The Shift from Threat to Challenge

"Rising to the threat" is an article that attempts to come to a conclusion about whether belonging to a group that emanates weakness has the ability to make people preform poorly at a given task at hand. Prior research suggests that viewing a task as a threat compared to a challenge makes the participant preform with a significantly lesser quality. Additionally, when the participant is reminded of his belonging to a weak group he is likely to preform with less quality. This study tested (1) if re-framing a threat as a challenge gave the participant more ability to preform well on a test, and (2) if mentioning their membership in a weak group prior to the test would activate their stress levels to rise, therefore preforming poorly on the test. The study found that if the participants low group status was mentioned prior to the test, but framed as a challenge, the participant would do just as well as as their peer counterparts who did not belong to a weak group. People reminded of low group status "performed more poorly than their peers on an academic test" (Rising to the Treat, 170). This being said, I will now move into my analysis of the study.

Upon first thought, it is difficult to understand that even an underlying negative stereotype could unconsciously effect someone when a stressful task is at hand. It is, however, easy to understand the idea that approaching a situation as a challenge is more effective than making the task seem threatening. One easy example of how this works can be seen in a mother telling her son to study for a test. If the child is made to believe that he or she is capable of the task at hand (capable of overcoming the challenge of doing well on a test), than that child will be more effective in his studying because of the confidence that lays not only in himself, but in his mother. On the flip side, a student who's mother makes the test seem like an unreachable accomplishment will accumulate more stressful attitudes toward his studying, and in effect toward his test taking. Understanding this, the tricky part is now understanding the way belonging to a group perceived as weak or of lesser quality can hinder a persons ability to successfully reach a goal.

I agree that posing a threat as a challenge is an effective way to change the way people perform a task. I understand this because I can now see how it works in my own life. Filled with stress, my days are typically revolved around tasks that i must complete with respectable quality, yet many of those "things-to-do" are things that I have failed at many times and in effect have a threatening effect on my work performance. What I may suggest is evaluating your typical day-to-day routine and trying to pinpoint those situations where stress is prevalent factor, and then tailoring your thoughts to calm that stress down. An important part of this, in my opinion, is developing healthy relationships with people. I only say this because of the fact that many of these performance effecting issues seem to lay deep within our thought, and often go unnoticeable. Changing a threat to a challenge may require encouragement, which (personally speaking) is something that usually does not come from within, but from another person who you consider a influential member of your life. This individual will most likely belong to a similar group as you, which gives you the chance to either identify with that person (which could reduce stress) or receive support from a person who can help you make that shift form threat to challenge.

Before I end this I must say that although I agree that these are factors that can change your performance level, I don't believe that the studying of these factors can single handedly work as a "stereotype threat-management intervention" (Rising, 170). I believe that part of the cure for this issue lays in the individuals themselves. Like any other intervention, it involves cognitively understanding the issue at hand, and its ability to change. If I have it in my mind that tomorrows test is impossible, than in my mind is where it first must change. Encouragement from outside sources no doubt can foster a less stressful attitude about a task, but until the individual is able to recognize his causes of stress he will never be able to fix these issues himself, and in turn will put reliance on others to give him confidence. Issues like this can be taken care of on an situational basis, but its not something that one can rid himself of forever which is why personal understanding of they way you act in given situations is important.