Research Paper on:
Life Effects of Labeling

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
still uneasy about how he might do compared to the rest of the students. Rudys cultural heritage had always stood in his way of achieving his goals up to  this point - why should it be any different now, he wondered. Clearly, Rudy was feeling overwhelming pressure based solely upon a preconceived notion that ethnic populations are less  likely to succeed when it comes to academic achievement; whether or not there was any truth to this theory, Rudys self-image was quite influenced by such labeling.  What lies at the crux of stereotype vulnerability is the manner by which ethnic populations perceive themselves as being subordinate to their white counterparts. This  perceived the testing arena, where individuals are forced to perform at a certain level expectant to their social status, punctuates this skewed perception, with some studies indicating that "differences in  measured achievement may result from cumulative differences in life experiences" (Correlates Of Student Performance On Standardized Tests). African-Americans, for example, often realize a sense of inadequacy when placed within  certain circumstances - such as those indicative of stereotype vulnerability - thereby significantly hampering their ability to work beyond the psychological hindrance and move on toward a more realistic performance  result (Jencks et al PG). "Conditions designed to make black subjects stereotype vulnerable depressed their performance relative to white subjects. Conditions designed to alleviate this vulnerability improved blacks  performance, completely equating the two groups.... Thus, in addition to whatever environmental or genetic influences on the skills that a person brings to the testing situation, the present research shows  that the situation itself is not neutral-not even when the tester is the same race as the test-taker and shares his or her dialect. It is a microcosm of the