Problem: SELF ASSESSMENT

Do You Know Your Mind? Do you always speak your mind? Chances are that you probably don't-at least not always. In some cases, you may not even know your mind. Our conscious mind is not always aligned with our subconscious, and we may be motivated by deeply held beliefs that diverge from our image of who we are or want to be. Researchers at Harvard have developed a series of assessments to help you identify your implicit associations about a variety of topics, many related to the diversity issues you learned about in this chapter. Unlike the other assessments in this book, this one requires you to go online. Each Project Implicit test, which is also called an Implicit Association Test (IAT), takes about 10 minutes to complete. However, you'll find it worthwhile to complete all of the different IATs. The researchers ask that you complete the initial surveys so that they can further enrich their data, but you needn't worry about privacy issues. They are only interested in the raw data and not in who actually contributed it.

1. To begin, go to project implicit website and click on "Demonstration."

2. You will then be given a brief description of the project and prompted to "Go to the demonstration tests." Click on that hot link.

3. The front page of the demonstration tests is a more detailed synopsis of the project and a disclaimer. Read the information, and then click on "I wish to proceed."

4. You will then reach the list of all the tests: age, gender-science, race, presidents, sexuality, gender-career, Arab-Muslim, weight, religion, disability, Native, Asian, weapons, and skin tone. The tests most closely related to Chapter 12's content on diversity are age, race, sexuality, gender-career, weight, disability, Native, Asian, and skin tone. Each time you complete an IAT, return to the list to select the next relevant test for this course. We'll use the age IAT as the basis for these instructions. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to move through the preliminaries on any of the IATs. To begin, click on "Age IAT."

5. You will be directed to a page of technical information related to your computer settings. If you can see the green check mark, then click to begin. At the next page, click on "Continue."

6. A survey of general information will pop up. The survey for each IAT is slightly different, except for the main demographic information at the bottom (age, race, etc.). Once you complete the survey, click on "Proceed."

7. Read the instructions carefully. In essence, each time a certain word or image appears, you will need to either respond by typing an "e" or an "i." The words used are purposely set to be obviously good or bad. For example, few people would dispute that evil goes in the category labeled "bad," and love goes in the category labeled "good." Don't get caught up in semantics; just classify the terms as they are understood in the common language.

8. The test will ask you to classify the words and images several times, switching the words and images from the left hand to the right hand. That way, your right hand isn't always typing an "i" for good and your left an "e" for bad. Pay attention to the changes.

9. Once you have finished the IAT on a particular topic, you will receive a results page. Check with your professor if he or she wants you to print it out or keep track of results in any way. Your instructor may want to average class results. After completing the IATs, think about your results. Do any surprise you, or were you aware that you were making the unconscious associations the software identified?