Your Mindset decides how you cope with adversities, and thus the outcome.
Metaphors
In order to understand how to better promote health related practices for COVID 19 pandemic, four universities from the US conducted a joint psychology experiment in April 2020, where they promoted participants with “war view” (urgent, severe, let’s fight COVID together!) and also “change view” (crisis fosters growth, let’s come up with solutions!) about COVID pandemic, before assessing their subjective well-being and willingness to engage in health behaviors[1].
Results revealed that those being promoted with “change view” showed greater subjective well-being and greater willingness to cooperate with health behaviors.
Mechanism
This “change view” represents a growth mindset[2]. Robust studies revealed that those with greater growth mindset tend to have higher self-efficacy, which consequently contributes to more desired subjective well-being[3].
So, the “war” becomes easier to beat when you don’t see it as a disaster but a chance to grow. In other words, when your growth mindset is turned on, obstacles in life become easier to overcome, challenging goals become more enjoyable to achieve, and your life turns out to be calmer and happier.
Method
Sounds simple and marvelous, right? But where can we find the “growth mindset” button in our minds and how can we switch it on?
One of the suggestions from positive psychology theories is self-leadership, which is the practice of understanding oneself, identifying the desired experiences, and intentionally guiding oneself toward them[1]. A helpful tool to self-leadership would be to build, for yourself, a regular and immediate assessment and analysis system to manage mindset, efficacy and well-being proactively.
With the Mindtemp App you will get regular notices during your day with short, customized assessment to help getting more aware of your mental state and wellbeing. This is then followed by personalized coach chat and recommended actions, to help you create a smoother everyday life and a calmer and happier inner self.
Yang Zhao, M.Sc Psychology
[1] Neuhaus, M. (2021, September 30). Retrieved from positivepsychology.com
[1] Burnette, J. L., Hoyt, C. L., Buttrick, N., & Auster-Gussman, L. A. (2021). Well-being in the time of COVID-19: Do metaphors and mindsets matter? International Journal of Psychology, DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12785.
[2] Landau, M. J., Arndt, J., & Cameron, L. D. (2018). Do metaphors in health messages work? Exploring emotional and cognitive factors. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 135–149.
[3] Burnette, J. L., O’Boyle, E., VanEpps, E. M., Pollack, J. M.,& Finkel, E. J. (2013). Mindsets matter: A meta-analytic review of implicit theories and self-regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 655–701.
