Award Date

12-15-2019

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Rachael Robnett

Second Committee Member

Mark Ashcraft

Third Committee Member

Jennifer Rennels

Fourth Committee Member

Gwen Marchand

Number of Pages

72

Abstract

Individuals with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills are highly valued for their contribution to the U.S. workforce and society. However, women and some people of color enter STEM fields at lesser rates than do White men. Math anxiety and stereotype threat have been found to cause math performance decrements for women and some people of color. Presently, it is not clear how math anxiety and stereotype threat might work together to dually influence math performance and subsequent STEM participation. The current study focuses on a diverse sample of 295 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of two threat conditions prior to taking a math test. Participants also completed measures of implicit gender-math attitudes and math anxiety. Despite a failure to replicate prior research, contributions of the current study include a better understanding of how math anxiety presents in an ethnically diverse sample as well as how math anxiety and math task performance vary by demographic factors such as age, major, and first-generation status. Implications for future research regarding math anxiety and stereotype threat in diverse groups are discussed.

Keywords

gender; intersectionality; math anxiety; race; STEM education; stereotype threat

Disciplines

Educational Psychology | Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Social Psychology

File Format

pdf

File Size

0.766 MB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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