The Experimental Study On Stereotype Threat Effect Among Yi Nationality Undergraduates

Stereotype threat refers that when stigmatized groups in a situation that would confirm in-group’s negative stereotype,one concerns that his poor performance would reinforce in-group’s negative stereotype,at the same time he would concern that other out-group members would evaluate him through the lens of in-group’s negative stereotype,so he may feel a sense of threat(Steele&Aronson,1995).Quantitive researches confirmed that Stereotype threat have a lot of negative effects on one’s behavior and mentality.Domestic study of stereotype threat is still in its infancy, there are few researchers investigated the gender-math stereotype threat effect and the fewer researchers studied the ethnic stereotype threat effect.Brown and Day (2006) found that, in standard and high threat situation, African American students cognitive ability test scores were significantly lower than white students, but without threatened context, African American do as well as white students do, and to some extent racial differences in cognitive ability test is not the race itself, but lies in the influence of social situation. Due to various reasons in our country, there are some differences between minority students and han students in academic performance,so can the stereotype threat theory be used to explain the phenomenon? If foreign stereotype threat theory could be confirmed under the background of our country’s culture?How it exerts its influence? This study designed four experiments to carry on the preliminary issues.Experiment1on the basis of literature analysis and open questionnaire and interview, We draw up the stereotype explanation bias questionnaire and use it to investigated131college students (including71Yi, the han nationality of60) and the result showed that there is implicit ethnic stereotype in study, the Yi students and han college students tend to think that the han nationality students are better at learning than Yi students.Experiment2examined when priming the ethnic stereotype and the influence on the completion of the cognitive task.The Experiment uses two factors between subjects design ethnic(Yi vs Han) X condition(threat vs no threat).The dependent variable are Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices、stereotype threat test score、test difficulty.The results showed that when primed the ethnic stereotypes in terms of academic performance,group will report more ethnic differences, showed a significant priming effect; Under the condition of the threat, raven’s progressive fraction of Yi nationality should be significantly lower than the control group students and Han students; While under the condition of no threat,there is no significant difference between Yi and Han.Experiment3examined when priming the ethnic stereotype and the influence on the working memory capacity.The Experiment uses two factors between subjects design ethnic(Yi vs Han) X condition(threat vs no threat).The dependent variable are working memory capacity^stereotype threat test score. The results showed that when emphasis working memory capacity was highly predictive of intelligence,group will report there is high correction between them.Under the condition of the threat, Yi nationality students recalled less words than the control group students and Han students,While under the condition of no threat,there is no significant difference between Yi and Han.Experiment4examined the role of working memory capacity in the stereotype threat effect. The experiment uses single-factor between subjects design.threat condition: threat vs no threat.The dependent variable are the test scores> working memory capacity> perceived questionnaire.The results showed that working memory capacity meditate the relationship between stereotype and test performance.The conclusions are as follows:(l)In academic performance,college students have significant implicit ethnic stereotypes, namely, the Han nationality students are better at learning than Yi students.(2)The prime of ethnic stereotype in academic has an negative effect on Yi students’cognitive ability performance,but does’t affect Han nationality students’.(3)The prime of ethnic stereotype in academic has an negative effect on Yi nationality students’working memory capacity.but does’t affect Han students’.(4)Working memory capacity plays a mediating role in stereotype threat effect.