Book Title: Grit
Author: Angela Duckworth
Publication Information: New York, Scribner, 2018, 368 pp., $17.99, paperback, $19.99 audio
Why does aptitude fail to guarantee achievement? Why are those who thrive not always the ones who seem most talented? Every educator confounded by apparent underachievers and overperformers has wrestled with these questions; when Angela Duckworth, PhD, MSc, was a young teacher she began to search for answers. Her desire to understand the “returns generated by effort” (p 20) led to work in education, consulting, and research psychology as she sought to “use psychological science to help kids thrive” (p 159). Dr Duckworth’s experiences and research led to her theory of “grit,” a psychological construct combining “passion and perseverance” (p 56). In the book Grit, Dr Duckworth interweaves personal experiences, interviews with “grit paragons,” and extensive insights from psychological research by herself and others to describe grit and how to develop it. This book is an easy read, and the audiobook (read by the author) leaves you ready to engage her in discussion and brainstorming.
Part I (“What Grit Is”) is an engaging and thorough tour through her own work, including the research underlying the “Grit Scale,”1 and her use and validation of the scale in groups ranging from West Point cadets to participants in the national spelling bee. Part II (“Growing Grit From the Inside Out”) explores ways to grow one’s own grit, including the developmental work of fostering one’s passion, the benefits of deliberate practice, learning to find success in the face of adversity, and the importance of defining one’s purpose. Part III (“Growing Grit From the Outside In”) delves into concepts such as “psychologically wise parenting” (p 212), the developmental importance of extracurricular activities for youth, and the role of culture (whether at the team level or the societal level) to explore the ways as teachers, parents, and coaches can foster the developmental acquisition of grit.
The extensive use of personal stories, from grade-school students and colleagues to “grit paragons” such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, and UNC Chapel Hill coach Anson Dorrance, gives the book a narrative richness. The “psychological science” in the book is most fully developed in Part I, where Dr Duckworth lays out her own research to develop the concept of grit; Parts II and III rely more on application of her ideas in relation to work done by others. Throughout the book, however, extensive references provide both citations from the literature and expanded discussion of topics in the text.
Given current interest in resilience and combatting burnout, it is no surprise that the Grit Scale has been studied among medical students,2 emergency personnel,3 and neurosurgery residents4; all three studies suggest grit is related to resilience and to reduced likelihood of burnout. In 2017, a meta-analysis raised questions about the overall psychological construct validity of grit, but the authors nevertheless suggested the most important facet of grit may be “perseverance”5—a finding that fits well with Dr Duckworth’s concluding definition of “genius” as “working toward excellence, ceaselessly, with every element of your being.” (p 277)
While Dr Duckworth’s passion to “help kids thrive” comes through clearly in her book, her work has much to say to those of us in family medicine. Her insights are relevant to our work with children, our work with parents, and efforts in resident recruitment, selection, and training. How might our counsel to parents be different if we sought to understand and teach “psychologically wise” parenting? How might efforts to understand grit and perseverance influence the current debates over the place of test scores in medical education and resident selection? How might we reimagine education if we sought to foster deliberate practice rather than simple repetition? Should we be paying closer attention to learners’ responses to adversity and their narrative descriptions of developing passion and purpose?
Improving our understanding of what it takes to foster character, passion, and perseverance is an ongoing challenge across nearly all facets of family medicine education and practice. While grit may not provide an explanation for all that it takes for one to thrive, the research, tools and insights in this book amply demonstrate that it makes an important difference. Exploring and understanding the processes for fostering grit could provide meaningful new insights for our education, our clinical practice, and even our personal journeys.
