Assignment #11
Today we talked about the concept of "Stereotype threat," described by Dr. Claude Steele in his book Whistling Vivaldi. Stereotype threat occurs when a standardized, over-simplified image having to do with your social identity (or perceived membership in a social group) could be applied to you. Situations in which a negative stereotype could be confirmed may cause anxieties that undermine an individual's ability to deliver their best performance. Since most people have at least once social identity that is negatively stereotyped, almost everyone is vulnerable to stereotype threat. So, stereotype threat can affect people from many different backgrounds. What examples of stereotype threat have you observed or encountered? See the powerpoint on Whistling Vivaldi: Key Concepts below (200 words or more)
SUMMARY
Stereotype threat is very common everywhere you go and it can greatly affect a person's performance. Whether it is race, gender, abilties, or talents, it can hinder the performance if they feel threatened by it. It is known that females tend to perform worse then males do on math tests. White students tend to do perform worse on math tests than Asian students. These type of stereotype threats can make people feel uneasy and threatened.
Kitty Lui
A stereotype that I have encountered is that girls tend to not get into majors like engineering and computer sciences. Girls tend to stray away from pursuing careers in academic subjects with science and math. This conforms to the thought that women just aren’t as good as math as men are. It could explain why there is a big population of women in majors of humanities and psychology.
An example of this type of stereotype threat I have observed is when taking an introduction to computer programming class. Every week, we have new partners to work on to code a program. Majority of the class were males and when they were paired up with a female partner, they tended to take control of the whole project without any help from their partner. It seemed to me that the female partner is somewhat afraid to speak up or ask questions if they didn’t understand what was going on and just agree with what their partner was doing so they don’t fall into the stereotype. The males seem to not want any help from their female partner also. It was not only my computer programming class that was like this. I have heard other stories from friends that it happened in their class as well. There are instances where male partner would “bark” orders at their partner to tell them what to do. This stereotype can be harmful and cause a lot of women to stray away from these fields to avoid being viewed and treated a certain way by the opposite gender. Also, if one were to want to, they might always feel anxious and afraid of being viewed by that stereotype.
Nancy Lu
Stereotypes threats can greatly affect someone’s performance if they believe that the stereotype is true. It is the fear that people confirm a negative stereotype about a group you belong to. People tend to get nervous or feel anxiety, therefore performing worse. Whether it may be gender, race, performance, or abilities, these can affect a person’s performance if they encounter a stereotype threat. White students can tend to perform worse in math tests than Asian students or women might perform worse than men on math tests. When I took a computer science course over the summer, the majority of the people in the classroom were male. This caused me to lose confidence in my abilities of being able to pass the course. I felt nervous and anxious because I felt like I didn’t belong or may not have been able to be up to par with the rest of the classroom.
Omar Sarreal
A stereotype threat can be defined as a situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group. There as several instances of when a stereotype threat can be present. These stereotype threats can greatly affect the performance of an individual. The threat of the stereotype can cause anxiety which hinders the ability of a person. I personally identify as an Asiam0-American male, Filipino-American to be even more specific. Growing up and going to school in Downtown Los Angeles the schools were predominantly Hispanic. I felt that I was constantly under scrutiny for being Asian and not earning a 4.0 GPA. Many people would often bring up the model minority myth. This myth states that Asian people are a minority that became successful through hard work, so that makes it possible for other minorities to achieve the same thing. With my grades constantly being under watch and surveillance, kind of stressed me out when it came to studying. The pressure to fit the Asian stereotype as the model minority hindered my academic performance. I have also seen people use the model minority myth used as motivation to get other minority students such as Black or Hispanic to “get their act together”. That also affects the way they are able to execute tasks.
Aliyah Deiz
In my own experience I identify with various social identity. I have found that in each of them, I experienced a corresponding stereotype threat. As an asian-american here at UCI, I feel as though people expect me to be a science-based major or “good at math.” So whenever I introduce myself and explain to them that I want to be an educator, they give me a disappointed remark, or they meet me with a surprised reaction. Another identity I associate with is being a woman. I vividly remember an instance in which I got a flat tire, I pulled into a parking lot and started checking out the flat. A man approached me and asking me for help, when I told him that I could do it he replied by saying he didn’t think I would know how to. Lastly, another social identity I associate myself with is being a young person. Given, I do look very young maybe about five years younger than my actual age, I still am always treated like a child. I guess a stereotype associated with a young person, is not having enough money. I recall going into a restaurant and being told that it wasn’t happy hour anymore and that all their meals were full price
Angel Moreno
The definition to stereotype threat is one’s social identity being at risk of confirming a negative stereotype. One relevant example that is still debated about today is the one involving Hispanics in high schools and universities. Research has gave the public a better understanding that stereotype threat can affect negatively the academic performance of Hispanics that come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Another example that I have encountered during my educational career was in my algebra 2 class back in high school. A debate sparked randomly about how females are seen as poor math tests performers in relation to males. In addition, all across these years, America has been characterized as a nation where students are simply at lower levels than students attending college in nations like China or Japan. I have heard of the stereotype threat of white males facing the spectre of Asian superiority in math. Let’s not also forget about the United States of America being inferior to European nations in technology and science. All throughout high school, every student attending see black males as better athletes than white males. This of course is only seen when black males believe that they are being tested on natural athletic ability. World wide known speculation is that black males are much better than white males in basketball.