The Impact Of Different Achievement Goals On The Performance Of Mathematics Tasks Under The Threat Of Gender Stereotypes

Stereotype threats are often perceived as stressful situations.Individuals fear that they will prove that the in-group is inferior to the out-group,thus impairing task performance.Foreign scholars have pointed out that stereotype threats can cause distinct cognitive appraisals(Inzlicht& Kang,2010).Some individuals tend to interpret stereotype threats as challenges through challenge appraisals.Otherwise stereotype threats are considered as threats by others through threat appraisals.Some researchers have argued that different appraisals of stressful events stem from different personal traits such as achievement goals(Elliot,Murayama,& Pekrun,2011).Through establishing stressful situations of gender stereotype threats in the field of mathematics,the present research aimed to explore differences of stressful appraisals and mathematical task performance among female individuals with different achievement goals.The first study explored differences of cognitive appraisals among female individuals with different achievement goals through explicit gender stereotype threat activation.It turned out that women adopting mastery goals were more likely to be challenge appraisal;female individuals who held performance-avoidance goals were inclined to be threat appraisals.Prior research showed that challenge appraisals can alleviate the negative affect of stereotype threat.In a study of race stereotype threat carried out by Alter,Aronson,Darley,Rodriguez and Ruble(2010),researchers used experimental instructions to manipulate individuals' cognitive appraisal styles,demonstrating that when the threat task was viewed as a challenge,individuals' performance were significantly better.Based on the conclusion of this research and the results of the first study,the second study was held to explore the differences of mathematical task performance among female individuals with different achievement goals in the context of gender stereotype threat.The second study comprised prepare experiment and formal experiment.The aim of prepare experiment was to compile materials of implicit gender stereotype threat activation and to examine these materials' priming effect by the variant of typical stroop task.According to the results of the first study,the formal experiment of the second study selected female individuals who held mastery goals and performance-avoidance goals.Through activating the explicit and implicit gender stereotype threat,formal experiment explored the difference of mathematical task performance between female individuals who adopted the two achievement goals above.Results mainly included three aspects:(1)In the condition of explicit and implicit activation,women who focused on mastery rather than performance-avoidance goals felt more challengedand less threatened;(2)In the condition of implicit activation,women who focused on mastery rather than performance-avoidance goals performed more excellent in the mathematical task.