Stereotype threat is a relatively new concept for me. At least as far as a definite name for the concept. I had been aware of the idea for a while, most likely stemming from controversies surrounding standardized testing and race. This example provides enough for us to find a reasonable definition of the concept. Standardized tests such as the SAT have forever been created by the academic realm that has long been a white-dominated world. It has been documented over the years that students from minorities perform worse on these tests. Stereotype threat does not concern itself as much with the technical reasons for this discrepancy but rather stereotype threat relies on the simple fact that this discrepancy exists. The idea is that because minorities are aware of the discrepancy, they find themselves at risk of confirming the stereotype that minorities cannot perform well on such tests. This threat has a cascade of effects, none of which could be considered fruitful.
These effects include many self-handicapping strategies such as an individual reducing practice time in order to combat the feeling that there is no hope to succeed in the face of this threat. In fact, the threat can provide such an obstacle as to lead the individual to completely devalue the field in general. This results in widespread social inequality within the field where the threat exists.
Thinking back to my grade school and high school days, I can find a couple examples that relate to my achievement. As a student at a public high school that should for all intents and purpose be classified as private due to the wealth of the surrounding area, I found myself shying away from activities that I thought one could only be great at if they were of a certain class. The main example is in sports where I was a lacrosse player through my youth but as I neared high school, I started to feel certain pressure to always have the best and most expensive gear in order to succeed. My mother did not agree so this gap began to grow and eventually led to my departure from the team.
The other example that comes to mind started at a much younger age. Throughout grade school, I was often grouped with the 'gifted' kids. Kids in our school district tend to go through school with nearly the same group of people from K-12 so labels tend to stick around. As a member of this gifted group, I found myself constantly comparing myself to them and trying to live up to the standard that I perceived was expected of me. This led to a great deal of anxiety and thinking about it now after reading some articles on stereotype threat, likely led to some of my negative study habits. Moving to college and a new environment did help alleviate these concerns and after being exposed to the concept of stereotype threat makes me even more conscious of the threat and will increase my chance to put it out of my mind.
The book, 'A Mind for Numbers', gave me several ideas for combatting stereotype threat. The entire first chapter is dedicated to the fact that the mind is what you make it. You may have a natural proclivity for math or you may not, but this does not come from race/gender/other and you can always improve at a task when it is given proper attention. I really liked the idea of the mind as a malleable entity and look forward to shaping mine how I please.