Broadhurst & Hine
Psychology of Sport
INTRODUCTION
Dweck’s self-theory of mindsets suggests that people either have an entity or an incremental mindset. Entity refers to those people who believe they are born with a certain amount of ability and this cannot be improved, they think that their skills will come naturally. Fixed mindset people need to ‘look good’ at all costs and try to avoid situations where they might fail, they try to hide their weaknesses and will always retreat to their comfort zone when recovering from failure.
Incrementalists are the complete opposite. They look to improve from failure and believe that ability can be improved with effort. Incrementalists enjoy opportunities where their abilities are tested and will look to learn from their experiences.
Considering the case study ‘You can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear’, two college roommates are analysed at the start of a fitness program. Ned starts a gym program but due to his fixed mindset is struggling to find any improvement. His roommate Joe takes up athletics and due to his incremental mindset, he finds improvement within a few months and looks to compete in the inter-university games which baffles Ned.
Case Study 1.
You can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.
Ned and Joe are college students, and they have been roommates for several years. They are at university and performed well before entering university, earning mostly A’s or B’s. As part of a fitness course, they were faced with a difficult series of problems, in particular, they realised that age was no longer on their sides and they needed to start a fitness program.
Ned felt that he needed to become stronger and bigger. So, he chose the gym—which has long tested his tenacity and optimism. Being lanky by nature, big gains in size and strength had usually eluded Ned, no matter how hard he worked out. He stuck to the same routine each day, never considering that devoting more time and thought to changing it might be beneficial.
At the end of three months, Ned had little to show for his workouts. He still had relatively small muscle mass and his cardiovascular fitness was better but showed no great improvements.
When questioned by Joe about his lack of progress, Ned responded that he felt that despite his previous attempts at weight training, he said “…you are either born with the ability or not and that no matter how hard you try you could not make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear!” Meanwhile, Joe decides that he will try a new activity, athletics, even though he has never participated in athletics before and has little skill. Joe is no great runner, being a little small and lacking any form. Yet, he attends all sessions and by the end of three months has improved his running speed, built some muscle, and is attending his first athletics meeting where is running in the 100 and 200 metre races. Ned, was astonished when Joe told him about his progress, even more so when Joe indicated that he was running in the inter-university games.
“Are you crazy?” he asked Joe, “…what happens if you come last!”