IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2021 - 58

Feature
resources to support CS students' mental health
more available [21]. Other recommendations
include starting a dialogue about mental health to
combat the stigma that currently surrounds disclosing
any need for help, providing consistent reports
on student well-being, and addressing other related
factors such as career goals.
Some suggestions of maintaining mental health
on software development teams where extensive
coding is required include shifting between
focused and unfocused work, team-building, and
conjuring up positive emotions through pleasant
events. Companies can also actively confront stereotypes
of computer scientists by denouncing sexual
harassment, diversifying hiring, creating neutral
workspaces, and adopting fair cultural changes.
Further exploration
The consequences of mental disorders in minority
groups cause disproportionate suffering than in
whites. This is due to inaccessibility of high-quality
mental health care, stigma surrounding mental
health, discrimination, susceptibility to other
related factors (such as financial security), among
others [22]. Lack of diversity and representation
stays an ongoing problem in technology, and the
way this contributes to mental health should not
be ignored. Significant areas for extended exploration,
therefore, involve the way stereotypes of
minority groups alongside computer scientist stereotypes
have affected the mental health of members
of these communities who participate in CS and
engineering.
There have been separate empirical studies that
illustrate the mental health issues in CS and implicate
how components of a computer scientist's
stereotypical image affect mental health. However,
there is space to develop more robust arguments
for how specific stereotypes in this field bring about
mental health problems by combining components
of existing empirical work.
Finally, it is difficult to discuss mental health without
also taking into account depression and other
afflictions alongside comorbidity. Professional counselors
have identified that students who experience
depression are seldom just that; therefore, further
exploration on the relationship between depression
and other medical conditions is necessary to take
this research a step forward.
58
the stereotype thAt a computer scientist must
be technology-oriented, singularly focused on computers,
lacking interpersonal skills, intelligent, of an
unattractive physical appearance, and masculine
has contributed to the ongoing mental health problem
that exists in the fields of CS and engineering.
Challenging these stereotypes and providing more
spaces for those who struggle with mental health to
speak out and seek help can increase well-being of
computer scientists in both educational and workplace
contexts.

 References
[1] D. Martin, J. Hutchison, G. Slessor, J. Urquhart, S. J.
Cunningham, and K. Smith, " The spontaneous formation
of stereotypes via cumulative cultural evolution, " Psychol.
Sci., vol. 25, no. 9, pp. 1777-1786, Jul. 2014.
[2] C. McGarty, V. Y. Yzerbyt, and R. Spears, Stereotypes
as Explanations. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ.
Press, Sep. 2009.
[3] L. Lorenzo-Luaces, " The effect of cultural stereotypes
on mental and public health, " Robert Wood Johnson
Found., Princeton, NJ, USA, Tech. Rep., Jun.
2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.rwjf.org/en/
blog/2014/06/the_effect_of_cultur.html
[4] Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap, Amer.
Psychol. Assoc., Worcester, MA, USA, Jul. 2006.
[5] L. Passos, C. Murphy, R. Chen, M. G. de Santana, and
G. Passos, " The prevalence of anxiety and depression
symptoms among Brazilian computer science
students, " in Proc. SIGCSE, Feb. 2020, pp. 316-322.
[6] Graduate Student Happiness & Well-Being Report
2014, The Graduate Assembly, UC Berkeley, Berkeley,
CA, USA, Apr. 2015.
[7] R. Berry, " Toxic stress culture: Cracking the code
ceiling, " Daily Californian, Soapbox, Berkeley, CA,
USA, Tech. Rep., Feb. 2019. [Online]. Available: https://
www.dailycal.org/2019/02/27/toxic-stress-culture/
[8] M. Raja, " The importance of mental health, " Dept.
Comput. Sci., UTCS Student Student Blog, Univ.
Texas Austin, Austin, TX, USA, Tech. Rep., Apr. 2018.
[Online]. Available: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/blog/
importance-mental-health
[9] S. Cheryan, V. C. Plaut, C. Handron, and L. Hudson,
" The stereotypical computer scientist: Gendered
media representations as a barrier to inclusion for
women, " Sex Roles, vol. 69, pp. 58-71, Jun. 2013.
[10]
A. T. Wynn and S. J. Correll, " Gendered perceptions of
cultural and skill alignment in technology companies, "
Social Sci., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 45, May 2017.
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2014/06/the_effect_of_cultur.html https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2014/06/the_effect_of_cultur.html https://www.dailycal.org/2019/02/27/toxic-stress-culture/ https://www.dailycal.org/2019/02/27/toxic-stress-culture/ https://www.cs.utexas.edu/blog/importance-mental-health https://www.cs.utexas.edu/blog/importance-mental-health

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2021

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