Week 7: Culture and Psychology

What is Stereotype Threat?

Lauren is a black attorney at an all-white law firm. The other attorneys acknowledge she is good at her job but whenever she makes a mistake, she believes they’re thinking “It’s because she’s black.” 

Definition

Stereotype threat occurs "when a person is worried about behaving in a way that confirms negative stereotypes about members of their group” (www.thoughtco.com).  This type of stress can actually affect how someone performs in certain situations. 

Psychological Experiment

In 1995, an experiment was conducted with students taking a GRE test at Stanford University. In one group, the students were told they would be tested on intellect. In another group, students were asked to identify their race before taking the test. In the latter group, the scores of the black students decreased by 50%. Apparently, just thinking about their race and the related stereotypes caused them to perform poorly. (As an interesting side note, due to lobbying from psychologists the SAT exam now has students identify their ethnicity at the end of the test.)

My Students

I wonder if my young students have thoughts about stereotype threat themselves. Do my female students believe they’re not good at math? Do my resource students believe they’ll never be smart enough because they’re “special”? It’s important to identify students that might be experiencing stereotype threat and help them see a more correct view of themselves.

Self Affirmations

According to an article in Thoughtco.com, one way to decrease the effects of stereotype threat is to participate in self-affirmations.  Individuals who experience stereotype threat should focus on things important to them such as hobbies, interests, or friends. As a teacher, I believe introducing this idea of self-affirmations to our students can help them to re-direct their thoughts and to see themselves as valuable and capable.

What are your thoughts? How do we help our students get past stereotype threat and live up to their potential?

Sources:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/stereotype-threat-definition-examples.html

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-stereotype-threat-4586395

https://video.byui.edu/media/06+Culture+and+Psychology/0_s4h3d6bc