Explaining delinquency

objective: the purpose of the essay is to demonstrate your understanding of causes and correlates of delinquency and your ability to communicate this information to others.

the scenario: imagine that you are sitting at dinner with family or friends. someone asks you what classes you are taking this semester, and you mention you are enrolled in a class on juvenile delinquency. this generates some interest (and maybe some jokes), and then you are asked, “so, what causes delinquency? ”

your task: prepare a response to this question. your response should draw on major points made in the course. your response should also be meaningful to those at the dinner table. (in other words, when people ask me this question, i find that they don’t want a professorial lecture.)

There are two ways to view intelligence or ability:
ability it is fixed or ingrained – in other words, we are born with a certain level of ability and we cannot change that. this is called a fixed mindset.
we can develop our ability through hard work and effort. this is called a growth mindset.
these two different beliefs lead to different behaviour, and also to different results. for example, students with a growth mindset were shown to increase their grades over time. those who believed that their intelligence was ingrained did not; in fact, their grades got worse.
having a growth mindset (the belief that you are in control of your own ability, and can learn and improve) is the key to success.
yes, hard work, effort, and persistence are all important, but not as important as having that underlying belief that you are in control of your own destiny.