PSY5330 Test Questions and Correct Answers Rated A+
Stereotype Threat Definition - Answers The event of a negative stereotype about a group to which one
belongs becoming self-relevant, usually as a plausible interpretation for something one is doing, for an
experience one is having, or for a situation one is in, that has relevance for self-definition.
Ex. A female may feel that her performance on a math test might confirm a negative stereotype about
female math ability.
Stereotype threat is only thought to occur... - Answers when the person to whom the threat is plausibly
relevant cares about, or identifies with, the threatened domain.
Therefore, stereotype threat is most likely to affect those individuals who possess a relatively high level
of skill, competence, and confidence with respect to a given domain (e.g., good mathematicians who
care about their grades in math).
Hypothesized Effect of Stereotype Threat? - Answers Diminished task performance in the stereotyped
domain.
Why?
Attentional, cognitive, and other resources need for successful task performance are diverted to
intrusive thoughts relevant to stereotype confirmation (e.g., self-doubt, future disappointment, effects
on group perceptions).
Stereotype Threat, Women, and Math: Spencer et al. (1999): - Answers The subjects in this study were
women and men who were good at math and saw it as relatively self-defining.
All subjects attempted to solve very difficult problems taken from the quantitative GREs.
For half of the subjects, stereotype threat was activated by claiming that these types of problems
tended to be solved more successfully by men.
The other half of the subjects were explicitly assured that these problems never showed gender
differences.
Results: When they were led to believe that these problems were better solved by males, the gals did
worse than the guys.
However, when they were led to expect that these problems showed no gender differences, the lass's
performance did not suffer vis-à-vis the lads.
Stereotype Threat, African Americans, and Intellectual Performance. Steele and Aronson (1995): -
Answers The subjects were African American (AA) and European American (EA) Stanford kids.
All of them attempted to answer difficult questions from the GRE verbal test.
,However, half of each group were led to believe that EA students typically outperformed AA students on
this test.
The other half were led to believe that there were no such race differences.
Results: AAs performed worse than EAs only when led to expect race differences.
A threat in the air everywhere: EA men and stereotype threat in math. Aronson et al. (1999): - Answers
When they were led to expect that their math performances would be compared against Asian males,
the average math performance of European American men went down fast
So, anytime that it appears that one's performance might confirm a relatively unfavorable perception
about one's group, stereotype threat effects may occur.
A threat in the air everywhere: The ubiquity of stereotype-threat effects. - Answers Stereotype threat
has been found among:
Older adults on an alleged test of memory.
Low-socioeconomic-status students on a test when it was purportedly diagnostic of intelligence.
Latinas but not Latinos on a math test when ethnicity had been made contextually salient.
Women drivers for whom the women-are-bad-drivers stereotype had been made salient.
Mechanisms of Stereotype Threat - Answers Research has shown that the conditions that are conducive
to stereotype threat impair performance by:
(1) increasing anxiety .
(2) increasing physiological arousal.
(3) impairing working memory.
(4) diverting cognitive resources to defensive attempts and counterproductive attempts at thought
suppression.
(5) increasing worries about attempts to avoid failure.
among possibly other processes (this list may not be comprehensive).
Adaptations to Stereotype Threat. - Answers For Steele (1997), stereotype threat is likely to primarily
affect the best and brightest among the stereotyped.
That is, individuals who are both confident in and care about their performance should become anxious
and distracted when they fear that their failure will tend to confirm a negative group stereotype.
, This should occur when (a) they're aware that the stereotype exists, and (b) the task is challenging for
them.
Adaptations to Stereotype Threat part 2 - Answers Bright and motivated folks who are constantly
operating under conditions conducive to stereotype threat may cope with these extra pressures on
performance by:
(1) Disindentifying with the threatened domain. If the domain is math, for example, they may come to
view math as being less important to their self-concepts (perhaps by changing majors from engineering
to psychology),
And/Or
(2) Dropping out of academics altogether.
(For example, competent and capable young woman who dropped out college after she had completed
three years of school work and accumulated a 4.0 GPA. She was a chemistry major and was raised in a
culture in which scientific pursuits among women were somewhat discouraged).
Recommendations for Minimizing Stereotype Threat. - Answers 1. Wise Schooling (Steele, 1997):
For the "domain identified" (those who are competent in and care about the subject matter), educators
should:
A. Affirm domain belongingness: (make it clear to the young woman that she indeed has what it takes
to be a good mathematician.)
B. Value multiple perspectives: publicly espouse the virtues of adopting multiple approaches to learning
and scholarship in academic settings. This may reduce the perceived applicability of the negative
stereotype in these situations.
C. provide Role models: point out individuals who have been successful in the domain.
Recommendations for Minimizing Stereotype Threat. part 2 - Answers 2. Affirming Global Sense of Self-
Worth.
"People are motivated to see themselves as adaptively and morally adequate, competent, good,
coherent. I view these self-affirmation processes as being activated by information that threatens the
perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored."
Claude Steele, 1988.
Claude Steele's self-affirmation theory: folks are motivated to think well of themselves in an abstract
and global sense. This generally positive sense of self serves to take the edge of various and sundry
things that might otherwise impugn our self-concept.
Stereotype Threat Definition - Answers The event of a negative stereotype about a group to which one
belongs becoming self-relevant, usually as a plausible interpretation for something one is doing, for an
experience one is having, or for a situation one is in, that has relevance for self-definition.
Ex. A female may feel that her performance on a math test might confirm a negative stereotype about
female math ability.
Stereotype threat is only thought to occur... - Answers when the person to whom the threat is plausibly
relevant cares about, or identifies with, the threatened domain.
Therefore, stereotype threat is most likely to affect those individuals who possess a relatively high level
of skill, competence, and confidence with respect to a given domain (e.g., good mathematicians who
care about their grades in math).
Hypothesized Effect of Stereotype Threat? - Answers Diminished task performance in the stereotyped
domain.
Why?
Attentional, cognitive, and other resources need for successful task performance are diverted to
intrusive thoughts relevant to stereotype confirmation (e.g., self-doubt, future disappointment, effects
on group perceptions).
Stereotype Threat, Women, and Math: Spencer et al. (1999): - Answers The subjects in this study were
women and men who were good at math and saw it as relatively self-defining.
All subjects attempted to solve very difficult problems taken from the quantitative GREs.
For half of the subjects, stereotype threat was activated by claiming that these types of problems
tended to be solved more successfully by men.
The other half of the subjects were explicitly assured that these problems never showed gender
differences.
Results: When they were led to believe that these problems were better solved by males, the gals did
worse than the guys.
However, when they were led to expect that these problems showed no gender differences, the lass's
performance did not suffer vis-à-vis the lads.
Stereotype Threat, African Americans, and Intellectual Performance. Steele and Aronson (1995): -
Answers The subjects were African American (AA) and European American (EA) Stanford kids.
All of them attempted to answer difficult questions from the GRE verbal test.
,However, half of each group were led to believe that EA students typically outperformed AA students on
this test.
The other half were led to believe that there were no such race differences.
Results: AAs performed worse than EAs only when led to expect race differences.
A threat in the air everywhere: EA men and stereotype threat in math. Aronson et al. (1999): - Answers
When they were led to expect that their math performances would be compared against Asian males,
the average math performance of European American men went down fast
So, anytime that it appears that one's performance might confirm a relatively unfavorable perception
about one's group, stereotype threat effects may occur.
A threat in the air everywhere: The ubiquity of stereotype-threat effects. - Answers Stereotype threat
has been found among:
Older adults on an alleged test of memory.
Low-socioeconomic-status students on a test when it was purportedly diagnostic of intelligence.
Latinas but not Latinos on a math test when ethnicity had been made contextually salient.
Women drivers for whom the women-are-bad-drivers stereotype had been made salient.
Mechanisms of Stereotype Threat - Answers Research has shown that the conditions that are conducive
to stereotype threat impair performance by:
(1) increasing anxiety .
(2) increasing physiological arousal.
(3) impairing working memory.
(4) diverting cognitive resources to defensive attempts and counterproductive attempts at thought
suppression.
(5) increasing worries about attempts to avoid failure.
among possibly other processes (this list may not be comprehensive).
Adaptations to Stereotype Threat. - Answers For Steele (1997), stereotype threat is likely to primarily
affect the best and brightest among the stereotyped.
That is, individuals who are both confident in and care about their performance should become anxious
and distracted when they fear that their failure will tend to confirm a negative group stereotype.
, This should occur when (a) they're aware that the stereotype exists, and (b) the task is challenging for
them.
Adaptations to Stereotype Threat part 2 - Answers Bright and motivated folks who are constantly
operating under conditions conducive to stereotype threat may cope with these extra pressures on
performance by:
(1) Disindentifying with the threatened domain. If the domain is math, for example, they may come to
view math as being less important to their self-concepts (perhaps by changing majors from engineering
to psychology),
And/Or
(2) Dropping out of academics altogether.
(For example, competent and capable young woman who dropped out college after she had completed
three years of school work and accumulated a 4.0 GPA. She was a chemistry major and was raised in a
culture in which scientific pursuits among women were somewhat discouraged).
Recommendations for Minimizing Stereotype Threat. - Answers 1. Wise Schooling (Steele, 1997):
For the "domain identified" (those who are competent in and care about the subject matter), educators
should:
A. Affirm domain belongingness: (make it clear to the young woman that she indeed has what it takes
to be a good mathematician.)
B. Value multiple perspectives: publicly espouse the virtues of adopting multiple approaches to learning
and scholarship in academic settings. This may reduce the perceived applicability of the negative
stereotype in these situations.
C. provide Role models: point out individuals who have been successful in the domain.
Recommendations for Minimizing Stereotype Threat. part 2 - Answers 2. Affirming Global Sense of Self-
Worth.
"People are motivated to see themselves as adaptively and morally adequate, competent, good,
coherent. I view these self-affirmation processes as being activated by information that threatens the
perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored."
Claude Steele, 1988.
Claude Steele's self-affirmation theory: folks are motivated to think well of themselves in an abstract
and global sense. This generally positive sense of self serves to take the edge of various and sundry
things that might otherwise impugn our self-concept.
