Please list some skills, domains, activities, etc. in your life that you tend to apply Dweck's entity theory.
- Writing, english, singing,
Please list some skills, domains, activities, etc. in your life that you tend to apply Dweck's incremental theory.
- Sports, Math, Sewing, Skiing, Cooking, Motorcycling, Work, Fitness, Piano
Please discuss how your past and present occupational choices may be influenced either direclty or indirectly by either the incremental or entity theories?
- The occupations that I enjoy participating in and continue to participate in are ones where I have an incremental theory outlook on the particular activity. If I feel like I am in control of my experience and can influence the outcome through hard work and effort, I enjoy these activities more. The occupations where I have an entity theory view I don't like the activity and dread paticipating in such activity. I think the reason I enjoy the activities that I have more of an incremental theory view towards is because in Csikszentmihaly & Nakamura's article "The Concept of Flow" they talked about how the quality of a person's experience is influenced by the subjective challenges and subjective skills rather than the objective ones. This ties into the incremental vs. entity theory because in an incremental theory the individual is measuring subjective skills such as learning goals rather than performance goals which can be measured objectively.
- Another way that my occupational choices are influenced by the entity theory is if I feel like I don't have a particular skill in an activity such as soccer I choose not to participate and instead just say that "soccer isn't my sport." Which really is just a cop out excuse, I do realize that if I wanted to be better at soccer I could be through practice, but since that is something that I am not motivated to do at this point it is easier for me to have an entity theory view and just simply avoid the occupation by saying that I'm not good at it.
Describe the relationship between the self theories and your ability to particpate in and develop increased performance in your new occupation?
- With regards to my new occupation the incremental theory applies well, being that I started out as a beginner and know that through practice and time I can be better and learn more songs and skills on the ukulele. Although sometimes I am finding a hinderence in my "incremental theory" outlook on playing the ukulele, because I find myself in the relaxation section of the concept of flow chart and being content at staying in that category. Which if I continue to stay in the relaxation phase of flow I will block the amount of progression and subjective skills and challenges I could have if I would push myself to a state of flow.
Hello Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI like your connection of flow to the self-theories. I definitely find that I experience the same feeling toward occupations.
Do you feel that your incremental theory occupations tend to bring you a sense of spirituality? Does spirituality also play a role in the tendency for things to fall under the incremental theory for you, rather than the entity theory?
Also, you stated that you can see ukulele becoming an occupation you might be able to find flow in. Does the spirituality of music and playing the ukulele also carry a sense of spirituality for you?
I'm excited to hear that the ukulele is becoming more enjoyable! Musical instruments are awesome and so relaxing. Also, I never knew you played piano. Super cool! Thanks for sharing, Hannah!
Laura, you came up with some awesome questions!
ReplyDeleteIn Hasselkus the metaphor about the inside and outside rooms was given as a way to think about spirtuality, the inside room is where the spirit of life resides, where passion and significance take shape, where we are able to get in touch with the dynamic, patterned process. So going off from this metaphor I think that incremental theory occupations tend to bring a sense of spirituality more than entity theory occupations because of the passion or the meaning that I have associated with these occupations. So I would also say that spirituality does play a role in certain occupations falling in the incremental theory rather than the entity theory based on the meaning I associate with the activity.
As far as the ukulele, there are moments when creating music brings a sense of connectiveness where I am able to express the inner creative self. But other times, I am practicing merely out of class assigment and not as a source of spirituality.