Angela Duckworth

Last updated
Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth, 2017 (cropped).jpg
Duckworth in 2017
Born1970 (age 5354)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Harvard University (BA)
University of Oxford (MSc)
University of Pennsylvania (MA, PhD)
Spouse
Jason Duckworth
(m. 1998)
Children2
Awards MacArthur Fellowship
Marshall Scholarship
Scientific career
Fields Psychology

Angela Lee Duckworth (born 1970) is an American academic, psychologist, and popular science author. She is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studies grit and self-control. She is the founder and former CEO of Character Lab, a not-for-profit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development.

Contents

Life

Duckworth was born in 1970 to Chinese immigrants. [1] Her father Ying Kao Lee (1933-2020) was a chemist with DuPont and invented Lucite dispersion lacquer. [2] She grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey [3] and graduated from Cherry Hill High School East. [4]

Duckworth earned a B.A. in Neurobiology at Harvard College in 1992. [5] She graduated from the University of Oxford in 1996 with an M.Sc. in neuroscience on a Marshall Scholarship, and from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with a Ph.D. in psychology. [6] [7] She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013. [7]

After obtaining a master's degree, Duckworth was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She quit about a year later to become a math teacher at Lowell High School (San Francisco). [8]

Duckworth's first book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, was released in May 2016. [9] It stayed on TheNew York Times bestseller list for 21 weeks. [10] A review of the book in The New York Times called Duckworth "the psychologist who has made 'grit' the reigning buzzword in education-policy circles." [11]

Duckworth was the co-host of the podcast No Stupid Questions on the Freakonomics Radio network for its 223-episode run from 2020 to 2024. [12] [13]

Grit

Duckworth is best known for her research on grit, a strength she defines as passion and perseverance for long-term goals. [1] [14] [15] She developed the Grit Scale, a measure of this construct. [15] [16]

Duckworth has found grit to be a common factor among the high-achievers she has studied. [15] Her work suggests that grit is unrelated to IQ but closely related to conscientiousness. [14] [15] Grit has been studied across the lifespan, but Duckworth focuses primarily on how building grit can help adolescents. [9] This falls under the umbrella of character education and the movement to expand school instruction beyond solely cognitive factors.

Since the introduction of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, there has been a growing call for effective ways to measure character strengths. [17] However, Duckworth herself has encouraged caution when applying and, especially, testing character in classrooms. [18] One reason is that existing measures were designed for scientific purposes, and so as yet there are no reliable ways to measure grit in high-stakes situations, like college admissions or job applications. [19]

Some claim that focusing on grit would lead to the neglect of other important factors, like the positive socio-economic prerequisites necessary to deploy it. [20] Duckworth has acknowledged the importance of environmental factors, saying that it's not that one matters more than the other but rather that they both matter: "The question is not whether we should concern ourselves with grit or structural barriers to achievement. In the most profound sense, both are important, and more than that, they are intertwined." [21]

Grit has had its share of critics. A 2017 meta-analysis found that "grit is only moderately correlated with performance and retention," and that it had not been adequately distinguished from several previously studied constructs, including conscientiousness, persistence, and industriousness. [22] In a 2021 article, Duckworth acknowledged that she had misinterpreted the psychometric properties of her Grit Scale. [23]

Related Research Articles

Emotional intelligence (EI), also known as emotional quotient (EQ), is the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. High emotional intelligence includes emotional recognition of emotions of the self and others, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discerning between and labeling of different feelings, and adjusting emotions to adapt to environments.

Positive psychology is a field of psychological theory and research of optimal human functioning of people, groups, and institutions. It studies "positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions... it aims to improve quality of life."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Histrionic personality disorder</span> Personality disorder involving excessive emotionality and attention-seeking

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking behaviors, usually beginning in early adulthood, including inappropriate seduction and an excessive desire for approval. People diagnosed with the disorder are said to be lively, dramatic, vivacious, enthusiastic, extroverted and flirtatious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personality test</span> Method of assessing human personality constructs

A personality test is a method of assessing human personality constructs. Most personality assessment instruments are in fact introspective self-report questionnaire measures or reports from life records (L-data) such as rating scales. Attempts to construct actual performance tests of personality have been very limited even though Raymond Cattell with his colleague Frank Warburton compiled a list of over 2000 separate objective tests that could be used in constructing objective personality tests. One exception, however, was the Objective-Analytic Test Battery, a performance test designed to quantitatively measure 10 factor-analytically discerned personality trait dimensions. A major problem with both L-data and Q-data methods is that because of item transparency, rating scales, and self-report questionnaires are highly susceptible to motivational and response distortion ranging from lack of adequate self-insight to downright dissimulation depending on the reason/motivation for the assessment being undertaken.

Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being responsible, careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly. They tend to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; they display planned rather than spontaneous behavior; and they are generally dependable. Conscientiousness manifests in characteristic behaviors such as being neat, systematic, careful, thorough, and deliberate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunning–Kruger effect</span> Cognitive bias about ones own skill

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. It was first described by David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999. Some researchers also include the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills. In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence instead of specific overconfidence of people unskilled at a particular task.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen J. Dubner</span> American author, journalist, and podcast host

Stephen Joseph Dubner is an American author, journalist, and podcast and radio host. He is co-author of the popular Freakonomics book series: Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Think Like a Freak and When to Rob a Bank. He is the host of Freakonomics Radio.

Character education is an umbrella term loosely used to describe the teaching of children and adults in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant or socially acceptable beings. Concepts that now and in the past have fallen under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning and cognitive development, life skills education, health education, violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation. Many of these are now considered failed programs, i.e. "religious education", "moral development", "values clarification".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agreeableness</span> Personality trait

Agreeableness is a personality trait referring to individuals that are perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm, honest, and considerate. In personality psychology, agreeableness is one of the five major dimensions of personality structure, reflecting individual differences in cooperation and social harmony.

Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, in combination with traits of boldness, disinhibition, and egocentrism. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity to stress, which create an outward appearance of feigned normalcy.

Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior repeatedly, to help learn and eventually master a skill. The word derives from the Greek "πρακτική" (praktike), feminine of "πρακτικός" (praktikos), "fit for or concerned with action, practical", and that from the verb "πράσσω" (prasso), "to achieve, bring about, effect, accomplish".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Dweck</span> American psychologist (born 1946)

Carol Susan Dweck is an American psychologist. She holds the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professorship of Psychology at Stanford University. Dweck is known for her work on motivation and mindset. She was on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Harvard, and Columbia before joining the Stanford University faculty in 2004. She was named an Association for Psychological Science (APS) James McKeen Cattell Fellow in 2013, an APS Mentor Awardee in 2019, and an APS William James Fellow in 2020, and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2012.

In psychology, grit is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on a person's perseverance of effort combined with their passion for a particular long-term goal or end state. This perseverance of effort helps people overcome obstacles or challenges to accomplishment and drives people to achieve.

Mental toughness is a measure of individual psychological resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education, and in the workplace. The concept emerged in the context of sports training and sports psychology, as one of a set of attributes that allow a person to become a better athlete and able to cope with difficult training and difficult competitive situations and emerge without losing confidence. The term has been used by coaches, sport psychologists, sports commentators, and business leaders.

Persistence(PS) is a key personality trait identified by psychiatrist C. Robert Cloninger in his Psychobiological Model of Personality. It describes an individual's propensity to remain motivated, resilient and goal-driven in the face of challenges and difficulties they may encounter whilst carrying out tasks and working towards goals. More precisely, persistence refers to “perseverance in spite of fatigue or frustration”. According to Cloninger, this perseverance demonstrates a psychological determination that is foundational in aiding an individual's long-term success in achieving goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Kaplan Thaler</span> American advertiser and author

Linda Kaplan Thaler is an American advertiser and author. She is currently the CEO & President of Kaplan Thaler Productions. As an advertiser she helped create advertising campaigns that are well known in American culture including the Aflac duck and the “Yes, Yes, Yes” campaign for Clairol Herbal Essence. She has authored and composed jingles, including “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys "R" Us Kid,” and “Kodak Moments". She is a motivational speaker at businesses and colleges.

<i>Freakonomics Radio</i> American public radio program

Freakonomics Radio is an American public radio program and podcast network which discusses socioeconomic issues for a general audience. While the network, as of 2023, includes five programs, the primary podcast is also named Freakonomics and is a spin-off of the 2005 book Freakonomics. Journalist Stephen Dubner hosts the show, with economist Steven Levitt as a regular guest, both of whom co-wrote the book of the same name. The show is primarily distributed as a podcast, and is among the most popular on iTunes.

Academic buoyancy is a type of resilience relating specifically to academic attainment. It is defined as 'the ability of students to successfully deal with academic setbacks and challenges that are ‘typical of the ordinary course of school life '. It is, therefore, related to traditional definitions of resilience but allows a narrower focus in order to target interventions more precisely. The academic buoyancy model was first proposed by psychologists Andrew Martin and Herbert W. Marsh, following the identification of significant differences between classic resilience and the day-to-day setbacks experienced by students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enclothed cognition</span> A phenomenon affecting the human cognition

Enclothed cognition has been described as the overall influence that clothing has on the wearer's psychological processes. The term was coined by Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky who exhibited the effects of clothing in a 2012 experiment that used white lab coats. They hypothesised that worn attire affects the wearer’s psychological processes due to the activation of abstract concepts through its symbolic meaning.

The influence of childhood trauma on the development of psychopathy in adulthood remains an active research question. According to Hervey M. Cleckley, a psychopathic person is someone who is able to imitate a normal functioning person, while masking or concealing their lack of internal personality structure. This results in an internal disorder with recurrent deliberate and detrimental conduct. Despite presenting themselves as serious, bright, and charming, psychopathic people are unable to experience true emotions. Robert Hare's two factor model and Christopher Patrick's triarchic model have both been developed to better understand psychopathy; however, whether the root cause is primarily environmental or primarily genetic is still in question.

References

  1. 1 2 Denby, David (2016-06-21). "The Limits of "Grit"". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X. Archived from the original on 2023-09-25. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  2. "Ying Kao Lee, DuPont inventor of lacquer that kept cars shiny, dies at 87". 15 April 2020.
  3. Hartnett, Kevin (2012). "Character's content" (PDF). The Pennsylvania Gazette. May–June: 58–63. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  4. Del Giudice, Marguerite. "Grit Trumps Talent and IQ: A Story Every Parent (and Educator) Should Read; Angela Duckworth and her team devise strategies to help students learn how to work hard and adapt in the face of temptation, distraction, and defeat.", National Geographic , October 14, 2014. Accessed February 12, 2020. "Angie's favorite teacher at Cherry Hill High School East was Matthew Carr, who taught English and has just retired after 40 years."
  5. "Psychology Professor Angela Duckworth to Give Penn's 2017 Baccalaureate Address". Penn Today. 13 April 2017. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  6. "Angela Duckworth". University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychology. Archived from the original on 2018-10-19. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
  7. 1 2 "Angela Duckworth". MacArthur Foundation. 2013-09-25. Archived from the original on 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2013-11-07. Age: 43
  8. Duckworth, Angela (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner.
  9. 1 2 Cocozza, Paula (2016-05-07). "Is grit the true secret of success?". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  10. "Paperback Nonfiction Books - Best Sellers - Feb. 3, 2019 - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  11. Shulevitz, Judith (May 4, 2016). "'Grit,' by Angela Duckworth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 25, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  12. "No Stupid Questions". Freakonomics. Archived from the original on 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  13. "The best job interview question, according to Angela Duckworth of "Grit" fame". Quartz at Work. 21 August 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  14. 1 2 Engber, Daniel (2016-05-08). "Is "Grit" Really the Key to Success?". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Duckworth, Angela L.; Peterson, Christopher; Matthews, Michael D.; Kelly, Dennis R. (2007). "Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 92 (6): 1087–1101. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087. ISSN   1939-1315. PMID   17547490. S2CID   11159170.
  16. Duckworth, Angela Lee; Quinn, Patrick D. (2009-02-17). "Development and Validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit–S)". Journal of Personality Assessment. 91 (2): 166–174. doi:10.1080/00223890802634290. ISSN   0022-3891. PMID   19205937. S2CID   15232924.
  17. "ESSA Law Broadens Definition of School Success". Education Week. Archived from the original on 2020-12-06. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  18. Duckworth, Angela (2016-03-26). "Opinion | Don't Grade Schools on Grit". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-09-28. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  19. Duckworth & Yeager (2015). "Measurement matters: Assessing personal qualities other than cognitive ability for educational purposes" (PDF). Educational Researcher. 44 (4): 237–251. doi:10.3102/0013189x15584327. PMC   4849415 . PMID   27134288.
  20. Rose, Mike (May 14, 2015). "Why teaching kids to have 'grit' isn't always a good thing". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 1, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  21. "Angela Duckworth". Angela Duckworth. Archived from the original on 2023-10-06. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  22. Credé, M.; Tynan, M.C.; Harms, P.D. (September 2017). "Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 113 (3): 492–511. doi:10.1037/pspp0000102. PMID   27845531. S2CID   24361685.
  23. Duckworth, A.L.; Quinn, P.D.; Tsukayama, E. (July 2021). "Revisiting the Factor Structure of Grit: A Commentary on Duckworth and Quinn (2009)". Journal of Personality Assessment. 103 (5): 573–575. doi:10.1080/00223891.2021.1942022. PMID   34254861. S2CID   235808561.