Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development. Reviewed by Sherri L. Horner, Wendy L. Jordanov & Leslie Coleman, The University of Memphis

Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis April 1999 Pp. 208 $44.95 (Cloth)        ISBN 0-86377-570-5 January 2000 Pp. 212         ISBN 1-84169-024-4 $19.95 (Paper) Reviewed by Sherri L. Horner, Wendy L. Jordanov & Leslie Coleman The University of Memphis April 4, 2000         In Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development, Carol Dweck summarizes and synthesizes almost 30 years of research that she, with numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, has conducted on belief systems and their relationship to motivation and achievement. Her studies often involved over 100 students, with participants ranging from preschool through college.         Although this book is based on experimental research and encompasses much data, Dweck does not elaborate on statistics and methodology. Instead, she explains, in clear and easily understood terms, how ones beliefs about intelligence, goal orientation, and responses to success and failure influence ones motivation. She notes that "people develop beliefs that organize their world and give meaning to their experiences. These beliefs may be called meaning systems, and different people create different meaning systems" (p. xi).         Dwecks explanation of her research is intriguing, insightful, and highly readable. She begins by addressing and refuting several commonly held beliefs about motivation and its relationship to ability, praise, success, and confidence. Using her research as a foundation, she explains each of these components and their effect on peoples motivation, personality, and development. Readers are challenged to examine their own belief systems and how they relate to their personal motivation and the motivation of children and adults in their lives.         According to Dweck, there are two views of intelligence. People with an entity view consider intelligence or ability to be fixed and stable. Students with this view of intelligence may be overly concerned with looking smart. On the other hand, people with an incremental view of intelligence believe intelligence or ability to be malleable and changeable. Students with this view cultivate their intelligence through effort, task involvement, and strategy development. People with an entity view of intelligence tend to develop goals that are based on performing better than others and on avoiding failure. "Entity theorists," as Dweck calls them, are also prone to learned helplessness, in that they may believe that circumstances are beyond their control and give up easily. They may try to simply avoid (through chronic illness, procrastination, absenteeism, etc.) challenging activities. Or, they may also attempt things outrageously difficult so that they have an excuse for failure. Following failure, they may switch to an easier task or stop trying altogether. Because success is often linked to intelligence rather than effort (e.g., I succeeded because Im smart), students think they must continue to be successful to be intelligent and that failure implies a lack of intelligence. Therefore, past or present success does not assure them success in the future. Dwecks research has shown that students with long and continuous histories of success can be the most vulnerable for developing learned helplessness because they may accept the entity view of intelligence more readily than students with spotty histories of success.         People with an incremental view of intelligence tend to develop mastery goals with respect to achievement. "Incremental theorists," as Dweck calls them, are interested in learning and mastering challenges. Following failure, they remain confident that they can succeed by revising their strategies and increasing their efforts. Unlike entity theorists, they believe that effort, through increased learning and strategy development, will actually increase their intelligence.         Following an overview of the self-theories of motivation, Dweck links these meaning systems to motivation on a broader scale by detailing how peoples views of intelligence, goal orientations, and beliefs about success and failure can affect people socially. For example, people with a performance orientation and fixed view of intelligence seem more prone to depression than those with a learning orientation and incremental view of intelligence.         Dweck relates the meaning systems to personality, which also can be viewed as fixed or changeable. If an entity view of personality is held about the self, people "measure and judge themselves quickly, labeling themselves as deficient after a social rejection and curtailing their efforts to form a relationship" (Dweck, 1999, p. 74). If this view is held about others, then people tend to explain others behaviors in terms of global traits, both positive and negative, rather than with situational or specific reasons. Entity theorists tend to judge a person by one particular action. In addition, they judge groups of people in much the same manner; therefore, they tend to have stereotypic views about groups (e.g., gender, ethnic, occupational groups).         If an incremental view of personality is held about the self, then people believe they can change their own behaviors, attitudes, and emotions, thereby changing their personality. If they are socially rejected, they attribute it to a misunderstanding or lack of effort. Therefore, they continue to be motivated to make friends and interact socially. Incremental theorists tend to give others, both as individuals and as members of groups, the benefit of the doubt and assume that they could change under the correct circumstances.         Next, Dweck describes how these meaning systems develop and how parents and educators can foster adaptive (mastery), rather than maladaptive (learned helpless), motivational patterns. Based on her vast amount of research, Dweck suggests that parents and teachers encourage all children "to value learning over the appearance of smartness, to relish challenge and effort, and to use errors as routes to mastery" (Dweck, 1999, p. 4). Dweck stresses the importance of praising effort rather than praising intelligence or ability. When parents and teachers praise effort and strategic behaviors, children may develop learning goals and a mastery orientation. On the other hand, when parents and teachers praise intelligence and ability, children may develop performance goals that may lead to a learned-helpless orientation. Unfortunately, changing ones styles and patterns of praise can be difficult. For many years, teachers and parents have been encouraged to not only praise children for virtually anything and everything but have been admonished not to criticize children for fear of ruining their self-esteem. Dweck, however, is adamant that constructive criticism, if linked to effort and strategy use, is actually better for childrens self-esteem than praising their intelligence or ability.         Finally, Dweck links her meaning system approach to other theories of motivation. She briefly explains how self-theories compare to trait theories, motive theories, biological theories of personality, Freudian theory, growth-oriented personality theories, social-cognitive theories, attribution theory, learned helplessness and learned optimism, and goal theories of personality. She also has included several Likert-type scales for both adults and children that assess their views on various constructs.         Dwecks strongest argument is for the relationship between peoples meaning systems and their motivation to achieve. Because the bulk of her research investigated educational issues, her contentions about achievement motivation are extensively supported. Her arguments in the areas of personality, morality, and stereotyping are not well grounded in empirical research. Although there are some research to support her contentions in these areas, her claims seem too broad at this time point.         Throughout the book, Dweck offers suggestions for teachers and parents on how to increase childrens adaptive belief systems. She also includes warnings about the wrong type of praise and decries the over-emphasis on self-esteem. Although these suggestions and warnings are helpful and thought provoking, she seems to be too prescriptive and forceful.         On one hand, a major strength of this book is that it is written in easily understood language, without heavy use of jargon. Although Dweck outlines many research projects, she purposely does not dwell on the statistical or methodological aspects of these studies. This is an appealing aspect for undergraduate and graduate students who are not yet familiar with motivation issues and research. On the other hand, this also becomes a weakness. Knowledgeable graduate students and researchers may find the laypersons terminology and lack of research detail unsatisfying. However, Dweck includes a substantial reference section so readers can easily search out the original articles to appease their desire for more details.         According to the publishers, the intended readers for this book are researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students (http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/PSYPRESS/BKFILES/0863775705.htm). In our opinion, this is a good textbook for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates, in that it introduces them to motivational constructs and issues. For researchers and advanced graduate students, this book could serve as a springboard into more technical and research-laden articles on motivational issues. Reference Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development [on-line]. Available: http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/PSYPRESS/BKFILES/0863775705.htm. (March 24, 2000) About the Reviewers Sherri L. Horner Sherri L. Horner is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at The University of Memphis. Her research interests include the development of motivation, self-regulation, and self-efficacy, especially within literacy contexts. Wendy L. Jordanov Wendy L. Jordanov is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Psychology at The University of Memphis. Her research interests include motivation, technology usage, and learning styles of college students. Leslie Coleman Leslie Coleman recently graduated with a Masters degree in Educational Psychology and Research from the University of Memphis. Her research interests include the enrollment and retention of African Americans in colleges and universities.