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

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）项目和SBE社会心理学项目的一部分。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事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在印第安纳大学玛丽·墨菲博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家，研究组织心态在塑造女性在STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）领域的经历和成果方面的作用。在STEM领域招募和留住更多女性是美国社会迫切关注的问题。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导致女性在STEM中经历社会身份威胁（即担心她们可能因性别而被贬低或排斥）。先前的研究表明，影响女性在STEM中身份威胁经历的一个强有力的线索是，特定组织中有权有势的人对STEM能力的固定或可塑性质的信念——即组织的心态。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呢？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心态或成长型心态？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？提出的研究使用一种创新的多方法方法来解决这些问题。具体而言，本研究的第一阶段包括一系列实验室实验，以确定跨几个不同组织功能沟通组织心态的线索和信息。这些实验为这些线索对女性在STEM专业环境中的身份威胁、兴趣、信任和表现的影响提供了严格的随机测试。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，以研究如何改变组织思维方式，以减轻STEM工作场所环境中女性的身份威胁体验。本研究对社会身份威胁的语境理论和内隐理论（即心态）文献都有贡献。尽管越来越多的研究将组织心态的感知与代表性不足群体成员的身份威胁经历联系起来，但尚未有研究调查这些组织心态的感知来自何处，以及如何改变。这项研究还通过阐明提高女性在STEM组织中的参与和保留的策略，对社会产生了更广泛的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.