Intelligence 101 by Jonathan Plucker

Author:Jonathan Plucker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company

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WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOUR OWN INTELLIGENCE?

Before we close this chapter, we want to introduce you to one more very important idea: What you believe about your own intelligence matters. A lot. Do you believe that your intelligence just “is what it is”—a fixed, unchangeable trait? Or do you believe that your intelligence is malleable and can be improved with effort? The way you answer this question may have profound implications for your future intellectual, academic, and career success. Here’s why.

Decades of research from the American psychologist Carol Dweck and her colleagues demonstrates that people who believe that their intelligence is malleable are more willing to take on intellectual challenges than are people who believe that intelligence is a fixed internal characteristic. Equally important, people who believe they can improve their intelligence are more likely to persist at difficult tasks when the going gets rough (Deiner & Dweck, 1978, 1980; Dweck, 1975, 1999, 2007). This makes intuitive sense: If you believe that your intelligence is a fixed trait, you will probably place high value on the appearance of success. An A on a test is pretty good evidence that you are intelligent, right? However, if you believe that your intelligence is malleable, you might risk taking a harder class where you will learn more but earn a grade of B. This won’t bother you that much because the harder class helped you to increase your intelligence.

This fundamental difference in attitude is often conceptualized as the difference between a performance orientation (appearing smart) and a mastery orientation (focusing on the actual learning). It turns out that the way students are praised plays a major role in determining whether a person develops the healthy mastery orientation or the somewhat neurotic performance orientation. Praising students for being intelligent when they succeed may seem to be a good idea, but it really isn’t. Take, for example, the case of a student who gets 100% on her math test. A teacher or parent may choose to praise her by saying something like “You’re so smart at math!” This sends the message that success is evidence of intelligence. In this case, how willing will that student be to take on intellectual challenges that carry some risk of failure? After all, it is much less risky to take the safe route and get that easy A. The teacher or parent would do better to praise for effort instead: “You worked so hard on that math homework, and it really paid off!” This teaches the student that intelligence can be increased through effort and persistence, setting the stage for a mastery orientation and an increased potential for maximum intellectual growth.10

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