Growth Mindset VS Fixed Mindset

Happy Sunday all! I hope you've all had a great week, wherever you are in the world. I've mainly been busy prioritizing my self-care throughout this week by not spending too much time on the internet, as spending too much time on the internet does genuinely kill my productiveness.

Anyway, as the title states, I shall be explaining what is a growth & a fixed mindset, as well as explaining the differences between them both. This was another one of those psychology studies which I have learned about back in my 1st year of my Public Services course at college, but had never gotten round to sharing it onto here. The fascinating aspect about this study, is that it can be used to analyse other people's minds. This can mostly be effective for when you are watching studying answer some questions in a classroom. The same method can also apply for when your mind is being studied by somebody else.

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is where you are always looking for ways to learn & grow. This is very commonly used when it comes to making a mistake. For example, when you see somebody being asked to work out a question on chemistry, and they get it wrong, they would want to know where they went wrong in order learn from that mistake.

What is a fixed mindset?

A fixed mindset is where you like to think you are perfect all of time by not making any mistakes. In fact, you try to avoid making mistakes all together for the sake of looking like a genius all of the time. For example, when you see somebody in a classroom copying somebody else's answers in chemistry, because they are too headstrong about making mistakes if they were to provide their own answers. The trouble is that person won't be able to learn how they got their answer in chemistry, as there are no mistakes to help them learn.

Here is the attached picture that shows the characteristics of the 2 contrasting mindsets. Although I may do a separate post on here fir another time, which involves discussing each of them in more detail.

*I began this post on the 29/10/23, but didn't finish it until the 31/10/23*

Type A Personality VS Type B Personality

Hello my readers! I hope everyone is enjoying their week so far, whatever you're getting up to. As what the title states, I will be discussing the comparisons between to 2 personality types in psychology.

This was another theory which I have learned about in college last academic year, but since then, I have forgotten about it until recently. Hence the main reason I wanted to keep the memory alive by sharing what I've learned about this theory with all of you.

The one thing I have found fascinating from this personality theory was that how contrasting the 2 personalities both were in general, as well as thinking about comparing them with one another by relating to people I know of in real life. This is what makes this theory more worthwhile to keep researching on.

 

Type A Personality: This personality involves oneself being as hard working as possible. Or to be more personality specific, I'm talking aggressively hard working. They feel as though they have to be working against a time limit (even though there isn't one) all of the time to ensure every working target is met. Unlike most people, these people who have this personality trait do not end up feeling accomplished with satisfaction even after they've actually completed any tasks that they needed to do. It is like they need to be constantly working flat out in order to gain themselves real satisfaction. Because of this, there is a high stress level that plays a role in this personality trait. This is due to oneself constantly dreading failure if they were to stop working tirelessly hard the way that they do. Even if it's just a small break.

Away from the personality side of things, oneself will experience certain characteristics that will make up having Type A Personality altogether. This is what is best known as Type A Behaviour Pattern. (TABP) In which, the characteristics consist of: Competitiveness, Time Urgency & Impatience & Hostility.

Type B Personality: This personality involves oneself being laid back as if nothing ever seems to bother them. Going into more detail on that, they are always so relaxed by having to be tolerant to everything around them. It may seem like that oneself is being tolerant on purpose, but in reality, this is their way of getting work done at their pace by steadily achieving what they need to achieve in no time frame whatsoever. Even if oneself chooses to work at a steadily pace by happily taking their time to try and complete a task, without finishing it on time, they still wouldn't be at all bothered about it. Likewise, this results with the less amount of stress & anxiety produced by adopting a non-competitive trait.

Conclusion: Friedman & Rosenman (the theory inventors) both wanted to use this theory to compare both personalities to see which one was more effective when it comes to working at towards something. In my view, there is no right or wrong in terms of which personality trait I prefer, as I see them both as equally fascinating as one another. However, I have taken note that the actual purpose of the study of Type A Personality was to find out if people with this trait are at significant risk of having a heart attack.

For anybody interested to see my research source, you know what to do: https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-a.html

Academic VS Practical (My perspective)

This is something I've been curious about for ages now, but recently, I was looking into it more than ever, so I thought about using this post to summarise the differences of how these 2 ways of learning work. (Psychologically, of course!)

In case if anyone here is unaware of the differences of being academic & practical, they have the psychological capacity of showing how oneself can learn. If oneself is academic, that means they learn by doing written examinations. Whereas, if oneself is practical, that means they learn by doing hands-on tasks. 

Luckily for me, I personally am both of those things. This means I'll have an equal say of how being academic & practical works in full effect.

Academic: The first sign of realizing you are academic is having a keen interest in writing. Although, having a keen interest in numeracy can also count as playing a role in showing signs in early academic development as well. The more good you become at doing these subjects, the more your mind becomes actively keen to further investigate the many ways of how you can make a difference to the world, as you utilise your developmental academic skills into perfect form, so it helps you to aim high as the sky in life. I mean, doing a lot of research can certainly encourage people to become academics, as doing research helps you to gain knowledge about anything at all. Or alternatively, if you're more into reading, then that too can count as inhaling knowledge to the world.

Practical: The first sign of realizing you are practical is having a keen interest in doing things with your hands. When I say that, I could be referring to building models out of Lego or trying to fix random objects. Unlike being an academic here, being a practical shows that you are eager to fit into the practical working industry. Relating to being an academic here, you can utilise your developmental practical skills to aim high as the sky in life. I'd say the most beneficial aspect about being practical is having the capacity to finding the best problem solving solutions, when needed.

Can they work well together?

Coming from me, yes they can! Although, it actually really does have a dependency on what carer path you are looking towards. There are some which are lucky enough to require both traits, but there are some which require being good one or the other.

Conclusion: It is honestly not a bad thing to be just academic or practical. Even both combined for that matter, as long as you require one of these aspects which makes you happy to do whatever it is that you do in life, then that's a match made in heaven. In all of what I've discussed, the one thing I had found fascinating was the fact that there are colleges/universities out there with either just academic or practical courses or both combined, so I'm glad that they are taking these learning traits into consideration.

However, please do bare in mind that this is how I tend to vision the 2 learning traits as an individual with its own view on something, so do not be criticisable by saying that I've got no right to judge the 2 without proving that I am right. When doing a perspective view about something, there is no right or wrong answer in any shape of form, as different people have their own right to share their own perspectives about how they vision something.