WHISTLING VIVALDI

CLAUDE STEELE

Untitled Slide

IDENTITY CONTIGENCIES

ETHNICITY

OLD

GAY

POLITICAL AFFILIATION

WOMAN

LANGUAGE

BLACK

WHITE MALE

SOCIAL IDENTITIES

• we must deal with things
• due to our social identities
• we choose the seriousness of these
• if you must deal with things due to a specific identity
• that is what makes the identity real and important

IDENTITY IN THE REAL WORLD

BLACK IDENTITY NOW

STEREOTYPE THREAT

ABOUT ONE OF YOUR IDENTITIES IS RELEVANT

STEREOTYPE THREAT SUBTLE BUT RELEVANT

• just behaving in a situation
• where one of your identities has negative stereotype
• : age, weight, race, religion, etc.
• then you know you could be judged or treated in terms of that stereotype
• if you care/are vested, then prospect of being reduced to that stereotype is upsetting

THE PROSPECT OF BEING REDUCD TO A NEGATIVE STEREOTYPE

• upsetting, confsing
• phisiological reactions
• increased heart rate/blood pressure
• allocations of brain activity
• this is STEREOTYPE THREAT!

STEREOTYPE THREAT

WHISTLING VIVALDI

THIS STORY CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF STEREOTYPE THREAT

• he's in a situation that's important to him
• he wants to be percieved positively in his neighborhood
• he does not want the problem of being viewed as menacing/threatening
• must deal with this negative stereotype-it's a condition of his identity
• he figures out a strategy for dealing with it

RESEARCH/EXPERIMENTS

• Women's PERFORMANCE in MATH

GOLF EXPERIMENT

THE EYE OF THE STORM

LINA

THE MANY EXPERIENCES OF STEREOTYPE THREAT

• EXPERIMENT:Ted Mc Dougal
• Confident white male math students -threat-confident asian math students
• EXPERIMENT: Asian Women: identity positive in math, negative in gender
• Lower and upper class French students
• Aging and Memory

IDENTITY THREAT AND THE EFFORTING LIFE

RESEARCH

• BERKELEY GROUP: black,asian,white-students in calculus
• Black and white groups most drastic contrast, whites in the middle
• PRINCETON GROUP: black, asian,white-students in organic chemistry
• asians and whites use startegies to overcome difficult class
• while black students will continue efforting

EXPERIMENT

• Over-efforting Syndrome Experiment: prevalent among black students
• What are the effects of over-efforting in a university? In the workplace?

THE MIND ON STEREOTYPE THREAT

EXPERIMENT

• Crossing the Capilano Bridge: do we have control over emotions?
• Do we know when we are under pressure?
• Do we mistake one emotion for another?
• UCSB Group: Measured physiological component under stress/anxiety
• Did identity threat interfere with performance? Caring is a high cost situation

THE STRENGH OF STEREOTYPE THREAT

IDENTITY THREAT VS. CRITICAL MASS

• explores concept of "Critical Mass"
• means there are enough minorities in a setting to alleviate stereotype threat
• explores issues of what makes us feel identity threat and
• what gives it the impac that it has

VICTOR

REDUCING STEREOTYPE THREAT

REDUCING IDENTITY STEREOTYPE THREAT:A NEW HOPE

• Doug Massey's National Study of College Performance
• Bill Bowen and Derek Bok "The Bell Curve"
• Cause and Minority Underachievement

DISTANCE BETWEEN US: THE ROLE OF

DISTANCE BETWEEN US: THE ROLE OF IDENTITY THREAT

• Americans Isolate themselves
• Isolated Cultural Zones
• Segregation Affects Location

CONCLUSION: IDENTITY AS A BRIDGE BETWEEN US

IDENTITY AS A BRIDGE

• Main Discovery
• School Leadership Implication
• Internal Characteristics vs. Identity Contingencies

QUESTIONS?/COMMENTS?