Social-Psychological Factors: Interest, Identity, Motivation and Belonging

Social-psychological factors appear to be even more important than GWI for participation, persistence, and achievement in STEM education (Xie et al., 2015). Social-psychological factors, which are also known as non-cognitive or affective factors, include interest in science, science identity, science career aspirations, attitudes, beliefs, confidence, belonging, attention, self-discipline, self-esteem, enthusiasm, effort, responsiveness, ethnicity stigma conscious (ESC, a measure of stereotype threat), and anxiety (Farkas, 2003; Salehi et al., 2021; Xie et al., 2015). Affective qualities such as science interest, science identity, and science career aspiration are considered a prerequisite for success (Xie et al., 2015). Not surprisingly, research has also shown that students with a strong achievement motive perform better on achievement tests than less motivated students (McClelland et al., 1953). AHN students often feel isolated and have trouble adapting to the culture of science, which can reduce their confidence, engagement, and persistence. In contrast to White students, AHN students often feel isolated (Seymour & Hewitt, 2000) and have trouble adapting to the culture of science, which can reduce their confidence, engagement, and persistence (Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Chang et al., 2014), as well as prevent meaningful integration into the scientific community (Graham et al., 2013; Tinto, 1993). They also experience reduced social belonging (Seymour & Hewitt, 2000) and the imposter phenomenon (AKA imposter phenomenon, see section below) (Wilson et al., 2015). In addition, the decades of discrimination endured by African Americans and Hispanic Americans has made some of them distrustful of White society and less likely to believe that school leads to socioeconomic mobility (Kao & Thompson, 2003). Students’ social-psychological factors directly relate to stress, anxiety, student feelings of belonging, stereotype threat, imposter phenomenon, and mindset which are all discussed in subsequent sections.