The Influence Of Math-gender Stereotype Threat On Women’s Self-evaluation

Stereotype threat refers to a sense of psychological threat and pressure caused by people holding negative stereotypes about the characteristics or attributes of a certain group,which leads members of the group to worry that their own behavior will confirm this negative stereotype,and at the same time worry that others may use this negative stereotype to look at and judge themselves.A large number of previous studies on stereotype threat have found that the activation of stereotype not only have a negative impact on the behavior of threatened individuals,but also increase the threatened individual’s disapproval of and psychological disengagement from the stereotyped domain,undermines their interest in and belonging to the domain related to stereotype.It can even have long-lasting and wide-ranging effects on levels of physical health,quality of interpersonal interactions,and perceived well-being.This study focuses on the relationship between stereotype and self-concept,and examines the influence of math-gender stereotype threat on women’s self-evaluation.At the same time,because self-awareness emotion is accompanied by the involvement of self-evaluation,it further explores the mechanism of self-awareness emotion in it.In the first study,the relationship between math-gender stereotype threat and female self-evaluation(including competence and warmth)and its mechanism were explored by using the stereotype threat susceptibility Scale,the basic dimension of social cognition adjective evaluation Scale and the self-conscious emotion scale.The results showed that stereotype threat susceptibility had a significant negative predictive effect on women’s self-evaluation.The results of further mediating effect tests showed that shame and guilt in negative self-conscious emotions partially mediated the effect of self-evaluation on self-competence,and shame partially mediated the effect of selfevaluation on self-enthusiasm.The second study examined the effect of math-gender stereotype threat on women’s explicit self-evaluation and its mechanism through stereotype threat manipulation and threat-challenge cognitive assessment test.The results showed that the score of the threat cognition group was significantly lower than that of the challenge cognition group and the control group,while the score of the challenge cognition group was significantly higher than that of the control group.On the self-warmth evaluation dimension,the main effect of stereotype threat was not significant.The results of further mediating effect test showed that shame and guilt played mediating roles in stereotype threat on self-competence and selfenthusiasm evaluation.However,guilt had no significant mediating effect on stereotype threat on self-enthusiasm evaluation.In Study 3,based on Study 2,the single category implicit association test(SC-IAT)was used to test the effect of math-gender stereotype threat on women’s implicit selfevaluation and its mechanism by manipulating the threat-challenge cognitive assessment.The results showed that,in terms of the dimensions of self-competence evaluation,the D value of the threat cognition group was significantly lower than that of the challenge cognition group and the control group,consistent with the experimental results of study 2.However,unlike study 2,the D value of the challenge cognitive group was not significantly different from that of the control group.In terms of the evaluation dimension of self-enthusiasm ability,different from study 2,the main effect of stereotype threat was significant.The D value of the threat cognition group was significantly lower than that of the challenge cognition group and the control group,while the D value of the challenge cognition group and the control group had no significant difference.The results of further mediating effect test show that shame and guilt play mediating roles in self-competence evaluation,which is consistent with the results of study 2.However,the mediating effect of guilt was not significant on the dimensions of self-enthusiasm evaluation.In conclusion,based on the theory of social identity and the threat-challenge cognitive appraisal model,this study explores the impact of math-gender stereotype threat on female self-evaluation and its mechanism through questionnaire survey and behavioral experiment.The following conclusions can be drawn: At both the explicit and implicit levels,stereotype threat reduced women’s self-evaluation of competence and enthusiasm,while assessing threat as challenge cushioned the negative impact on self-evaluation.Shame partially mediated the self-evaluation of competence and enthusiasm,guilt played a mediating role in the self-evaluation of competence,but the mediating role in the self-evaluation of enthusiasm was not significant.This study expanded the consequences of stereotype threat effect,focusing on self-evaluation as a psychological variable,and explored its potential mediating mechanism,which is of great significance for revealing the cognitive process of self-evaluation following stereotype threat.