"Grit" little more than "old wine in new bottles?"

Opty

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Few people are likely to find this interesting but me, but since we've discussed Grit in a few threads here and it has been in the news over the past few years (especially recently) because school districts are misguidedly falling all over themselves trying to incorporate grit into their curricula and selection procedures.

Anyway, some of my research has involved grit and, overall, I've never really been totally sold on it being a distinct or "new" construct or really all that special or uniquely predictive of anything. To me, it's always seemed like a new name for an old thing (conscientiousness/ resilience). Lipstick on a pig, as it were.

It's a problem in the social sciences, in my opinion, that a lot of research is nothing more than a "self-licking ice cream cone" and there's too much poorly substantiated vanity research that catches on because it sounds cool, sexy, or feeds into our quick-fix and wish-fulfillment biases (and just happens to make the researcher who came up with it a lot of money).

Enter "grit," which fits that description quite well, in my opinion, especially given how Duckworth keeps changing her definition of it over the years depending on the criticism it's gotten.

There's about to be a meta-analysis (an analysis of a bunch of prior studies) published that strongly suggests that grit is little more than "old wine in new bottles," barely distinct from already existing aspects of personality and whose impact has been largely exaggerated and misrepresented as more important than it actually is.

Anyway, I thought some of you might be interested so here's an article from NPR that also includes the audio from the "All Things Considered" piece about it:

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016...-duckworth-responds-to-a-new-critique-of-grit


Also an open-access link to the manuscript for the upcoming journal publication:

https://www.academia.edu/25397556/M...eta-Analytic_Synthesis_of_the_Grit_Literature


I think it'll be interesting to see the fallout, if any, that this creates within the education and business sectors, who have been so busy recently gobbling up every nugget of grit they can and adopting it into their systems without ever stopping to ask, "Is this actually a thing?"
 
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Xelebes

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I hadn't noticed the term being used in management classes or such here. I do notice the term is bandied about by sports commentators but that seems to be the origin of the term, at least as a term used to study sports psychology.
 

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It's been a growing area of research in organizational psych over the past few years and several companies have worked to incorporate it into their selection processes. I don't know if that has trickled down to college business programs, though.
 

Chrissy

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What is the (current) definition of grit? From one of the articles within the article, it looks like it's a combination of persistence and focus, at least somewhat fueled by passion. Is that it, or close?
 

Xelebes

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What is the (current) definition of grit? From one of the articles within the article, it looks like it's a combination of persistence and focus, at least somewhat fueled by passion. Is that it, or close?

Grit is supposed to be defined as "the ability to clench ones teeth together when one is enduring pain in order complete the task at hand." Whatever the wandering definition has become, I don't know the latest iteration.
 

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Okay, I had grit once.
 

Opty

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What is the (current) definition of grit? From one of the articles within the article, it looks like it's a combination of persistence and focus, at least somewhat fueled by passion. Is that it, or close?

The definition that they're using in this sense is below, taken from an earlier thread:

"We define grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. The gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina. Whereas disappointment or boredom signals to others that it is time to change trajectory and cut losses, the gritty individual stays the course. " (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007).

It has two facets: 1) perseverance of effort and; 2) consistency of interest. So, overall, grit measures how long you sustain effort toward a long-term goal and how well you maintain interest in that goal. And, the emphasis needs to be made that it describes one's pursuit of a grand "goal" and not performance on a specific "task."
 

ElaineA

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Grit is supposed to be defined as "the ability to clench ones teeth together when one is enduring pain in order complete the task at hand." Whatever the wandering definition has become, I don't know the latest iteration.

Okay, I had grit once.

Me, too. Well twice. During childbirth.

Seriously, though, I hear "grit" all the time now. I feel like it's just repackaged "stick-to-itiveness," given a new name that sounds hip.
 

Chrissy

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But seriously, after reading more about it, grit sounds like what I felt in junior high about ballet. I was obsessed with it. Every spare minute I was practicing, reading, dreaming about ballet. Nevermind that I had started too late, my hip bones had already fused into the "forward" position, and I had a congenital knee disorder that caused my knee caps to slip past my ligaments, which was excruciatingly painful, not to mention that it made me fall a lot. But I was going to be a prima ballerina anyway. This lasted for about 5 years. I was dedicated. Crazy dedicated. My technique was flawless, from the waist up at least. I even graduated to pointe shoes. Then one day I did a tour jete, both knees caps dislodged mid-air, and I landed like that.

Grit is not all it's cracked up to be. Common sense is also a thing.

As far as "developing" grit, I'm very cynical. Alas. The self-help books aren't helping the cynicism.
 
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Chrissy

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Me, too. Well twice. During childbirth.
I suppose pleading for pain killers doesn't qualify.

I did my last one drug free though. Third time's the charm! :greenie

Seriously, though, I hear "grit" all the time now. I feel like it's just repackaged "stick-to-itiveness," given a new name that sounds hip.
Agree, except "grit" reminds me of something that gets stuck in tire tread or an eye.
 

Chrissy

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We have to distinguish between false grit and True Grit.

Also we need to use a gravelley southern accent when referring to true grit. And then spit.
 
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Roxxsmom

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I think it'll be interesting to see the fallout, if any, that this creates within the education and business sectors, who have been so busy recently gobbling up every nugget of grit they can and adopting it into their systems without ever stopping to ask, "Is this actually a thing?"

I've been involved in higher education long enough to see the same old ideas get re-packaged a few times, but I've also seen some major changes in the way we view higher education as a society. Higher education is increasingly regarded (by students, the public and administrators, if not by the instructors themselves) as a product, not a process, for one thing. This arguably encourages a passive mind set in some students.

Student success is a big buzzword at the college where I teach these days, with state funding being given and withheld based on the number of students who finish their degree, certificate or transfer requirements in X amount of time. But the onus, at least at the community college level, is on the instructors. If students are dropping or failing classes in a department, then the teachers in that department must be to blame. We're supposed to have 100% control over student learning outcomes.

However, I don't think the idea that some students are more motivated or persistent for reasons outside the instructor's control is anything new (at least among those of us who are in classrooms). We've all been frustrated by students who display extreme helplessness or passivity when faced with challenges, who refuse to complete assignments, come into office hours or make use of free tutoring, refuse to hunt down resources outside of class, or to study class material on their own time (the fact that fewer students today are willing to put in the requisite 2-3 hours outside for every hour spent in class per week is something most instructors anecdotally identify as an issue). Many of these "passive" students drop or stop attending, and we never know why they gave up on the class. I don't go home with my students at night, so I don't know which ones are failing because they have serious problems in their lives and which ones are floundering because they're afflicted with a passive, "non gritty" personality type.

Still, if this "grit" quality is something researchers are saying we can actually screen for now (whether or not this is really true), then this might be something new. I certainly don't remember being asked to provide anything but transcripts (with GPA) and SAT scores for college admission back in the day. If you had everything going for you and didn't do as well in school as someone of your talents should be, you were "lazy." Laziness was thought to be a learned trait over which one had voluntary control, not an innate and quantifiable personality trait. In an age when students with GPAs of 4.0 and higher are regularly turned away from competitive universities, and fewer students can afford to attend universities without financial aid, I can see why administrators might be slavering to have some other magic "new" variable (besides GPA and test scores) they could use for screening.

I teach at a community college, though, and like the public K-12 system, we accept all comers, so I don't see "grit" being an officially recognized factor there. All administrative efforts to get more money out of the state are focused on shaming or pressuring instructors (particularly in the sciences, because society supposedly "needs" STEM graduates) for having too many students who drop or don't pass our classes. I suspect that attributing student success to an arguably innate trait like "grit," would be politically inconvenient in this setting, since there's nothing they can do about traits that are innate.
 
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