What the Studies Found: teacher key

Feeling Good About Yourself, grade 8 edition, written for 8th grade. Studies of mindset, praise, kindness and gratitude show what helps people feel good about themselves, and how to treat yourself kindly.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did the Michigan State University study find about growth-mindset students?
   • They ignored mistakes
   • They had stronger brain responses to their own mistakes (answer)
   • They made fewer plans
2. In the praise study, why did fifth graders praised for being smart do worse after failing?
   • They were more likely to blame things other than ability (answer)
   • They slept less
   • They worked longer
3. How many acts of kindness a week were Vancouver students asked to do?
   • One
   • Three (answer)
   • Five
4. What did Martin Seligman's gratitude letter bring?
   • A small drop in happiness
   • No change
   • A big, immediate rise in happiness scores (answer)
5. What does the word resilience point to on these pages?
   • Bouncing back from hard times (answer)
   • Taking a long test
   • Going to bed early
6. Which of Kristin Neff's three parts of self-compassion is understanding that suffering is part of being human?
   • Common humanity (answer)
   • Judgment
   • Winning

Words

• mindset: way of thinking
• gratitude: thankful noticing
• optimistic: hopeful
• resilience: bouncing back
• irritability: easy annoyance