Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Motivating Allyship Behaviors to Broaden Participation in STEM

该奖项是NSF社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）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。在科罗拉多博尔德大学的Tiffany Ito博士和Evava Pietri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研究鼓励结盟的方法。结盟已被证明可以增加归属感和保留在STEM领域的可能性。这个项目将采取激励的方法来解决共同的障碍，参与盟友关系。具体来说，这个项目将研究如何激励盟友的基础上关键的心理和群体层面的需求。这项研究还将考察人们对成为盟友的动机的看法。虽然盟友关系已被证明可以增加归属感和信心，但这些效果只会在个人愿意和有动力作为盟友的情况下才会发生。本研究的第一个目的是探讨鼓励联盟行为的策略，以及这些策略背后的机制。这些研究从社会认同理论和自我决定理论的桥梁，以提供一个更全面的框架来理解的动机因素，为弱势群体的成员作为盟友的弱势群体。研究人员将采用各种实验，将联盟视为满足基本的心理和群体需求，以测试满足这些需求是否会促进联盟行为。本研究的第二个目的是探索STEM群体对结盟策略的反应，扩大我们对结盟的心理影响的理解。综上所述，这项研究将确定策略，以鼓励盟友关系，是1）有效地增加盟友关系的行为，2）被认为是积极的，和3）并导致积极的STEM成果。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) 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. Tiffany Ito and Dr. Evava Pietri at the University of Colorado Boulder, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating ways to encourage allyship. Allyship has been shown to increase sense of belonging and likelihood of retention in STEM fields. This project will take a motivational approach to tackle common barriers to engagement in allyship. Specifically, this project will examine ways to motivate allyship based on key psychological and group-level needs. This research will additionally examine perceptions of the motivation to be an ally. Although allyship has been shown to increase sense of belonging and confidence, these effects will only occur to the extent that individuals are willing and motivated to act as allies. The first aim of the research is to examine tactics to encourage allyship behaviors and the mechanisms that underpin these tactics. These studies bridge theorizing from social identity theory and self-determination theory to provide a more comprehensive framework to understand motivational factors for members of advantaged groups to act as allies for disadvantaged groups. The researcher will employ a variety of experiments that frame allyship as meeting basic psychological and group-level needs to test whether meeting such needs promotes allyship behaviors. The second aim of this research is to explore responses to allyship strategies across STEM groups, expanding our understanding of the psychological impacts of allyship in general. Taken together, this research will identify strategies to encourage allyship that are 1) effective in increasing allyship behaviors, 2) perceived positively, and 3) and result in positive STEM outcomes.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.