Stereotype Threat as a Stress Induced Cognitive Deficit

描述（由申请人提供）：先前关于刻板印象威胁的研究（参见Steele， Spencer, & Aronson， 2002年的综述）表明，被负面刻板印象所针对的压力会导致被污名化的个体在复杂的认知任务中表现更差，当做任何事情来提醒他们自己是负面刻板印象群体的成员时。虽然研究已经建立了这些刻板印象威胁效应的普遍性，但仍然需要一个精确和综合的模型来解释负面刻板印象对表现的干扰过程。本应用程序借鉴了现有的研究压力如何影响认知加工的文献，并概述了一个理论模型，该模型整合了认知、生理和情感过程，这些过程通过降低个人的工作记忆容量来调节刻板印象威胁对测试成绩的影响。该模型提出，消极刻板印象降低了测试情境中的表现，因为它们向个体呈现了不一致的自我观点，从而诱发：a)试图调和不一致的认知加工；b)涉及应激激素和交感神经激活增加的生理应激反应；c)试图抑制焦虑。假设这些过程中的每一个都会对个人的工作记忆能力产生负面影响，而工作记忆能力是任何复杂心理任务不可或缺的认知过程。三个初步实验的结果提供了证据，证明工作记忆容量是刻板印象威胁对绩效影响的关键中介。提出的11个实验将在这些发现的基础上扩展，以确定刻板印象威胁干扰工作记忆容量和表现的过程。本研究的一个重要影响是，在更好地理解受刻板印象威胁影响的压力相关过程中，制定使个体能够成功应对社会污名的策略变得更加可行。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Prior work on stereotype threat (see Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002, for a review) suggests that the stress of being targeted by negative stereotypes can cause stigmatized individuals to perform more poorly on complex cognitive tasks when anything is done to remind them of their membership in a negatively stereotyped group. Although research has established the generalizability of these stereotype threat effects, a precise and integrated model of the processes by which negative stereotypes interfere with performance is still needed. This application draws on existing literatures examining how stress impacts cognitive processing and outlines a theoretical model that integrates cognitive, physiological, and affective processes that mediate stereotype threat effects on test performance by reducing an individual's working memory capacity. This model proposes that negative stereotypes reduce performance in testing situations because they present the individual with inconsistent views about the self that induce, a) cognitive processing in an attempt to reconcile the inconsistency, b) a physiological stress response involving increased stress hormones and sympathetic activation, and c) attempts to suppress felt anxiety. Each of these processes is hypothesized to have a negative effect on an individual's working memory capacity, a cognitive process integral to any complex mental task. The results of three preliminary experiments are reported to provide evidence that working memory capacity is a key mediator of stereotype threat effects on performance. The 11 experiments that are proposed will expand upon these findings to identify the processes by which stereotype threat interferes with working memory capacity and performance. A significant impact of the present research is that in gaining a better understanding of the stress-related processes that are affected by stereotype threat, it becomes more feasible to develop strategies that will enable individuals to cope successfully with social stigma.