User:Akkuluku/Sandbox

Race


During the 1960’s psychologist Irwin Katz suggested that stereotypes could influence performance on IQ tests. Katz found that Blacks were able to score better on an IQ subtest if the test was presented as a test of eye-hand coordination. Blacks also scored higher on an IQ test when they believed the test would be compared to that of other blacks. Katz concluded that his subjects were thoroughly aware of the judgment of intellectual inferiority held by many white Americans. With little expectation of overruling this judgment, their motivation was low, and so were their scores.

The phenomenon was later examined by the social psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson, who articulated the mechanism of "stereotype threat" that contributes to test performance of minority groups. In one such study, Steele and Aronson (1995) administered the Graduate Record Examination to white and African American students. Half of each group was told that their intelligence was being measured, while the other half thought the test was not measuring their intelligence. The white students performed almost equally in the two conditions of the experiment. African Americans, in contrast, performed far worse than they otherwise would have when they were told their intelligence was being measured. The researchers concluded this was because stereotype threat made the students anxious about confirming the stereotype regarding African American IQ. The researchers found that the difference was even more noticeable when race was emphasized.

"'When capable black college students fail to perform as well as their white counterparts, the explanation often has less to do with preparation or ability than with the threat of stereotypes about their capacity to succeed.' - Claude M. Steele, The Atlantic Monthly, August 1999 Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students"

Steele and Aronson write that making race salient when taking a test of cognitive ability negatively affected high-ability African American students. Steele writes that the stigma of being African American is still relevant, as it has an effect on the educational outcomes of African Americans. Stereotypes such as: Asian Americans excelling in mathematics or African Americans always testing poorly can be extremely harmful. Stereotype threats can seriously alter academic achievement and motivation.

In a paper prepared for APA convention, Steele writes: "Thus the predicament of 'stereotype vulnerability': The group members then know that anything about them or anything they do that fits the stereotype can be taken as confirming it as self-characteristic, in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in their own eyes. This vulnerability amounts to a jeopardy of double devaluation: once for whatever bad thing the stereotype-fitting behavior or feature would say about anyone, and again for its confirmation of the bad things alleged in the stereotype."

Gender


Stereotype threat has been identified as a possible influence on the differences between males and females in mathematical achievement. It is stereotypically suggested that men have stronger abilities in mathematics than women. Several studies have been completed to explore this situation by examining the role of stereotype threat. Cadinu and her team of researchers investigated how negative thoughts could create performance deficits under stereotype threat. The 60 female participants were placed in either a stereotype threat condition or a no threat condition and then asked to complete a math test. Results showed that women under the stereotype threat reported more negative thoughts related to the test and mathematics when compared to the no threat condition. It was also found that stereotype threat created a decrease in performance, which correlated to an increase in negative thoughts. Once studies indicated that stereotype threat could be an influence on the gap between men and women in mathematical achievement, strategies began to develop to help women cope with this phenomenon. Researchers discovered that informing women about stereotype threat is a useful method of improving their performance in testing. In a study by Johns, men and women completed difficult math problems described as either a problem-solving test or a math test. Johns and his researchers created a third group to complete the problems, but informed the participants that stereotype threat could affect women’s performance on the test. They discovered that women performed worse than men on the test when not informed about stereotype threat, but did not differ when aware of the threat. Furthermore, other studies have tried to identify other strategies to help female students manage the stereotype threat. McGlone and Aronson studied three different approaches: a control message encouraging perseverance, a suppression message telling participants to suppress negative thoughts, and a replacement message describing to the participants an alternate self-relevant positive stereotype. They found a gap between the women in the control group and the men; however, that gap widened when participants tried to suppress negative thoughts associated with stereotype threat, but narrowed when a positive stereotype was presented.