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Feeling Math Effects of Stereotype Threat, Evaluator Apprehension, and Social Identity on Heart Rate Variability and Female Math Performance
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Douglas, Sonya Maria |
| Copyright Year | 2017 |
| Abstract | Women are vastly underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, and prevalent sex-stereotypes may be a contributing factor as to why, both academically and socially. This study investigated the relationships between stereotype threat, evaluator apprehension, and social math identity on female math performance and heart rate variability. Participants’ received either a sex or a community prime and completed a written mathematical assessment and a verbal math task in the presence of an evaluator as heart rate variability was recorded. Evaluator sex was manipulated, and participants were surveyed and scored as having either “weak” or “strong” social math identities. Analysis by ANOVA failed to reproduce findings detailing depressed mathematical performance with regards to sex prime or heart rate variability, but Regression found both social math identity and evaluator sex to significantly predict heart rate variability (increased) at a time of stress during the experiment. These preliminary findings may help influence strategies for decreasing stereotype threat with regards to math performance in women. Feeling Math Effects 3 Feeling Math Effects of Stereotype Threat, Evaluator Apprehension, and Social Identity on Heart Rate Variability and Female Math Performance In modern academia and technology, a pressing issue exists in the disproportionate lack of women and minority students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields (Khanna, 2013; Parmer, 2016). While educational institutions, private interest groups, corporations, and governments spend a significant amount of time, effort, and money on programs intended to even the playing field, the negative stereotypes and societal norms that hinder achievement of underrepresented groups cannot be so easily removed (United States, 2013; Lewin, 2012). Stereotype threat is the feeling an individual has when they perceive risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their in-group as a self-characteristic; Stereotype threat encompasses the experience where one feels they will be judged by a relevant negative stereotype instead of by their merit (Steele, 1997; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999; Steele & Aronson, 1995). Stereotype threat has been shown to decrease cognitive performance when compared to neutral or positive prime control groups (Steele & Aronson 1995; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). Similarly, independent research has demonstrated that the behavior and performance of an individual can be affected by the presence of an audience or an evaluator. Evaluator apprehension then, is defined as the anxiety that stems from knowing one is being watched, evaluated, or judged (Rosenberg, 1965; Cottrell, Wack, Sekerak, & Rittle, 1968; Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004). In both instances, poor performance is due in large part to the depletion of cognitive resources such as working memory capacity (Schmader & Johns, 2003), and misdirected heightened psychological reactivity, such as increased heart rate (Steele & Aronson 1995; Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008; Jamieson, Peters, Greenwood, & Altose, 2016). While not all increased physiological activity is deleterious, individuals who respond to cognitive tasks by appraising them as threats are more likely to exhibit decreased working memory capacity as compared to those who respond by appraising the task as a welcome challenge (Tomaka, Blascovich, Kibler, & Ernst, 1997; Schmader & Johns, 2003, Beilock, Rydell, & McConnell 2007). In the current study, we are interested in observing interactions between a physiological effect of stereotype threat, heart rate variability, and the mathematical performance of women in a high-achieving student population, and additionally, whether these physiological changes are Feeling Math Effects 4 heightened with regards to the presence of an evaluator. Furthermore, we wish to examine whether manipulating the sex of the evaluator boosts or negates felt sex stereotype threat, and whether this potential effect can be observed physiologically. A prominent sex stereotype is that females are predisposed to underperform in math when compared to males, despite the large body of research to the contrary. Meta-analysis of over 340 studies showed negligible differences in overall mathematical performance between sexes, even accounting for the slight variations observed across age groups (Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990; Lindberg, Hyde, & Peterson, 2011). Although no statistically significant differences exist between sexes regarding mathematical proficiency, research has shown that women perform poorly on mathematical assessments when primed with female identity (Brown & Josephs, 1999; Shih, Pittinsky, & Amdaby, 1999; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999; Ben-Zeev, Fein, & Inzlicht, 2005; Keller, 2002; Keifer & Sekaquaptewa, 2007). In one such study, undergraduate AsianAmerican women were asked to complete a quantitative mathematical assessment. Though all participants completed the same assessment, researchers observed depressed performance when participants’ sex identity was made salient, and enhanced performance when their ethnic identity was made salient (Shih, Pittinsky, & Amdaby, 1999). Here, the positive stereotype is that Asian individuals outperform their peers in mathematics, while the negative stereotype is that women underperform in mathematics as compared to their peers. It stands to reason then that participants could be expected to perform better when primed with a positive stereotype. This could also hold true for women of high achievement. For women admitted to technical institutions that value representation of women in STEM, female students are surrounded by capable female peers and professional role models as well as various social supports that aim to cultivate academic excellence and foster confidence in STEM (Beede, Julian, Langdon, McKittrick, Khan, & Doms, 2011). Given these support systems and the subsequent “break the stereotype” student culture that has emerged in their wake, it is possible that the math performance of high-achieving women of extremely selective technical institutions would be increased if they as participants were primed with the qualifier of their own position within their exclusive community, and depressed when primed with their sex identity. According to Steele (1997), to succeed in a given field of study, “one must be identified with school achievement in the sense of it being a part of one’s self-definition” (p. 613). By calling attention to membership within an exclusive institution of STEM-focused higher education, this participant community Feeling Math Effects 5 prime reinforces the idea of STEM identity and achievement; for this reason it is likely to act as a positive reinforcement, similar to how the sex prime initiates a potential stereotype threat response. Both stereotype threat and evaluator apprehension decrease performance in large part due to heightened physiological reactivity and the subsequent depletion of cognitive resources necessary to perform the task at hand (Steele & Aronson 1995; Schmader et. al 2008; Jamieson et. al 2016). Research has shown that, on the cognitive side, stereotype threat makes stereotypic thoughts accessible (Davies, Spencer, Quinn, & Gerhardstein, 2002; Johns, Inzlicht, Schmader 2008). Moreover, as previously stated, research has shown stereotype threat and evaluator apprehension to reduce working memory capacity, hindering individual’s abilities to perform well on cognitively intensive tasks (Inzlicht, McKay, & Aronson 2006; Johns, Inzlicht, & Schmader, 2008). Working memory is a limited cognitive resource, and is an articulated version of the central executive processor of short-term memory (Schmader & Johns, 2003). Working memory capacity includes both temporary storage of information as well as attention capability (Engle, Tuholsky, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999). When stereotype threat is activated, this attention capability is distracted, and prevents the whole of the individual’s cognitive resources from being focused on the project at hand, resulting in depressed performance (Shmader & Johns, 2003; Beilock, Rydell, & McConnell 2007). In a lab setting, the anxiety produced by stereotype threat, or the anxiety produced by evaluator apprehension would be expected to consume cognitive resources that otherwise would be utilized for relevant math tasks, decreasing performance (Davies, Spencer, Quinn, & Gerhardstein, 2002). The Current Study The proposed study will further explore the linkages between stereotype threat, evaluation apprehension, and acute physiological stress, and their subsequent ramifications on female math performance. Though previous research has shown that female participants exhibit depressed performance when primed with a scenario-specific negative qualifier (here female identity), no studies have explored this phenomenon in conjunction with evaluator apprehension, especially within the context of a technical institution (STEM-oriented). The goal of the current research is to examine whether stereotype threat would decrease female math performance within the context of a technical institution, and further, to observe whether evaluator apprehension, and the Feeling Math Effects 6 sex of the evaluator, when coupled with either a positive or a negative prime, influences the participants’ mathematical performance and heart rate in a lab setting. We hypothesized one, that female participants primed with their sex identity would exhibit depressed performance when compared to participants primed with their community identity at a selective STEM-oriented university, mirroring past studies. Two, we hypothesized interactions between stereotype threat prime, heart rate variability, and the sex of the evaluator, anticipating that by manipulating the sex of the evaluator, felt stereotype threat would either be amplified or decreased accordingly, with a male evaluator eliciting |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4868&context=mqp-all |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-012517-113112/unrestricted/Feeling_Math_Effects_SMD.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
