Journal #3
Which mindset do you have? Answer these questions about intelligence. Read each statement and decide whether you mostly agree with it or disagree with it:
1. Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't change very much. Mostly Disagree
2. You can learn new things, but you can't really change how intelligent you are. Mostly Disagree
3. No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a lot. Mostly Agree
4. You can always substantially change how intelligent you are. Mostly agree
Also answer these questions about personality using the same "mostly agree" or "mostly disagree" answers:
1. You are a certain kind of person, and there is not much that can be done to really change that. Mostly Disagree
2. No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially. Mostly Agree
3. You can do things differently, but the important parts of who you are can't really be changed. Mostly Disagree
4. You can always change basic things about the kind of person you are. Mostly Agree
(Re-read the short explanations of what your answers mean on pages 12-13 in the book)
Now that you've answered each of these questions about your intelligence and personality, take some time to reflect by answering the following prompt for this journal:
Which mindset do your answers to these questions point to? Do you have a fixed or a growth mindset? How do you feel about this? What evidence of your mindset do you see in your intrapersonal communication? How can you take what we're learning about intrapersonal communication to either change or maintain your mindset long-term?
My answers to these questions point mostly to a growth mindset. For the most part I agree with this assessment. If I didn't think hard and intentional work would change anything I would have stopped when life got hard and accepted my "intelligence" for what it was. Instead, I pushed through the hard things, the things that told me I was not good enough or stupid and found a way to overcome those obstacles. I am proud of myself for this mindset. I can often be very hard on myself, but this mindset has given me hope even when I feel like a failure because it means that I can improve. I do struggle to fully agree with the more drastic statements like, "You can always substantially change how intelligent you are." I look at my husband who is literally a genius and I feel like everything just comes so much easier to him. I work so hard to get good grades, he goofs off and does things last minute and rarely gets anything but an A. I work hard learning a new language going over the material multiple times, and he has it nearly mastered in the same amount of time. Things like this I struggle not to chalk up to our intelligence levels being drastically different. The fact of the matter is, that I can learn anything I put my mind to, it just might take me a bit longer.
I have also learned to look at intelligence differently than our culture. The culture tells me that David is highly intelligent, and I am not. The book does a very good job of explaining intelligence in a way that honors its intent, not what it has been shaped into. It talks about the IQ test, it wasn't designed to test our fixed intelligence, but to test if the way schools were teaching was effective for that particular student. If a student scored low on the IQ test, it simply meant that they weren't learning in the same way they were being taught. (Mindset, p. 5)
As I continue to learn in this class about how each of us process information (both internally and externally) it has given me hope. Even though I can so easily get caught up in moments of frustration and feeling stupid when I'm not learning something as quickly as those around me, I'm hopeful that I can continue to grow and learn. I am lucky to have parents who told me I could do anything, be anything I wanted if I was willing to work hard. I knew their love wasn't conditional on my success (even though there were many days I forgot that truth), because they stood beside me in success and failure. I want to figure out how to take that mindset and truth into my self-talk. If at the end of this class I can figure out how to encourage myself, not determine my value by success or failure, and give myself the unconditional love that I show others, day to day life will look very different. Thinking that I can improve is one thing, but there is something about the science behind the theories in this book that help me be more confidant in my growth-abilities. Knowing that I actually can change is very different than trying hard and hoping it works. I feel hopeful that as I shift my self-talk and my mindset that I will be able to allow myself to grow and change without trying so hard all the time.
1. Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't change very much. Mostly Disagree
2. You can learn new things, but you can't really change how intelligent you are. Mostly Disagree
3. No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a lot. Mostly Agree
4. You can always substantially change how intelligent you are. Mostly agree
Also answer these questions about personality using the same "mostly agree" or "mostly disagree" answers:
1. You are a certain kind of person, and there is not much that can be done to really change that. Mostly Disagree
2. No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially. Mostly Agree
3. You can do things differently, but the important parts of who you are can't really be changed. Mostly Disagree
4. You can always change basic things about the kind of person you are. Mostly Agree
(Re-read the short explanations of what your answers mean on pages 12-13 in the book)
Now that you've answered each of these questions about your intelligence and personality, take some time to reflect by answering the following prompt for this journal:
Which mindset do your answers to these questions point to? Do you have a fixed or a growth mindset? How do you feel about this? What evidence of your mindset do you see in your intrapersonal communication? How can you take what we're learning about intrapersonal communication to either change or maintain your mindset long-term?
My answers to these questions point mostly to a growth mindset. For the most part I agree with this assessment. If I didn't think hard and intentional work would change anything I would have stopped when life got hard and accepted my "intelligence" for what it was. Instead, I pushed through the hard things, the things that told me I was not good enough or stupid and found a way to overcome those obstacles. I am proud of myself for this mindset. I can often be very hard on myself, but this mindset has given me hope even when I feel like a failure because it means that I can improve. I do struggle to fully agree with the more drastic statements like, "You can always substantially change how intelligent you are." I look at my husband who is literally a genius and I feel like everything just comes so much easier to him. I work so hard to get good grades, he goofs off and does things last minute and rarely gets anything but an A. I work hard learning a new language going over the material multiple times, and he has it nearly mastered in the same amount of time. Things like this I struggle not to chalk up to our intelligence levels being drastically different. The fact of the matter is, that I can learn anything I put my mind to, it just might take me a bit longer.
I have also learned to look at intelligence differently than our culture. The culture tells me that David is highly intelligent, and I am not. The book does a very good job of explaining intelligence in a way that honors its intent, not what it has been shaped into. It talks about the IQ test, it wasn't designed to test our fixed intelligence, but to test if the way schools were teaching was effective for that particular student. If a student scored low on the IQ test, it simply meant that they weren't learning in the same way they were being taught. (Mindset, p. 5)
As I continue to learn in this class about how each of us process information (both internally and externally) it has given me hope. Even though I can so easily get caught up in moments of frustration and feeling stupid when I'm not learning something as quickly as those around me, I'm hopeful that I can continue to grow and learn. I am lucky to have parents who told me I could do anything, be anything I wanted if I was willing to work hard. I knew their love wasn't conditional on my success (even though there were many days I forgot that truth), because they stood beside me in success and failure. I want to figure out how to take that mindset and truth into my self-talk. If at the end of this class I can figure out how to encourage myself, not determine my value by success or failure, and give myself the unconditional love that I show others, day to day life will look very different. Thinking that I can improve is one thing, but there is something about the science behind the theories in this book that help me be more confidant in my growth-abilities. Knowing that I actually can change is very different than trying hard and hoping it works. I feel hopeful that as I shift my self-talk and my mindset that I will be able to allow myself to grow and change without trying so hard all the time.
Comments