Stereotype Vulnerability Paper

My first article studied how negative stereotypes influence one’s academic self-knowledge. Stereotype vulnerability which is defined in the article as the tendency to expect, perceive, and be influenced by negative stereotypes about one’s social category was studied between Black college students and white college students. Researchers hypothesized that individuals most prone to stereotype threat and mistrust of feedback (stereotype-vulnerable individuals) would make less accurate judgments of their performances than their less vulnerable counterparts. Their second hypothesis was that stereotype vulnerability leads to ‘‘unstable efficacy,’’ academic self-confidence that fluctuates more readily and more extremely than it does for the average person. Researchers focused on African-American college students compared to white college students. Study 1; found that Black participants who were stereotype vulnerable seemed to have less clear academic self-concepts than other participants. Specifically, they exhibited more numerous and more extreme highs and lows in their academic self-efficacy than Blacks who were not stereotype

The study reveals that stereotype vulnerability—the tendency to expect and be bothered by prejudice and to be affected by stereotype threat—creates barriers to developing a stable conception of one’s academic abilities. T The study showed that Black participants who were vulnerable to these stereotypes were highly unstable in their academic self-confidence; meaning they were less certain of their ability to succeed. This is particularly important to my group because we want to study how stereotypes influence self-esteem and how they increase or decrease it. Hence; the more we know about how stereotypes influence our behavior the better we will be able to be to reduce