Why do Research Prizes have Effects on Minorities' Biomedical Research Careers?

描述（由申请人提供）：美国需要在科学领域，特别是在生物医学领域进行全球竞争，但少数群体虽然是美国人口中增长最快的部分，但在这些领域的代表性不足。根据教育部的数据，2007-2008年授予生物和生物医学科学的6,918名博士学位中，只有3.5%授予了非洲裔美国人，只有3.7%授予了西班牙裔美国人。大学和独立组织实施了一些方案，鼓励代表性不足的群体完成本科学位，进入研究生院，获得博士学位，并进入科学研究生涯。增加少数民族学生进入生物医学职业的人数的一个方案是使用少数民族学生年度生物医学研究会议（ABRCMS）颁发的本科少数民族学生研究奖。研究奖励可能是研究对职业选择产生影响的机制的一个特别好的方法。此外，这项研究可能有助于改善奖品竞争作为干预措施，并可能有助于设计更有效的其他类型的干预措施。该项目将回答四个问题，两个初步的和两个主要的。初步的问题是，获奖是否对个人在生物医学科学领域从事职业的可能性产生影响，以及一个机构中的一个人获奖是否对同一机构中的其他人产生影响。第一个主要问题是，对个人的影响主要是由于信号（改变世界如何看待个人），改变生物医学科学事业成功的主观概率（改变个人如何看待世界），还是身份形成和内在动机（改变个人）。第二个主要问题是，一个人获奖对同一机构中其他人的影响是否可能是由于动机增加或改变了生物医学研究成功的主观概率。我们建议从两个方面来研究第一个主要的研究问题。首先，我们将通过寻找三种机制理论所期望的奖励的不同效应，来寻找奖励对不同群体的不同影响。有关个人的最新信息将从公共来源和个人本身获得。其次，我们将通过调查来确定获奖者如何认为获奖对他们产生了影响，以及失败者如何认为竞争对他们产生了影响。 公共卫生相关性：该项目询问如何以及为什么奖励有前途的少数民族学生研究生物学导致他们进入生物医学，一个迫切需要他们的领域。获奖是否改变了世界对获奖学生的看法？获奖是否改变了学生对自己的看法，使他们相信自己能成为成功的科学家？获奖是否改变了学生对自己作为科学家的看法？因此，该项目将提供有关如何增加少数民族学生成为生物医学研究人员的数量的答案。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The need for the U.S. to compete globally in science and specifically in biomedicine grows, but minority groups, although the fastest growing segments of the American population, are underrepresented in these fields. According to the Department of Education, only 3.5% of the 6,918 doctorates awarded in biological and biomedical sciences in 2007-2008 went to African Americans and only 3.7% went to Hispanics. A number of programs have been implemented by universities and independent organizations to encourage underrepresented groups to complete undergraduate degrees, enroll in graduate school, obtain doctorates, and enter scientific research careers. One program to increase the number of minority students entering careers in biomedicine is the use of prizes for undergraduate minority student research awarded by and at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Studying prizes may be a particularly good way of studying mechanisms that produce effects on career choices. Plus, this research may help improve prize competitions as interventions and may help design more effective interventions of other types. The project will answer four questions, two preliminary ones and two primary ones. The preliminary questions are whether receiving a prize has an effect on the probability that an individual pursues a career in the biomedical sciences and whether the fact that one individual in an institution wins a prize has an effect on others in the same institution. The first primary question is whether the effects on individuals are primarily due to signaling (changing how the world sees the individual), changing the subjective probability of success in biomedical science career (changing how the individual sees the world), or identity formation and intrinsic motivation (changing the individual). The second primary question is whether the effect of one individual winning a prize on others in the same institution is likely caused by increased motivation or altering the subjective probability of success in biomedical research. We propose to investigate the first primary research question in two ways. First we will look for differential impacts of the prize on different groups of individuals by looking for differential effects of the prize that would be expected by the three theories of mechanism. Current information about the individuals will be obtained from public sources and from the persons themselves. Second, we will use a survey to determine how winners believe winning the prize affected them and how losers believe that the competition affected them. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The project asks how and why do prizes for promising minority students researching biology lead them to enter biomedicine, a field that urgently needs them. Do the prizes awarded change how the world sees the students now that they are prize winners, do the prizes change students' view of themselves in the world so that they believe they can be successful scientists, or do the prizes change the students' sense of themselves as scientists? Thus, this project will provide answers about how to increase the number of minority students who become biomedical researchers.