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Causes and effects of stereotypes
Stereotypes and their effects
How stereotypes affect society
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There have been many studies done on task performance that have indicated that many factors can affect task performance. In this study, we are going to focus on how self-esteem and stereotype threat affect task performance. This topic is very important to study because it will help us understand about how our performance is affected by self-esteem and stereotype threat. At some point in our lives our performance is been measured, in daily activities as job, school and in sport. When one measures task performance, people should be aware if other thing affects their performance. There is not a lot of information about self-esteem and task performance. However, there is a possibility that self-esteem and performance are related but there is a big gap in the literature. Not a lot of studies have been done where self-esteem affect task performance. Many studies support the notion that self-esteem affects the way people construe their actions. Individuals with greater levels of self-esteem build on personal strengths to succeed. On the other hand, individuals with low self-esteem focus on their flaws in order to be accepted.
There have been many studies conducted about stereotype threat. Does stereotype threat affect task performance? Steel and Aronson (1995), proposed that negative stereotypes about a minority group interfere with the groups performance. The reason is because the minority groups are afraid of confirming the stereotype and that this affects their performance. Theory states that stereotype threat can lead to negative thinking, which in turn would lead to a decrease in their performance “The studies established the existence of stereotype threat and provided evidence that stereotypes suggesting poor performance, wh...
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...l, Robert; Danso, Henry (2007) Stereotype Threat Impacts College Athletes’ Academic Performance: Current Research in Social Psychology vol.12 no.5
Rydell’ J. Robert & Boucher L. Kathryn (2009) Capitalizing on Multiple Social Identities to Prevent Stereotype Threat: The Moderating Role of Self-Esteem: Personal and Social Psychology Bulletin 36; 239
Shrauger J. Sidney & Rosenberg E. Saul (1969) Self-esteem and the effects of success and failure feedback on performance: State University of New York at Buffalo
Stangor, Charles; Carr, Christine & Kiang, Lisa (1998) Activating Stereotypes Undermines Task Performance Expectations: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 75, 1191-1197
Steele M. Claude & Aronson, Joshua (1995) Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology no. 797-812
Steele, C. M. (1997). A Threat In The Air: How Stereotypes Shape Intellectual Identity And
Stereotype threat is present in our everyday lives and it prevents people from doing things to their fullest abilities. It is the fear of confirming a negative stereotype about you resulting in weaker performance. An example where stereotype threat exists is in the case where African Americans do poorly on tests compared to Caucasian individuals. This occurs because the stereotype is that African Americans are intellectually inferior to Caucasian people. In a setting where the negative stereotype is brought to mind, African Americans will perform poorly on tests when in fact they are able to perform equally as well if not better than Caucasian individuals. (Article 1) Stereotype threat limits individuals in their performance in academics, sports or even something like driving. By reducing stereotype threat, performance in many areas can improve and people can perform tasks to their fullest potentials. Stereotype threat leads to underachievement in academic and work related situations. People may feel they cannot rise above the stereotype and become limited in their successes. (article 1 I think) The purpose of this paper is to inform on stereotype threat and how to reduce it, as well as to introduce my own investigation aimed at reducing stereotype threat.
Stereotypes are everywhere and can often create problems for people, however they become even more detrimental to teens, especially at schools. Writer and science correspondent for the NRA, Shankar Vedantam, in his article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance,” explains that stereotypes can hurt the performance of the person that it is associated with. He supports his claim by first explaining that how well people do on tests are determined by who administers the questions, then he explains that studies show that when people take tests and they are reminded of negative stereotypes that associate with them, then they don’t do as well, and finally he states that the studies are being widely ignored by all the people who should take heed of the findings, such as test makers and college acceptance people. Vedantam’s purpose is to tell you about the research conducted by Huang in order to inform you that stereotypes can affect performance on tests. In my 9th grade class at Point Loma High School, we were given questions about stereotypes from our teacher to interview two students.
Steele, C. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 6, 613-629.
Jensen, Mark, et al. "The Athlete Stigma in Higher Education." College Student Journal 41.2 (2007): 251-273. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Stone, Jeff, C. Keith Harrison, and JaVonte Mottley. "“Don't Call Me A Student-Athlete”: The Effect Of Identity Priming On Stereotype Threat For Academically Engaged African American College Athletes." Basic & Applied Social Psychology 34.2 (2012): 99-106. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Mar. 2014
Izumi, Yutaka and Frank Hammonds. "Changing Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes: The Roles of Individuals and Groups." Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal (2007): 845-852.
Stereotype has always been a major situation among racial society, since the 1960’s all the way till today. Stereotype has been used as a separation among other racial ethnicities. Racial stereotyping has actually made humans believe how other’s actions are really supposed to be, and how they should be treated. However, some people from the racial stereotyping societies had disapproved this discrimination and had fought for their rights; because they believed that all humans are equal and must converge together as a unity of equality. Every person has his or her own different mind perspective on stereotyping; that can lead him or her to major consequences or moral lessons. Stereotyping has blinded many people from facing reality and realizing that we are all-equal, and have fought for that equality right. But there are some who won’t accept that change and want to keep things the way they used to be, until they finally realize it with a consequence.
Inzlicht, Michael. Stereotype threat: theory, process, and application. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
McHugh Engstrom, Catherine, and William E. Sedlacek. "A Study Of Prejudice Toward University Student-Athletes." Journal Of Counseling & Development 70.1 (1991): 189-193. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 May 2014.
“Stereotypes unreliable, exaggerated generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account” (Schaefer 40). Stereotypes can be positive, but are usually associated with negative beliefs or actions such as racial profiling.
Ryan, Katherine E., and Allison M. Ryan. "Psychological Processes Underlying Stereotype Threat And Standardized Math Test Performance." Educational Psychologist 40.1 (2005): 53-63. Education Research Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping are important topics at the cause of debating within social psychology. A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people, in which certain traits cling to all members, regardless of actual individual variation (Akert, Aronson, & Wilson, 2010). As humans, people assign objects and individuals into categories to organize the environment. Individuals do this for not only organization, but also survival. Is stereotyping inevitable? That is the question; according to Devine (2007), it is, but Lepore and Brown (2007) have to disagree. Devine believes that “stereotyping is automatic, which makes it inevitable.” On the other hand, Lepore and Brown are not convinced that stereotyping is automatic, and have claimed, after observation, that it depends on the individual.
Does a Self-fulfilling stereotype Drag down performance? I do think that stereotypes can affect people but it can only affect you if you let it. Even the strongest people let comments get to them sometimes.
Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. “Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors” (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost every society, becoming aware of our perceptions of others, as well as differentiating between both positive and negative stereotypes can help us overcome those stereotypes.