1. Duckworth, Angela Lee. “Backtalk: Self-Discipline Is Empowering.” The Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 90, no. 7, 2009, pp. 536–536. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20446171. Accessed 26 Apr. 2020.
Child psychology and self-discipline
The flywheel is something that not everyone can achieve due to how they’ve been conditioned or conditioned themselves as children. Angela Lee Duckworth gives way to this idea as she refutes Alfie Kohn’s claim that self-discipline is “marshalling one’s willpower to accomplish things that are generally regarded as desirable…using that same sort of willpower to prevent oneself from what is seen to be undesirable or to delay gratification” 536. The author uses a widely popular psychology experiment to reject Kohn’s idea to instead tell her audience that willpower is used to upload standards that are more personal: “In these experiments, preschool children chose between a smaller treat they could have right away and a larger treat that required waiting. Contrary to the grim picture Kohn paints of the self-disciplined child, Mischel and his colleagues found that the number of seconds a young child could wait in this situation predicted not only SAT scores, but also emotional coping skills in adolescence” 536. In regards to the flywheel and momentum, it shows that children who demonstrate patience are the exact same people that are able to push beyond their limit to achieve success. Also, this shows that they are “happier, more relaxed, and better at handling stress” 536. I believe that people stop pushing their flywheel, never achieving the full capacity of momentum, due to lack of coping mechanisms with stress. This failure that is encountered can be tolling on people in their future as they likely do not reach long-term and possibly short-term goals.
2. Burhans, Karen Klein, and Carol S. Dweck. “Helplessness in Early Childhood: The Role of Contingent Worth.” Child Development, vol. 66, no. 6, 1995, pp. 1719–1738. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1131906. Accessed 26 Apr. 2020.
Nonpersisters and inability v Persisters and effort
Karen Burhans and Carol Dweck assess how children learn and react to failure. They test this by giving children a variety of tests that are designed to purposely make the children pass or fail. Based on how the children respond to these tests, it will show how their behavior about self-worth would expand. Children in this study are categorized into two groups: helpless pattern or mastery-oriented. The authors state, “children displaying the helpless pattern quickly indicted their ability once they encountered failure…In contrast, children displaying the mastery-oriented pattern focused on strategy when they encountered failure” (1720).
The brief mention of the study for context: “…The experimenter then asked the child to choose one puzzle to work on again, Choosing to complete one of the unfinished puzzles was considered an index of persistence in the face of prior failure, Thus, children who chose to continue working on one of the uncompleted puzzles were classified as Persisters. Choosing to turn away from the challenging, unfinished puzzles in favor of the less challenging, already-completed puzzle, was considered to represent Nonpersisters” (1724).
When these children indicated their ability, the Nonpersisters who did poorly rated it as poor performance or “bad” while expecting a “punishment for task failure” (1734). Whereas the Persisters focused on new strategies oriented at eventual accomplishment of the task. Overall, this shows their level of self-worth and happiness with himself during task-oriented experiences. In regards to the flywheel, the people who push the wheel on its axel to gain momentum would be Persisters that are concentrated on the strategy of picking up a sufficient speed. Thus, allowing them to succeed in a multitude of opportunities just based on their strategy-like thinking that separates them from other people who commonly give up. As for those who stop pushing the wheel, each stop is detrimental to their self-worth because it indicates the inability to do something rather than a lack of effort. Effort is key to momentum in this way because it directly correlates to persistent behavior in completing tasks through strategy instead of intellectual ability.
3. Dweck, Carol S. “Can Personality Be Changed?: The Role of Beliefs in Personality and Change.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 17, no. 6, 2008, pp. 391–394. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20183329. Accessed 26 Apr. 2020.
Success v. Failure
I think that a large sum of people don’t believe in the idea of changing their own mindset, but it’s possible if these damaging behaviors are recognized. Carol Dweck address that “some people have a fixed (or “entity”) theory, believing that their qualities, such as their intelligence, are simply fixed traits. Other have a malleable (or incremental) theory, believing that their most basic qualities can be developed through their efforts and education” (392). When someone instills an idea in themselves, such as, not being able to transform into a new person or pursue momentous goals, then they deliberately put themselves into a box. This box is a trap designed by their mind preventing them from pursuing likely dreams. Dweck shows that everyone has the ability to grow and learn as long as they have a belief and desire to. Furthermore, so address that “when students are praised for their effort or strategies (their process), they instead take on a more malleable theory – they are eager to learn and highly resilient in the face of difficulty” (392). While some people are lucky to meet this embrace in the midst of failure as a child, others are not. Other could be conditioned to believe that they don’t have the ability or capacity to achieve – this is where people begin to hurt in regards to momentum. In context of the flywheel, if you tell someone they cannot turn it enough times then they could train themselves to believe that they don’t have the ability to turn in. When in reality it comes down to grit and effort to gain momentum, not intellectual ability. Opportunity waits for those who work for it within the right circumstances – not everyone has these so it’s not equitable. However, for those who do have the environment to cultivate their efforts then it should be used to grow. Ability is only a small part of the battle, effort is where the work is demanding. In order to give way to effort then a malleable mindset is requires, as Dweck elaborates on in her article.
4. Hubbard, Timothy L. “Forms of Momentum Across Time: Behavioral and Psychological.” The Journal of Mind and Behavior, vol. 36, no. 1/2, 2015, pp. 47–82. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43854363. Accessed 26 Apr. 2020.
Biological and psychological momentum
Timothy Hubbard discusses the roles of psychological and behavioral momentum in regards to outcomes. Intersecting with the flywheel, psychological momentum is more relevant as it “has been conceptualized as a power or force that changes interpersonal perceptions and influences mental or physical performance (Iso-Ahola and Mobily, 1980), as a bidirectional concept that affects the probability of winning or losing as a function of the outcome of the preceding event (Alder, 1981), and most recently as a psychological phenomenon that mediates or moderates performance (Iso-Ahola and Dotson, 2014, 2015)” (58). This directly concerns the way people perceive themselves when approaching a goal (or overall performance). It is deeply rooted in ideas that people hold of themselves – failures or achievers. More interestingly, Hubbard suggests that psychological momentum can grow tired in positive and negative ways. For example, In positive inhibition, success increases the probability of subsequent failure (e.g., a team that is leading grows complacent and loses), and in negative facilitation, failure increases the probability of subsequent success (e.g., a team that is trailing becomes “fired up” and more motivated to succeed)” (59). Yet, it’s not clear when people reach either of these points or how people proceeded to keep being high achievers. Previous articles suggest that people will put themselves in the same box for a long period of time, but there is no question that addresses the possible changed behavior to emerge from this confinement. I believe it takes place in the thought process, a change in daily life, or new routines that change ways of previous thinking.
5. The Flywheel effect by Jim Collins
6. Grit: the power of passion and perseverance by Angela Lee Duckworth
Grit is the best measure of success, not intelligence. However, we are unsure of how to build grit in students and young learners.
7. https://jamesclear.com/deliberate-practice
An excellent article on developing mastery in a skill and debunking ideas around child prodigies.