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

该奖项是NSF的社会，行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划和SBE的社会心理学计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励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。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在印第安纳州大学的玛丽墨菲博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金支持一个早期的职业科学家调查组织心态在塑造女性的经验和成果中的作用STEM（科学，技术，工程和数学）。在STEM领域招聘和留住更多女性是美国社会的一个紧迫问题。女性经常选择退出STEM领域的一个原因是，各种微妙的情境线索和信息可能会导致女性在STEM中经历社会身份威胁（即担心她们可能因为性别而被贬低或排斥）。先前的研究表明，影响女性在STEM中身份威胁体验的一个强大而有力的线索是，特定组织中有权势的人对STEM能力的固定或可塑性的信念-也就是组织的心态。但是，STEM组织如何将他们的思维方式传达给当前和未来的员工？也就是说，什么样的政策、程序和行动会让人们认为一家公司支持固定或增长的心态？如何利用对这些组织心态信息的理解来减轻STEM参与和成就方面的性别差异？拟议的研究使用创新的多方法方法来解决这些问题。具体来说，拟议研究的第一阶段由一系列实验室实验组成，以识别在多个不同的组织职能中传达组织心态的线索和信息。这些实验提供了一个严格的休闲测试的影响，这些线索对妇女的身份威胁，兴趣，信任的经验，并在STEM专业设置的性能。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，以研究如何改变组织心态，以减轻STEM工作场所中女性的身份威胁体验。所提出的研究有助于社会身份威胁的背景理论和内隐理论（即心态）的文献。虽然一个小的，但越来越多的研究已经联系起来的组织心态的看法，身份威胁的代表性不足的群体的成员之间的经验，还没有研究这些组织心态的看法从何而来，或如何改变。该研究还通过阐明提高妇女在STEM组织中的参与和保留的战略，为社会带来更广泛的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.