Carol S. Dweck

Carol S. Dweck – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes


Carol S. Dweck is a pioneering American psychologist known for her groundbreaking work on mindset, motivation, and personal growth. Explore her biography, research contributions, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Carol Susan Dweck (born October 17, 1946) is an American psychologist and educator whose research on mindsets has deeply influenced education, business, parenting, sports psychology, and personal development. Her central insight—that how we think about our abilities (fixed vs. growth) profoundly affects learning, resilience, and achievement—has become part of mainstream discourse on success.

Her work bridged developmental, social, and personality psychology, making her one of the most cited and applied psychologists in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Dweck’s ideas continue to shape how educators teach, how companies manage talent, and how individuals approach challenges and setbacks.

Early Life and Education

Carol Dweck was born in New York City to a family where her father worked in the export-import business and her mother in advertising.

In elementary school in Brooklyn, she recalls a system where children were seated by IQ and given special duties like carrying the flag or erasing the blackboard—roles linked to perceived intelligence.

She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Barnard College in 1967. Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University, completing it in 1972. The Role of Expectations and Attributions in the Alleviation of Learned Helplessness in a Problem-Solving Situation.

Career and Contributions

Academic Positions & Growth

After obtaining her Ph.D., Dweck joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, rising through the ranks. Harvard’s Laboratory of Human Development, then later returned to Illinois. Columbia University.

In 2004, Dweck joined Stanford University as the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology (with courtesy appointment in Education).

Her research spans developmental psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology, with a focus on how people conceptualize intelligence, effort, failure, and potential.

Mindset Theory & Key Ideas

Dweck is best known for the implicit theories of intelligence framework, which she later popularized under the terms “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset.”

  • Fixed Mindset: the belief that intelligence, talent, or ability is innate, static, and unchangeable.

  • Growth Mindset: the belief that intelligence and ability can be developed through effort, strategies, learning, and persistence.

She argued that people with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, persist through setbacks, learn from criticism, and see effort as a path to mastery. In contrast, those with a fixed mindset often avoid challenges, give up easily, feel threatened by others’ success, and see effort as fruitless if they believe ability is fixed.

One influential paper is Dweck & Leggett (1988), “A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality,” which laid the foundation for linking implicit self-theories to motivation, coping, and achievement. Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition.

Over time, Dweck refined her perspective, noting that growth mindset is not just about effort — smart effort, good strategies, feedback, reflection, and learning are also critical.

She has also recently worked on expanding mindset theory into a more unified approach to motivation, goals, and development.

Impact, Applications & Awards

Dweck’s mindset theory has been applied in education (schools, teacher training, youth programs), business training and leadership, sports psychology, coaching, and personal development programs.

In recognition of her contributions:

  • Dweck was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2002.

  • She received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award in 2011.

  • She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.

  • In 2013 she became a James McKeen Cattell Fellow of APS.

  • In 2017, Dweck was a recipient of the inaugural Yidan Prize for Education Research, awarded for her influence and to support future educational work, with a total prize value of about US$3.9 million.

  • She has also received APS Mentor Award (2019) and APS William James Fellow (2020).

Legacy and Influence

Carol Dweck’s legacy is substantial:

  • Her mindset framework has become a widely used lens for understanding learning, motivation, and personal growth.

  • Many educational systems incorporate growth mindset interventions and teacher training to foster resilience and lifelong learning.

  • Her work has influenced coaching, organizational development, and self-help literature.

  • She has shaped public discourse about failure, intelligence, praise, and the possibilities for change.

  • Even as critiques arise (e.g. about replicability or over-simplification), her ideas remain a touchstone in discussions about talent versus effort.

Famous Quotes of Carol S. Dweck

Here are some notable quotes by Carol Dweck:

  • “Becoming is better than being.”

  • “In a fixed mindset, students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. … In a growth mindset, students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good strategies, and input from others.”

  • “The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”

  • “Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?”

  • “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.”

These encapsulate her belief in learning, flexibility, effort, and the continuous journey of development.

Lessons from Carol Dweck

From Dweck’s work and life, several lessons stand out:

  1. Mindsets shape outcomes
    How you interpret challenges and setbacks can either limit you or empower you.

  2. Effort must be smart
    Growth doesn’t come from sheer effort alone; direction, strategy, and reflection matter.

  3. Praising wisely
    Praising effort, strategies, perseverance is more constructive than praising intrinsic talent or intelligence.

  4. Failure is information
    Rather than a verdict on ability, failures can be feedback to adjust, learn, and grow.

  5. Continuous growth
    We are not fixed. The “becoming” is as important as the “being.”

  6. Translate research into practice
    Dweck shows that psychological theory can inform real educational, organizational, and personal change.

Conclusion

Carol S. Dweck stands as one of the most influential psychologists of our time. Her theory of mindsets transformed how we understand learning, resilience, and personal development. By showing that beliefs about ability matter as much as ability itself, she opened paths for educators, coaches, organizations, and individuals to rethink how they approach challenges and change.

Articles by the author

In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you're not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn't need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.

Carol S. Dweck

Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.

Carol S. Dweck

When we praise children for their intelligence, we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart; don't risk making mistakes.

Carol S. Dweck

This knowledge that you might have to really reorganize and redefine yourself and build new skills is really important.

Carol S. Dweck

Most experts and great leaders agree that leaders are made, not born, and that they are made through their own drive for learning and self-improvement.

Carol S. Dweck

Praise your child explicitly for how capable they are of learning rather than telling them how smart they are.

Carol S. Dweck

Maybe you don't know how to do something at work. Instead of asking the boss or seeking someone as a mentor, you might not want to show them your ignorance. So, you're depriving yourself of this learning and mentorship. All of these ways are ways that a fixed mindset will hold you back.

Carol S. Dweck

We say women have made great strides: in biology, in many areas of chemistry, in many places, women are now the majority of medical students. But when I began my career, that wasn't the case. There were very strong stereotypes in biology and medicine.

Carol S. Dweck

Do you think it is possible to increase your intellectual ability? For decades, I have studied the power of this belief to become reality and watched as the concept of maintaining a 'growth mindset' has taken root in education and parenting circles.

Carol S. Dweck

People often confuse a growth mindset with being flexible or open-minded or with having a positive outlook - qualities they believe they've simply always had. My colleagues and I call this a false growth mindset.

Carol S. Dweck

You try something, it doesn't work, and maybe people even criticize you. In a fixed mindset, you say, 'I tried this, it's over.' In a growth mindset, you look for what you've learned.

Carol S. Dweck