PSY 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Thought Suppression, Stereotype Threat, Herb Carnegie

• School: Tunxis Community College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 240
• Professor: Rondinone

Document Summary

Tcc: wilkinson stereotype threat effects: causes and solutions. It is clear that one does not need to believe in a negative stereotype in order for it to have an effect. Just knowing about the stereotype seems to be enough particularly if the individual identifies strongly with the group and cares about performing well. Stereotype threat exerts its effects through multiple processes. One of these is by triggering physiological arousal, which may interfere with people"s ability to perform well on the task at hand. Another is by causing threatened individuals to try to suppress thoughts about the stereotype, which can have the ironic effect of draining cognitive resources away from the task they are working on. Stereotype threat also impairs threatened individuals" working memory, which of course impairs task performance. Social psychologists have been uncovering ways that people can be better protected against these threats.