Browsing by Author "Amey, Rachel"
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Item The effects of socialization on gender-science stereotypes: the key role of associative learning(University of Delaware, 2020) Amey, RachelIncreasing national interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) domains has led to the largest STEM workforce of men and women. However, despite current interest, women remain underrepresented. Recent National Science Foundation (NSF) reports highlight that in specific STEM fields, such as computer science, the number of women is decreasing. The visible discrepancy between men and women in STEM may have profound effects on gender-science stereotypes according to social role theory. Social role theory suggests that one’s observations of social groups during adolescence and adulthood, or socialization, can shape stereotypes about others. Research corroborates this idea. National-level data suggests that the number of women in STEM relates to the strength of implicit and explicit gender-science stereotypes. Moreover, national-level IAT studies have mapped socially derived implicit gender-science stereotypes onto regional differences in men and women’s STEM performance. Results suggest the relationship between socialization and the strength of gender-science stereotypes may underlie discrepancies between men and women’s performance in STEM domains. However, these relationships have not been accounted for on an individual level. A mechanism has also not been proposed that accounts for how these relationships form outside of social role theory. Social role theory suggests associations between STEM domains and gender may occur through repeated exposures during socialization, similar to an associative learning process or relationships formed by repeated stimuli pairs. Thus, associative learning may be the mechanism behind social role theory. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to explore how socialization promotes gender-science stereotypes and the downstream consequences of the strength of this relationship on women’s underperformance in STEM domains. Four studies were conducted that examine these relationships by testing associative learning mechanisms.Item Stereotype Threat Promotes Aversive Responses to STEM Domains: An Attentional Blink Investigation(University of Delaware, 2014-05) Amey, RachelBeginning around middle school, women initially interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) opt out of these fields at disproportionate levels compared to men. It is unclear why many women choose to leave these domains despite a high level of initial interest, but one possibility is that women develop learned aversions towards STEM fields over time. Two studies assessed the effects of STEM aversions on performance and math identification. Study 1 probed for evidence of STEM aversions via an attentional blink task and examined how these aversions may undermine performance on a difficult math test while continuous EEG activity was recorded. Results revealed that both men and women exhibit evidence of STEM aversions, but only women underperform on a difficult math test to the extent they exhibit a neural perceptual bias towards STEM images. Study 2 successfully utilized a dot-probe training paradigm to mitigate these effects. Overall, findings suggest that, stereotype threat to STEM domains can produce a learned aversion in women however using attentional paradigms this effect can be reversed.Item When Majority Men Respect Minority Women, Groups Communicate Better: A Neurological Exploration(Small Group Research, 2023-05-24) Amey, Rachel; Emich, Kyle J.; Forbes, Chad E.Groups must leverage their members’ diverse knowledge to make optimal decisions. However, the gender composition of a group may affect this ability, particularly because solo status female members (one female grouped with males) are generally allocated lower status than their male counterparts, so their knowledge is more likely to be ignored. Whereas most previous work suggests ways solo status women can increase their status; instead, we propose that groups communicate better when men give their female teammate appropriate respect. We examine this in mixed-gender groups working on a hidden profile task while wearing wireless EEGs to measure live neural activity. We find that groups who solve the problem correctly are more likely to contain majority male members with more approach-oriented mindsets, operationalized as neural alpha asymmetry, as they respect their female teammate more. Thus, we provide evidence that neural activity is partially responsible for whether mixed-gender groups make optimal decisions.