Quotations below are from the excellent book by Carol S. Dweck, Phd, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, and relate to our aim to increase the self-concept, potential and intelligence of workers through research-based efforts.

“‘A few modern philosophers assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism. With practice, training and above all method, we [can] increase our attention, our memory, our judgment, and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.'” – Alfred Binay, pioneeer of the IQ test. [Brackets ours]

“…most experts agree that it’s not either or, it’s not nature or nurture, genes or environment. From conception on, there’s a constant give and take between the two. In fact, as Gilbert Gottlieb, an eminent neuroscientist put it, ‘not only do genes and environment cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the environment to work properly.'”

“At the same time, scientists are learning that people have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought. Of course, each person has a unique genetic endowment. People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes. But it is clear that experience, training and personal effort take them the rest of the way.” – Carol S. Dweck, Phd, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

“Robert Sternberg, the present day guru of intelligence writes that the ‘major factor in whether people achieve expertise is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.'” – Carol S. Dweck, Phd, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

See our Home Page and Courses Page to review ways we are increasing “purposeful engagement”.