This week's cultural blog post is about stereotype threat and its effects. For those who do not know, stereotype threat is when people feel at risk of confirming negative stereotypes associated with their social class. Studies have been shown that stereotype threat has a major effect on that person's performance.
People within a society are often impacted from forces within their own society. Being "different" growing up is always hard, regardless of how you personally define being "different". Going to school or work with expectations of how you should perform based on your gender, skin color, religious background, ect. can contribute more stress and pressure in addition to the stress and pressure of a new job or new class you are taking.
With that being said, I truly believe it's important to take focus away from what makes someone different from a negative aspect and focus on what positive attributes they bring to your team. However, being unique can cause pressures to people not of the majority when working in competitive environments. Thus, focusing on the positive attributes they bring to the team or group should be considered heavily.
In addition, I believe negative performances from any individual should not make people feel like they are fulfilling a negative preconceived notion, but should be treated as learning experiences each time results of an individual are not where they want them to be. This is going back to the growth mindset I talked about a few weeks ago. Growth mindset learning and instruction could be a great way to help resolve stereotype threat, instead of providing punishment for negative results; negative results should be looked at and treated as an opportunity to learn.
Thank You For Reading!
-Scott