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Category : PipLife

HomeArchive by Category "PipLife" (Page 4)
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Reframing stress as a challenge not a threat

by The Pipon 1 December 2016in PipCorporate, PipLife

You’re working on a project when you hit a bump. It is a problem for which there isn’t an obvious solution and it’s going to set you back at least a few hours, maybe more. How do you react?

  1. Throw in the towel and storm off in a bad mood?
  2. Put your head in your hands and feel utterly defeated?
  3. Take a deep breath, a step back, and try to figure out a solution?

 

Your first reaction is likely to be one or two but the important question is whether you can then move onto three.

 

Normal, everyday stress is unavoidable. In fact, with no stress in our lives we would likely be under-stimulated and maybe a little bored. There are other times when stress increases to a point at which you start to feel overwhelmed. While we may not be able to control the stressor, we can try to control how we respond to it.

 

Normal stress can either be viewed as a threat or a challenge. If you view a task as a threat your heart rate and blood pressure will rise, you may feel out of control and have an urge to run away. If you see a task as a challenge instead your heart rate will still rise but your blood pressure will not, you will feel more in control and will likely take more practical steps to find a solution [1]. A simple difference in reframing stress can make a big difference in how it affects you.

 

For example, researchers gave golf players instructions on how to complete a putting task. They gave half instructions in which the task was framed as a threat and half in which it was framed as a challenge. Those who received the challenge instructions not only landed more puts but also made more efficient muscle movements while completing them [2]. What about non-sports related tasks? Another researcher made people do a set of horrible tasks including making a speech in front of a group, singing karaoke and doing maths problems.

 

The only difference in participants was whether they had been told to say ‘I am anxious’ or ‘I am excited’ before the tasks. Those who said ‘I am excited’ were better able to do the tasks, felt more confident and viewed them as opportunities not threats. This latter group had reframed the stressful task in front of them and reinterpreted the physical symptoms they were feeling as excitement not anxiety. After all, a pounding heart and butterflies in the stomach are signs of both stress and excitement. The only difference is how you interpret them.

 

So next time you hit a problem go ahead and throw things, storm out, slam doors and/or have a little cry but don’t let that be your final response. Try to take a break, go back with a fresh head and see this bump as a challenge not a threat.

 

 

  1. Blascovich, J., et al., Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2004. 40(5): p. 683-688.
  2. Moore, L.J., et al., The effect of challenge and threat states on performance: An examination of potential mechanisms. Psychophysiology, 2012. 49(10): p. 1417-1425.
  3. Brooks, A.W., Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2014. 143(3): p. 1144.

 

 

 

 

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How resilience can help decision making abilities

by The Pipon 22 November 2016in Corporate Wellness, PipCorporate, PipLife

Have you ever felt so stressed out by work that making the smallest decisions, such as what to eat for dinner, seems like too big of a chore to deal with? Many people find decision-making difficult but under stress it becomes even more so.

 

Stress is known to affect our decision-making abilities. Research has shown that when people are under stress they are more likely to make a premature decision before considering all of the options [1]. The reason for this may lie in cognitive and physiological responses to stress. For example, the pre-frontal cortex is a part of the brain that is important for regulating and controlling our behaviour. Activity in this part is reduced under stress meaning it probably is not working as well as it should [2]. What can we do to stop stress affecting our cognitive abilities? The answer may lie in resilience.

 

Resilience is the ability to adapt and to cope with adverse events. For example, college students who are naturally more resilient are less likely to face decision-making difficulties about their future careers [3]. Similarly, workers in a call centre – who normally face high levels of burnout – are less likely to suffer from the effects of stress if they are resilient. Specifically, these workers see stress as a challenge rather than a threat and thus feel more in control when handling difficult situations [4].

 

Seeing stress as a challenge rather than a threat is a key way of building resilience. When stress is seen as a threat heart rate increases and blood vessels constrict so that blood pressure rises thus affecting decision-making and performance [5].When stress is seen as a challenge, however, heart rate increases but the body also releases adrenaline. This relaxes blood vessels allowing more blood to flow to the brain and muscles in anticipation of the challenge ahead. One study found that just manipulating the wording on instructions for golf players so that half felt challenged and half felt threated changed their performance [6].

 

Those who felt threatened landed fewer putts and had less effective muscle activity when swinging the club compared to those who felt challenged. There are many ways to build resilience but one way is to try to see stress as a challenge not a threat. Take a step back and break the problem down into steps with the first step being a goal that you know you can complete. After doing this tell yourself that this is a challenge and try to make yourself excited about getting to the bottom of it. If you can reduce your stress in this way it will likely have the added benefit of helping the decision-making abilities that you need to conquer the challenge ahead.

 

1. Janis, I.L. and L. Mann, Decision making: A psychological analysis of conflict, choice, and commitment. 1977: Free Press.

2. Starcke, K. and M. Brand, Decision making under stress: a selective review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2012. 36(4): p. 1228-1248.

3. Shin, Y.J. and K.R. Kelly, Resilience and Decision‐Making Strategies as Predictors of Career Decision Difficulties. The Career Development Quarterly, 2015. 63(4): p. 291-305.

4. Harry, N., Constructing a psychological coping profile in the call centre environment: Wellness-related dispositions in relation to resiliency-related behavioural capacities. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2015. 41(1): p. 01-11.

5. Blascovich, J., et al., Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2004. 40(5): p. 683-688.

6. Moore, L.J., et al., The effect of challenge and threat states on performance: An examination of potential mechanisms. Psychophysiology, 2012. 49(10): p. 1417-1425.

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What stress does to your immune system

by The Pipon 17 November 2016in PipLife

Have you ever suffered through a particularly stressful period in work or family life only to find that, as soon as you are able to relax, you have succumbed to every cold and flu virus going? This is probably because your body’s stress system and immune system are integrally linked.

 

When you are stressed your brain kicks off a process that readies your body to flee or to fight. As part of this the body stops all unnecessary systems like digestion and boosts anything that might come in useful like the immune system. Short-term stress (lasting for a few hours) can therefore protect the body from infection by giving extra resources to the immune system [1].

 

Remaining permanently in flight or fight mode, however, is not sustainable. We need to be able to digest and to relax when we are safe. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is thought to tell the body to produce more immune defences in times of stress and also to tell the body it can stop when you are relaxed. So what happens when you experience chronic stress? This seems to mess up the body’s ability to regulate the immune system. Cortisol doesn’t know when to turn the immune system off so it remains in a constant state of low-level readiness [1]. As with everything in life you can have too much of a good thing and a constantly primed immune system is just as unhealthy as an unprepared one leading to conditions such as dermatitis, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune diseases. In addition, the immune system becomes less able to fight normal infections.

 

Some studies have shown this in real-world settings. In relation to short-term stress, for example, researchers showed that medical students had lower levels of protective immune cells 24 hours after exams compared to during exams [2]. In relation to chronic stress, another study compared parents of chronically ill children with those of healthy children. The stressed parents of the sick children had a constantly turned on immune system that they couldn’t turn off [3].

 

Finally, the term Leisure Sickness has been used to describe the phenomenon whereby people fall ill on their holidays. This is something that 3% of the population report experiencing [4]. It is possible that stress may project your immune system until you go on holiday. However this is still a theory that has to be tested. It is also possible that when you are stress you do not notice the symptoms of ill health until you have less demands on you.

 

In short, stress can affect your immune system for better and for worse. The key, as with everything in life, is to keep a good balance so you can stay fighting fit.

 

 

  1. Dhabhar, F.S., Effects of stress on immune function: the good, the bad, and the beautiful. Immunologic research, 2014. 58(2-3): p. 193-210.
  2. Uchakin, P.N., et al., Immune responsiveness following academic stress in first-year medical students. Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, 2001. 21(9): p. 687-694.
  3. Miller, G.E., S. Cohen, and A.K. Ritchey, Chronic psychological stress and the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines: a glucocorticoid-resistance model. Health Psychology, 2002. 21(6): p. 531.
  4. Vingerhoets, A.J., M. Van Huijgevoort, and G.L. Van Heck, Leisure sickness: A pilot study on its prevalence, phenomenology, and background. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2002. 71(6): p. 311-317.

 

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The Benefits of Biofeedback for Children

by The Pipon 11 November 2016in PipLife

Emotions are complicated. How do you know that you’re feeling excited and not nervous, for example? Or how do you distinguish anger from fear? The answer is experience. As adults we have experience of a broad range of emotions; we understand how to distinguish them from each other and how to describe them to ourselves and to others. For a child this can be more difficult. If a child hasn’t experienced anxiety before how can we expect them to recognise the complex interaction of psychological and physical symptoms that make up this emotion? On top of that, even if they can recognise the symptoms they may not know how to describe them. For this reason, children often experience and report emotions as physical experiences. A child who is feeling anxious, stressed or tense for example, may report a pain in their tummy, headache or limbs because this is the most accurate way they can describe what they are feeling.

 

How can biofeedback help? Biofeedback is, very simply, a way to get feedback on the biological processes in your body (see link to blog on biofeedback here). When we are stressed our bodies kick off a complex chain of events that results in many of the symptoms that you recognise as stress – a pounding heart, sweaty palms and tense muscles – as well as many hidden symptoms that you won’t necessarily feel or notice. Biosensors, like the Pip and many others, measure these symptoms of stress and, more importantly, teach you how to control them. For children this is particularly useful because biofeedback gives a child a way to see, on a screen, what is happening in their body. It therefore gives them the ability to recognise the emotion and the language to describe what they are feeling. Even more importantly, if you can teach a child to control symptoms of stress using biofeedback you give them the power to change how they are feeling. This sense of control is hugely important in helping children, and indeed people of all ages, to combat difficult emotions.

 

An added advantage of biofeedback for children is that it can easily be integrated into games that make learning fun. This is something that is becoming increasingly popular with technological advances to biosensors and mobile technology that allow biofeedback to become a part of daily life. To date, biofeedback has been used to help children deal with low mood, anxiety and chronic pain [1-4]. A recent study using the Pip in a school setting found that both teachers and children reported improvements in children’s ability to manage stress after using the Pip for four weeks [5].

 

 

  1. Palermo, T.M., et al., Randomized controlled trials of psychological therapies for management of chronic pain in children and adolescents: an updated meta-analytic review. PAIN®, 2010. 148(3): p. 387-397.
  2. Yahav, R. and M. Cohen, Evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for adolescents. International Journal of Stress Management, 2008. 15(2): p. 173.
  3. Wenck, L.S., P.W. Leu, and R.C. D’Amato, Evaluating the efficacy of a biofeedback intervention to reduce children’s anxiety. Journal of clinical psychology, 1996. 52(4): p. 469-473.
  4. Knox, M., et al., Game-based biofeedback for paediatric anxiety and depression. Mental health in family medicine, 2011. 8(3): p. 195.
  5. Nall, C., and Fish, M., Stress Suspension: A Biofeedback Stress Management Intervention for At-­Risk Youth. Poster presented to the Engagement and Scholarship Consortium Meeting 2016. Nebraska, 11-12th
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How can biofeedback aid mindfulness practice?

by The Pipon 4 November 2016in PipLife

The aims of biofeedback and mindfulness are, to a certain extent, overlapping. Both aim to make you more aware of your body, your mind and how the two interact. In today’s post we write about how the techniques and effects of biofeedback and mindfulness overlap and how you can use them in combination.

 

Techniques. Mindful meditation can be hard if you’re not used to it. Our brains just aren’t used to or very good at maintaining attention on something that isn’t a work deadline, a chore or an upcoming event. For this reason, mindfulness meditation practitioners and researchers use techniques to give your mind something to pay attention to while meditating. Some of these techniques involve body scanning – becoming gradually aware of your body and all of the sensations it is experiencing – and breathing methods that allow you to focus your awareness on your breaths. These techniques are well established means of improving meditation as well as relaxing the body and the mind. These same techniques can be used when practising biofeedback. Biofeedback also aims to give you an awareness of your body and mind. When you use techniques such as the body scan or breathing methods while using a biofeedback tool you can not only see how your body is responding before you use these techniques but how it responds both during and after. It therefore gives you a window into your body’s reaction to stress and relaxation allowing you to tailor your practice to what works best for you.

 

Effects. So are mindfulness meditation and biofeedback useful? The research seems to say yes. When used in the right way both techniques seem to have powerful effects on reducing stress. In fact, recent studies have started to compare the two to see if there is any difference between them. Most studies are still in the early stages but the most recent randomised controlled trial found that both mindfulness and biofeedback were equally effective at reducing stress, improving self-compassion and reducing worrying [1].

 

Combination. So how can you combine biofeedback and mindfulness? If you are already experienced at mindfulness meditation techniques you can try to apply these to a biofeedback tool and see how your body responds. Someone who is more experienced is likely to be able to sink into a state of relaxation, and see this reflected by the sensor, more quickly than someone who is still learning. Whether experienced or not you can use a tool like The Pip and accompanying app, Clarity, that provides guided meditation techniques that you can then apply to biofeedback sessions.

 

As we always say at Pip stress can be both good or bad, what differs is how you respond to it. Giving yourself a way to relax and take time out when you need it is a powerful means of helping your mind and body survive and thrive in this busy world.

 

  1. De Bruin, E. I., et al. (2016). “A RCT comparing daily mindfulness meditations, biofeedback exercises, and daily physical exercise on attention control, executive functioning, mindful awareness, self-compassion, and worrying in stressed young adults.” Mindfulness 7(5): 1182-1192.
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3 simple ways to focus your mind

by The Pipon 25 October 2016in PipLife, PipUse

We all have days when it’s hard to focus. Days when mundane tasks seem like too much of a chore to get started and when big tasks seem to difficult to tackle. Being unable to focus can be stressful.

 

Here we list three techniques that may help kickstart your focus:

 

1. Write a list – sometimes our inability to focus is not due to the task at hand but to the hundreds of other tasks on our to-do list that run on a loop at the back of our minds. If you find you have so much to do that you can’t focus on anything try writing a list. It sounds simple but your brain can be overworked by thoughts of tasks that haven’t yet been done. Much like an overworked hard drive the brain will constantly spin around half focused on the task at hand and half thinking stressfully about what it has to do next. Even worse, this constant background activity will affect the brain’s ability to carry out current tasks because it takes up too many resources leaving us drained and stressed. We can, however, trick the brain into stopping. A recent study found that just writing down when and how you are going to do the next task can help to stop the stressful fretting over unfinished tasks and help your brain focus on what it needs to do in the current moment [1].

 

2. Break it down – when a task ahead of you seems insurmountable try breaking it down. Our brains aren’t very good at sustained attention for extended periods of time so instead of settling in, and failing, to focus for a solid 6 hours help your brain to work by only asking it to focus for 25 minutes at a time. Set a timer on your phone for 25 minutes and don’t do anything but the task at hand for those 25 minutes. Don’t check your emails, don’t get up to make a cup of tea and don’t answer the text message that has just come in. Focus for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. After four 25 minute chunks of focus take a longer break of 15-20 minutes. This is called the Pomodoro Technique [2].

 

3. Use the Pip – if you feel stressed you may find it hard to focus. Try using the Pip for a few minutes to de-stress, relax and focus your mind before you start to work. You can even combine the Pip with your 25 minute focus times, why not use the Pip in your five minute breaks to really give your brain a break.

 

1. Masicampo, E. and R.F. Baumeister, Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011. 101(4): p. 667.

2. Cirillo, F., The Pomodoro Technique. 2013: FC Garage.

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When is stress the bad guy and how does it become the hero? – The Stress Test

by The Pipon 7 October 2016in PipLife

Stress has a bad reputation. Most of the time it is seen as a health-destroying, confidence-busting exhausting ordeal best avoided at all costs. But this isn’t entirely fair. Stress can also make us stronger, smarter and better able to face the challenges that life throws at us. So when is stress the bad guy and how does it become the hero? This is the subject of The Stress Test, a book outlining the good and bad of stress by Professor Ian Robertson, psychologist at Trinity College Dublin and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Galvanic, creators of the Pip [1].

 

Like many things in life there is a happy medium, or a ‘Goldilocks’ zone of stress. Too much stress or too little is bad for us but just the right amount can push us into our own personal ‘sweet spot’ at which we perform at our optimal level.

stressblob

 

Stress is personal. What you find stressful may not be what your friend finds stressful and vice versa. The same applies to the ‘sweet spot’, everyone’s level is different. What seems to be the key difference in good stress and bad stress is how you frame it. Professor Robertson shows that people who have coped with adversity in the past tend to be more resilient to stress in the future. Learning that you can cope with and survive something, and developing the tools to do so, leaves you better able to face challenges in the future. ‘Challenge’ is also a key word when it comes to framing stress. Professor Robertson cites a number of studies that illustrate how we interpret a stressful event can determine whether it will help or harm us.

 

For example, one research team recruited people to make a speech before an audience. They told half the group to quell their anxiety and to ignore their sweaty palms and shaking muscles by telling themselves ‘I am calm’. The other half of the group were told to reframe the physical sensations they were feeling and tell themselves ‘I am excited.’ This second group were rated as being more persuasive, competent and confident than the first group [2]. This is because they reframed a stressful event as a challenge rather than a threat which pushed them back down the stress curve to their personal stress ‘sweet spot.’

 

Stress is unavoidable but you can harness the power of it to help you achieve what you want. The key to this is finding the sweet spot. Some challenge is good pushing you from ‘too low’ stress to ‘just right’. Too much anxiety, however, can push you to the other ‘too high’ side of the curve. Learning when to reframe stress as a challenge to get you through the task ahead and, equally importantly, when to take a step back to refocus, calm down and recharge the batteries are important tools in learning how to take control of stress rather than letting it take control of you.

  1. Ian Robertson (2016) The Stress Test. Bloomsbury (London: UK).
  2. Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144.
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How to Reduce the Effects of Stress on Decision-Making

by The Pipon 30 September 2016in PipCorporate, PipLife

In our last instalment we discussed the effect of stress on decision making abilities (link here). We have also previously written about the positive effects of resilience when it comes to reducing stress and making good decisions (link here). This week we talk about some other important factors to consider to improve decision-making.

 

Breaks. Decision fatigue is the phenomenon whereby the more decisions you make the harder it is to make more and the more likely you are to just give up [1]. In a now famous study researchers compared how often judges granted parole before and after lunch. They found that judges were more likely to grant parole after lunch and other breaks than at other times of the day [2]. We don’t know whether granting parole was the right or wrong decision but it is concerning that something as important as that was affected by something as simple as taking a break. Decision fatigue results in depletions to self-control whereby people are more likely to give up on a task early. If an important decision has to be made make sure you and your team take breaks so that fatigue doesn’t drive the outcome.

 

Understanding your body. Soldiers and naval officers face some of the most stressful work conditions out there. If they don’t make the right decision in a high pressure situation their own or someone else’s life could be on the line. A lot of research therefore has gone into finding out how to reduce mistakes in decision making. One intervention found that giving personnel information about the challenges they would face and, importantly, about how their body would react in a stressful situation allowed them to make more accurate decisions [3]. Understanding how your body responds to stress and understanding how you can settle yourself or counteract it are important tools in making sure emotional stress doesn’t dictate the decisions you make.

 

Being mindful. We’ve all heard that mindfulness can help us refocus, destress and be more positive but did you know it can help decision-making as well? Researchers found that people who practised mindfulness-based stress reduction were more likely to make ethical decisions when faced with problems than those who were not [4]. In addition, another set of researchers found that individuals who think more mindfully are less likely to cheat when presented with an opportunity to do so [5].

 

Stress isn’t always bad, in fact it can sometimes help sharpen your mental functions when faced with a difficult decision. However recognising that when stress is overwhelming it can negatively affect the decisions you and your employees make, and knowing how to counteract that, is a useful weapon to make sure bad decision-making doesn’t have lasting effects on your workplace.

 

  1. Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., Twenge, J. M., Nelson, N. M., & Tice, D. M. (2014). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.
  2. Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892.
  3. Inzana, C. M., Driskell, J. E., Salas, E., & Johnston, J. H. (1996). Effects of preparatory information on enhancing performance under stress. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 429.
  4. Shapiro, S. L., Jazaieri, H., & Goldin, P. R. (2012). Mindfulness-based stress reduction effects on moral reasoning and decision making. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(6), 504-515.
  5. Ruedy, N. E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2010). In the moment: The effect of mindfulness on ethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(1), 73-87.
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How Stress May be Affecting Your Team’s Decision-Making Abilities

by The Pipon 23 September 2016in PipLife

We all know that stress can have negative effects on mental and physical health but another important question that we need to ask is how does stress affect performance and decision making abilities in the workplace? This is something that many employers find themselves worrying about when their employees are stressed.

 

Like many things in life there is a fine balance between when stress is good and when stress is bad. There is a lot of research showing that stress affects people’s abilities to make decisions but whether this provides an advantage or disadvantage depends on the task at hand. For example, when a stressful task is seen as a challenge rather than a threat it can enhance the cognitive abilities that people need to make a good decision [1]. Often, however, work pressure can be such that stress starts to impair people’s abilities to make good decisions. When people are stressed they are more likely to make hasty decisions without considering all of the possibilities [2].

 

Secondly, when people are stressed they are more likely to succumb to what is called the ‘reflection effect’. This is the tendency to make conservative decisions when there is a chance of gaining something and risky decisions when there is a chance of losing something [1]. Thirdly, the more decisions that people have to make the more likely they are to suffer from what is called ‘decision fatigue’ or the inability to make any further decisions due to a depleted amount of self-control. For example, researchers found that people who are faced with multiple decisions, no matter how inconsequential, were more likely to give up on tasks early than those who had not previously had to make multiple decisions [3]. Add stress to the mix and you may find employees who end up making hasty, risky, fatigued decisions. Not something that you want to encourage in the workplace.

 

So what can be done to improve decision-making under stress in the workplace? We have already written about the benefits of building resilience to aid decision making (see link here). In our next installment we will discuss other methods that may reduce stress and improve decision making in your workplace.

 

  1. Starcke, K. and M. Brand, Decision making under stress: a selective review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2012. 36(4): p. 1228-1248.
  2. Keinan, G. (1987). Decision making under stress: Scanning of alternatives under controllable and uncontrollable threats. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52(3), 639.
  3. Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., Twenge, J. M., Nelson, N. M., & Tice, D. M. (2014). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.
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The Fixed vs Growth Mindset: Help your Child Succeed in School

by The Pipon 16 September 2016in PipLife, PipSchools

‘You’re so smart’, ‘you’re a natural’ and ‘you’re the top of your class’ are phrases we often say to children when they do well. But this kind of praise, if repeated often enough, can be harmful.
Carol Dweck, a psychologist in the United States, has spent years studying what she calls ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets. A fixed mindset is the belief that abilities and social traits are fixed and permanent (e.g. the belief that you are smart or not smart and that this can’t change). A growth mindset is believing that abilities and social traits can be changed and built upon. Dweck and her colleagues followed children over 2 years and found that those with a growth mindset improved in school while those with a fixed mindset stayed the same or even declined [1].

 

One reason for this is that children with a fixed mindset believe they have no control over how they do. If a child thinks that they are not smart they won’t have the confidence or motivation to try and, every time they do badly as a result, their belief that they are not smart will be reinforced. Similarly, if a child thinks that they are smart just because they are they won’t have the ability to cope with a situation in which they do not do well because they won’t be able to explain why.

 

The growth vs fixed mindset is even important in social situations. If a child thinks that social traits are permanent and unchanging they are more vulnerable to social challenges such as exclusion and bullying. Children who believe that social traits change over time and situation build up greater resilience and ability to cope with these types of challenges [2].

 

The good news is that growth mindsets can be taught. As the new school year kicks off try to foster a growth rather than a fixed mindset in your child. Use phrases such as ‘wow, you worked really hard and look how it paid off’ or, when they don’t do as well as they wanted to say ‘every time you learn something new your brain gets smarter, let’s figure out what you can do to improve’. Avoid telling children that they are good or bad at something and instead help them to see failures as challenges and important learning experiences. This will not only help them improve in school but give them an important set of resilience tools to cope with life challenges in future.

 

1. Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child development, 78(1), 246-263.

2. Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314.

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