Foreword: We launched Show Me the Science series to answer one recurring question: “Says who?” When asked to accept philosophies or theories, we’re naturally inclined to be cautious. We question things. Sometimes, even when you hear, “Science backs this up …” you don’t find solid references. Show Me the Science is full of real research citations. At Lead On, we don’t want you to wonder about the science behind Resilience and Grit. We’ll show it to you.
Today’s article:
Part 1: Grit definitions.
Part 2: The book that started it – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (unless otherwise presented, citations appear at the end of this article).
Part 3: Launch of our Citations List for Grit – how Lead On is curating relevant citations.
Here we go.
Part 1: Definitions. What is grit and why are we talking about it?
If you grew up in the U.S. South, grits might have been a typical grain you consumed at the breakfast table. One longstanding argument involves whether you eat breakfast grits sweetened (a la hot cereal), or as a savory side dish. The best answer is yes.
As a food, grits are coarsely ground grain – usually corn – simmered in milk or water and flavored with a variety of seasonings. Cooking the grits softens their texture, but they’re still an acquired taste.
Something began about 20 years ago with grits and modern cuisine. Grits were combined for hundreds of years with shrimp and Cajun sauces in Louisiana, and that popularity started invading even the most All-American restaurant menus. Now grits are everywhere, paired with many other foods. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eat up.
Just like the culinary grits coming of age, Grit made its debut in personal resilience a few years ago, and we haven’t been the same since.
“Do you have grit?” “You know, she’s got grit.”
If others perceive you as having grit, they think of you as strong, persevering, and able to handle difficult things better than most.
Angela Duckworth, Ph.D., a MacArthur Fellow and Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, is largely credited with grit’s rise in our awareness. Quoting Crede, Tynan & Harms (citation at end of this article):
Grit was first identified in the psychological literature in two papers by Angela Duckworth (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009) but these papers and the grit construct went largely unnoticed until 2013 when Duckworth recorded a highly regarded and widely viewed TED talk (Duckworth, 2013) and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her work on grit. Part of grit’s appeal was the reported finding that grit was an outstanding predictor of success in a variety of settings, ranging from the West Point Military Academy, work settings, spelling bees, and academic settings. For example, Duckworth (2016) has stated that her findings showed that grit “beats the pants off IQ, SAT scores, physical fitness and a bazillion other measures to help us know in advance which individuals will be successful in some situations.”
Immediately we notice a sharp contrast between resilience and grit: Resilience has been researched, as a construct, for decades, and grit – again, as a construct – has been researched for about 11 years.
Another contrast: There are myriad definitions for resilience, while we see Duckworth’s work as the primary definition for grit.
So, what is grit? Click to Duckworth’s website, and you’ll find her definition:
Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals.
One way to think about grit is to consider what grit isn’t.
Grit isn’t talent. Grit isn’t luck. Grit isn’t how intensely, for the moment, you want something.
Instead, grit is about having what some researchers call an “ultimate concern” – a goal you care about so much that it organizes and gives meaning to almost everything you do. And grit is holding steadfast to that goal. Even when you fall down. Even when you screw up. Even when progress toward that goal is halting or slow.
Talent and luck matter to success. But talent and luck are no guarantee of grit. And in the very long run, I think grit may matter as least as much, if not more.
Is grit a personality trait? When science debates grit, that’s today’s most-asked question.
A 2017 study compared grit with the super-valid Big 5 trait known as Conscientiousness. Findings? The two are very strongly correlated, lending some validity to grit as a trait: “… the correlations suggest that almost all of the meaningful individual differences are shared across the two scales.”
That means when we study assessments measuring Grit and Conscientiousness, we find that Grit measures much of what Conscientiousness measures. Ok. But does Grit add anything meaningful?
The research is still new and sorting itself out. Here’s one conclusion: Grit as a “higher-order” trait (Grit as a summary of passion and perseverance) is less valid than its sub-domains (its two sub-parts). In their 2017 journal article, Crede, Tynan, & Harms concluded that “… the construct validity of grit is in question …” (this is a really big deal) and “… the primary utility of the grit construct may lie in the perseverance facet” (a glimmer of hope).
Why do we present you with this gripping summary of Grit’s standing? At Lead On, we’re linking Resilience and Grit as great concepts/constructs to learn about and build because we find them worthy. Resilience is mature and Grit is still weak on its legs. (It didn’t help that early Grit research contained statistical errors. Oops.) But Grit’s got a huge audience, and we know you’ll be wondering how it shakes out. We’ll follow what happens with Grit and let you know.
One final note: At the 2017 annual conference for the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, there was a lively, vigorous panel discussion about Grit’s standing and research that debunks it as a distinct trait. We expect this topic to continue to be dynamic, energetic, and controversial. Stay tuned.
Part 2: Quick overview of a primary grit resource
Duckworth’s 2016 book – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance – is the foundation for our current understanding of grit. The style is conversational, and Duckworth shares personal stories – particularly regarding her relationship with her father and the influence of that relationship on her research and work.
She also includes full contexts and details of numerous grit studies.
Duckworth’s book is divided into three parts:
Part I discusses what grit is and why it matters. There’s no “here’s what grit is …” One major contribution here is her encouragement to lower our value of IQ, “natural talent,” and luck. While IQ and talent are important, Duckworth advises a grit focus because it has been lacking.
Duckworth includes her 10-question grit self-assessment for the reader to complete and self-score. The results are divided into grit’s two sub-scales: Passion and Perseverance. Within the assessment chapter, she provides examples to more fully define the two sub-scales.
Passion – What it’s not: intense emotion, obsession, fireworks. What it is: commitment to consistency over time. “…passion as a compass – that thing that takes you some time to build, tinker with, and finally get right, and that then guides you on your long and winding road to where, ultimately, you want to be.”
Perseverance – “Quiet determination to stick to a course once decided upon. Tendency not to abandon tasks in the face of obstacles … tenacity, doggedness.” Duckworth discusses categorizing our goals as a way to understand perseverance: low-level, mid-level, top-level goals. Low-level goals are means to ends. For example, leaving home at 7:10am is a low-level goal, and the end is showing respect for others by being on time, showing up. Understanding the meaning of top-level goals gives meaning to the low-level activities – and helps build perseverance to stay the course.
Part II involves building grit internally, within yourself. A four factor model is presented: Interest, Practice, Purpose, and Hope. Within each factor, Duckworth tells story after story to bring the concepts to life and provide practical application. She gives lots of suggestions to develop each of the four factors: questions to ask yourself, helpful actions, and more.
Part III is about building grit from external sources. Here we’ll find additional practical advice: How you help others get grittier, and how others help you get grittier. Duckworth’s parenting model gives insight along two axes: Demanding–Undemanding and Supportive–Unsupportive. A resulting quadrant of parenting emerges: Wise, Authoritarian, Neglectful, and Permissive. Duckworth also discusses other societal forces and cultural influences for building grit.
Duckworth’s book Grit is an easy read for the typical professional. Its casual conversational style, short sections, and massive amount of storytelling make for a quick read. The research is discussed; reader beware, however; see page 4 here to read another researcher’s negative conclusions about Duckworth’s statistical analysis. Worth considering.
Part 3: Launch of our Citations List for Grit – how Lead On is curating relevant citations.
What’s this?
Lead On is launching a Curated Citations list for grit. The list lives on this site and includes relevant research citations deemed helpful for our readers.
You’ll see specific navigation instructions in the near future for where to locate the list on a regular basis. Today’s post is all about getting the list started.
The list includes journal articles, books, links to relevant websites that qualify as evidence-based, and other publications. We’ll link to journal article abstracts when possible; if the entire journal article is open source, we’ll provide that link.
We’ll begin with just a few and add more. Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to provide additional citations.
Note: As grit is often studied within the domain of Positive Psychology, you’ll find references to Positive Psychology within our list where we believe it’s helpful.
Citations List Launch
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York: Scribner.
Angela Duckworth’s website: https://angeladuckworth.com
Mayer, J. D., & Skimmyhorn, W. (2017). Personality attributes that predict cadet performance at West Point. Journal of Research in Personality, 66, 14-26.
Crede, M., Tynan, M., & Harms, P. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3).
Ferrell, B. (2017). Identifying grit in existing and other individual differences taxonomies. Symposium presented at the 2017 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychologists. Hogan Research Division.
Pdf for the above: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/153377/a_Research/Ferrell%20et%20al_SIOP%202017_Grit%20Symposium.pdf
Duckworth, A.L. (2013). The key to success? Grit. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit?language=en#t-9644
Duckworth, A.L., Quinn, P.D., & Seligman, M.E. (2009). Positive predictors of teacher effectiveness. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(6), 540-547.
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101.
Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the short grit scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.
Eskreis-Winkler, L., Duckworth, A. L., Shulman, E. P., & Beal, S. (2014). The grit effect: Predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school and marriage. Frontiers in Psychology, 5.
Selected Scholarly Articles, curated by the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, within Positive Psychology sub-domains – resilience, well-being, optimism, and more: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/learn-more/readings-and-videos/selected-scholarly-articles
Positive Psychology Books: A Living List of Readings and Resources, curated by the Positive Psychology Program (an international organization whose founders are based in The Netherlands), within multiple Positive Psychology sub-domains: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/positive-psychology-books-living-list-readings-resources
This concludes our first Show Me the Science article about grit. Stay tuned for more.
Lead On.
Recent Comments