804194

research-article2018
PPSXXX10.1177/1745691618804194DuckworthHelping Children Thrive

ASSOCIATION FOR
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Perspectives on Psychological Science

Using Psychological Science to Help 2019, Vol. 14(1) 34­–36

© The Author(s) 2019
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Children Thrive sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1745691618804194
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618804194
www.psychologicalscience.org/PPS

Angela L. Duckworth
Character Lab, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

Near the turn of the 20th century, the President and Discovering Psychological Science
Fellows of Harvard University asked their most
renowned psychologist to speak to classroom teachers And, so I began my career over again. At age 32, I
in the neighboring community (Griffin, 1899). Over the entered doctoral training in psychology at the Univer-
next several years, William James held forth on topics sity of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Marty
of particular relevance to child development: motiva- Seligman. My goal was to learn how to use psychologi-
tion, attention, curiosity, self-control, what we remem- cal science to help children thrive. My first studies
ber and what we forget, how to forge good habits and sought to unpack self-control in adolescence, discern-
how to break bad ones, and more. ing its relationships with IQ and academic performance
James (1899) aspired to translate theories and find- (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005). In parallel, I explored
ings from psychology into language that nonpsycholo- grit, a related but distinct character strength with special
gists could understand. “I have found by experience relevance to challenging, identity-relevant accomplish-
that what my hearers seem least to relish is analytic ments (Duckworth & Gross, 2014; Duckworth, Peterson,
technicality,” James observed. “And what they most care Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Later, in collaboration with
for is concrete practical application. So I have gradually Nobel laureate economist Jim Heckman, I reviewed the
weeded out the former, and left the latter unreduced” collective impact of character and personality on a
(p. iii). James later published these lectures in the range of life outcomes in and beyond the classroom
Atlantic Monthly and, finally, as a book of essays enti- (Borghans, Duckworth, Heckman, & ter Weel, 2008).
tled Talks to Teachers on Psychology. For a while, progress was heartening. My experience
I stumbled on these essays in graduate school. In a as a teacher proved an advantage in establishing
sense, the discovery came too late. I had already left research programs in schools. Like James, I found
the classroom where, as a middle and high school math opportunities to deliver talks to teachers, not to men-
teacher, I’d many times failed to cultivate the motivation tion guidance counselors, parents, and Little League
and acuity that lay fallow in my students. When a stu- coaches. I gave a TED talk and wrote a book.
dent showed up in the morning without his homework, But about a decade into this journey, I began to
my reflex was to exhort rather than to empathize: “If wonder whether more—much more—was possible.
you’d just use some self-control,” I would intone—to Imagine: What if it were as easy to carry out applied
no avail. When students made mistakes and gave up in research with school-age children as it is to collect data
frustration, my most artful teaching move was to urge from adults in online panels such as Amazon’s Mechani-
them to keep trying. This never worked. And when I cal Turk? What if information about the development
was the one who was frustrated, I am sorry to say I of character were not delivered in one-way monologues
raised my voice and lost my cool. from psychologists to teachers? What if, instead, psy-
Like James, I had an intuition that “psychology ought chologists and educators were engaged in ongoing dia-
certainly to give the teacher radical help” (1899, p. 5). logue on topics of mutual interest? How might best
I sensed that the perspective of psychological science practices in user-centered design elevate both the
might powerfully complement personal experience, research and practice of character development?
providing what James called a “stereoscopic view”
(p. 11) of the developing child. In particular, I felt that
teachers like me needed more psychologically wise
Corresponding Author:
mind-sets and strategies to encourage—in ourselves Angela L. Duckworth, Character Lab, 3401 Market St., Second Floor,
and in our students—empathy, resilience, intrinsic inter- Philadelphia, PA 19104
est in learning, and more. E-mail: [email protected]
Helping Children Thrive 35

Creating Character Lab cohosted by the Relay Graduate School of Education.

Attending teachers participated in hands-on workshops
And so it was that in 2012 I teamed up with two vision- codeveloped by leading psychological scientists and
ary educators named Dominic Randolph and Dave veteran educators: Gabriele Oettingen introduced
Levin. Together, we created Character Lab, a nonprofit teachers to optimal goal setting and planning (Oettingen,
organization dedicated to helping children thrive using 2014); Anders Ericsson explained the tenets of deliberate
psychological science. Character Lab pursues three spe- practice (Ericsson, 2017) and how it can accelerate learn-
cific initiatives. First, we make it easier for scientists to ing; and Chris Hulleman showed teachers how to spark
carry out applied research with school-age children. curiosity in the classroom by inviting students to draw
Second, we conduct our own interdisciplinary research, connections between their academic work and their per-
partnering with teachers, athletic coaches, artists, and sonal, interests, values, and relationships (Hulleman,
other outside-the-academic-box thinkers to create inter- Kosovich, Barron, & Daniel, 2017). The classroom
ventions that build character strengths. Third, we trans- resources featured in these workshops—available free
late insights from research into actionable advice for of charge at http://www.characterlab.org—recently won
teachers and parents. the Core77 Design Award for Design Education.
Character Lab is a motley crew. Our research scien- This fall, we are piloting secondary school curricula
tists, including postdoctoral fellows and graduate stu- codeveloped by our collaborators Ethan Kross, John
dents, work side by side with designers and product Jonides, and Dan Willingham as well as two dozen mid-
managers. Many of us are former classroom teachers. dle and high school teachers. Together, we have spent
We attend technology, design, and education confer- the past year translating the science of self-control and
ences as often as we present at scientific meetings. Our the science of learning into 15 lessons each, complete
video calls are not just with professors at universities with in-class activities, discussion guides, and try-it-your-
around the world; they are with educators across all self homework activities. The central hypothesis we will
grade levels. Our advisors include not only scientists be testing is whether metacognitive understanding of
but also leaders in technology, business, education, phi- self-control and learning processes leads to improve-
lanthropy, and design. And, in contrast to the warren of ments in these two domains. Adhering to best practices
small offices characteristic of most traditional university in design thinking, our team has iteratively prototyped
buildings, our open floor plan plus communal meeting and improved these curricula in schools across the coun-
spaces encourage collaboration and conversation. try. Next year, we will conduct a full-scale randomized
In many ways, Character Lab is just getting started, controlled trial with hundreds of teachers and thousands
but early milestones are cause for optimism. In January of students through the Character Lab Research
2018, the Character Lab Research Network randomly Network.
assigned more than 14,000 high school students to com-
plete one of a dozen different online activities designed
by researchers and educators to increase academic Lessons Learned
motivation and effort. For example, one activity took
inspiration from earlier research on giving advice, as As the steward of Character Lab’s mission, I have
opposed to receiving it (Eskreis-Winkler, Fishbach, & made innumerable mistakes. Running an independent
Duckworth, 2018), and asked students to share their nonprofit organization, I have wrestled with chal-
“best school tips, tricks, and strategies.” Another took lenges I had not encountered running a conventional
inspiration from behavioral therapy (Lejuez, Hopko, & scientific lab. Team building turns out to be more
Hopko, 2001) and provided a structure for students to complex when your team is not only large but also
take small steps toward achieving academic goals. The interdisciplinary. Building a culture of trust and clarity
predicted effect of each activity was preregistered, with is as important as analytic thinking—and in many ways
sufficient statistical power to detect small but meaning- a lot harder. Fundraising, too, is an entirely new ball
ful effects on academic performance. When we receive game with its own steep learning curve: Our support-
report card grades from these schools later this year, ers are as likely to be individual philanthropists as
we will know whether any of the activities were suc- foundations or government agencies, and engaging
cessful. Regardless, we consider the precedent-setting their interest is very different from writing an R01
scale, interdisciplinary collaboration, and applied focus grant proposal.
of this research a step in the right direction. Years before I cofounded Character Lab, when I was
In July 2018, we welcomed more than 500 partici- a first-year assistant professor with serious doubts about
pants to our fourth annual Educator Summit, an event one day clearing the bar for tenure, I assumed I was
36 Duckworth

about as professionally stressed out as I would ever be. Declaration of Conflicting Interests
I was wrong. I now wake up just as often in the middle The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest
of the night, these days thinking through one unresolved with respect to the authorship or the publication of this
organizational problem or another. Even in the absence article.
of crises, I wring my hands about our strategic priorities
and our long-term financial sustainability. I fill notebook Funding
after notebook with sketches of organization charts and This article was made possible by National Institute on Aging
3-year timelines. My dentist says I am grinding my teeth. Grant R24-AG048081-01, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Linda
Perhaps the greatest struggle has been balancing the Vester and Glenn H. Greenberg Foundation, the Overdeck Fam-
demands of Character Lab with my personal research ily Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Walton Fam-
program. Though I have continued to work with col- ily Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation.
laborators and students, it is undeniable that my atten-
tion has been divided. At some point in the not-too-distant References
future, I hope that will change. The management books Borghans, L., Duckworth, A. L., Heckman, J. J., & ter Weel,
I read late at night promise that if I continue to grow B. (2008). The economics and psychology of personality
as a leader, not only will Character Lab achieve its ambi- traits. Journal of Human Resources, 43, 972–1059.
tious mission, but also I will have more time for the Duckworth, A. L., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Self-control and grit:
research studies wistfully sketched in the “limitations Related but separable determinants of success. Current
and future directions” sections of my prior work. Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 319–325.
Very recently, a friend asked whether Character Lab Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M., & Kelly, D.
was a distraction from what a professor like me should (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term
goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92,
be doing. I found myself stammering in response—
1087–1101.
unable to put into words the emotions that led me to Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Self-discipline
leave classroom teaching in the first place, how torn I outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance in ado-
sometimes feel between the demands of this nonprofit lescents. Psychological Science, 16, 939–944.
organization and my identity as a scientist, my constant Ericsson, K. A. (2017). Expertise and individual differences: The
dissatisfaction with my capabilities as a leader, and how search for the structure and acquisition of experts’ superior
incredibly hard it has been to manage these multiple performance. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive
responsibilities while also raising my own two girls. And Science, 8(1–2), Article e1382. doi:10.1002/wcs.1382
then, like sun breaking through the clouds, it came to Eskreis-Winkler, L., Fishbach, A., & Duckworth, A. L.
me. Psychology is the subject I enjoy more than any (2018). Dear Abby: Should I give advice or receive it?
other, and helping children do better in life is the goal Psychological Science. Advance online publication. doi:
10.1177/0956797618795472 .
I hold most dear. Character Lab braids my intrinsic inter-
Griffin, E. H. (1899). Review of talks to teachers on psychol-
ests together with my life purpose. “To help kids,” I said, ogy and to students on some of life’s ideals, by W. James.
finally. “I started Character Lab to help kids thrive.” Psychological Review, 6, 536–539.
Hulleman, C. S., Kosovich, J. J., Barron, K. E., & Daniel, D. B.
Action Editor (2017). Making connections: Replicating and extending
June Gruber served as action editor and interim editor-in-chief the utility value intervention in the classroom. Journal of
for this article. Educational Psychology, 109, 387–404.
James, W. (1899). Talks to teachers on psychology and to stu-
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Kate Clayton, James Gross, Matt Knox, Jeremy Steinberg, Sean behavioral activation treatment for depression: Treatment
Talamas, and Paolo Terni. The content is solely the respon- manual. Behavior Modification, 25, 255–286.
sibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking positive thinking: Inside the
official views of funding agencies. new science of motivation. New York, NY: Current.