African American students at all levels of achievement continue to lag significantly behind their White counterparts, even when they have comparable abilities to Whites. Among the reasons cited for this gap is the consistent finding that African American students are considerably more susceptible than Whites to low expectations on the part of teachers and important others. Not only are they subject to lower expectations, but they also appear to be more sensitive to those low expectations. The proposed research is concerned with the learning difficulties faced by college students who are exposed to racial and cultural stereotypes alleging academic or intellectual deficiencies. This proposal delineates a set of experiments that can help solve the mystery about why Black students tend to be more susceptible to "the soft bigotry of low expectations" than their white counterparts. No research exists that offers more than speculation about the antecedents of this greater "expectancy sensitivity," or begins to explain why some students may be more influenced than others by external expectancies, be they high or low. The proposed research tests a model that holds that expectancy sensitivity is fostered by stereotypes alleging the intellectual inferiority of Blacks. In a longitudinal design, Study 1 tests the following questions: Do students with high versus low SV report different goals and behaviors? Does SV predict self-concept clarity, measured self-handicapping, expectancy sensitivity and academic progress over time? Participants will include minority students in the Robert Wood Johnson summer program of The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). In a laboratory experiment involving 120 African Americans participants from AAMC, Study 2 will address the following: Does SV lead students to avoid diagnostic feedback? The goal of Study 3, another laboratory experiment involving AAMC students, is to understand whether people who chronically expect to be judged as academically inferior (i.e., those hi in SV), are unsure about their own academic strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, this study seeks to answer: Does SV lead to an unclear academic self-concept? In Study 4, African Americans students will participate in a longitudinal intervention study aimed at increasing the accuracy of their self-knowledge. Study 4 answers the following question: Can academic self-concept clarity, learning and performance be fostered by interventions promoting a malleable vs. a fixed view of ability? Ultimately, this research can shed light on a number of important issues relevant to the achievement gap such as why some African Americans achieve more than others with the same abilities and why African Americans are more prone than Whites to live up or down to teachers' expectations. What's more, the outcomes of this research may prove to be particularly useful in suggesting ways that teachers, parents, or practitioners can intervene to foster achievement and mastery in academic settings.
