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。与许多侧重于生物学或社会化因素解释妇女在STEM中代表性不足的解释不同，刻板印象威胁的概念--广义上定义为对确认对其群体的负面刻板印象的担忧--是一种途径，有助于理解环境因素如何导致妇女在STEM任务中的表现低于她们的潜力，并报告对STEM的兴趣下降。拟议的研究方案利用刻板印象威胁理论的最新进展，包括多个定性不同的刻板印象威胁的框架，来评估和测试新颖的、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，如自我肯定和榜样，已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，可能无效或被误导。拟议研究的主要目标是利用多重威胁框架解决以下两者之间的差距：需要实施成功的干预措施，减少STEM妇女经历的明显的陈规定型威胁；缺乏对多管齐下的干预措施进行审查的基础科学研究，这些干预措施破坏了多种陈规定型威胁。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测试(使用随机分配)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，从而促进妇女对STEM的兴趣。第六项研究将是一项实地研究，在STEM入门课程中，男女在入学前被随机分配到干预或对照条件下。将评估干预对班级选择、兴趣、参与和表现的影响。理论上，拟议的研究将推动刻板印象威胁理论的发展，特别是在干预方面。务实地，拟议的研究将使干预者了解一些刻板印象的威胁干预措施的有限范围。更重要的是，它将展示考虑多种不同的陈规定型威胁或设计、制定和实施多管齐下、理论驱动的减少陈规定型威胁干预措施的效用，以支持妇女在STEM中的招募、保留、重新进入和提高地位。

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.