivation, babies are born active and curious, ready to learn about the world and see how it works. As a result, infants are highly motivated and busy trying to make things happen—they love to “create effects,” for example, by waving their arms around, dropping spoons, splashing in the bath, pulling on earrings, etc. Mastery motivation (sometimes called intrinsic motivation) is like a motor that sets in motion thousands of these exploratory interactions, and through them, babies learn an enormous amount about how to be effective in producing desired and preventing undesired outcomes.
How do mindsets develop?
As children learn about their environments, they also learn something about themselves: that they are competent, efficacious little people capable of making things happen. They take these beliefs with them into other learning contexts, like school, and such beliefs provide an underlying source of confidence, determination, and persistence, especially when children encounter problems or setbacks.
This sense of confidence and competence is called a mastery orientation, and it is one basis for children’s constructive engagement with challenging learning activities. When children with a mastery orientation make mistakes or can’t solve problems right away, they roll up their sleeves and work harder, their concentration and strategizing increase, they turn on the effort and don’t give up. As a result, they learn from their mistakes and benefit from challenges and difficulties. They not only feel more competent and efficacious, they actually become more competent as a result. Over time, these experiences strengthen their mastery orientation.
Do all children have a mastery orientation?
Unfortunately, many infants and young children grow up in environments where they do not have experiences of competence and control. Their parents are not responsive, do not come when babies call or comfort them when they are upset, and may even be downright hostile. Children soon learn that their actions don’t matter and that they have no control over their little worlds. This is called a learned helplessness orientation, and it can be seen in infants as young as 4 months old.
What are the effects of a learned helplessness orientation?
Children take helpless attitudes with them into learning contexts, too. Unlike the mastery-oriented children, however, children with a learned helplessness orientation react to obstacles or setbacks with helplessness, which means that they behave as if there is nothing they can do to solve the problem: They become upset and anxious, they give up, and they don’t even try. They avoid challenges and don’t want to try anything new or difficult. As a result, they don’t learn very much. These experiences undermine their confidence even more. Over time, by avoiding challenges and giving up when the going gets tough, they learn less and start to lose ground. Eventually, they not only feel less competent, they actually become objectively less competent. It is a vicious cycle.
What are the mindsets that underlie mastery and helpless orientations?
Carol Dweck (Dweck, 2006) has done extensive research on the mindsets that children (and adults) develop. She has argued that our experiences in achievement contexts (like schools) communicate to us the meaning of “intelligence” or “smartness.”
According to her work, people tend to develop one of two kinds of mindsets based on their cumulative history of experiences:
- Fixed Mindset (aka an entity view of intelligence). In this mindset, people view intelligence as an unchangeable thing (an entity). Each of us has a certain amount of ability or talent, and these traits are “fixed,” meaning that they can’t be expanded or improved. In this mindset, children are always trying to “measure up,” and they worry about revealing how big (or small) their intelligence actually is. Such children never want to let anyone see when they don’t understand something, so they don’t ask questions. Mistakes and failures are to be avoided because they show how “dumb” you are, and having to exert extra effort means that you must not be as “naturally” smart. Since every low performance is considered a shameful failure, individuals with this view tend to prefer tasks that they can already do well and avoid those where they might have to try hard or where they might make mistakes.
- Growth Mindset (aka an incremental view of intelligence). In this mindset, people view intelligence and abilities as expandable with effort. People do not have a fixed amount of intelligence. Instead, there’s just the level of competence we have currently attained. Everyone can always get “smarter” through effort, hard work, practice, and more effective strategies. In this view, effort expands the capacity to learn, and mistakes are an opportunity to learn even more. Such children do not need to worry about whether they “measure up;” they focus instead on figuring out how to take the next steps to improve their skills. Since “failure” is considered an opportunity to learn more, individuals with this view tend to prefer tasks that are challenging, even if it means they make mistakes at first, because that is how they will learn the most.
Why do mindsets matter?
Even throughout adulthood, mindsets profoundly affect one’s life and the way one approaches the world. For example, they affect one’s goals, how one strives to achieve them, and their motivations for pursuing them. They also impact one’s definitions of success versus failure and one’s reactions to obstacles and challenges.
Learning Goals (associated with a growth mindset). For those with a learning orientation, the goal is to acquire/improve new skills and knowledge. In general, individuals who hold these views enjoy challenges, set high goals for themselves, exert high effort, and concentrate on the task at hand. When failure is encountered, they tend to view it as information about how they can improve their performance in the future rather than as an assault on their personal abilities. When dealing with obstacles, people with learning goals tend to respond with more determination and persistence, show less distress, and initiate more proactive patterns of action such as planning, studying, and practicing.
Performance Goals (associated with a fixed mindset). For those with a performance orientation, the goal is to gain approval from others (e.g., the teacher) by demonstrating one’s high ability or hiding one’s low ability. In general, individuals who hold these views often avoid challenges, set less specific goals for themselves, and are easily distracted. They tend to do just enough to get by and experience more self-derogatory thoughts. When dealing with these setbacks, people with performance goals tend to give up quickly, avoid help, ruminate on their failures, and give excuses for their performance.
Can mindsets be changed?
Absolutely! The key idea of a growth mindset is that we can develop our abilities through effort. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but beliefs and mindsets can slowly be changed. What can be learned from a challenge when you encounter a challenge? If we can give up the desire to always appear to be “smart” and embrace the struggles and setbacks that are an essential part of the learning process (and teach our children/students to do so as well), we will be more likely to pursue more challenging and fulfilling goals, and to become more competent over time.
It’s important to note that having a growth mindset doesn’t mean you can never feel bad about things that have gone wrong. You can, for a little while. But feeling bad does not need to keep you from taking the next growth-minded steps of figuring out how to improve in the future and trying again.
How can I promote a growth mindset in my children or students?
Feedback from parents and teachers can play a big role in the development of children’s beliefs about themselves. There is a lot of research about how to set up classrooms so that they promote “learning goals” and a growth mindset. Perhaps the most important thing is the mindset of the adult. If a teacher believes that children’s abilities are fixed, then he or she focuses on measuring intelligence, sorting children accordingly, and offering different opportunities to each group. Parents who label their children as this is my “smart child” and this is my “artistic child” communicate to both of them that their fixed talents have been measured and that they should limit themselves to what they would be good at.
Adults can help by providing a wide range of learning opportunities (especially in areas that children aren’t already good at), accompanied by lots of encouragement for effort, hard work, and practice. When children encounter setbacks, they can benefit from cooperative examination of their mistakes, supportive coaching, and suggestions about more effective strategies for learning. Even subtle things can make a difference: Praising a child for getting a perfect score on an exam can send a message about the importance of getting the correct answer the first time (associated with a fixed mindset), whereas praising their effort can emphasize the importance of developing and learning (associated with a growth mindset). Likewise, expressing sympathy for low performance or encouraging children to drop an activity when they do not excel right away suggests that there is nothing they can do (associated with a fixed mindset), whereas mild irritation and support for continued practice can communicate the expectation that children can improve if they apply themselves (associated with a growth mindset).
Reflect on your own development (or the development of someone you know):
1. What tends to motivate you?
- Getting a good grade?
- Learning new things?
2. How do you feel when you make a mistake?
- Like an idiot?
- Like you are about to learn something?
3. How do you cope with obstacles and setbacks?
- Do you give up?
- Do you try harder the next time?
4. What are your beliefs about intelligence?
- Is it fixed?
- Can it change with effort?
5. Can you influence your own development?
- In what ways could you be your own (positive or negative) social context?
Supplemental Materials.
- This article provides an overview of the history of research on children’s mindsets, as told by one of the researchers who uncovered the concept.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset : the new psychology of success (1st ed.). Random House.
OER Attribution:
Human Development by Human Development Teaching & Learning Group under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License,
The Development of Motivation: Mindsets by Jennifer Pitzer Graham is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
