Dirk Dauenheimer

Stereotype Threat in the Classroom: Dejection Mediates the Disrupting Threat Effect on Women’s Math Performance

Research on stereotype threat, which is defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotypic expectation about one’s group, has demonstrated that the applicability of negative stereotypes disrupts the performance of stigmatized social groups. While it has been shown that a reduction of stereotype threat leads to improved performance by members of stigmatized groups, there is a lack of clear-cut findings about the mediating processes. The aim of the present study is to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms that stereotype threat causes in women working on mathematical problems. In addition, the study set out to test stereotype threat theory in a natural environment: high school classrooms. The experiment involved the manipulation of the gender fairness of a math test. The results indicate that the stereotype threat effect exists in this everyday setting. Moreover, it appears that dejection emotions mediate the effect of threat manipulation.

Preferences for and evaluation of self-relevant information depending on the elaboration of the self-schemata involved

Previous findings have shown that some reactions (e.g. satisfaction with feedback) are guided by self-enhancement theory, whereas other reactions (e.g. perceived feedback accuracy) have been shown to follow predictions of self-consistency theory. The Integrative Self-Schema Model (ISSM) assumes that these effects should be moderated by the elaboration of the self-schema involved: This assumption was tested in an experimental study: 72 participants received fictitious feedback on different personality dimensions allegedly based on an adjective checklist. This feedback was either consistent with self-perceptions, more positive than expected, or more negative than expected, and addressed highly elaborated (schematic) or less elaborated (aschematic) personality dimensions. Satisfaction, feedback accuracy and interest in further information were analysed as dependent variables. The experimental results clearly confirmed the hypotheses derived from the ISSM for satisfaction and perceived feedback accuracy. A self-consistency effect regarding perceived feedback accuracy was found only for feedback on schematic dimensions but was attenuated on aschematic dimensions. A self-enhancement effect regarding satisfaction was found only on aschematic dimensions. This finding was reversed on schematic dimensions. Finally, interest in further information did not follow the predictions made by the ISSM.

Anticipated Success at Unconscious Goal Pursuit: Consequences for Mood, Self-Esteem, and the Evaluation of a Goal-Relevant Task

This study extends recent research showing that fulfillment of unconscious goals can have the same affective consequences as fulfillment of conscious goals (T. L. Chartrand, 2001). Participants were unobtrusively primed with stimuli either relevant or irrelevant to the goal to seek knowledge. Next, an opportunity to fulfill the knowledge-seeking goal was announced (i.e., a test and subsequent feedback on a fictitious cognitive ability). As expected, participants in the knowledge-goal condition responded more positively to the announcement in terms of mood, self-esteem, and test evaluation than did participants in the no-goal condition. Consistent with a motivational account, the priming procedure did not influence mood and self-esteem when these variables were measured before test announcement.