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Sociological Concepts In Whistling Vivaldi By Claude Lee

955 Words4 Pages

We are all sold the American dream. We are told that if we pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, we can make our dreams happen. Not to say that is not possible, but no one mentions that broader sociological concepts will shape many, if not every, aspect of our lives along the way. No one explains that there will be people who cross the street when they see you, no one teaches you how to deal with the added pressure of being the only person that looks like you do in your classroom or office, and no one explains to you that you will live in a different world and receive vastly different treatment depending on what you look like. Fortunately, because of Claude Steele’s work in Whistling Vivaldi, we are introduced to concepts such as identity …show more content…

After all, there are ways in which stereotype threat can be alleviated. In the academic setting specifically, two of the more interesting solutions would be to expand narratives and framing aspects of academic settings in certain ways. For example, researchers Joshua, Carrie, and Catherine worked to dissuade belief in the “fixed” theory of intelligence by providing research that contradicted said narrative. Another effective way to reduce stereotype threat would be to word things very specifically. Throughout the reading it is stated that by simply changing the phrasing used in academic settings, stereotype threat could be significantly reduced. Revisiting the example of women in math, we clearly saw that adding the seemingly insignificant words, “…this particular test” significantly improved the performance of women under stereotype threat facing challenging mathematical calculations. Overall, although we cannot run from our social identities, there are things that we can do as a society to ensure everyone actually reaches their potential. Recognizing the influences of identity contingencies, identity threats, and stereotype threats, expanding our own narratives, and carefully crafting academic environments are only a handful of things that can be done to bring us all closer to the sales pitch of the American dream being a

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Is affects men in social sensitivity, students from poorer backgrounds and white students suffer from stereotype threat when when compared to Asian students in academic tests or black athletes in sports. Paul Sackett from the University of Minnesota argues that stereotype threat could be less common and more easily overcome and in recent years psychologists have shifted from trying to prove that stereotype threat exists to understanding how it works and how it affects people. Most researchers agree that the threat operates in similar ways across all types of people. Anxiety arrives, motivation falls, and expectations lower so because of this individuals psychologically exhaust

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To some, identity might not be relevant, but to Gabi, identity plays a very big role in her life. “ I mean, this is America and the twenty-first century, not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can’t tell my mom that because she’ll think I’m bad. Or worse: trying to be White.” (Quintero 7)

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How others see you is influenced by material, social, and physical constraints. This causes a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own identity and how much control or constraint is exercised over you. How we see ourselves and how others see us differ in many ways, but is an important factor of our identity. “A Lesson Before Dying”,

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Prior studies have shown that women and minorities underperform on stereotype relevant tasks because they are concerned it will confirm negative stereotypes about their groups. Stereotype threats have deep implications for the success of stigmatized groups, for example women and minority tend to underperform when it comes to mathematical or intellectual tests. Researchers conducted this study to see if informing stigmatized individuals (women) or groups about stereotype threat would affect their performance in a threatening testing situation. This is an interesting topic because studies have shown that individuals in a stereotype relevant task don’t perform as well as they could due to anxiety and concern for confirming negative stereotypes

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researchers sought to answer the question: is there a way to reduce the effects of stereotype threat? Previous research found that stereotype threat plays a role in lowering performance of groups on tasks that their group is thought to be insufficient. In addition, any cues for the stereotype, causes stereotype threat’s role to increase. There have been some solutions to the problem of stereotype threat found through previous research, but they are not easy to implement. The researchers of this study tested the simpler method of teaching stereotype threat, as a more applicable solution to the stereotype threat problem.

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According to Steele (1997), there is a social-psychological threat called stereotype threat, which is able to influence the members of negatively stereotyped groups. When members of these groups are in areas where the stereotypes exist, they adopt the fear of falling to those stereotypes (p.614). Moreover, when they remain exposed to these stereotypes for a long period, they internalize them, and their personalities adopt the feeling of inferior (p.617). Therefore, marginalized groups feel less able and inferior in their educational capability too. As a result, Steele argues that they become less motivated and perform poorly in education (p.614).

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The stereotype threat, according to Jessi L. Smith (2004), is a situation experience when a person/persons feel under pressure from possibly conforming to judgmental stereotypical beliefs directed at him/her/them. The pressure and vulnerability from this experience causes the individual to subconsciously perform below their typically standard, even if they are extremely skilled or gifted in that area. Thus causing the individual to confirm the stereotype even though they had attempted to negate it. (Smith, 2004, p. 177). The stereotype threat theory was first discovered by researchers Claude Steel and Steven Spencer, and in 1995 the first study was done.

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So, for example in a study, Spencer, Steele, & Quinn (1999), men and women were tested among the stereotype that men outperform women in mathematics in standardized tests. So, under these circumstances the men and women were given the exams to prove the stereotype were the men outperformed the women .This demonstrated how much our behavior can be affected by the stereotype because the manipulation of thought that leads to action. There is a clear maintenance of stereotype. For Arab women, if they are perceived as sexually available or oppressed, being put under the pressure of those stereotypes might cause them to actually act in the way they are perceived. if members of the group believe in the stereotype, the Stereotype threat can affect members of any cultural or social group, it can play with their performance.

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