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[Multiple Matching] Practice

Practice 1
Stereotype Threat and Performance

A. Stereotype threat refers to the phenomenon whereby individuals perform more poorly on a
task when a relevant stereotype or stigmatized social identity is made salient in the performance
situation. Steele and his colleagues maintained that this reduced performance results from an
added pressure or concern that a poor performance could be seen as confirming a negative social
stereotype about their ingroup. Thus, in sharp contrast to socialization theories, inherent ability
theories, or even educational resource theories for why men outperform women on math tests or
why European Americans outperform African Americans on standardized tests, stereotype threat
offers a uniquely situational explanation for these group-performance differences.

B. In support of the stereotype threat explanation, research shows that group-performance

differences can be eliminated when the same test is given in a stereotype-free context. For
example, African Americans show increased stereotype activation and perform worse than their
White peers when the task they are performing is described as diagnostic of intellectual ability.
However, when the same task is framed as unrelated to intelligence, levels of stereotype
activation are much lower and African American students perform equally to White students.
Similarly, women perform worse than men on a math test when they are told that the test has
revealed gender differences in the past, but they perform equally to men when they are told that
the test is “gender fair”. The ease with which stereotype threat can be created in testing situations
is demonstrated further by evidence that White men, a group that is not traditionally thought of
as being negatively stereotyped as being poor at math, perform more poorly on a math test when
they believe they will be compared with Asian men.

C. Taken together, these findings suggest that activating negative stereotypes about a social
identity that one possesses can create an extra situational burden that interferes with the ability
to perform as well at a mental task as might otherwise be possible. Although the body of research
establishing the existence of these effects is ever expanding, the processes by which performance
is reduced have remained elusive in most studies. The assertion that reduced performance results
from an added pressure or concern has led many researchers to examine the role of several
affective mechanisms, such as anxiety, evaluation apprehension, or physiological arousal, in
producing stereotype threat. For example, several studies have demonstrated that stereotype

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threat conditions lead to higher levels of anxiety that parallel performance decrements on
complex tasks. In addition, evidence show that self-reported anxiety partially mediated the
effects of a stereotype threat manipulation on women’s math performance. However, many other
stereotype threat studies have reported no differences in self-reported anxiety between
stereotype threat conditions.

D. Although self-reported measures of anxiety show mixed results, there is some evidence to
suggest that stereotype threat involves heightened levels of anxiety and arousal. For example, a
lot of research reported that African Americans show increases in blood pressure under conditions
of stereotype threat, and in our previous research, women who thought that their test
performance would be used as an indicator of women’s math ability, in general, felt that it was
more important that they do well on the test. In addition, manipulations designed to reduce
anxiety or arousal, such as engaging in self-affirmations or expressive writing, or providing a cue
to misattribute arousal, seem to diffuse the effects of stereotype threat on performance.

E. The above findings provide converging evidence that stereotype threat involves affective
experiences associated with increased anxiety and apprehension. However, these past studies
also highlight the extent to which researchers interested in the underlying mechanism involved in
stereotype threat have focused almost exclusively (with one notable exception, discussed below)
on the affective side of the threat equation. In contrast, our goal in the present research was to
examine how the fear of confirming a negative stereotype about a salient group identity disrupts
cognitive processing. Because most stereotype threat studies involve evidence of reduced
performance on a complex cognitive task, we were interested in understanding the nature of the
cognitive disruption that stereotype threat causes. Specifically, we were interested in the effects
of stereotype threat on working memory capacity.

In which sections are the following mentioned? Your answers:

Identical result between two groups when a test claimed to be unassessable 86. _________
of a quality
Mediators of stereotype apprehension assessed so far 87. _________
Anticipation from stereotype even for unassociated groups 88. _________
The difference of stereotype from other theories in terms of attribution 89. _________
The direct nature of the current study 90. _________
The sole aspect of focus of the conceptual definition in previous studies 91. _________

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An explanation provided by researchers regarding decreased capability 92. _________

Physiological responses when exposed to stigma 93. _________
An emerging pattern from a meta-analysis 94. _________
Ways to offload cognitive burden 95. _________

Practice 2

A. No other science has been more concerned with the nature of prejudice and stereotyping than
social psychology. Since its inception, the field has surveyed the content of stereotypes, examined
their effect on social perception and behavior, explored the processes through which they are
formed, examined motivational bases of prejudice, and, along with personality psychologists,
examined the origins of prejudice in human character. It is surprising, then, that there has been no
corresponding attention to the experience of being the target of prejudice and stereotypes. Of all
the topics covered in Gordon Allport’s (1954) classic The nature of prejudice, this one has been
among the least explored in subsequent research. Happily now, this situation has begun to
change, at least in the sense of there having emerged a greater interest in the effects of, and
reactions to, societal devaluation. For the most part, this work has focused on stigmatization, the
experience of bearing, in the words of Goffman (1963), ‘‘a spoiled identity’’— some characteristic
that, in the eyes of society, causes one to be broadly devalued.

B. The present research extends this focus by examining the experience of being in a situation
where one faces judgment based on societal stereotypes about one’s group, an experience we
refer to as ‘‘stereotype threat.’’ This experience begins with the fact that most devaluing group
stereotypes are widely known throughout a society. For example, in a sample of participants who
varied widely in prejudice toward African–Americans, Devine (1989) found that all participants
knew the stereotypes about this group. Possibly because communicative processes play such a
central role in the acquisition of stereotypes—that is, public and private discourse, the media,
school curricula, artistic canons, and the like—knowledge of them is widely disseminated
throughout a society, even among those who do not find them believable. This means that people
who are the targets of these stereotypes are likely to know them too. And herein lies the threat. In
situations where the stereotype applies, they face the implication that anything they do or any
feature they have that fits the stereotype makes it more plausible that they will be evaluated
based on the stereotype. As in the opening quote by Woolf, there is always that assertion ‘‘to
protest against, to overcome.’’ This predicament, we argue, is experienced as a self-threat.

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C. Consider the aging grandfather who has misplaced his keys. Prevailing stereotypes about the
elderly—their reputed memory deficits, for example—establish a context where his actions that fit
the group stereotype, such as losing keys, make it a plausible explanation of his actions.
Stereotype threat, it is important to stress, is conceptualized as a situational predicament—felt in
situations where one can be judged by, treated in terms of, or self-fulfill negative stereotypes
about one’s group. It is not, we assume, peculiar to the internal psychology of particular groups.
It can be experienced by the members of any group about whom negative stereotypes
exist—generation ‘‘X,’’ the elderly, white males, etc. And we stress that it is situationally
specific—experienced in situations where the critical negative stereotype applies, but not
necessarily in others. In this way, it differs from the more cross-situational devaluation of
‘‘marking’’ that, for example, stigma is thought to be.

D. In the present research, our central proposition is this: when a stereotype about one’s group
indicts an important ability, one’s performance in situations where that ability can be judged
comes under an extra pressure—that of possibly being judged by or self-fulfilling the
stereotype—and this extra pressure may interfere with performance. We test this proposition in
relation to women’s math performance, both as a test of the theory and as a means of
understanding the processes that depress women’s performance and participation in
math-related areas. Consider their predicament. Widely known stereotypes in this society impute
to women less ability in mathematics and related domains. Thus in situations where math skills are
exposed to judgment—be it a formal test, classroom participation, or simply computing the
waiter’s tip—women bear the extra burden of having a stereotype that alleges a sex-based
inability. This is a predicament that others, not stereotyped in this way, do not bear. The present
research tests whether this predicament significantly influences women’s performance on
standardized math tests.

E. We believe, however, that these processes may also contribute to gender differences in other
forms of math achievement as well as test performance (and to achievement deficits in other
groups that face stereotype threat). For example, the stereotype threat that women experience in
math-related domains may cause them to feel that they do not belong in math classes.
Consequently they may ‘‘disidentify’’ with math as an important domain, that is, avoid or drop the
domain as an identity or basis of self-esteem—all to avoid the evaluative threat they might feel in
that domain. Such a process, then, originating with stereotype threat, may influence women’s
participation in math-related curricula and professions, as well as their test performance. But for
now, we turn to the question of gender differences in math test performance.

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In which sections are the following mentioned? Your answers:

The feeling of being alienated 86. _________
The way outgroup homogeneity spread 87. _________
A term coined for collective derogatory traits 88. _________
A shortage of research relative to other disciplines 89. _________
Resistance to assimilation to the prejudice 90. _________
Two objectives assessed in testing the hypothesis 91. _________
Eschewal from an internal apprehension 92. _________
Stereotype threat as an situationally inconsistent stimuli 93. _________
[Task 9] 94. _________
Stereotype as an excuse for action 95. _________

Practice 3

Book Review - Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us
Why are students of color not graduating from college at the same rate as white students? Why
might white students be reluctant to take courses with a substantial number of students of color
in them? What can educators do to address these problems?

A. In his new book, Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, social
psychologist Claude Steele helps us find answers to these questions based on findings from social
psychology experiments. Steele's book sets forth an argument for understanding how contextual
factors - not individual characteristics or personal beliefs motivated by prejudice or malice - help
explain so-termed "racial achievement gaps" in education and ongoing societal racial and ethnic
segregation.

B. In an accessible, page-turning account written for a general audience, Steele explains how
identity contingencies - the conditions that a given social identity forces us to face and overcome
in a particular setting - affect our everyday behavior and perpetuate broader societal problems.
Expanding on his prior work, he focuses on a specific type of identity contingency: stereotype
threat, or the fear of what people could think about us solely because of our race, gender, age,
etc. An African American male walking down the street at night, for example, faces the threat of
being seen as potentially violent. Steele recounts how, to deflect this stereotype threat, African
American New York Times writer Brent Staples whistled Vivaldi while walking the streets of Hyde

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Park at night to signal to white people that he was educated and nonviolent. Another example of
stereotype threat would be a white student in a class that is predominantly nonwhite facing the
threat of being perceived as racist. Steele explains how such threats follow us like a "cloud."

C. Steele summarizes research findings that show how the concerns students face as a result of
these stereotype threats affect a wide range of educational outcomes. He explains how the threat
of a stereotype and the extra efforts required of students who try to dispel it interfere with
academic performance. The additional stress and anxiety, which can operate without awareness,
can lead to underperformance in the classroom or on standardized tests relative to ability.
Stereotype threat can also undermine feelings of belonging, competence, and aspiration.
Importantly, Steele explains how contextual cues, such as being in an environment where there
are few students or faculty of color, or where the curriculum marginalizes the experiences of
students of color, are enough to trigger a stereotype threat that undermines performance.

D. Steele offers practices educators can use to help counteract these messages. For instance,
self-affirmation exercises in the classroom, particularly for students of color, can be enough to
counter negative messages that trigger stereotype threat. Some other practices include
emphasizing incremental views of intelligence (i.e., intelligence as an expandable as opposed to
fixed characteristic) and facilitating faculty-to-student or student-to-student mentoring and
cross-racial interactions. Steele's insights are so helpful that I was disappointed when he
relegated some other important discussions to footnotes, such as when he outlines how findings
about the effects of stereotype threat call into question past research that suggests families, not
schools, are responsible for the achievement gap.

E. In the later chapters of the book, Steele focuses on how identity threats influence interracial
interactions more broadly. He explains how our actions, conscious or not, contribute to persistent
racial segregation as, understandably, each of us may retreat to the safety of a more
homogeneous environment that does not trigger the risk of a stereotype threat. But Steele's
outlook is hopeful: the factors that contribute to our living segregated lives also have the
potential to help us bridge our differences. We are all affected by identity threats, and awareness
of this commonality should help us empathize with the experience of others.

F. Overall, Steele provides strong evidence demonstrating how situational cues affect student
performance, and educators can benefit from the practical implications of his research in their
efforts to remedy racial inequities in education. While the importance of addressing structural
factors should not be overlooked, simple institutional practices can counter the otherwise

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powerful cues that trigger stereotype threat for students of color. The findings presented in this
book unearth the powerful and prevalent ways in which group identity affects us all and
demonstrate the need to acknowledge this fact: we need to be "identity conscious" if we are going
to improve race relations across our society.

In which sections are the following mentioned? Your answers:

[Task 1] 86. _________
[Task 2] 87. _________
[Task 3] 88. _________
[Task 4] 89. _________
[Task 5] 90. _________
[Task 6] 91. _________
[Task 7] 92. _________
[Task 8] 93. _________
[Task 9] 94. _________
[Task 10] 95. _________

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Writing
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Writing

Answer these questions:

Passage 1
●​ What is the definition of ‘stereotype threat’?
●​ How do people in targeted groups perform relative to the other group when stereotype
threat is made salient and when not clarified?
●​ Which social groups are most likely to be affected by stereotype threat?
●​ How does stereotype threat affect people’s ability to perform in cognitive tasks?
●​ Which methods are used to reduce anxiety or arousal from stereotype threat?

Passage 2
How are stereotypes acquired?
What happens when a stereotype threat is directed towards an important ability?

Writing
Choose 1 out of 2 prompts and construct a complete outline.
Prompt 1: Some people said that girls perform worse in math compared to boys because of their
incapability; others said that it is because of girls’ ‘internal belief’ that they cannot compete with
boys in math. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Prompt 2:

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