GSE/RES A Multi-Method Investigation of the Situational Cues and Contexts Inhibiting Women in STEM Settings

智力优势：本项目利用社会身份威胁的语境理论，1)研究STEM环境的特征和结构如何作为女性在STEM环境中如何被重视和对待的线索，2)研究情境线索影响女性在STEM中的兴趣、抱负、坚持和表现的机制。建议项目分为两个阶段。第一阶段包括一项为期3年的纵向和经验抽样研究，研究对象是3所理论上信息丰富的大学：(a)一所大型公立大学（伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校），(b)一所女子大学？米尔斯学院（Mills college）和(c)理工大学（California State polytechnic university）。以公立大学作为生态有效的对照组，研究人员将调查几个情境线索（例如，数字代表性，教授的性别，女性和/或STEM的明确制度价值观等），以确定最影响女性STEM结果的因素。这项工作评估了学生在大学生涯的关键时期（1-3年），他们在新环境中评估线索，决定专业，参加专业相关课程，选择职业选择。使用HLM技术对数据进行分析。第二阶段包括六项实验实验室研究，研究线索影响女性STEM结果的因果机制。特别是，他们测试了学术机构对STEM能力和学习所采取的取向是否会调节情境线索对女性STEM成果的影响程度。从文献中提取的两套制度取向进行了研究：(a) STEM能力的固定与可塑理论，以及(b)竞争与合作取向。由于STEM环境复杂且可能包含多个情境线索，因此实验将在已知对STEM女性产生负面影响的其他线索（例如，数字代表性不足，性别隔离以及个人和机构取向之间的一致性）的背景下调查这些取向。据推测，促进努力和坚持，同时防范绩效担忧的制度取向——即STEM能力的可塑（vs .固定）理论和合作（vs .竞争）环境——将改善代表性不足和性别隔离对女性STEM成果的负面影响。数据分析使用方差分析和线性回归技术，允许因果机制的检验。更广泛的影响：该项目直接考察了情境线索如何影响女性在STEM领域的兴趣、抱负、毅力和表现。这项工作有可能阐明STEM环境中对女性STEM成果产生负面影响的各个方面，并提供具体、具体、易于适应的策略，可用于STEM课堂，并培训STEM教师和学生。通过为机构和个人提供策略，这项工作将为如何创造公平和有吸引力的STEM环境提供见解。这些发现将在心理学和教育期刊以及国家会议上积极传播。还将编制一个网站，以便进行更广泛的传播。此外，研究结果将与高中和大学的STEM教育工作者积极分享。该项目促进了研究和教育的整合，因为本科生和研究生的研究助理在每个阶段都参与其中。妇女和代表性不足群体的成员将被聘为本科生和研究生的研究助理。

INTELLECTUAL MERIT: This project draws on the contextual theory of social identity threat to 1) examine how the features and structures of STEM settings serve as cues to women about how they might be valued and treated in STEM settings, and 2) investigate the mechanisms by which situational cues influence women's interests, aspirations, persistence, and performance in STEM. The proposed project involves 2 phases. Phase 1 consists of a 3-year longitudinal and experience-sampling study of women and men in 3 theoretically informative college contexts: (a) a large, public university (University of Illinois, Chicago), (b) a women?s college (Mills College), and (c) a polytechnic university (California State Polytechnic University). With the public university serving as an ecologically-valid comparison group, the researchers will investigate several situational cues (e.g., numerical representation, gender of professors, explicit institutional values of women and/or STEM, etc.) to identify the ones that most impact women's STEM outcomes. This work assesses critical time periods in students' college careers (years 1-3) when they appraise the cues in their new environments, decide upon a major, take major-related courses, and select career options. The data are analyzed using HLM techniques.Phase 2 consists of six experimental laboratory studies that investigate the causal mechanisms by which cues affect women's STEM outcomes. In particular, they test whether the orientations that academic institutions adopt towards STEM abilities and learning moderate the extent to which situational cues affect women's STEM outcomes. Two sets of institutional orientations, drawn from the literature, are investigated: (a) fixed v. malleable lay-theories of STEM ability, and (b) competitive v. cooperative orientations. Because STEM settings are complex and likely to contain more than one situational cue, the experiments will investigate these orientations within the context of other cues known to negatively affect women in STEM (e.g., numerical under-representation, gender-segregation, and the congruence between an individual's and an institution's orientation). It is hypothesized that institutional orientations that facilitate effort and persistence while guarding against performance concerns--namely malleable (v. fixed) theories of STEM abilities and a cooperative (v. competitive) environment--will ameliorate the negative effects of under-representation and gender segregation on women's STEM outcomes. Data are analyzed using ANOVA and linear regression techniques that allow for tests of causal mechanisms. BROADER IMPACTS: The project offers direct examinations of how situational cues influence women's interests, aspirations, persistence, and performance in STEM. This work has potential to illuminate aspects of STEM settings that negatively influence women's STEM outcomes and provide specific, concrete, and easily adaptable strategies that can be used in STEM classrooms and to train STEM faculty and students. By providing strategies for both institutions and individuals, this work is poised to provide insight into how equitable and inviting STEM environments can be created. The findings will be actively disseminated in psychology and education journals and at national conferences. A website will also be developed to enable broader dissemination. In addition, the findings will be actively shared with STEM educators at both the high school and university levels. The project fosters the integration of research and education as undergraduate and graduate research assistants are involved at every stage. Women and members of underrepresented groups will be recruited as undergraduate and graduate research assistants.