Rick, The leading explanation for the mechanism for why stereotype threat leads to lower performance is one of ego-depletion. That is, "the increased concern created by the threat imposes an additional psychological burden to the task, which, in turn, reduces an individual's ability to perform to their potential" (Stone et al. (1999). Stereotype threat effects on Black and White athletic performance. JPSP, 77, 1213-1227). A good deal of evidence has accumulated to support this explanation. Thus, it is unlikely that highlighting a "privileged" group's advantage or priming it would increase its performance. I don't think you can easily enhance someone's conscious resources, but they can be easily depleted as Baumeister has so well demonstrated. However, reframing a stereotype-threatening task as a stereotype-supportive task could undue the detriment. That is obviously different than saying it would have an enhancing effect. Perhaps for members of a privileged group that are less confident in their ability on that dimension reminding them that they belong to a stereotypically competent group for that dimension might help. I don't know if anyone has investigated that. There's an experiment for your students to design! As you may know, stereotype threat has been demonstrated in quite a variety of groups. The only other ethnic groups that I am aware of are Latinos on cognitive test performance, Caucasians when compared to Asians on math, and Whites when compared to Black on athletic performance and racial knowledge. Jon =============== Jon Mueller Professor of Psychology North Central College 30 N. Brainard St. Naperville, IL 60540 voice: (630)-637-5329 fax: (630)-637-5121 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu ( http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/ )
>>> "Rick Froman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 8/31/2007 3:10 PM >>> My Testing students today wondered if stereotype threat could be turned around to boost scores of those who stereotypically do better on some types of tests (or if invoking stereotypes only leads to deficits)? For example, if a test of verbal skills was introduced as a test of spatial reasoning, might it boost male scores on the verbal test? I also see that it has been applied to gender differences in mathematical ability but I wonder if it has been applied to gender differences in verbal ability (could males do better compared to females on verbal tasks if the fact that it was a test of verbal ability was not stressed?). Also, does anyone know the extent to which it has been found to generalize to ethnic groups beyond African-Americans? Thanks, Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (479) 524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/academics/hss/faculty/rfroman.asp "Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." - Ulysses Everett McGill --- ---
