Stereotypes. Intelligence

Transcription

1 Stereotypes and the Nature and Nurture of Intelligence Joshua Aronson New York University

2 The Gender STEM Gap Women outperform men in all other areas of academia, they earn only25% of the degrees in Computer Science, Physics, and Engineering College: women perform worse on standardized tests of mathematics but do as well in their courses; far fewer choose math/ hard science majors Middle School: equal grades but girls begin to lose confidence in math abilities; test score gap on standardized tests emerges K-12: Girls Perform at or above the same level as boys on tests and in school Birth-Preschool Girls demonstrate less intrinsic interest in spatial

3 The Black-White Gap Prison or Missing Blacks vastly overrepresented in US Prisons/MIA College Blacks 1/2 as likely to go; 2x as likely to drop out High School: 50% drop out rate; 2-4 year reading gap K-12 Lower standardized test scores and grades Birth-Preschool Equal ability test scores

4 Common Explanations for GapS Lower innate IQ The Bell Curve Lawrence Summers and female IQ Poverty (Rothstein) parenting, neighborhood, school, etc. Subculture that discourages academic success Acting White

5 80% believe the government is hiding evidence of space Aliens Larger Culture of Anti-Intellectualism Surveys indicate that among Americans: 20% believe that the Sun revolves around Earth 20 % cannot locate the U.S. on a World Map 33% do not know what day we celebrate the adoption of Declaration of Independence 40% do not know who America fought during WWII 29% do not know who is the current Vice President

6 American students score highly in only one area relative to their international peers: selfconfidence. Source: OECD. -6-

7 American Anti-Intellectualism An

8 My View: Good parents, good schools, good teachers neighborhoods are protections from a culture that discourages intellectualism, stereotypes our children, and distributes second chances unequally. African Americans fail not because they are African, but because they are American. Girls fail in math not because they are girls, but because they are American girls.

9 Part One: The Nature of Intelligence

10 Intelligence is both Fragile and Malleable

11 Human intelligence is among the most fragile things in nature. It doesn t take much to distract it, suppress it, or even annihilate it. --Neil Postman

12 Human intelligence is more fragile and malleable than most people think far more so than the than the makers of the SAT and other tests would have us believe. Joshua Aronson (2009)

13 Intelligence is fragile As school psychologist in Portland, Oregon, Robert Jarvis IQ tested 75 kids per year. Quite to his surprise, Jarvis found that for about a third of the kids (of all races), IQ scores dropped over time; they were getting dumber from being in school. This is remarkable, because in general, school tends to increase IQ scores.

14 The Fragility of Intelligence Physiological factors that Lower IQ Sleep deprivation Iodine deficiency Lead Poisoning Blow to the head Stress hormones during development (911 babies)

15 The Fragility of Intelligence Some social factors: Interpersonal Chemistry (feeling smarter, funnier, etc. with certain people) Threatened Safety (Sharkey, 2009) Threatened Belongingness (Baumeister, 2002) Stereotype Threat/ Identity threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995)

16 Stereotype/Identity Threat Apprehension arising from the awareness of a negative stereotype or personal reputation in a situation where the stereotype or identity is relevant, and thus confirmable everyone experiences this in some form

17 Examples of Identity Threat Jewish person in a money context African American Taking an IQ test Woman called upon in math class George W. Bush and public speaking

18 They misunderestimated me --G.W. Bush, Nov 6, 2000 Estimate Bush s SAT Score Average estimate = 1080 Bush s Actual Score = 1330

19 Stereotype Threat Anecdotal Evidence When I talk in class, I feel as though I m totally on stage, like everyone s thinking, oh what s the Black girl going to say? But I don t speak up in class much anymore, so I guess it s not a big deal. Stanford Undergraduate

20 Stereotype Threat Anecdotal Evidence Group work was a nightmare. I could tell that no one thought my ideas were any good because I m Latina. NYU Undergraduate

21 Stereotype Threat Anecdotal Evidence Here come those psychologists to tell us how stupid we are. Latino 7 th Grader

22 Stereotype Threat Anecdotal Evidence Everyone expects me to be good at math because I m Asian, so I feel extra stupid because I m not so good at math. NYU Undergrad

23 Laboratory Experiment on Stereotype Threat Steele & Aronson (1995). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Method: Reducing Evaluative Scrutiny Measure: Blacks and Whites Verbal GRE Performance

24 Verbal Test Performance # of items solved blacks whites 3 1 "Measuring Your Ability" "Not Measuring Your Ability"

25 Verbal Test Performance # of items solved blacks whites blacks whites 3 1 "Measuring Your Ability" "Not Measuring Your Ability"

26 Verbal Test Performance Corrected for SAT 10 # of items solved blacks whites blacks whites 2 1 STEREOTYPE THREAT NO STEREOTYPE THREAT

27 Laboratory Experiment on Stereotype Threat Steele & Aronson (1995) Method: Inducing the Relevance of Race Measure: Blacks and Whites Verbal GRE Performance

28 Verbal Test Performance whites blacks whites # of items solved blacks 2 1 Asked to Indicate Race Not Asked to Indicate Race

29 Additional Studies Finding Performance Effects Women Taking Math Tests Latinos taking verbal tests Elderly taking short-term memory tests Low SES Students taking verbal tests Blacks and Miniature Golf Women taking tests of Political Knowledge, Driving, Chess White males taking tests of social sensitivity Princeton Students from Non-preppy Backgrounds on math tests White Males Taking Math Tests

30 When White Men Can t Do Math Aronson, et al., (1999). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Items Solved Test of Your Math Ability Test of Your Math Ability Relative to Asians

31 When White Men Can t Do Math Aronson, et al., (1999). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Items Solved Test of Your Math Ability d =.93 Test of Your Math Ability Relative to Asians

32 Stereotype Threat in the Real World

33 Educational Testing Service Field Study: The AP Calculus Test Asking About Gender or After Before Taking AP

34 ETS Field Study: Asking Gender Before Taking AP Calculus Test Hurts Girls (Stricker, 2002). Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

35 Educational Testing Service Study: Asking Gender Before AP Calculus Test Hurts Girls, Helps Boys

36 California Exit Study Experiment: Comparing performance on High and Low Stakes Tests Do High Stakes Tests Hurt Minorities?

37 Effects of High Stakes on High School Graduation 80% Effect of CAHSEE Requirement on Graduation Rates, Bottom Quartile Students, By Race (estimates adjusted for prior ELA achievement, poverty, ELL status, and gender) 2003 (Pre-CAHSEE) Graduation rate 60% 40% 44% 43% 46% 31% 53% 34% 61% 45% 20% 0% Whites Hispanics Blacks Asians

38 Field Experiment: Women in the Science Pipeline Highest Level Calculus Students

39 Field Study: Women in the Science Pipeline Highest Level College Calculus Students Good, Aronson, & Harder (in press) Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

40 Field Study: Women in the Science Pipeline Advanced Level Women Outperform Advanced Men in Calculus When Threat Reduced Good, Aronson, & Harder (2008) Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

41 From Vulnerability to Inability "No circle is more vicious than the one having to do with intelligence. Children who may be only a little behind their peers to begin with tend to avoid those things that could have made them a little smarter. As a result they fall further and further behind. Meanwhile the kids who started out a little ahead are doing push-ups with their brains. Judith Rich Harris

42 End of Part One

43 Part Two: The Nurture of Intelligence

44 Reducing Stereotype Threat Mindset Matters

45 Identity Salience

46 You are what you do and you do what you think you are

47 Biological Differences in Spatial Ability Largest sex differences: Spatial Ability May account for most of the math test score gap Testosterone?

48 Vandenberg Mental Rotation Task A meta-analysis containing 286 data sets and 100,000 subjects found a highly significant male advantage for mental rotation; this pattern remains stable across age and has not decreased in recent years.

49 25 Identity Salience Influences Women s Mental Rotation Performance WOMEN MEN 20 VMR SCORE GENDER ELITE COLLEGE STUDENT CONTROL McGlone & Aronson (2006). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

50 Identity Salience Influences Women s Mental Rotation Performance WOMEN MEN VMR SCORE GENDER ELITE COLLEGE STUDENT CONTROL McGlone & Aronson (2006). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

51 25 20 Identity Salience Influences Mental Rotation Performance WOMEN MEN VMR SCORE GENDER ELITE COLLEGE STUDENT CONTROL

52 Identity Salience In the School Crellin Elementary School, a poor school on the Maryland West Virginia border; could be the best school in America Went from 0% proficiency to 100% proficiency in 3 years after new principal (50% of students reached advanced level) 7 years after graduating from Crellin, graduates comprise 75% of the students in AP classes in high school despite being 1/3 the size of the other feeder elementary schools

53 Identity Salience In School Many lessons to be learned from Crellin Students do science rather than study science, so they identify themselves as scientists very early Principal and teachers constantly remind them that they are Crellin students and thus are special: Crellin girls tie their own shoes Crellin girls don t say ewww Crellin students work hard, etc. We don t do that here at Crellin

54 The Growth Mindset

55 Experiment Alter, Aronson, et al (2009) Question: Can a growth mindset improve math test scores among black school children (aged 9-13)? Method: Black North Carolina students primed for race or not, given growth mindset or not. Measure: Math Test Performance (EOG)

56 Math Test Performance Black Grade School Students

57 Reducing the effects of Stereotype Threat In the real world: Shaping implicit theories Question: Can getting people to believe in expandable intelligence reduce effects of stereotype threat on GPA? Method: Attitude change Measure: End of year GPA

58 Year End Follow-Up: GPA MALLEABLE CONTROL GPA Blacks Whites Aronson, Fried & Good (2002). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

59 Reducing Stereotype Threat in Middle School: A field Intervention Question: Can psychological intervention raise test scores of minority students? Method: mentoring study; attitude change Conditions: Malleability of intelligence Role Models: senior students who stress the normality of early difficulty Control (drug abuse message) Measure: Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)

60 7th Grade Reading TAAS--Latinos Good, Aronson & Inzlicht (2003) Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 100 READING TAAS SCORE Malleability Intervention Role Model Control

61 7th Grade Girls Math TAAS Math TAAS SCORE GIRLS BOYS 70 Malleability Intervention Role Model Control Good, Aronson & Inzlicht (2003) Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

62 Affirming Self-Esteem

63 Affirm Students Self Concepts Geoffrey Cohen et al, 2006 Method: At beginning of school year, Students wrote essays about important personal values Own values (experimental group) Other people s values (control group)

64 End-of-quarter course grade: Replication (After 2 treatments) (Adjusted for baseline performance within-race) Control Affirmation 2 European Americans Minority Students Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master, 2006, Science

65 Satisfying the Need to Belong

66 Satisfying the Need to Belong Systems that increase cooperation, belonging, engagement, challenge Uri Triesman s Study AVID Program Jigsaw Classroom

67 Relevance

68 Science Interest Low Expectations High Expectations Control Relevance Source: Hulleman, C. S. & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2009). Promoting interest and performance in high school science classes. Science, 326, doi: /science

69 Course Grades Control Relevance Low Expectations High Expectations Source: Hulleman, C. S. & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2009). Promoting interest and performance in high school science classes. Science, 326, doi: /science

70 Putting it all Together Miss A Most of her students made significant IQ gains (4-33 IQ points) while students of other teachers did not do nearly so well (some lost IQ) 25 yrs later, most of her students obtained high status jobs; none had low status jobs! Remembered her to have had high expectations and affection, and support for all her students.

71 Modern Day Miss A Principal of Crellin Elementary School Knows and loves all the children in her small school (100 kids, 7 teachers) Everyone belongs; everyone matters; everyone works hard treats one another well She works very hard but is the most fulfilled educator I ve ever met

72 Modern Day Miss A Children are always working on something real. When they learn writing, they write thank you notes for the principal; they have to be well done because they are real; they write about their fears and dreams; they write about what they are grateful for She cares more about the children s well being & character than their test scores ( I hope they will let him stay ), but their test scores follow

73 Modern Day Miss A Trust, reciprocity, community The boy who stepped on his cat I ll go anywhere with you; study during lunch Learning is everywhere all the time; flexible A trip to the airport Sky Divers Teaching by example: they all want to be her

74 The Achievement Gap is a Complex Problem For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple and neat and it is always wrong. H. L. Mencken

75 My Lab wants to help you help your students NurtureOfIntelligence

76 How We can Help Help you conduct social psychological interventions Provide you with guidance and materials for strengthening children s attitudes about learning. Help you measure the results of your efforts Keep you informed of cutting edge methods for encouraging girls in math and science

77 Interactive Activity You overhear a girl say that she s just not good at something. What do you say to reassure her? You find that your students just don t seem to be curious about their learning. What do you do? A student responds to a bad grade on a paper with anger. Gets demoralized. What do you do? Your what would you do question here.