Recently, I was introduced to the work of Positive Psychologist Angela Duckworth, Ph.D., known for her original and regarded research on grit and self-control. Dr. Duckworth is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and she studies competencies (other than general intelligence) that predict academic and professional achievement. Her research centers on “self-control (the ability to regulate emotions, thoughts, and feelings in the service of valued goals) and grit (perseverance and sustained interest in long-term goals).” She says, “I am particularly interested in the subjective experience of exerting self-control and grit – and conscious strategies which facilitate adaptive behavior in the face of temptation, frustration, and distraction.”
The following video is a TedxTalk, “True Grit: Can Perseverance Be Taught?” that Dr. Duckworth presented in 2009.
Thanks for this excellent video on a most complex and critical subject. I think Ms. Duckworth is on the right track in identifying perserverance as the sine qua non to high achievement. Perserverance, talent and passion united in one person makes the difference, but as Ms Duckworth and Charles Darwin say, talent is not as important as the other two ingredients. I think perserverance is a skill that can be learned especially from a teacher that has it whom the student wants to emulate: the example of the master and the apprentice comes to mind. Can that experience be institutionalized? I don’t know but I do know that that effort would certainly be worth trying to accomplish.