learning and motivation unit three (week 13)
Stereotype Threat
- can result in disidentification with the domain
- stereotype threat: people find themselves to be at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group
- What is the construct?
- stereotype threat: one feels at risk to conforming to the negative stereotypes about their group
- affects those who identify with a domain (they really care about how they do)
- can result in disidentification with the domain
- when people feel vulnerable to a stereotype they will distance themselves from the domain
- In what domains and groups does this threat exist?
- women in math
- students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (imposter syndrome)
- latinos in scholastic domain
- the elderly on short-term memory tests (when primed with senility)
- can even be induced short-term in white men in math when primed with a more stereotypically successful group in the domain (asian men)
- Study 1
- 114 undergraduate college students (male, female, black, and white)
- independent variable: test description (diagnostic of ability or not or as a challenge)
- dependent variable: test performance
- 30 GRE items
- self-report measure of confidence in performance
- personal worth
- hypothesis: black ppl in the diagnostic condition do worse than the white people and the black people in the nondiagnostic condition
- Study 2
- 40 female undergraduate students, 20 white and 20 black
- independent variable: test description (diagnostic of ability or not)
- dependent variable: level of anxiety
- used a computer - the 25 question test and the anxiety test afterwards
- hypothesis: the apprehension caused by the stereotype threat can be shown in a general anxiety test
- anxiety mediates the relationship between diagnostic and performance
- no difference found in anxiety: maybe the measures were too delayed
- the phenomenon occurred again
- black ppl in the diagnostic condition do worse than white people and the black people in the nondiagnostic condition
- black students in diagnostic group did worse than black students in nondiagnostic group / white students
- black people completed fewer items than white people and black people in diagnostic group completed less than black in nondiagnostic
- Study 3
- 68 undergrads. 35 black (9 male, 26 female) and 33 white (20 male, 13 female)
- independent variable: race by diagnostic / nondiagnostic / control
- dependent variable: test performance
- used a booklet instead of a computer
- GRE, LAP (anagrams priming words associated with stereotypes), stereotype avoidance task (will they distance themselves from black activities)
- self-handicapping - distancing themselves from their domain
- Study 4
- 47 undergrads. 24 black participants - 6 male, 18 female - and 23 white
- independent variable: race prime or no race prime on questionnaire (just asked about race)
- doesn’t the sat / act ask about race up front? are they not priming race?
- dependent variable: performance on test, questionnaire about stereotype threat, academic identification items
- test taken on paper
- tested effort
- 75% of black people in diagnostic did not indicate race
- Mechanisms
- What do you think could explain why stereotype threat leads to performance decrements?
- number of black people in the study - if taken in a room together, what does being the only black person taking the test do to their performance? or in a predominantly black school?
- parallels between performance-avoidance and stereotype avoidance
- expectation: combination of stereotype threat and diagnostic have a sense of prejudice and bias. bias is already there and can’t avoid
- subconscious self-fulfilling prophecy