|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
|
Motivated Cultural Worldview Adherence and Culturally Loaded Test Performance
Mark J. Landau1*,
Jeff Greenberg2,
and
Zachary K. Rothschild1
1 University of Kansas
2 University of Arizona
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mjlandau{at}ku.edu.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Academic tests and their conditions of administration are culturally loaded when they make salient culturally specific knowledge structures in addition to measuring the intended cognitive ability. Cultural loading demonstrably influences test performance, but why? Drawing on converging perspectives on the psychological function of culture, this article proposes that one factor is the individual’s internal motivation to affirm and uphold the cultural worldview. This possibility is tested within the framework of terror management theory, which claims that cultural worldview adherence defends against mortality-related concerns. It is hypothesized that making mortality salient would (a) improve performance on standardized test items when, incidental to the problem structure, the correct answers affirm prevailing cultural stereotypes and (b) impair test performance when excelling violates stereotypic expectancies for one’s group. Two studies provide support for these hypotheses. Implications for test validity are briefly discussed.
First published on January 20, 2009, doi:10.1177/0146167208329630
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2009;35:442.
A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2009
 CiteULike  Complore  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter What's this?
|
|
