Psychology
Does Stereotype Threat Help or Hinder College Students with ADHD?
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Subject Area
Psychology
Start Date
13-4-2018 11:00 AM
End Date
13-4-2018 11:45 AM
Sponsor
Tara Lineweaver (Butler University)
Description
We examined whether exposing college students with ADHD to positive or negative stereotypes about the disorder would change their self-perceptions and their performance expectations, thereby changing their working memory performance. To date, ten college students with an ADHD diagnosis have participated. Half of the participants read and answered questions regarding a paragraph containing negative stereotypes about ADHD while the others read a paragraph containing positive stereotypes. Stereotype threat condition did not affect students' general self-perceptions or performance predictions or postdictions. Also contrary to expectations, those in the negative stereotype threat condition outperformed those in the positive stereotype threat condition on two working memory measures. Taken together, these results, based on a small sample of college students with ADHD, do not support the common pattern documented in the stereotype threat literature. There is limited research conducted on stereotype threat targeting psychiatric disorders specifically, and our results raise the possibility that stereotype threat aimed at those with ADHD may impact individuals in a unique way. Possible explanations for our results could be either that the students in the negative stereotype threat condition did not believe the information stated in the paragraph or that being exposed to negative information about ADHD compelled them to increase their effort and excel on the working memory measures. Because these results are based on a very small sample size, we are still recruiting participants in order to increase the reliability and validity of our results.
Does Stereotype Threat Help or Hinder College Students with ADHD?
Indianapolis, IN
We examined whether exposing college students with ADHD to positive or negative stereotypes about the disorder would change their self-perceptions and their performance expectations, thereby changing their working memory performance. To date, ten college students with an ADHD diagnosis have participated. Half of the participants read and answered questions regarding a paragraph containing negative stereotypes about ADHD while the others read a paragraph containing positive stereotypes. Stereotype threat condition did not affect students' general self-perceptions or performance predictions or postdictions. Also contrary to expectations, those in the negative stereotype threat condition outperformed those in the positive stereotype threat condition on two working memory measures. Taken together, these results, based on a small sample of college students with ADHD, do not support the common pattern documented in the stereotype threat literature. There is limited research conducted on stereotype threat targeting psychiatric disorders specifically, and our results raise the possibility that stereotype threat aimed at those with ADHD may impact individuals in a unique way. Possible explanations for our results could be either that the students in the negative stereotype threat condition did not believe the information stated in the paragraph or that being exposed to negative information about ADHD compelled them to increase their effort and excel on the working memory measures. Because these results are based on a very small sample size, we are still recruiting participants in order to increase the reliability and validity of our results.