Allison Master

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention

Two randomized field experiments tested a social-psychological intervention designed to improve minority student performance and increase our understanding of how psychological threat mediates performance in chronically evaluative real-world environments. We expected that the risk of confirming a negative stereotype aimed at ones group could undermine academic performance in minority students by elevating their level of psychological threat. We tested whether such psychological threat could be lessened by having students reaffirm their sense of personal adequacy or “self-integrity.” The intervention, a brief in-class writing assignment, significantly improved the grades of African American students and reduced the racial achievement gap by 40%. These results suggest that the racial achievement gap, a major social concern in the United States, could be ameliorated by the use of timely and targeted social-psychological interventions.

Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls' interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes

Despite having made significant inroads into many traditionally male-dominated fields (e.g., biology, chemistry), women continue to be underrepresented in computer science and engineering. We propose that students’ stereotypes about the culture of these fields—including the kind of people, the work involved, and the values of the field—steer girls away from choosing to enter them. Computer science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers. However, altering these stereotypes—by broadening the representation of the people who do this work, the work itself, and the environments in which it occurs—significantly increases girls’ sense of belonging and interest in the field. Academic stereotypes thus serve as gatekeepers, driving girls away from certain fields and constraining their learning opportunities and career aspirations.

Thinking in Categories or Along a Continuum: Consequences for Children's Social Judgments

Can young children, forming expectations about the social world, capture differences among people without falling into the pitfalls of categorization? Categorization often leads to exaggerating differences between groups and minimizing differences within groups, resulting in stereotyping. Six studies with 4-year-old children (N = 214) characterized schematic faces or photographs as falling along a continuum (really mean to really nice) or divided into categories (mean vs. nice). Using materials that children naturally group into categories (Study 3), the continuum framing prevented the signature pattern of categorization for similarity judgments (Study 1), inferences about behavior and deservingness (Studies 2 and 5), personal liking and play preferences (Study 4), and stable and internal attributions for behavior (Study 6). When children recognize people as members of continua, they may avoid stereotypes.

Social group membership increases STEM engagement among preschoolers.

The American educational system currently yields disappointing levels of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) engagement and achievement among students. One way to remedy this may be to increase children’s motivation in STEM from an early age. This study examined whether a social cue—being part of an experimental “minimal group”—increases STEM engagement in preschoolers (N = 141; 4.5-year-olds). Using a within-subjects design, participants were assigned to a group and an individual condition (counterbalanced for order) before they worked on a math task and a spatial task. Children persisted longer on, placed more pieces correctly, reported higher self-efficacy, and were more interested in the group STEM task than the individual STEM task. In addition, we conducted a continuously cumulating meta-analysis (CCMA) to combine the results of the current experiment with two previous experiments. These findings suggest that incorporating nonacademic social factors, such as group membership, into current STEM curricula could be an effective way to boost young children’s STEM motivation.

How the Subjective Relationship Between the Self, Others, and a Task Drives Interest

The present chapter explores the hypothesis that an important influence on interest is the perceived or subjective social context in which a task is completed—the perception of the relationship between the self, a task, and other people engaged in the task. We call this the triadic relationship in which a task is completed. We theorize that this triadic relationship is a key driver of interest from early in life, and sets the stage for the development of interest into childhood and adolescence. Specifically, we hypothesize that when people perceive themselves to be connected to others engaged in a task, or when they see themselves as working with others on a task rather than separately from others, this will inspire greater interest. In the present chapter, we review theoretical and empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis from both developmental and social psychology. We then map out the implications of this insight for interventions to improve individuals’ interest and academic performance.