Multiple Social Identities and Stereotypes - Essay Example

Psychology This paper is a summary of three psychological articles written by different people. The first paper is called ‘Multiple Social Identities and Stereotypes’ which basically talks about the negative and positive stereotypes and how they affect people. It also states that people view themselves as members of multiple social groups, which are subject to stereotypes. One of the experiments conducted, which will be discussed, is that of women and mathematics (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). The second article is called ‘Many Hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing’. Just as the title suggests the article is about social loafing and resulting effects to people. One of the experiments that will be discussed is that of clapping and shouting when in a group and when alone (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). The third article is titled ‘The Below –Average Effect and the Egocentric Nature of Comparative Ability judgment. It is about the egocentric nature may affect someone and how the issue of below average is brought forward (Kruger, 1999). Multiple social identities and Stereotypes This paper starts by an experiment known as the Stereotype threat. This was done by reducing working memory where a negative stereotype was introduced about women’s performance in Mathematics, which activated participants’ female social identity and hurt their performance in turn. Another stereotype was introduced, this type a positive one that college students are good at mathematics (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). This time the accessibility of female students was high and it eliminated the working memory. From the example above, it would be therefore correct to state that making people aware of the negative stereotype they belong to will make affect their performance. When a positive stereotype is introduced to a domain being threatened by a negative one, the impact of the stereotype threat is also available when the negative stereotype is also associated (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). The Social Identical Theory (SIT) provides a set of findings to address the issues of which people’s many social identities are activated at a given time. This is based on people’s motivation to feel positive about them. People in groups with negative performance stereotypes opt to leave such groups. This is because they o not enhance their performance. They could leave the group subjectively or objectively. Subjectively would by increasing identification with a more positive group (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). When people have two social identities they most probably will choose the more positive one this is to maintain their self esteem. When two social identities are present, one is often activated and the other is inhibited. A process account of stereotype threat for women in mathematics explains that women view themselves as competent people who are able to do anything. When negative stereotype women are not good in math is presented in their social domain they tend not to de well. On the other hand, a positive stereotype, college students are good at math helps student in the colleges to do better because they take the positive reinforcement and neglect the negative one that women do not do well in math. This is in relation to the SIT. Stereotype threats in mathematics can be reduced by having women take themselves as individuals and not members of an entity, women describing traits that are overlapping in men and women, and identifying women highly in making of self-concept maps (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). In cases of multiple social identities and stereotype threats, one can activate an alternative social identity, which may change the current accessibility to information about self in the memory. In cases where the stereotype is taken as irrelevant, it may be because of not identifying with the negative stereotype. The implication for the stereotype threat is that the present work provides the most direct and up to date process model for how these treats affect women performance in mathematics. It was found during the experiments carried out that reduced working memory capacity affected the performance due to the negative stereotypes introduced to a particular social identity (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). One of the limitations of this method is that it is too new to be introduced into the market to curb this issue of group performance. Finding a social identity that has clear implications on everyone is also a challenge. When interpreting the current research with stereotype lifting in mind, there are some issues to consider. The first one is that effects of stereotype lift are quite small and very rarely are they detected in any experiment and that stereotype lift is generally considered to occur when a negative expectancy about one group has implications for the performance of an out group (Rydell, Beilock, & McConnell, 2009). Many hands make light the wok: The causes and consequences of social loafing. This paper is based on what one German psychologist called Ringelmann did; he made German workers pull a rope as hard as they could and he used a strain gauge to measure how hard they pulled in kilograms of pressure and this was be done individually or in groups. Success depends on how much or how rapidly something is accomplished. It also depends on how much effort is expended as opposed to an optimizing task. In an additive task, the success of the group depends on the sum of the individual efforts rather than on the performance of any subset of members (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). Ringelmann results were different and seem to go against two theories, the common stereotype theory, and the social psychological theory. The common stereotype theory believes in unity is strength as a group pulling together can achieve anything. The social psychological theory explains that at least for simple well-learned tasks, involving a dominant response or the presence of people should facilitate performance (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). Social loafing therefore can be interpreted as reduced efforts on part of individual group members because of increased group size. This is because of social pressure. Ringelmann’s theory is also interesting because it crates room for people to reconsider group efforts. An experiment was conducted and students were made to either clap or cheer. The results were that the more people clapping or cheering together, the more intense the noise and the more pressure produced. However, it did not grow in proportions to the number of people. The average sound pressure generated per person decreased with increasing group size. People also produced 60% more sound power when they shouted than when they clapped. In shouting there are a number of losses to look into for example sound cancellation will occur because sound waves will interfere with each other, there will also be no directional coordination as voices are projected to different directions and there will be no moment-to –moment individual variations because there is no synchrony (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). There are three main causes of social loafing. These are Attribution and equity, sub maximal goal setting and lessened contingency between input and outcome. Tran situational social loafing refers to how one dos things in groups because of influence of others. The example given is that a bystander will not help in a situation because others are not helping. A Trans cultural loafing on the other hand is where one finds themselves doing things because they have always been that in that manner. A good example is the peasants in Russia. Social loafing can be a disease as it leads to reduction of human efficiency, which leads to lower profits and lowered benefits (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). Below Average Effect and the Egocentric Nature of comparative ability judgment Research has shown that most people who compare themselves with others focus on their abilities egocentrically and insufficiently take into account the skills of the other group. This tends to produce below-average effect in situations where skills tend to be low and above-average effect where skills are higher (Kruger, 1999). People tend to believe that they are above average by exaggerating their skills, traits, and abilities. This is to service their psychological need as such as boosting self-esteem. The writer argues that comparative ability to judgment is more egocentric. This is because people tend to think more highly of their skills than skills of their peers (Kruger, 1999). This makes them feel above average. Judgmental anchoring also seems to take place because before one thinks of their skills first before they think of that of an average person. The above average effect is greater when one compares himself or herself with someone they do not know (Kruger, 1999). Because people tend to anchor their own skills first when comparing themselves, self-estimates should account for more variance in comparative ability rating than should per estimates. The participants were subjected to some research and it was discovered that the easier the ability, the higher the participants’ estimates of how they compare with their peers. On the judgmental weight of own versus the peers, the participants reacted as expected with the anchoring and adjustment interpretation. The higher the participants own skills the higher their estimate of how they compare with their peers. Three other experiments were conducted and the same results were found for the above average and below average scenario (Kruger, 1999). One of the implications is that the extent of comparative ability must depend on the method used by the researcher to assess it. The direct method involves asking the participants to compare themselves on a single scale. References Kruger, J. (1999). Lake Wobegon be gone! The "below-average effect" and the egocentric nature of comparative ability judgments. Journal of personality and social psychology, 77, (2): 221-232. Latane, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. Journal of personality and social psychology, 37, (6): 822-832. Rydell, R. J., Beilock, S. L., & McConnell, A. R. (2009). Multiple social identities and streotype threat: Imbalance, accessibility, and working memory. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96, (5): 946-966. Read More