30th
Anniversary
Conference

Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Saturday,
April 13,
2002

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Our keynote speaker, Toni Schmader, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Psychology from Washington & Jefferson College in 1994 and received a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1999. Dr. Schmader also presented work as an undergraduate at the WPUPC Conference held at Allegheny College in 1992.

Dr. Schmader's research in Social Psychology has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation and she is the author of numerous publications that have appeared in such journals as Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Journal of Social Issues.

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Keynote Address

Bearing the Burden of Negative Stereotypes: 
Implications for Performance, Self-Esteem, and Emotion

Social psychologists have been studying the nature of prejudice and stereotyping for many years, but it is only in the past decade or so that attention has been paid to the consequences that negative stereotypes have for those who are targeted by them. In this talk, I will present data that we have collected on three different ways in which membership in a negatively stereotyped group threatens an individual’s own sense of self. First, I’ll discuss how the threat of being negatively stereotyped inhibits one’s ability to perform well in situations meant to test one’s ability. Secondly, I will present evidence that in spite of these performance decrements, individuals who are negatively stereotyped are often successful at psychologically disengaging their self-esteem from negative performance feedback. Finally, I’ll present newer research that we are conducting on the threat that people experience when they perceive that others within their group are behaving in ways that confirm negative cultural stereotypes about their ingroup. Future directions in understanding the predicament of being negatively stereotyped will be discussed.