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How and Why to Develop Character

Angela Duckworth, PhD 
Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor
Senior Scientific Advisor, Positive Psychology Center
University of Pennsylvania 

In this talk, Character Lab Founder and CEO Angela Duckworth discusses three different families of character strengths (also known as social-emotional skills, 21 st century skills): 

• Interpersonal strengths like gratitude and generosity enable positive relationships with other people. 
• Intrapersonal strengths like grit and self-control enable the accomplishment of valued goals.
• Intellectual strengths like curiosity and creativity enable a fertile life of the mind.

Character is malleable, and much of Dr. Duckworth’s scientific research examines conditions that enable young people to thrive. In particular, what adults do and say, and opportunities and obstacles, can either encourage or discourage the mindsets and skillsets that underlie character development.

Biography

Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth is professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Angela studies non-IQ competencies, including self-control and grit, which predict success both academically and professionally. Angela received a B.A. in Neurobiology from Harvard in 1992 and, as a Marshall Scholar, a Masters in Neuroscience from Oxford.

She completed her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her career in research, Angela founded a non-profit summer school for underserved children which won the Better Government Award for the state of Massachusetts and was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study. Angela has also been a McKinsey management consultant and, for five years, a math teacher in the public schools of San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 2013, Angela was selected as a MacArthur Fellow.