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

智力价值：本项目利用社会身份威胁的背景理论，1)研究STEM环境的特征和结构如何作为线索，提示女性如何在STEM环境中被重视和对待；2)调查情景线索影响女性在STEM中的兴趣、抱负、坚持性和表现的机制。拟议的项目包括两个阶段。第一阶段包括一项为期3年的纵向和经验抽样研究，对象为3所理论上提供信息的大学背景的女性和男性：(A)一所大型公立大学(芝加哥伊利诺伊大学)，(B)一所女性？S学院(米尔斯学院)，以及(C)一所理工学院(加州州立理工大学)。将公立大学作为生态有效的对比组，研究人员将调查几种情景线索(例如，数字表征、教授的性别、女性和/或STEM的明确机构价值观等)。找出对女性STEM结果影响最大的因素。这项工作评估了学生大学生涯(1-3年级)的关键时间段，当他们在新环境中评估线索，决定专业，学习与专业相关的课程，并选择职业选择。第二阶段包括六项实验实验室研究，调查线索影响女性STEM结局的因果机制。特别是，他们测试了学术机构对STEM能力和学习的取向是否缓和了情景线索对女性STEM结果的影响程度。从文献中引出了两套制度取向：(A)STEM能力的固定与可塑性层级理论；(B)竞争与合作取向。由于STEM设置很复杂，可能包含不止一个情景线索，实验将在其他已知对STEM中的女性产生负面影响的线索的背景下调查这些取向(例如，数字代表不足、性别隔离以及个人和机构的取向之间的一致性)。假设促进努力和坚持不懈，同时防范业绩关切的体制取向--即STEM能力的可塑性(v.固定)理论和合作(v.竞争)环境--将改善代表性不足和性别隔离对妇女STEM成果的负面影响。数据使用方差分析和线性回归技术进行分析，这些技术允许对因果机制进行测试。更广泛的影响：该项目提供了关于情景线索如何影响女性在STEM的兴趣、抱负、坚持性和表现的直接检验。这项工作有可能阐明STEM环境对女性STEM结果产生负面影响的方面，并提供可用于STEM课堂和培训STEM教职员工和学生的具体、具体和易于适应的策略。通过为机构和个人提供战略，这项工作有望为如何创造公平和诱人的STEM环境提供洞察力。这些发现将在心理学和教育学杂志以及国家会议上积极传播。还将开发一个网站，以便进行更广泛的传播。此外，研究结果将积极与高中和大学的STEM教育工作者分享。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参与了每个阶段。妇女和任职人数不足群体的成员将被招聘为本科生和研究生研究助理。

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.