An Experimental Study Of The Impact Of Self-affirmation On Computer-gender Stereotypes

Subject gender stereotypes are an idea that men are more suitable for learning science and engineering, while women are more suitable for studying literature. Computer gender stereotypes are a typical kind of stereotypes. It refers to that people think men have more talent than women in the computer and men are better than women in the field of computer. This study use SEB normal to examine whether senior high school students have computer gender stereotypes, and to verify the influence of self-affirmation on computer gender stereotypes.This study designed three experiments to verify whether senior high school students had computer gender stereotypes. Experiment 1 used SEB normal measuring whether senior high school students had computer gender stereotypes. Experiment 2 by activating the stereotype to examine the influence on senior school students in computer test. Experiment 3 took gender and group as the independent variables, took performance as the dependent variable respectively, through a 2x2 design verified the influence of self-affirmation on the stereotype.Results showed that:(1) There are significant computer gender stereotypes in senior high school students (p<0.001).(2) There are no significant gender stereotype differences in senior high school students (p>0.05).(3) Boys were tested in threatening and non-threatening computer test scores: M(threat)=76.00< M(non-threat)=76.60; girls scores M(threat)=71.56< M(non-threat)=77.90.(4) A 2×2 variance analysis shows:the main effect of gender is not remarkable (F=3.00, p>0.05), the main effect of self-affirmation is remarkable (F=71.47, p<0.001), the interaction of the gender and group is not remarkable (F=3.69,p>0.05).Conclusion:(1) There are significant computer gender stereotypes among senior high school students, it shows that boys are better in computer than girls.(2) There are no significant gender differences on computer-gender stereotypes, which both boys and girls are think boys are better in computer than girls.(3) Stereotype threat has an influence on the computer test of girls.(4) Self-affirmation can reduce the negative influence of computer gender stereotypes on senior high school students.