Project Proposal

Effects of stereotyping on performance of women in Math tests

Background and motivation

Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's social group (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Steel and Aronson in their study compared the performance of white and black students on standardized tests to find that black students performed poorly when their race was emphasized. On the other hand, they performed better or equivalently when it was not. The results confirmed the negative effects of stereotyping in academic contexts.
It has been shown for many other stereotypes and corresponding social groups that the performance of an individual is negatively affected in situations where they are expected to perform poorly as per the stereotype. Some examples are -
-White men in sports (e.g., Stone, Lynch, Sjomerling, & Darley, 1999)
-Elderly in memory performance (Levy, 1996)
-Women in maths (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999)
In this project, I would be looking at the stereotype that “women are weak in maths” to observe the extent to which this threat affects their performance. Motivation behind this project is make people aware of this threat in order to avoid the negative effects.

Methodology

Experiments similar to those mentioned above would be conducted. Performance of women on standardized maths tests(GRE) in two situations, one in which their gender is emphasized and the other in which it is not, would be compared. The observed performance is going to tell the extent to which stereotype threat affects the performance of women in these tests.

References

[1] Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African–Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797–811.
[2] Stone, J., Lynch, C. I., Sjomeling, M., & Darley, J. M. (1999). Stereotype threat effects on black and white athletic performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1213-1227.
[3] Levy, B. (1996). Improving memory in old age through implicit self-stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1092-1107.
[4] Spencer, Steven J., Claude M. Steele, and Diane M. Quinn. "Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 35 (1999): 4-28. Science Direct. 12 Apr. 2002. 24 Nov. 2008