Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Carol Dweck · 2006
"People who hold a 'growth mindset' — believing ability can be developed through effort — tend to achieve more and handle setbacks better than those with a 'fixed mindset,' though later large-scale replications found the effect considerably smaller and more context-dependent than the book implies."
Dweck's original research compared students who believed intelligence was fixed against students who believed it was malleable, finding the 'growth mindset' group persisted longer through difficulty, interpreted failure as informative rather than identity-threatening, and often out-performed the fixed-mindset group over time in her controlled studies.
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Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
"Grit — sustained passion and perseverance toward long-term goals — predicts achievement across domains (West Point cadets, spelling bee finalists, teachers, salespeople) independent of, and sometimes better than, raw talent, though Duckworth's own later statements scale back the size of the effect from her original framing."