Chapter 26: Exercises

Comprehension Check

1. What is the difference between entity theory (fixed mindset) and incremental theory (growth mindset)? 2. What did the Sisk et al. (2018) meta-analyses find about the relationship between mindset and academic achievement? 3. What did Yeager et al. (2019) find in the largest pre-registered growth mindset study? 4. What is "false growth mindset" (Dweck's term)? How does it apply to corporate adoption? 5. Why were the original growth mindset effect sizes larger than those found in large replications?

Application

6. Reflect on your own beliefs about intelligence: do you tend toward fixed or growth mindset? Does it vary by domain (math, writing, social skills, sports)? 7. Find a corporate training program that uses growth mindset. Apply the toolkit: what claims does it make? What effect sizes does it cite? Does it address structural factors? 8. Practice effort praise vs. intelligence praise for one week with a child, student, or colleague. Note: does the response differ? 9. Apply the toolkit to: "If you just believe you can do it, you can achieve anything." 10. Find three growth mindset articles or videos. Rate each on whether it acknowledges structural factors, effect sizes, and the limitations of brief interventions.

Critical Thinking

11. Growth mindset explains ~1% of academic variance. Is 1% meaningful at scale (affecting thousands of students), or is it too small to matter? 12. Dweck has acknowledged misapplication of her work. Should researchers bear responsibility for how their findings are popularized? 13. The corporate growth mindset pattern shifts blame from systems to individuals. How would you design a corporate program that promotes growth orientation WITHOUT being used as blame-shifting? 14. If growth mindset interventions work best for at-risk students, should they be targeted rather than universal? What are the ethical implications? 15. The original studies had small samples and may have been affected by publication bias. Does this invalidate the concept, or just the specific effect sizes?

Fact-Check Portfolio

16. If any of your 10 claims involve mindset, motivation, or beliefs about ability: - Compare the claim to the actual effect sizes - Note whether structural factors are acknowledged - Update your evidence rating.