Grit (46 page)

“experience I’ve ever had”
:
Michael Baime, clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Penn Program for Mindfulness, in an interview with the author, January 21, 2015.

having fun at the same time
:
The next year, we doubled in size and, to better support our students, developed an after-school enrichment program. The following year, the program won the Better Government Award for the state of Massachusetts. Around the same time, professors at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government wrote up the story of Summerbridge Cambridge as a case study in social entrepreneurship.

hundreds of students every year
:
For more information on Breakthrough Greater Boston, see
www.breakthroughgreaterboston.org
.

“you can have both”
:
Adam Grant, Class of 1965 Wharton Professor of Management, in an interview with the author, July 15, 2015.

prosocial interests in mind do better
:
Adam Grant,
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
(New York: Penguin, 2014).

interest in the work itself
:
Adam Grant, “Does Intrinsic Motivation Fuel the Prosocial Fire? Motivational Synergy in Predicting Persistence, Performance, and Productivity,”
Journal of Applied Psychology
93 (2008): 48–58.

raised more money
:
Ibid.

about a hundred adolescents
:
David S. Yeager and Matthew J. Bundick, “The Role of Purposeful Work Goals in Promoting Meaning in Life and in Schoolwork During Adolescence,”
Journal of Adolescent Research
24 (2009): 423–52. Relatedly, it’s been shown that affirming values can boost performance for other reasons, particularly by maintaining a sense of personal adequacy. Geoffrey L. Cohen and David K. Sherman, “The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention,”
Annual Review of Psychology
65 (2014): 333–71.

“didn’t give in to obstacles”
:
Aurora and Franco Fonte, wife and husband founders and directors of Assetlink, in an interview with the author, March 13, 2015.

“something you’re interested in”
:
Bill Damon, professor of psychology at Stanford Graduate School of Education, in an interview with the author, July 20, 2015.

personal loss or adversity
:
For example, detectives who have themselves been the victim of a crime are grittier and, in turn, more engaged in their work. See Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Elizabeth P. Shulman, and Angela L. Duckworth, “Survivor Mission: Do Those Who Survive Have a Drive to Thrive at Work?”
Journal of Positive Psychology
9 (2014): 209–18.

“became family to her”
:
Kat Cole, president of Cinnabon, in an interview with the author, February 1, 2015.

exceeded one billion dollars
:
Charlotte Alter, “How to Run a Billion Dollar Brand Before You’re 35,”
Time
, December 2, 2014.

“My passion is to help people”
:
Jo Barsh, in an interview with the author, July 31, 2015.

“like they are that person”
:
Kat Cole, “See What’s Possible, and Help Others Do the Same,” from Kat Cole’s blog,
The Difference
, August 7, 2013,
http://www.katcole.net/2013/08/see-whats-possible-and-help-others-do.html
.

“be a better place?”
:
David S. Yeager et al., “Boring but Important: A Self-Transcendent Purpose for Learning Fosters Academic Self-Regulation,”
Attitudes and Social Cognition
107 (2014): 559–80.

calls this idea
job crafting
:
Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane E. Dutton, “Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work,”
Academy of Management Review
26 (2001): 179–201. See also
www.jobcrafting.org
and Grant,
Give and Take
, 262–63. This section also reflects personal correspondence between the author and Amy Wrzesniewski, professor of organizational behavior at Yale School of Management, October 20, 2015.

“be a better person”
:
Interested readers can find a more complete list of questions that Bill Damon uses in his book,
The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life
(New York: Free Press, 2008), 183–86.

CHAPTER 9: HOPE

getting up again
:
For a more expansive discussion of how hope can be conceptualized, see Kevin L. Rand, Allison D. Martin, and Amanda M. Shea, “Hope, but Not Optimism, Predicts Academic Performance of Law Students Beyond Previous Academic Achievement,”
Journal of Research in Personality
45 (2011): 683–86. Also see Shane J. Lopez,
Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others
(New York: Atria Books, 2013).

major
in—neurobiology:
At Harvard until 2006, you actually declared your “concentration” (which is Harvard’s terminology for “major”), in the spring of your freshman year and at the same time mapped out every class you intended to take. My official concentration was the neurobiology track within biology, since neurobiology as a separate concentration was not created until years later.

the punishments to stop
:
Steven F. Maier and Martin E. Seligman, “Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence,”
Journal of Experimental Psychology
105 (1976): 3–46. The seminal studies on learned helplessness actually had a triadic design, meaning that there was a third condition: dogs who received no shock at all. In general, these dogs behaved similarly to those who were subjected to stress
with
control. Some of the material in this chapter is from an interview between Seligman and the author, July 20, 2015. See also Martin E. P. Seligman,
Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
(New York: Pocket Books, 1990).

practical antidotes for depression
:
For more information on Aaron Beck, see
www.beckinstitute.org
.

distinguish optimists from pessimists
:
Christopher Peterson et al., “The Attributional Style Questionnaire,”
Cognitive Therapy and Research
6 (1982): 287–300. See also Lyn Y. Abramson, Gerald I. Metalsky, and Lauren B. Alloy, “Hopelessness Depression: A Theory-Based Subtype of Depression,”
Psychological Review
96 (1989): 358–72.

suffer from depression and anxiety
:
Peter Schulman, Camilo Castellon, and Martin E. P. Seligman, “Assessing Explanatory Style: The Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations and the Attributional Style Questionnaire,”
Behavioural Research and Therapy
27 (1989): 505–9.

drop out of school
:
Leslie P. Kamen and Martin E. P. Seligman, “Explanatory Style Predicts College Grade Point Average” (unpublished manuscript, 1985). Christopher Peterson and Lisa C. Barrett, “Explanatory Style and Academic Performance Among University Freshman,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
53 (1987): 603–7.

stay healthier
:
Toshihiko Maruto, Robert C. Colligan, Michael Malinchoc, and Kenneth P. Offord, “Optimists vs. Pessimists: Survival Rate Among Medical Patients Over a 30-Year Period,”
Mayo Clinic Proceedings
75 (2000): 140–43. Christopher Peterson, Martin E. P. Seligman, “Pessimistic Explanatory Style Is a Risk Factor for Physical Illness: A Thirty-Five-Year Longitudinal Study,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
55 (1988): 23–27.

satisfied with their marriages
:
Karen J. Horneffer and Frank D. Fincham, “Construct of Attributional Style in Depression and Marital Distress,”
Journal of Family Psychology
9 (1995): 186–95. See also, Horneffer and Fincham, “Attributional Models of Depression and Distress,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
22 (1996): 678–89.

sell about 25 percent more insurance
:
On optimism and sales, see Martin E. P. Seligman and Peter Schulman, “Explanatory Style as a Predictor of Productivity and Quitting Among Life Insurance Sales Agents,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
50 (1986): 832–38. Shulman, “Explanatory Style.” See also Peter Schulman, “Applying Learned Optimism to Increase Sales Productivity,”
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
19 (1999): 31–37.

swim in his or her best event
:
Martin E. P. Seligman, “Explanatory Style as a Mechanism of Disappointing Athletic Performance,”
Psychological Science
1 (1990): 143–46.

“I will just carry on”
:
Lacey, interview.

could be the target of therapy
:
Aaron T. Beck, A. John Rush, Brian F. Shaw, and Gary Emery,
Cognitive Therapy of Depression
(New York: Guilford Press, 1979). Also note that, in the same era, Albert Ellis developed a similar approach. So Beck and Ellis are jointly recognized as pioneers in what is now commonly referred to as cognitive behavioral therapy.

longer-lasting in its effects
:
Robert J. DeRubeis et al., “Cognitive Therapy vs Medications in the Treatment of Moderate to Severe Depression,”
Archives of General Psychiatry
62 (2005): 409–16. Steven D. Hollon et al., “Prevention of Relapse Following Cognitive Therapy vs Medications in Moderate to Severe Depression,”
Archives of General Psychiatry
62 (2005): 417–22. Some patients struggle with the aspect of CBT that involves trying to talk themselves out of their negative self-talk. These patients say things like: “In my head, I know it’s not fair to call myself a loser. I’m labeling myself, I’m engaging in all-or-nothing thinking. But in my heart, part of me still feels like a loser—like I’ll never be good enough.” A new form of CBT, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), addresses these concerns. In ACT, the goal is simply to notice any negative self-talk and accept that it exists, while not letting it control your actions.

“Relentless pursuit”
:
Information on Teach For America’s mission and history can be found at
www.teachforamerica.org
.

optimistic teachers were grittier
:
Claire Robertson-Kraft and Angela L. Duckworth, “True Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-term Goals Predicts Effectiveness and Retention Among Novice Teachers,”
Teachers College Record (1970)
116 (2014): 1–24.

one of Carol’s first studies
:
Carol S. Dweck, “The Role of Expectations and Attributions in the Alleviation of Learned Helplessness,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
31 (1975): 674–85.

assess a person’s theory of intelligence
:
This measure was developed by Carol Dweck, Sheri Levy, Valanne MacGyvers, C.Y. Chiu, and Ying-yi Hong. For interested readers, I highly recommend Carol Dweck,
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
(New York: Ballantine Books, 2008).