Whose Mind Is It Anyway? The Relationship between Internalized Implicit Gender Bias, Implicit Self-Esteem, and Mental Health of Women

Abstract

Can societal negative stereotypes and biases toward women be internalized by women and measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT)? Do these implicit stereotypes impact a woman's implicit self-esteem without her being cognizant of it?

Recent research shows a correlation between low implicit self-esteem and poor mental health. The current study aims to examine the relationship between implicit self-esteem, internalized negative stereotypes, and mental health.

The IAT is used to measure implicit self-esteem and implicit gender bias. The Mental Health Inventory-21 is used to measure mental health and the Self- Attributes Questionnaire is another measure of self-esteem.

It was hypothesized that a correlation will be found between high gender bias, low self-esteem, and poor mental health.