A Mastery-Oriented (and Masterful) Career: Some Reflections on Carol Dweck's Legacy Article

In this commentary, the author honors the three phases of Carol Dweck's career (attributions and learned helplessness, goal theory, and mindsets) as well as her efforts to make motivation the centerpiece of psychology again. He also notes her theoretical papers that integrate different areas of psychology to break down the rigid boundaries between these areas that so often occur. He points out that although there is elegance in describing different constructs as primarily having two categories (learned helpless vs. mastery oriented; goals to learn vs. goals to outperform others; growth vs. fixed mindsets) that such category systems may oversimplify the nature of people's motivation. He comments on the current controversy regarding the effectiveness of mindset interventions, and concludes by stating that Dweck's impressive career has achieved her goal of putting motivation at the heart of psychology once again.