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From: Jody WIson, Graduate Student, WVU
Date: 13 Oct 2009
Time: 20:57:26 -0500
Remote Name: 98.236.73.178
I truly enjoyed your paper on how people react differently when faced with difficulties, errors or failure. I found it very interesting how you incorporated experimental psychology research findings with the responses of those who stutter may exhibit when confronted by fluency problems. However, I feel as though those who stutter may not always respond in the same manner when faced with fluency difficulties. I believe categorizing people into one response category is the same as believing an individual always sees the glass half full or the glass half empty. Also, a person who stutters may possess some reaction characteristics that can be categorized as helpless responses, and some that can be categorized as mastery-oriented responses based on their beliefs on fluency as being either an inherent ability or a flexible skill. An individual may believe that their stuttering could not really be improved, and at the same time, could possess low anxiety with regard to fluency performance and would not hesitate to face and seek challenging situations. On the other hand, an individual who believes that their fluency could be improved may avoid threatening situations that can have an affect on their self-esteem. I agree that the findings of Dweck’s studies can be helpful in understanding why some people may deal with stuttering differently. These findings can help clinician’s to understand the underlying beliefs present in a client that affect how that individual deals with stuttering and what their current outlook on improving their fluency skills may be. However, I believe people’s reactions to difficult situations can vary and people’s reactions to their fluency problems can vary over time. These findings, in my opinion, would benefit clinicians in addressing issues or events that may have affected the individual’s beliefs, and in turn, caused the person to react with a helpless response when confronted by fluency problems.