SBP: Creating cultures of growth: An organizational mindset approach to reducing social identity threat among women in STEM

该奖项是NSF社会、行为和经济科学(SBE)博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划和SBE社会心理学计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在印第安纳大学玛丽·墨菲博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位早期职业科学家，他研究了组织心态在塑造女性在STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)方面的经验和成果中所起的作用。在STEM领域招聘和留住更多女性是美国社会迫切关注的问题。妇女经常选择退出STEM领域的一个原因是，各种微妙的情景线索和信息可能导致妇女在STEM经历社会身份威胁(即担心她们可能因性别而被贬值或排除在外)。先前的研究表明，影响女性在STEM中遭遇身份威胁的一个强有力的线索是，特定组织中有权势的人对STEM能力的固定或可塑性--即组织的心态--持有的信念。但是，STEM组织如何向现在和未来的员工传达他们的心态呢？也就是说，什么政策、程序和行动会让人们认为一家公司拥护一种固定的或增长的心态？如何利用对这些组织心态信息的理解来减轻在参加STEM和实现STEM方面的性别差距？具体而言，研究的第一阶段包括一系列的实验室实验，以确定在不同的组织职能中传达组织心态的线索和信息。这些实验对这些线索对女性在STEM职业环境中的身份威胁、兴趣、信任和表现的体验的影响进行了严格的随意测试。第二阶段包括一项随机对照试验，包括经验抽样和纵向成分，以考察如何改变组织心态，以减少STEM工作环境中女性的身份威胁经历。这项研究对社会认同威胁的语境理论和内隐理论(即思维定势)文献都有贡献。虽然数量不多但数量越来越多的研究已经将组织心态的感知与代表性不足群体成员的身份威胁体验联系起来，但还没有研究检验这些组织心态的感知来自哪里，或者如何改变它们。这项研究还通过阐明增加妇女在STEM组织中的参与和保留的战略，对社会产生了更广泛的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Social Psychology Program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Mary Murphy at Indiana University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the role of organizational mindsets in shaping women's experiences and outcomes in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Recruiting and retaining more women in STEM fields is a pressing concern in US society. One reason that women often opt out of STEM fields is that a variety of subtle situational cues and messages can lead women to experience social identity threat (i.e. the concern that they may be devalued or excluded because of their gender) in STEM. Previous research has shown that one robust and powerful cue that affects women's experiences of identity threat in STEM is the beliefs that powerful people in a given organization hold about the fixed or malleable nature of STEM abilities - that is, the organization's mindset. But how do STEM organizations communicate their mindsets to current and future employees? That is, what policies, procedures, and actions lead people to view a company as espousing a fixed or a growth mindset? And how can an understanding of these organizational mindset messages be leveraged to mitigate gender disparities in participation and achievement in STEM? The proposed research addresses these questions using an innovative multi-method approach.Specifically, Phase 1 of the proposed research consists of a series of laboratory experiments to identify the cues and messages that communicate organizational mindsets across several different organizational functions. These experiments provide a rigorous casual test of the impact of these cues on women's experiences of identity threat, interest, trust, and performance in STEM professional settings. Phase 2 consists of a randomized control trial with experience sampling and longitudinal components to examine how organizational mindsets can be changed to mitigate experiences of identity threat for women in STEM workplace settings. The proposed research contributes to both contextual theories of social identity threat and to the implicit theories (i.e. mindsets) literature. Although a small but growing number of studies have linked perceptions of organizational mindsets to experiences of identity threat among members of underrepresented groups, no research has yet examined where these perceptions of organizational mindsets come from or how they can be changed. This research also carries broader implications for society by illuminating strategies to increase women's participation and retention in STEM organizations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.