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Diagnosis Threat and Cognitive Performance During Pregnancy

Isgrigg, Adrienne L.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1282334665

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, Psychology (Arts and Sciences).
It is a common belief that during pregnancy, women's cognitive abilities decrease, as noted in the popular pregnancy preparation book What to Expect When You're Expecting (Eisenberg & Murkoff, 1996). Many pregnant women report perceiving changes in their cognitive ability during pregnancy, but there are not consistent research findings when using objective neuropsychological tests. One factor potentially contributing to self perceptions of impaired cognition and inconsistent neuropsychological findings is stereotype threat. It is possible that pregnant women believe they are cognitively impaired due to the negative expectations about pregnant women's cognition that are part of well-known pregnancy stereotypes, and that these negative expectations not only lead them to notice their own normal cognitive errors and attribute them to the pregnancy, but also to sometimes underperform on cognitive tasks. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether stereotype threat could be related to self-reported cognitive skills and cognitive test performance in pregnancy. 46 pregnant women in their 2nd and 3rd trimesters were randomly assigned to negative expectancy and control groups and were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. We hypothesized that women exposed to negative pregnancy stereotypes would self-report more cognitive impairment than pregnant women who were not primed to negative stereotypes. We also hypothesized that pregnant women primed to negative expectations about cognition in pregnancy would perform more poorly on cognitive tests than pregnant women not exposed to negative expectations. Results partially supported the hypothesis that participants primed to negative expectations would self report more cognitive impairment. However, results did not support the hypothesis that they would perform more poorly on cognitive tests than pregnant women not exposed to negative expectations. The lack of significant findings may have been due to the failure of the negative expectation manipulation and the high pre-study awareness of the negative stereotypes. However, exploratory analysis showed that, in non-depressed participants, the hypothesis that the negative expectation group would perform more poorly on cognitive tests than controls was supported. Exploratory analysis also showed, for those in the negative expectancy condition, the more a participant agreed with the negative stereotypes, the more poorly they performed on cognitive measures. Future studies should explore depression as a moderator of diagnosis threat effects and consider prior awareness of and agreement with negative stereotypes when examining the role of negative expectations on cognitive performance.
Julie Suhr (Advisor)
62 p.
Psychology
Pregnancy; Cognition; Stereotype Threat

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Isgrigg, A. L. (2010). Diagnosis Threat and Cognitive Performance During Pregnancy [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1282334665

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Isgrigg, Adrienne. Diagnosis Threat and Cognitive Performance During Pregnancy. 2010. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1282334665.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Isgrigg, Adrienne. "Diagnosis Threat and Cognitive Performance During Pregnancy." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1282334665

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1282334665
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© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.