People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone reacts to setbacks this way.
After such an experience, the researchers found, an animal often remains passive even when it can effect change-a state they called learned helplessness. Animal experiments by psychologists Martin Seligman, Steven Maier and Richard Solomon, all then at the University of Pennsylvania, had shown that after repeated failures, most animals conclude that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. I first began to investigate the underpinnings of human motivation-and how people persevere after setbacks-as a psychology graduate student at Yale University in the 1960s.
On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on “process” (consisting of personal effort and effective strategies) rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life. Praising children's innate abilities, as Jonathan's parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. In fact, however, more than 35 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings. Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability-along with confidence in that ability-is a recipe for success. Schoolwork, their son maintained, was boring and pointless. But their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a composite drawn from several children).
His parents tried to boost their son's confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school.
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