College professors’ perceptions of students who stutter and the impact on comfort approaching professors

PurposePrevious literature has documented that college professors view hypothetical students who stutter more negatively than their fluent peers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether individuals who stutter report they experience more negative perceptions in the college classroom, and the impact of those perceptions on their comfort approaching professors.MethodsTwo hundred forty-six adults who do and do not stutter, matched for age, participated in this study. Participants were presented with 16 positive and negative personality traits and asked to rate how strongly they believed their professor viewed them along each trait. All participants were asked whether they felt comfortable approaching their professors to discuss their performance. Adults who stutter were asked additional questions to investigate their college experience more comprehensively.ResultsAdults who stutter reported they experienced significantly more negative perceptions from their professors than adults who do not stutter, and were significantly less likely to feel comfortable approaching their professors. These reported negative perceptions, specifically being perceived as less self-assured, predicted comfort approaching professors to receive performance feedback for adults who stutter. Finally, amongst adults who stutter, perception of how they were evaluated compared to their peers was significantly related to comfort approaching professors.ConclusionsResults support that the negative perceptions towards hypothetical students who stutter reported in previous literature are experienced by individuals who stutter, and that these perceptions drive comfort approaching professors for performative feedback. Results suggest professors may increase students’ comfort by clearly outlining equality in evaluation procedures.     

Doddering but dear … even in the eyes of young children? Age stereotyping and prejudice in childhood and adolescence

This study aims to explore age prejudice, and to examine age stereotyping in children and adolescents by adopting the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) as a theoretical framework. It was hypothesised that children are socialised into adopting an ambivalent representation of old age (socialisation hypothesis) and that this cognitive bias becomes weaker in adolescence due to greater cognitive maturity (developmental hypothesis). By analysing representative data from Portugal (European Social Survey; N = 2367), it was ascertained that the ambivalent age stereotype (higher evaluations of warmth than competence for older people) is indeed a shared social representation of older people in Portuguese society. A total of 103 Portuguese children (6–10 year olds) and adolescents (11–15 year olds) were then sampled from a local school and responded to age‐appropriate measures assessing age prejudice as well as age stereotypes. Contrary to previous studies, the findings do not provide evidence for the existence of age prejudice because both children and adolescents reported positive feelings towards older people. However, the socialisation hypothesis was corroborated by showing that the ambivalent old age stereotype was already present in childhood. Contrary to the stipulated developmental hypothesis, the magnitude of this cognitive bias was very similar in adolescence.     

Stereotype priming in face recognition: interactions between semantic and visual information in face encoding

The accuracy with which previously unfamiliar faces are recognised is increased by the presentation of a stereotype-congruent occupation label [Klatzky, R. L., Martin, G. L., & Kane, R. A. (1982a). Semantic interpretation effects on memory for faces. Memory & Cognition, 10, 195-206; Klatzky, R. L., Martin, G. L., & Kane, R. A. (1982b). Influence of social-category activation on processing of visual information. Social Cognition, 1, 95-109]. For example, providing the label 'criminal' both during encoding and test improves recognition for previously unfamiliar faces that look like the stereotypical criminal. Experiments 1 and 2 both replicate this effect and show that the label exerts its influence during the encoding of stereotypical faces and has little influence at test. These findings indicate that semantic information that is congruent with novel stereotypical faces facilitates their encoding.     

Internal motivation to respond without prejudice and automatic egalitarian goal activation

Past research has shown that people who are motivated primarily by their internalized beliefs to respond without prejudice are less likely to show implicit forms of racial bias (e.g., Devine, P. G., Plant, E. A., Amodio, D. M., Harmon-Jones, E., & Vance, S. L. (2002). The regulation of explicit and implicit race bias: The role of motivations to respond without prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 835-848). We tested the idea that such individuals inhibit implicit race bias by automatically activating egalitarian goals. Study 1 showed that participants high in internal motivation but low in external motivation (i.e., primary internal) displayed more egalitarianism, but only after they had been subliminally exposed to African American faces. Study 2 showed that primary internal motivation was associated with lower levels of automatic stereotype activation and this effect was mediated by egalitarian goal activation. These results provide converging evidence that the relationship between primary internal motivation and low levels of implicit bias stems from the activation of egalitarian goals. We discuss the implications of these findings for efforts to reduce cognitive and affective forms of implicit racial bias.     

外来务工女性刻板印象威胁的应对策略与认同管理

为了探讨外来务工女性群体刻板印象威胁的应对策略和认同管理,从天津市WX社区通过滚雪球抽样方法选取124名外来务工女性作为被试,采用问卷调查的形式,测查了外来务工女性群体刻板印象应对策略和认同管理模式,尤其考察了认同基线水平、认同融合、否定策略和榜样策略对于应对和认同管理的有效性。结果表明：（1）外来务工女性群体具有双重认同趋势;具有较高城市认同融合的外来务工女性群体具有显著的认同维护倾向;（2）不同印象管理水平的外来务工女性对否定策略的使用差异性很小,反而是刻板印象威胁的长期性和暴露性是引发否定策略的重要因素;（3）角色榜样成功的应得性对外来务工女性城市认同感的提高具有积极效应;（4）城市务工年数和收入成为这一群体城市认同的主要影响因素。     

Priming performance-related concerns induces task-related mind-wandering

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that priming of performance-related concerns would (1) increase the frequency of task-related mind-wandering (i.e., task-related interference; TRI) and (2) decrease task performance. In each experiment, sixty female participants completed an operation span task (OSPAN) containing thought content probes. The task was framed as a math task for those in a condition primed for math-related stereotype threat and as a memory task for those in a control condition. In both studies, women whose performance-related concerns were primed via stereotype threat reported more TRI than women in the control. The second experiment used a more challenging OSPAN task and stereotype primed women also had lower math accuracy than controls. These results support the “control failures × current concerns” framework of mind-wandering, which posits that the degree to which the environmental context triggers personal concerns influences both mind-wandering frequency and content.     

Studying Stereotype Accuracy from an Integrative Social‐Personality Perspective

This article proposes an integrative framework for understanding the accuracy and inaccuracy of stereotypes. Specifically, we highlight research issues and traditions from social and personality psychology that do not often intersect, but which can be mutually informative. Within this framework, the social psychologist's interest in the accuracy of group stereotypes is conceptually much like a personality psychologist's interest in the accuracy with which perceivers can identify types of individuals, for example extraverts. Both fields make use, implicitly or explicitly, of personal attributes and behaviors (cues) in assessing accuracy of beliefs about group or individual traits. By using Brunswik's lens model perspective in combination with concepts from signal detection theory, judgments of stereotypes can be discovered to be accurate or inaccurate depending on how perceivers judge or use the cues. In drawing on research traditions and theoretical frameworks from both social and personality psychology, researchers can go beyond an all‐or‐nothing stance regarding stereotype accuracy to achieve a more nuanced understanding of when, how, and to what extent stereotypes are accurate.     

The detrimental effects of a suggestion of sexism in an instruction situation

This research investigates the hypothesis that the mere suggestion of sexism can harm women’s experience of an instruction situation. Across three experiments, women exposed to the suggestion about the sexism of a male instructor reported a less positive experience, performed worse on a logic test, and rated the instructor as less competent than did women who were not exposed to the suggestion. The same harmful consequences did not befall men, even when they were potential targets of the alleged sexism. To interpret results, the authors emphasize the concept of social identity threat: the concern that one will be the target not only of stereotypes about inferiority, but also a more general hostility based on a salient social identity. Results suggest the need to expand conceptions of discrimination to include systemic forms of identity threat that can be sufficient to produce harm, even in situations where differential treatment is initially absent.