Stereotype Threat

Last week, in my psychology class, I learned about the concept of stereotype threat, which is described by the pressure that a person can feel when he or she could confirm a negative stereotype about his or her group. By group I mean race, gender, sexual orientation, and other categories we identify ourselves as. For example, African-Americans have a common negative stereotype of being involved with crime. This results in many African-American individuals to feel somewhat uncomfortable around the law enforcement because they do not want to confirm any negative assumptions that a police officer can make. Futhermore, women have a negative  stereotype regarding their driving skills. On her driving exam, a women may feel more nervous than a man would because she knows that people would not expect her to drive as well.

I have been thinking about this idea and how stereotype threat can affect grades and standardized testing scores, opportunities for advancement, and motivation to succeed. I have learned that the average IQ scores are the highest for Asian, middle for White and Hispanic, and the lowest for African-American. This trend is very much parallel to the SAT score averages, as well as GPA.

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There are many factors that can influence this trend for students, including living situation, parent income and education, and, the most common reason, student’s expectations for themselves based on what other’s expect from their group. Students may adjust their performance based on the fact that they are aware of what is considered to be normal for them. For example, some Asians may work even harder because they believe that they are expected to achieve at higher standards. Having this knowledge has encouraged me to try even harder to defy this truth. 

As an African-American, I have definitely experienced this stereotype threat academically and socially. In a previous blog post, I mentioned that when I was in elementary school a teacher publicly humiliated me as she asked how many students (all white), in the hallway, liked me. At the time I had no idea how racist and discriminatory she was being, but after that day and many other similar circumstances occurred, I did not put in as much effort in elementary through middle school.

Luckily, I have developed higher standards for myself, and have been nothing but hard-working in my life. Despite what you may think, I still experience this pressure today at Penn State. Because African-Americans have mainly negative stereotypes, I constantly feel like people expect less of me. For example, I have friends that ask me to yell at their boyfriends for them when they're having an issue, assuming that I enjoy yelling and arguing with people. I have also heard other people (assuming that all I listen to is hip-hop and rap) tell me that that type of music only consists of curse words, which is completely stereotypical and not close to correct.

Even though this stereotype threat is real and uncomfortable at times, I believe that it is important to be aware of how teachers, friends, and counselors can affect the standards we set for ourselves. 

After reading this, do any of you have a stereotype threat that has negatively affected you in some way? On the contrary, maybe it has been positive for you?