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Stereotype Threat Theory

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The stereotype threat, according to Jessi L. Smith (2004), is a situation experience when a person/persons feel under pressure from possibly conforming to judgmental stereotypical beliefs directed at him/her/them. The pressure and vulnerability from this experience causes the individual to subconsciously perform below their typically standard, even if they are extremely skilled or gifted in that area. Thus causing the individual to confirm the stereotype even though they had attempted to negate it. (Smith, 2004, p. 177). The stereotype threat theory was first discovered by researchers Claude Steel and Steven Spencer, and in 1995 the first study was done. The study consisted of black and white students being asked to take a very difficult test. …show more content…

According to Roberson and Kulik (2007), the stereotype threat presents itself within the following groups: “racial and ethnic minorities, members of lower socio-economic classes, women, older people, gay and bi-sexual men, and people with disabilities,” and can intersect with race, intelligence, age, and gender specific constructs. (p. 27). These constructs and intersections resulted in several other experiments, conducted by Roberson and Kulik, taking place after the classic experiment, such as, testing whether white men would conform to the stereotype of being racist after being told the stereotype before and implicit association test. Research was also conducted on whether or not women would confirm the stereotype that they weren’t as intelligent as men in the mathematics field, by telling them the test was meant to test the scoring difference between the two sexes. All subjects of these experiments confirmed their stereotype threat. So, it is obvious that the stereotype threat theory has proven to be quite effective against its targets, however, two conditions must be present in order for it to occur, task difficulty and personal task investment. These conditions are a part of the of the stereotype threat process which consists of the following steps: 1. Person faces difficult task. 2. Person searches for explanation of the task. 3. The context of the task reinforces the stereotype. 4. Person’s performance of task is disrupted by the stereotype threat. 5. Supervisors and coworkers assume that the individual has simply confirmed the stereotype. 6. Person becomes frustrated and demotivated. (Roberson and Kulik, 2007, p.

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