Efeitos da ameaça do estereótipo de gênero na aprendizagem de habilidades motoras.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that instructions inducing gender, weight and age stereotypes may affect motor learning, respectively, of young women, women with perceptions of being overweight and elderly. There is still a need, however, for studies that investigate aspects such as: generalization of results to other populations, forms of stereotype threat, mechanisms underlying the observed effects and strategies capable of minimizing such impact. From this observation, three studies related to stereotypes were conducted. The first involved a literature review on the effects of the stereotype threat in the domain of motor performance and motor learning. The second verified if the gender stereotype findings found in women extended to the male, traditionally considered a non-stereotyped population. Participants from two groups were instructed on a balancing task, involving a comparison between men and women, with explanations involving a comparison between men and women, where men generally have problems in maintaining balance compared to women (negative stereotype group - EN), or which women generally have problems in maintaining balance in relation to men (stereotype lift - EL group). Participants in the EN group showed lower balance in the task during practice, decreased satisfaction with performance and greater nervousness than the EL group. The third experiment verified whether a different and subtle form of gender stereotype threat, the sex of the experimenter, affects the learning of a soccer dribbling task in women. The participants were divided into four groups according to the sex of the experimenter (man or woman) and the presence or not of stereotype threat instructions. The groups that received stereotype instructions were informed that the experiment involved comparing ability and accuracy to dribble between men and women, in which women often have problems in guiding the ball and being accurate relative to men. The results showed that both the subtle threat (sex of the experimenter) and the blatant threat affect motor performance and learning, and also result in additive effects. The findings provide evidence of socially constructed effects; with stereotypes altering the way individuals perform and learn motor skills. Future studies could further help to elucidate who, how, when and why different stereotypes affect motor performance and learning.