Running head: STEREOTYPE THREATS

Stereotype Threats Jo Morris Psyc-8201-1 January 19, 2014 Dr. Jody Dill

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Stereotype Threats Stereotyping is an attitude, which been adopted and practiced by consciously and unconsciously on particular types of people or even the way the things are done. This attitude is a belief in which it necessarily reflects the true realities. Most times stereotype is based on cultural and groups. Stereos in Greek means solid or typos, which means impression and it does refer by the manner in which people perceive and then made solid lenses and make judgments and is used every time we are confronted with images or that people do remind us of certain characteristics and impressions of a certain incident, which leads us to lens of judgment this is stereotype. Blatant and subtle are two stereotype behaviors. A stereotype is cognitive in that lens in which we use to perceive the kind of person that we are observing is based on cognitive experiences, and it does fall into a particular kind. People do this cognitively not really to discriminate but to make some kind of sense of the world and it is a tool that we do utilize to categorize, simplify, and systematize information and help us to react effectively and plan out the actions and to predict based on this. As a cultural experience stereotypes can have some intergroup origins and it is based on a collective experience of the group of people that does has the same history and experience. For example, when we look at high school especially culture we do construct stereotypes as either jocks, nerds, and of course cheerleaders. Stereotype threat on the other hand is an experience, which is akin to anxiety, or feeling of concern when the person does appear to confirm a negative stereotype about a group in which a person belongs. Aronson and Steele (1995) did express this kind of concept back in 1995 and also an expression of critical social action. A team of psychologists has put together a compendium of psychological, scientific, and critical scientific research website, which does

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explore matters as it affects society and the manner in which people behave as individuals and groups. Stereotype threat was first used by Steele and Aronson (1995) and they showed in several experiments in which Black college freshmen and the sophomores performed poorly on tests than the White students when their race was emphasized. When race was not emphasized than Black students had performed equally or better than the White students. The results did show that performance in the academic contexts could be harmed with the awareness that a persons behavior can be viewed through lenses of racial stereotypes. Research in stereotype threat did broaden in many important aspects such as it has shown the consequences of stereotype threat does extend way beyond an underachievement on academic tasks. For example, it could lead to self-handicapping the strategies as reducing practice time for the task (Stone, 2002), and it can reduce the sense of belonging in the domain of stereotyping (Good, Dweck, & Rattan, 2008). In addition, consistent exposures to stereotype threat such as faced by ethnic minorities in the academic environments and woman in math can also reduce the degree in which people value the domain that is in question (Aronson, et al., 2002: Osborne, 1995, & Steele, 1997). When we do look at education this could lead to students not to choose or pursue the domain of the study and it can limit the range of professions they could pursue. So in the long-term of stereotype threat it may can contribute educational and social inequality (Good et al., 2008a, Schmader, Johns, & Barquissau, 2004). Stereotype threat does affect stereotyped individuals performance in numeral domains beyond academics as those in White men in sports ( Lynch, Sjomerling, & Darley, 1999) and that women in negotiation (Kray, Galinsky, & Thompson, 2002) and homosexual men that provides childcare (Bosson, Haymoovitz, & Pinel, 2004) and also women who drives (Yueng, & Von Hippel, 2008). As a

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concept stereotype threat is wide-reaching, which impacts that goes way beyond psychology or even social discrimination. This is a risk and a danger, which could lead to a person being vulnerable to harm when it is placed in certain conditions and are unaware that stereotype threat and the dangers it does entail is presence. Conditions of Stereotype Threats There are several number of conditions, which precipitate stereotype threats. The following does explain 4 conditions and the reasons why a stereotype threat may arise. Some people are likely susceptible more than others, but in some situations is commin of contextual conditions. According to Strossner and Good (2012) does have their work adapted by the Rhys (2012) to express these following conditions: 1. Group identity salience When a persons stereotype group status is made relevant of even conspicuous within the situational features, and stereotype threat and their performance decrements is likely to happen. Because stereotype threat does arise from those of negative performance expectations in the domain, and that any of the groups could show evidence of underperformance only if the situation shows attention to the threatened identity. Although stereotype threat has a tendency experienced by the members of the groups some more than others this is inappropriate to conclude that only the experience by those members of traditions stigmatized or even stereotyped groups. A stereotype social identity is highlighted in many ways in a social situation. 2. Solo or Numerical Minority Status There are some situations in which one or more expects to be a single representative of the stereotype groups or the numerical minority could also heightened the group identity

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and stereotype threat ( Sekaquaptewa, Waldman, & Thompson, 2007, Murphy, Steele, & Gross, 2007). 3. Stereotype Salience When we look at it identities can be definitely become threatened when the stereotypes are invoked by the performance environment whether it is blatantly or subtly. The stereotype endorsement do have a tendency to reduce the performance in the individuals who may be members of the lower performing groups. Women completes a task in a presence of an instructor that has a sexiest attitudes the task performance has been harmed. The means for endorsing the stereotypes does constantly reduce quality of the performance in people that are members of the lower performing group. 4. Evaluation Scrutiny There are situations where an individual believe their ability in the stereotypic domain will be evaluated and can create such a strong sense of group identity and the stereotype threat. When a test can be described to provide a reliable and valid information about a persons ability in a stereotype domain the feelings of anxiety and the intrusive thoughts of failure can arise as well as harming the performance (Frantz, Cuddy, Burnett, Ray, & Hart, 2004; Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001; Marx, Stapel, & Muller, 2005). The evaluative scrutiny we see does increase when the situation does test the limits of an individuals ability. There has been many studies, which have shown that stereotype threat does affect more on difficult tests and difficult items for people that are highly identified with a domain. Stroessner and Good (2012) further explains the related situations but these 4 seems to be the most likely set of conditions.

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Examples of the Conditions For the first condition the study that was done by Stroessner and Good (2012) did show if you simply ask about race or ethnicity this did increase anxiety in the African American cultural students and this had led their test scores to drop and this did indicate the negative effect on the academic performance. I did witness how in social situations Hispanic Americans do feel resentful towards Whites when the talk does turn to illegal immigrants. This is when their social behavior does change and can lead to conflict within the group and they deviate from social gatherings, which leads them to a resentment-fuel talk. In the minority groups the salience of group identity can also lead individuals to identify group stereotypes, which can foster negative thoughts, and attitudes, and encourage anger/resentment. For the second condition when women are ask to perform tasks, which are stereotyped to be of a mans domain this will lead them to feel some kind of anxiety of how they will perform this task and have self-doubt, which in turn leads to underperformance. An example from this movie GI Jane where Demi Moore when she had played the first female soldier to try for the US Navy Seals. While she may have been a likely candidate she was chosen as a political experiment for the equality and it was not for her skills in that it can match men so much that stereotyping did lead to her self-doubt in certain tasks and situations when she could have performed excellent even better than men. For the third condition invoked stereotypes, which are blatant and subtle and could lead to endorsement of elements of the stereotype, which could harm stereotypes individual group. African Americans can often be described as underperforming in academic situations. Consider a teacher in a class that has predominately Black students if stereotype does lead her to treat these students and see them in such a manner than subtle stereotyping could induce the

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underperformance because her teaching most likely support the non-Blacks than the Black students themselves. For the fourth condition people are tested based on stereotypes, which they do tend to perform inside the bounds of that stereotype to confirm with group identity. Consider for example Asian students people tend to stereotype them as geeks or even hardworking students and too focus on academic performance for their own good. This can help alleviate performance as teachers and the Asian students themselves do have a tendency to over perform to confirm to the stereotype but this can also be negative because Blacks are seen as Underperforming and they do tend to underperform anyways to confirm to the evaluative scrutiny. How to Respond Clearly, stereotype threats is a huge social problem. How can we respond? Stroessner and Good (2012) did explain many ways we can respond I had provided three suggestions. One method that does show to reduce stereotype threat is to reframe from it or use different languages to describe the task or rest that is being used. Stereotype threat does arise in situations in where that task descriptions do highlight the social identities in which the stereotype does associate with poor performance. Modifying task descriptions in a way that stereotype are not invoked or even disarm could also eliminate stereotype threat. As we see stereotype threat based on gender, for example, could reduce by ensuring females that the test is gender-fair (e.g., Quinn & Spencer, 2001; Spencer, Steele, and Quinn, 1999) or even by explicitly mollifying the assumed diagnosticity of the test (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Another method to reduce stereotype threat is modifying procedures, which does heighten the salience of the stereotyped group memberships. Encouraging people to think of only themselves in such ways to reduce the salience of a threatened identity could attenuate stereotype

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threat effects. According to Ambady, Paik, Steele, Owen-Smith, and Mitchell (2004) did show women who are encouraged to think for themselves in such terms of their unique characteristics and value were less likely to even experience stereotype threat in math. A general means to protecting oneself from any perceive stereotype threat and the consequences of failure does allow individuals to affirm their own self-worth. To do this people do need to be encourage to think about their own characteristics, values, skills, or even roles in which that they value or view as important (Schimel, Amdt, Banko, & Cook, 2004). According to Fratz, Cuddy, Burnett, Ray and Hart (004) did show that Whites been given the opportunity to affirm their commitment in being a nonracist and not likely to respond to stereotype fashion to implicit measures of racial associations, which is described as an indication of racial bias. By reframing the ideas to elicit meaning in similar to what is trying to convey but without any conditions of stereotype threats, just by modifying procedures to reduce salience and stereotyping and affirming self-worth then it is possible to respond to stereotype threat and avoid its pitfalls. Consequences and Mitigations But what if people cant protect themselves against stereotype threats? Stroessner and Good (2012) does express the consequences and the dangers. Performance such as the cases of students in an academic situation; effectiveness in a workplace decreases and conflict arises. Failure is attributed to stereotype and it is not the actual realities of stereotype effect on performance that does enforce and it allows the problems to persist. People do seem to handicap themselves and perform opposite in how they hope to perform. One of the most worrisome consequences for me is the self0handicapping. Stroessner and Good (2012) does express selfhandicapping as follows-

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Self-handicapping is a started defense in which people do erect barriers to performance and to provide attributions for failure. If the barriers do indeed undermine performance people then can point to the barriers instead of deficiencies in ability or effort. But if performance is successful despite these barriers the estimates of performance then can be augmented because people was able to overcome these obstacles to performance. Research does suggest that stereotype threat could lead to individuals to be more self-handicapping behavior. How can we mitigate? Well above I had talked about how to respond. Stroessner and Good (2012) did propose ways to mediate. The problem is particularly pronounced if stereotype threat does produce a multiple consequences in which it can occur and correlate. Consistent with the notion that Steels and Aronson (1995) they did suggest depending on a situation many of the process can be involved simultaneously or also in alteration (p.799). But if a multiple process does arise under stereotype threat it may be very important to identify the ones that may occur and to account for the stereotype threat effects in a different contexts. By inferring the relation between threats and performance we measure the potential mediators and look at how it does effects performance and that leads to occurring negative behavior the threats can be mediated early and educating the populations who might be affects.

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References Aronson, J., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. (1999). When White Men Can't Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors inStereotype Threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35(0), 29-46. Bosson, J. K., Haymovitz, E. L., & Pinel, E. C. (2004). When saying and doing diverge: The effects of stereotype threat on self-reported versus non-verbal anxiety. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(0), 247-255. Kray, L. J., Galinsky, A. D., & Thompson, L. (2002). Reversing the gender gap in negotiations: An exploration of stereotype regeneration. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 87(0), 386-409. Rhys, R. (2012). Stereotype Threat: An Overview Excerpts and Adaptations from Reducing Stereotype Threat. Retrieved from http://www.arizona.edu/sites/arizona.edu/files/users/user14/stereotype%20threat%20over view.pdf Schimel, J., Arndt, J., Banko, K. M., & Cook, A. (2004). Not all self-affirmations were created equal: The cognitive and social benefits of affirming the intrinsic (vs extrinsic) self.. Social Cognition, 22(0), 75-99. Sekaquaptewa, D., & Thompson, M. (2002). The differential effects of solo status on members of high and low status groups. Personality and Social Psychology Bullentin, 28(0), 694707. Stone, J. (2002). Battling doubt by avoiding practice: The efect of stereotype threat on selfhandicapping in white athletes. personality and Social Psychology Bullentin, 28(0), 16671678.

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Stone, J., Lynch, C. L., Sjomeling, M., & Darley, J. M. (1999). Stereotype threat effects on black and white athletic performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(0), 1213-1227. Stroessner, J., Fried, C. B., & Good, C. (2002). Reducing the Effects of Stereotype Threat on African American College Students by Shaping Theories of Intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(0), 113-125. Stroessner, S., & Good, C. (2012). Reducing Stereotype Threat Online Advocacy. Retrieved from http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/about_us.html Yeung, N. C. J., & Von Hippel, C. (2008). Stereotype threat increases the likelihood that female drivers in a simulator run over jaywalkers. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 40(0), 667674.