Matter Over Mind: Situational Strategies for Self-Control

Angela Duckworth is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. She studies non-IQ competencies, including self-control and grit, which predict success both academically and professionally. Her research populations have included West Point cadets, National Spelling Bee finalists, novice teachers, salespeople, and students. Duckworth received a BA in neurobiology from Harvard and, as a Marshall Scholar, a Masters in neuroscience from Oxford. She completed her PhD in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her career in research, she founded a non-profit summer school for low-income children, which won the Better Government Award for the state of Massachusetts and was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study. Duckworth 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.

James Gross is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Psycho­physiology Laboratory (http://spl.stanford.edu). He earned his BA in philosophy from Yale University and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a leading figure in the areas of emotion and emotion regulation, and has received recognition from the American Psychological Association, the Western Psychological Association, and the Society for Psycho­physio­logical Research. Gross has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, the Stanford Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, and the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education and Director of the Stanford Psychology One Teaching Program. Gross has an extensive program of investigator-initiated research, with grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Institute of Education Sciences.