Grit in psychology is a positive,
non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s passion for a
particular long-term goal or endstate coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their
respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of
obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual’s path to
accomplishment and serves as a driving force in achievement realization.
Commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology include
"perseverance," "hardiness," "resilience,” “ambition,” “need for achievement” and conscientiousness. These
constructs can be conceptualized as individual differences
related to the accomplishment of work rather than latent ability.This
distinction was brought into focus in 1907 when William James challenged the field to further
investigate how certain individuals are capable of accessing richer trait
reservoirs enabling them to accomplish more than the average person,[1] but the
construct dates back at least to Galton,[2] and the ideals
of persistence and tenacity have been understood as a virtue at least since Aristotle. Although the last
decade has seen a noticeable increase in research focused on
achievement-oriented traits, there continues to be difficulty in aligning
specific traits and outcomes.
Grit is defined as
“perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” [3] Building upon
biographical collections of famous leaders in history, researchers and
scientists have reached similar conclusions about high achieving individuals.
Specifically, those individuals who were deemed more successful and influential
than their contemporary counterparts typically possessed traits above and beyond
that of normal ability.[2][4][5] While ability
was still critically important, these individuals also possessed “zeal” and
“persistence of motive and effort.”[3] Duckworth and
colleagues (2007) believe this dual-component of Grit to be a crucial
differentiator from similar constructs. Grit is conceptualized as a stable trait
that does not require immediate positive feedback.[3] Individuals
high in Grit are able to maintain their determination and motivation over long
periods despite experiences with failure and adversity. Their passion and
commitment towards the long-term objective is the overriding factor that
provides the stamina required to “stay the course” amid challenges and
set-backs. Essentially, the Grittier person is focused on winning the marathon, not the sprint.
Literature Comparisons
Grit and Positive Psychology
Grit also ties in with
positive psychology and in particular, with
perseverance. As mentioned earlier, the ability to stick with and pursue a goal
over a long period is an important aspect of Grit. This area of positive
psychology has been interested in the process of perseverance as a positive
indicator of long term success.[6]
Grit and Intelligence
One of the best
predictors of future achievement has been intelligence.[7] This
relationship has been found in scholastic achievement as well as in job
performance.[8] As such, one
might expect that grit would be strongly correlated with intelligence. In fact,
this prompted one of the early questions asked in Grit research, “Why do some
individuals accomplish more than others of equal intelligence?”.[3] Somewhat
surprisingly, in four separate samples, Grit was found to be either orthogonal to or slightly inversely correlated with intelligence.[9] This means that
Grit, unlike many traditional measures of performance is not tied to
intelligence. As the researchers have suggested, this helps explain why some
very intelligent individuals do not consistently perform well over long
periods.
Grit and Personality Measures
The Grit measure has
been compared to the Big Five personality model,
which are a group of broad personality dimensions consisting of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.[10] In one study
by Duckworth and Quinn, the Short Grit Scale (Grit–S) and 12-item self-report
measure of Grit (Grit–O) measuring Grit was strongly correlated with
conscientiousness (r = .77, p <.001 and r = .73, p <.001) (2009). While
Grit is related to conscientiousness measures, it also differs from
conscientiousness in important ways. For example, while both Grit and
conscientiousness are often associated with short term accomplishments, Grit is
also associated with longer term and multi-year goals.[3] This long-term
persistence and dependability are important aspects that make Grit distinct from
conscientiousness. Another personality characteristic that is often linked to
Grit is the need for achievement. One way in which Grit differs from the need
for achievement is that individuals with high scores in Grit often set extremely
long-term goals for themselves and pursue them deliberately even without
positive feedback,[3] while need for
achievement lacks this long-term component.
Traditional constructs
in this area include perseverance, hardiness, resilience, ambition, and need for achievement. Grit has been argued to be
distinguishable from each of these in the following ways. Perseverance is the
steadfast pursuit of a task, mission, or journey in spite of obstacles,
discouragement, or distraction. In contrast, Grit is argued to be trait to
perseverance. Grit enables an individual to persevere in accomplishing a goal
despite obstacles over an extended period.[3] When compared
with the construct of persistence, Grit adds a component of passion for the
goal.[11] This goal
passion also contributes to the ability of the individual to sustain effort over
the long term.
Maddi (2006) defines
hardiness as a combination of attitudes that provide the courage and motivation
to do the hard, strategic work of turning stressful circumstances from potential
disasters into growth opportunities.[12] While Grit is
primarily a measure of an individual’s ability to persist in obtaining a
specific goal over an extended time period (Duckworth et al., 2007), hardiness
refers to an individual’s ability to persist through difficult circumstances and
does not address the individual’s long term persistence toward a specific
goal.[3] Maddi (2006)
developed a theoretical model of hardiness as a tool for developing
resilience.[12]
Resilience is a dynamic
process in which an individual overcomes significant adversity, usually in the
form of a life changing event or difficult personal circumstances. Resilience
can be conceptualized as an adaptive response to a challenging situation.[13] Grit involves
maintaining goal focused effort for extended periods of time, often while facing
adversity but does not require a critical incident. Importantly, Grit is
conceptualized as a trait while resilience is a dynamic process. Finally,
resilience has been almost exclusively studied in children (cf. Luther,
Doernberger, & Zigler, 1993) who are born into “at-risk” situations.[13] Although
resilience researchers recognize that adults likely demonstrate resilience in a
similar manner to children, the resilience process has not been studied in a
mature population.[14]
Ambition is broadly defined as the desire for
attainment, power, or superiority. In contrast to ambitious individuals, Gritty
individuals do not seek fame or external recognition for their achievements.
Ambition is often associated with a desire for fame.[15] Unlike
ambitious individuals, gritty individuals do not seek to distinguish themselves
from other people, but to obtain personal goals.
McClelland (1961) describes
need for achievement as a drive to complete
manageable goals that enable the individual to receive immediate feedback.[16] In contrast to
need for achievement, Gritty individuals consciously set long-term goals that
are difficult to attain and do not waver from these difficult goals, regardless
of the presence of feedback. Additionally, need for achievement has been studied
for almost 50 years and has been found to positively correlate to self-efficacy and learning
goal orientation.[17][18] These links
have not yet been tested in the Grit literature.
Scientific FindingsThe primary scientific
Scientific FindingsThe primary scientific findings on Grit come from Duckworth and colleagues’ examination of Grit as an individual difference trait capable of predicting long-term success.[3] It was proposed that individuals who possess a drive to tirelessly work through challenges, failures, and adversity to achieve set goals and are uniquely positioned to reach higher achievements than others who lack similar stamina. In a series of six studies Duckworth et al. proposed, developed, and tested a two-factor Grit scale with notable results. In addition to validating their Grit scale, the authors also found support suggesting that Grit provided incremental predictive validity for education and age above and beyond the Big Five personality traits (Study 2); that higher levels of Grit were more highly associated with cumulative grade point average (GPA) in an Ivy league sample when compared to those with lower Grit levels (r = .25, p < .01; Study 3); that Grit predicted retention after their first summer in two classes of cadets at the United States Military Academy (Study 4); and that participants in a National Spelling Bee with higher Grit scores typically work harder and longer than less Gritty peers, ultimately resulting in better performance. This series of studies provides empirical evidence that an individual difference conceptualized as Grit can account for significant variance in performance across a variety of settings. Grit predicts beyond the typical and unrelated cognitive construct of IQ and can account for variance over and above what is observed in the Big 5 personality construct of conscientiousness.
In 2009, Duckworth and
Quinn found additional support for the Grit construct when they developed and
validated a more condensed version of the Grit Scale (Grit-S) by removing four
of the previous items and improving its psychometric properties. Using samples from the
data collected in their 2007 studies, the authors were able to achieve
complementary results that suggested the positive relationships between Grit and
educational attainment, GPA, retention in college, and success in a national
spelling bee competition.
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