The Deeper Context Of Professor Hertz's Math Anxiety
In the broader context of Professor Hertz’s lecture on Math Anxiety (MA), the fear of apprehension of Math, a persons’ performance and level of MA are inversely related. Hertz points to how Social Transmission might be a cause of this anxiety when we view the effects on adolescents. I want to question why and how society’s beliefs and modern culture could impact MA and performance, and what a good test might be.
In today’s culture, the false stereotype that “men are better than women at Math” might be the reason women are more math anxious than men. On the cultural level, the social perception of this stereotype persists and is interesting to consider the effects on adolescents when 90% of elementary school teachers are women. If the elementary
school teacher is math anxious, they can feed into why other women grow up believing this stereotype persists. The Park article brought up a startling point about how at the undergraduate level, 25% of 4-year university students and 80% of community college students have MA... Why do community colleges have more students with higher MA? Is it because the student population at community colleges usually isn't as motivated to go to college, and thus results in this anxiety? Or is it because they are more aware of this stereotype that “community college students aren’t as smart as other college students?”
Once we take into account the cultural consequences of those stereotypes, we can postulate the consequences of people accepting stereotypes (in performance) and how they act on those social cues. The study on Inducing Stereotyped Threat was particularly interesting because it hints at how recognition of stereotypes effects people with Higher MA more. This only brings up more questions, does being aware of societal stereotypes/ falling in-line with them impact working memory? A possible study might want to see how the person performs after the stereotyped threat (with a heartratemonitor) while doing the working memory test. The heartrate monitor would offer good information into seeing at what point we are under more stress and overload out working memory. If we single out state anxiety, the momentary response to a stressful situation, combining the two tests may give insight into how a persons' cultural perception of stereotypes affects working memory.
In today’s culture, the false stereotype that “men are better than women at Math” might be the reason women are more math anxious than men. On the cultural level, the social perception of this stereotype persists and is interesting to consider the effects on adolescents when 90% of elementary school teachers are women. If the elementary
school teacher is math anxious, they can feed into why other women grow up believing this stereotype persists. The Park article brought up a startling point about how at the undergraduate level, 25% of 4-year university students and 80% of community college students have MA... Why do community colleges have more students with higher MA? Is it because the student population at community colleges usually isn't as motivated to go to college, and thus results in this anxiety? Or is it because they are more aware of this stereotype that “community college students aren’t as smart as other college students?”
Once we take into account the cultural consequences of those stereotypes, we can postulate the consequences of people accepting stereotypes (in performance) and how they act on those social cues. The study on Inducing Stereotyped Threat was particularly interesting because it hints at how recognition of stereotypes effects people with Higher MA more. This only brings up more questions, does being aware of societal stereotypes/ falling in-line with them impact working memory? A possible study might want to see how the person performs after the stereotyped threat (with a heartratemonitor) while doing the working memory test. The heartrate monitor would offer good information into seeing at what point we are under more stress and overload out working memory. If we single out state anxiety, the momentary response to a stressful situation, combining the two tests may give insight into how a persons' cultural perception of stereotypes affects working memory.