Promoting Women's Interest in STEM Careers by Reducing Sterotype Threats

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管在过去的30年里取得了进步，但女性在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的代表性仍然不足。与许多关注女性在STEM中代表性不足的生物学或社会化因素的解释相反，刻板印象威胁的概念——广泛定义为对确认对一个群体的负面刻板印象的关注——是理解情境因素如何导致女性在STEM任务中表现低于其潜力并报告对STEM兴趣下降的途径。该研究项目利用刻板印象威胁理论的最新进展，包括一个多重、定性不同的刻板印象威胁框架，来评估和测试新的、理论上驱动的刻板印象威胁干预措施。虽然经验支持的干预措施，如自我肯定和角色榜样已经被证明可以减少刻板印象威胁的负面影响，但这可能只适用于一组特定的刻板印象威胁，当应用于其他刻板印象威胁时，可能无效或误导。本研究的主要目的是利用多威胁框架来解决实施成功干预措施以减少女性在STEM中所经历的明显刻板印象威胁的应用需求与缺乏检查破坏多重刻板印象威胁的多管齐下干预措施的基础科学研究之间的差距。我们将通过六项研究来实现这一目标。五项研究将通过实验（使用随机分配）测试理论驱动的干预措施的能力，以减少不同形式的刻板印象威胁的经历，从而提高女性对STEM的兴趣。第六项研究将是一项实地研究，在STEM入门课程中，女性和男性在注册课程之前被随机分配到干预或控制条件。将评估干预对班级选择、兴趣、参与和表现的影响。从理论上讲，这些研究将促进刻板印象威胁理论的发展，特别是在干预方面。在实际应用中，本研究将告知干预主义者一些刻板印象威胁干预的有限范围。更重要的是，它将展示考虑多种不同的刻板印象威胁，或设计、开发和实施多管齐下、理论驱动的减少刻板印象威胁干预措施，以支持女性在STEM领域的招聘、保留、再入和提升的实用性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although there has been progress over the past 30 years, women are still under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. In contrast to many explanations that focus on biological or socialization factors for why women are under-represented in STEM, the concept of stereotype threat-defined broadly as a concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one's group-is an avenue for understanding how situational factors cause women both to perform below their potential on STEM tasks and to report a decreased interest in STEM. The proposed program of research uses recent advances in stereotype threat theory, including a framework of multiple, qualitatively distinct stereotype threats, to evaluate and test novel, theoretically driven stereotype threat interventions. Although empirically supported interventions such as self-affirmation and role models have been shown to reduce the negative effects of stereotype threat, this may only be true for a particular set of stereotype threats and may be ineffective or misguided when applied to other stereotype threats. The primary objective of the proposed research is to use the Multi-Threat Framework to address the gap between the applied need to implement successful interventions reducing the distinct stereotype threats experienced by women in STEM and the lack of basic scientific research examining multi-pronged interventions that undermine multiple stereotype threats. We will accomplish this objective across six studies. Five studies will experimentally test (using random assignment) the ability of theoretically driven interventions to reduce the experience of different forms of stereotype threats and as a result, promote women's interest in STEM. The sixth study will be a field study in which women and men in introductory STEM classes are randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition before they enroll for classes. The impact of the intervention on class selection, interest, participation, and performance will be assessed. Theoretically, the proposed studies will advance stereotype threat theory, in particular in terms of intervention. Pragmatically, the proposed studies will inform interventionists of the limited scope of some stereotype threat interventions. More importantly, it will demonstrate the utility of considering multiple, distinct, stereotype threats or designing, developing, and implementing multi-pronged, theoretically-driven stereotype threat-reducing interventions to support recruitment, retention, re-entry, and advancement of women in STEM.