Adapting the values affirmation intervention to a multi-stereotype threat framework for female students in STEM
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Adapting the values affirmation intervention to a multi‑stereotype threat framework for female students in STEM Esra Çetinkaya1 · Sarah D. Herrmann2 · Yasemin Kisbu‑Sakarya1 Received: 20 October 2019 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract We examined if an adapted version of a brief social psychological intervention following a multi-threat framework can enhance the mental task performance of female college students under stereotype threat. In experiment 1, under self-as-target stereotype threat, as expected, students who were exposed to the self-affirmation intervention had the highest task performance. However, under group-as-target stereotype threat, we found similar performances of the students in both the self-affirmation and group-affirmation conditions compared to control condition. In experiment 2, we showed that the extent a female student is identified with her gender group moderates the effectiveness of the group-affirmation intervention. The current research encourages researchers to consider different understandings of self while instituting common stereotype threat interventions rather than taking a uniform approach. Keywords Stereotype threat · Values affirmation · Gender gap · Self-affirmation · Gender identification · STEM
* Yasemin Kisbu‑Sakarya [email protected] Esra Çetinkaya [email protected] Sarah D. Herrmann [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Koc University, Rumeli Feneri Yolu, Sariyer, 34450 Istanbul, Turkey
2
Weber State University, 3848 Harrison Blvd, Ogden, UT 84408, USA
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1 Introduction Female students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are more likely to drop out of school compared to male students, get lower exam grades in courses such as physics and perform worse than male students in quantitative tests, especially in settings characterized by gender biases (Strenta et al. 1994; Pollock et al. 2007; Steele et al. 2002; Camp et al. 2019). Even though structural factors contribute to these discrepancies, psychological processes such as stereotype relevant worries have also been suggested as playing a significant role (Walton and Spencer 2009). Stereotype threat research demonstrated that a concern that one’s actions can be viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype may undermine performance in a negatively stereotyped domain (Steele and Aronson 1995). In support of the stereotype threat explanation, a large body of studies have demonstrated that the salience of negative stereotypes about one’s identity group systematically impact performance on evaluative tasks in a given context (Appel and Kronberger 2012; Steele and Aronson 1995; Steele 1997; Aronson et al. 1999; Scherbaum et al. 2011). For example, experimental studies have shown that even though female and male students had similar performance on an intermediate level math test, in the case of more advanced problems, female students performed worse than their male counterparts (Gallagher et al. 2
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