Claude Steele facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Claude M. Steele
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| Born | January 1, 1946 |
| Alma mater | Hiram College (BA) Ohio State University (PhD) |
| Known for | Stereotype threat, self-affirmation |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology (Social) |
| Institutions | Stanford University University of California, Berkeley Columbia University University of Utah University of Washington University of Michigan |
| Doctoral advisor | Thomas Ostrom |
Claude Mason Steele (born January 1, 1946) is a well-known social psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. He is famous for his research on how stereotypes can affect people's performance, especially in school.
He has held important leadership roles at major universities like Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. Before these roles, he taught psychology for nearly 40 years.
Dr. Steele is best known for his work on stereotype threat. This is about how knowing a negative stereotype about your group can make you perform worse. He also studied the idea of self-affirmation, which is how people can protect their self-image.
In 2010, he wrote a book called Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. This book shares his many years of research on stereotype threat. It explains why some students from minority groups might not do as well in higher education.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Claude Steele was born on January 1, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Ruth and Shelby, were very interested in social issues and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Claude and his twin brother, Shelby Steele, often went to marches and rallies with their father.
Claude's father wanted him to find a secure job. But Claude was more interested in success through education. He went to Hiram College in Ohio. In 1967, he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology.
At Hiram College, Claude loved reading novels. This led him to think about how individuals deal with the social world. After growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, he wanted to study racial equality and prejudice scientifically. He wanted to understand how these issues affected relationships and people's lives.
He was inspired by Kenneth Clark, an African-American social psychologist. Clark talked about the psychological effects of the 1964 race riots in Harlem. This made Steele want to do behavioral research. He studied how African-American speech patterns helped kids keep their ethnic identity. He worked with social psychologist Ralph Cebulla.
Steele then went to Ohio State University for graduate school. He studied social psychology. He earned his master's degree in 1969 and his Ph.D. in 1971. His research focused on how people's attitudes are measured and how they change.
Career Highlights
After getting his Ph.D., Dr. Steele began his career as a psychology professor. He taught at the University of Utah for two years. Then he moved to the University of Washington, where he taught for 14 years.
In 1987, he became a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. He also worked as a research scientist there.
In 1991, he joined Stanford University. He was a psychology professor for 18 years. He became the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences in 1997. At Stanford, he also led the Department of Psychology. He directed centers for studying race and ethnicity, and for advanced study in behavioral sciences.
In 2009, he became the chief academic officer at Columbia University for two years. He was in charge of faculty appointments and financial planning.
In 2011, he returned to Stanford. He served as the Dean for the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. In 2014, he became the executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, Berkeley. He left this role in 2016.
Key Research Areas
Throughout his career, Dr. Steele's research focused on three main areas in social psychology. These were stereotype threat, self-affirmation, and how people deal with challenges to their self-image. Even though these areas seem different, they all look at how people cope when their self-image is threatened.
Understanding Self-Regulation
Early in his career, Dr. Steele studied how people control their own behavior. He looked at how people cope with stress or threats to their self-image. His findings showed that certain activities could help people feel less worried. They could also improve how people felt about themselves.
The Power of Self-Affirmation
Dr. Steele developed the theory of self-affirmation in the 1980s. This idea explains how people can reduce threats to their self-image. They do this by focusing on a value that is important to them. This value might be completely unrelated to the threat.
For example, if someone feels bad about a mistake, they can affirm something they are good at. This could be helping others or doing well at a hobby. This helps them feel better about themselves. Steele's research showed that self-affirmation can help reduce biased attitudes. It can also lead to positive health choices and even improve school performance for minority students.
What is Stereotype Threat?
Dr. Steele is most famous for his work on stereotype threat. This idea helps explain why some groups of students might not do as well in certain subjects. For example, it can explain why girls might underperform in math or science. It also explains why Black students might struggle in academic settings.
Steele first started studying stereotype threat at the University of Michigan. He noticed that many Black students were dropping out, even though they had good grades and high test scores. This led him to think about how stereotypes might be affecting them.
Stereotype threat happens when people are in situations where a negative stereotype about their group exists. Just knowing about this stereotype can be distracting. This distraction can make them perform worse in areas related to the stereotype. For example, if there's a stereotype that a certain group isn't good at math, a person from that group might feel extra pressure during a math test. This pressure can make them perform below their actual ability.
Steele has shown that stereotype threat can affect people who care a lot about the area being threatened. He has also led many successful programs to reduce the negative effects of stereotype threat. These programs teach how to give helpful feedback to students. They also show how teachers can create a safe environment where students feel their identity is respected. This helps improve performance for minority students in elementary school.
Whistling Vivaldi Book
In 2010, Dr. Steele published his first book, Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. The book focuses on stereotype threat. It explains why minority students might not perform as well in higher education.
In his book, Steele talks about "identity contingencies." These are clues in an environment that point to specific stereotypes about a person's identity. These clues can have a big negative effect on how a person functions. He explains how these effects can lead to differences in performance between racial and gender groups in school.
Steele also offers many ideas to reduce stereotype threat. He hopes that understanding stereotype threat will help society accept and understand different groups better.
Personal Life
Dr. Steele lives in California. He and his late wife, Dorothy, worked together on projects. These projects focused on prejudice in American society and helping minority students succeed. His twin brother, Shelby Steele, is a writer.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Steele has received many awards and honors for his important work. Some of these include:
- 1996: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- 1997: Gordon Allport Prize in Social Psychology.
- 2000: William James Fellow Award for his distinguished scientific career.
- 2003: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
- 2007: Distinguished Scientific Impact Award.
- He has also received honorary doctorates from several major universities. These include University of Chicago, Yale University, and Princeton University.
- 2020: The Legacy Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. This award honors people whose career contributions have shaped the field.
Memberships
Dr. Steele is a member of several important organizations:
- American Academy of Education
- National Academy of Sciences
- American Philosophical Society
- Board, Social Science Research Council
- Board of Directors, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- National Science Board
