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

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、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。在科罗拉多大学博尔德分校Tiffany Ito博士和Evava Pietri博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家研究鼓励盟友关系的方法。同盟关系已被证明可以增加STEM领域的归属感和留任的可能性。这个项目将采取一种激励的方法来解决参与盟友关系的共同障碍。具体地说，这个项目将根据关键的心理和群体层面的需求，研究如何激发盟友关系。这项研究还将考察人们对成为盟友的动机的看法。虽然同盟关系已被证明可以增加归属感和自信心，但这些效果只会在个人愿意和有动机作为同盟的情况下才会出现。本研究的第一个目的是研究鼓励盟友行为的策略以及支撑这些策略的机制。这些研究将社会认同理论和自我决定理论衔接起来，为理解优势群体成员作为弱势群体盟友的动机因素提供了一个更全面的框架。研究者将采用多种实验，将盟友关系框架为满足基本心理和群体层面的需求，以测试满足这些需求是否会促进盟友行为。本研究的第二个目的是探索STEM群体对盟友战略的反应，扩大我们对盟友关系一般心理影响的理解。综上所述，本研究将确定鼓励盟友关系的策略，这些策略1)有效地增加盟友关系行为，2)积极地感知，3)并产生积极的STEM成果。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 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.