Running head: STRESS INFLUENCE ON STEREOTYPE THREAT 1
STRESS INFLUENCE ON STEREOTYPE THREAT 12
Influence of Stress on the Effects of Stereotype Threat
Abstract
This study looks into the effects of stress and the effects of stereotype threat. It also looks into the interaction that the two factors have with one another. A 2x2 between subjects design only females was utilized to test these effects and interactions when given a verbal test (RAT). Three hypotheses were tested in this experiment and all three showed significant results, with two showing significantly statistical results. Our first hypothesis showed that women in a high stereotype threat scored significantly lower on the RAT. For our second hypothesis, we saw that women in a stress induced condition also scored significantly lower on the RAT. We also saw that the interaction between Stress and Stereotype Threat showed a significant result.
Keywords: Stereotype Threat, Stress Induced, Stress Reduced, Interaction,
Influence of Stress on the Effects of Stereotype Threat
Successful Performance in the realm of academia is paramount for a plethora of reasons in any individual’s life. For that reason we believe that it is important to understand the effects of stereotype threat and how it may impact students under different conditions. For example, if a student is in a more stressful environment will the effects of stereotype threat have a greater impact. There have been previous studies that have addressed the topic of stereotype threat, and they have even attempted to see if the impact could be somewhat reversible. As demonstrated by Aronson, Fried and Good (2002), The African American students (and, to some degree, the white students) encouraged to view intelligence as malleable reported greater enjoyment of the academic process, greater academic engagement, and obtained higher grade point averages than their counterparts in two control groups. The takeaway from this study was that they were able to alter the student’s representation of intelligence, thus changing their environments impact of stereotype threat. Another example of a study assessing the possibility of attacking stereotype threat through means of teaching intelligence as malleable has seen similar results. According to Good, Aronson and Inzlicht (2003), results showed that females in both experimental conditions earned significantly higher math standardized test scores than females in the control condition. Once again we can see that there seems to be underlying causes for the effects of stereotype threat.
Therefore, we are going to examine if stress induced or stress reduced conditions can be an underlying cause for effects of stereotype threat in this study. We will be testing 3 separate hypotheses, two of which will deal with the main effects of stress and stereotype threat and one for the interaction between two. Our first hypothesis is as follows: We believe that women in a high stereotype threat group will perf...
