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Stereotype Threat and Academic Performance. Life Sciences Essay

Essay Instructions:

1. Write four short essays, each of approximately 500 words in length, combined into a single Word document with the essays labeled #1, #2, #3, and #4.



2. Each essay should be written on one of the topics covered since the early-term essay, namely: (a) implicit attitudes, (b) stereotype threat, (c) willpower, (d) meditation, IQ, and creativity, (e) resilience and differing conceptions of happiness, (f) the fallibility of memory and testimony, and (g) biases in reasoning. You are free to choose which four topics you write on.



3. Your four essays should be structured in the way that your group projects were: address your document toward a particular person or other authority with the power to implement your recommendations; use empirical findings from cognitive science to outline the existence of a problem; and then use empirical findings from cognitive science to support a persuasive case for a specific and feasible set of recommendations.



4. Your four essays should not overlap significantly with one another. You may cross-refer where necessary.



5. References to studies beyond those discussed in class can be given using Author (date), without listing further details. (References aren’t needed for those we discussed. You can say, e.g., "as the wine-study showed.")



6. Answers will be evaluated for: (a) quality of organization, presentation, and clarity of writing; (b) knowledge and understanding of relevant findings in cognitive science; (c) the persuasiveness of the case presented; and (d) independence and creativity displayed.



7. Note that independence and creativity can be displayed in your choice of the problem you opt to tackle, and in the interventions and details of implementation you propose.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Life Science
Life Science
1 Stereotype Threat and Academic Performance
Teachers and employers in learning institutions and workplace respectively need to embrace concepts that will help reduce stereotype threats. Stereotype threat is a situation predicament whereby members of a particular group that is negatively stereotyped cannot perform to the best of their ability. It is a situational predicament whereby people are likely to be faced with the risk of conforming to the stereotypes associated with their social group. According to Schmader and Hall (2014), it has been identified as among the contributing factors that tend to lead to challenges related to racial and gender gaps in aspects such as academic performance and success in workplaces. Notably, stakeholders in higher positions in the education sector are responsible for ensuring that certain students do not achieve their ability due to stereotype threats.
Societies need to have policies that provide equal opportunities to all people irrespective of their backgrounds. Although many U.S. policies have sought to eradicate discrimination based on sex, gender, and race, most minorities tend to be faced with systematic underrepresentation challenges. Social psychological that negative stereotypes to groups such as women and racial minority can act as barriers through stereotype threat. This is a psychological aspect whereby individuals are concerned that stereotypes may hamper their success. In essence, one of the challenges that result from stereotype threat is that it tends to undermine academic and work performance for women and minorities (Schmader & Hall, 2014). Stakeholders in the education and education institutions need to identify and integrate policies and programs that can help stereotype threat and ensure all students achieve their potential. In the education sector, any person will underperform due to having feelings of being treated with less importance than other group members. The first study on stereotype was done on Claude Steele (1997), which aimed to understand how situations can trigger one not to perform efficiently due to negative stereotypes directed towards their social group (Simmons, 2011). In essence, most studies have demonstrated racial, and gender stereotypes can be attributed to performance both in schoolwork and workplaces. For example, these stereotypes have been attributed to reduced academic motivation, undermining women's and minorities' interest in science and technology courses, among others. As a result, stereotype threat is a condition that limits a person's or groups' educational pursuits. According to Simmons (2011), stereotype threat can lead to less motivation, job disengagement, burnout, and employee turnover in workplaces. Nevertheless, education institutions and organizations need to have policies that can reduce stereotype threats and help persons from disadvantaged populations perform to their ability.
There are several methods that can be used to reduce stereotype threats in the education sector and in workplaces. One of them is through having affirmative action policies that enhance the representation of the disadvantaged population groups. There should be affirmative policies to ensure groups such as women, and individuals from minority communities are not discriminated. In the education sector and organization, it is appropriate to ensure diversity in applicants' pool when seeking candidates. Another policy is to integrate diversity training that will help promote inclusivity and reduce biases. This approach will reduce stereotype threat by reducing intergroup conflicts and mistrust among people from different backgrounds. As such, education institutions and organizations have a role to play and ensure the elimination of stereotype threats.
2. The fallibility of memory and testimony In Judicial Processes
This essay addresses judicial and law enforcement agencies on the adverse impacts of only depending on memory during decision making. In essence, human memories are usually identified as being fallible. This implies human memories are usually realities that have been filtered by the mind and therefore are not a perfect image of the actual events. In this sense, since the human mind creates memories, they are often at risk of being manipulated with false information and does not represent the actual events or situations witnessed. Howe and Knott (2015) state that human beings' ability to accurately recollect past events and give the correct testimony has been a debate for more than a century. In this sense, one of the areas affected by the fallibility of human memory is judicial processes.
In most civil and criminal cases, memory is usually used as the evidence that is eventually used to provide judgments. Notably, there are many limitations to this concept, given the fallibility nature of memory. This is because it is almost impossible for memory to provide the actual snapshot of the events that really happened (Yarmey, 2001). This is because what is stored as memory depends on the situations one experiences after the event, a person's expectations, needs, and emotional stability (Howe & Knott, 2015). More so, the information related to a case is usually integrated with other information that is also stored as a person's memory. In this sense, in a judicial process, the ability to recall an event on the person one is talking to and the purpose of recalling that particular event. The fallibility of memory entails the omission of details from the actual event and the errors resulting from memory illusions. According to Howe and Knott (2015), memory illusions include misremembering some events they experience in the past. In this sense, the memories of one's past experiences are impacted by active manipulation, integration with existing information, and reconstruction of the actual events. As such, memory is usually termed as fallible and unreliable, at best and worst, respectively.
Since judicial processes depend on memory, accuracy in making judgments and achieving justice is likely limited. Numerous studies have indicated that police, judges, jurors, and other law enforcement personnel to depend on memory for making decisions are somewhat naïve (Howe & Knott, 2015). In most cases, the accuracy of the information provided by a witness or compliant is determined by their ability to remember most concepts related to the event. Most convictions and judgments are usually made based on the judicial process's memory evidence (Howe & Knott, 2015). As a result, the judicial processes may result in the miscarriage of justice as the memory evidence is usually highly regarded while most judicial officers have little understanding of how memory works.
In this sense, the best way to reduce the challenges related to the fallibility of memory in the judicial processes is to integrate scientific concepts. The judicial system should seek to ensure that their processes tend to rely less solely on memory e...
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