# ind_items

authors_index: purswell, katherine e.
secondary_title_index: the professional counselor
title_index: humanistic learning theory in counselor education
abstract_index:
       the purpose of this paper is to explain how humanistic learning theory is applicable to current counselor education practices. a review of humanistic learning theory and the rationale for the application of the learning theory to counselor education provide a framework for application of these concepts to counselor education classrooms. specifically, a person-centered framework is applied to the seeming incompatibility of external accreditation standards and humanistic learning theory. i propose suggestions for implementing humanistic, person-centered learning theory within counselor education programs and courses, focusing special attention on the attitudes and values of the counselor educator as these principles are applied.     

full_text_index:
       humanistic learning theory in counselor education katherine e. purswell  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4, pages 358–368 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org  2019 nbcc, inc. and affiliates doi:10.15241/kep.9.4.358  the purpose of this paper is to explain how humanistic learning theory is applicable to current counselor education practices. a review of humanistic learning theory and the rationale for the application of the learning theory to counselor education provide a framework for application of these concepts to counselor education classrooms. specifically, a person-centered framework is applied to the seeming incompatibility of external accreditation standards and humanistic learning theory. i propose suggestions for implementing humanistic, person-centered learning theory within counselor education programs and courses, focusing special attention on the attitudes and values of the counselor educator as these principles are applied. keywords: humanistic learning theory, person-centered theory, counselor education, accreditation, attitudes  with the philosophical shift in the mental health field from a meaning-making, holistic model of mental health toward a reductionistic, medical model of mental health, counselor preparation programs have adapted by increasing the emphasis on measuring outcomes, sometimes at the expense of focusing on aspects of counseling that are less easy to quantitatively assess (hansen, 2009). furthermore, external realities such as university policies and accreditation requirements have put pressure on programs and faculty members to focus more on measurable outcomes. in many counselor education programs, external requirements come in the form of the council for accreditation of counseling and related educational programs (cacrep; 2015) standards. with the advent of the 2009 standards, the focus in counselor education changed from program-level evaluation to directly assessing student outcomes (barrio minton & gibson, 2012), a trend consistent in higher education (penn, 2011). although the admirable intention of accountability measures is to ensure quality programs and competent counselors, these systems do not provide incentives for counselor educators employing pedagogy that emphasizes process and critical thinking over product and knowledge retention. many counseling faculty ascribe to a humanistic way of viewing people, including students, and the increasing focus on outcomes over process may create dissonance for these counselor educators. they can feel internal as well as external pressure to adopt a more didactic or reductionistic form of teaching that does not fit with their philosophy of education (hansen, 2009). this paper is directed at person-centered counselor educators who wish to teach in a more humanistic way but feel constrained by the current system. this paper also may be helpful for other counselor educators who wish to explore humanistic teaching. the purpose of this article is to demonstrate that counseling faculty can apply a personcentered learning philosophy to counselor preparation settings within the reality of external requirements intended to ensure quality in counselor preparation programs. because the person-centered teaching literature is not sufficiently robust to accomplish this purpose, i will also draw from humanistic learning theory. first, i provide an overview and rationale for humanistic learning theory and then discuss the application of person-centered concepts, within the context of humanistic learning theory, to counselor preparation settings. when a view is specifically person-centered, i will use that term. otherwise, i will refer to humanistic learning theory, which encompasses person-centered learning theory. katherine e. purswell is an assistant professor at texas state university. correspondence can be addressed to katherine purswell, 601 university dr., edu 4019, san marcos, tx 78666, kp1074@txstate.edu.  358  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  humanistic learning theory humanistic learning theory is grounded in the philosophy of humanistic theories of psychology, including person-centered theory (gould, 2012). primary contributors to humanistic learning theory include arthur combs, carl rogers, and malcolm knowles, all of whom believed the goal of education is to facilitate students’ development and self-actualization (combs, 1982; gould, 2012; rogers, 1951). therefore, humanist educators have an unwavering trust in the individual’s growth capacity and view self-directed learning as most facilitative of growth (combs, 1982; knowles, 1975; rogers, 1951). additionally, humanistic theorists hold a phenomenological view of humans in that they believe each person’s view of the world is reality for that person and that learning is motivated by personal need based on one’s internal frame of reference (combs, 1986; rogers, 1951). for example, a student with low self-efficacy might not attempt difficult projects because of a belief that “i am not capable,” whereas a student with a high level of self-trust can go beyond the direct instructions of an assignment to tailor the assignment to fit their learning needs. highly self-actualized individuals view themselves as dynamic beings who are constantly growing and changing (knowles, 1975; tolan, 2017). in general, humanistic learning theorists define learning as the holistic growth of the person, including cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal domains (combs, 1986; dollarhide & granello, 2012; rogers, 1957, 1989). they tend to focus less on accumulation of knowledge and more on how the learner’s way of being in the world impacts the integration of skills and knowledge (combs, 1986; kleiman, 2007). this view of knowing requires a paradigm shift for the person who tends to describe learning as the acquisition and application of knowledge. in particular, learners who have learned to approach assignments or classes with a grade-based mentality (e.g., “what do i need to do to get an ‘a’?”) may have difficulty changing, or even understanding the rationale for changing, their focus to a learning-based mentality (e.g., “what do i need to learn to positively impact my personal and professional development?”). humanistic learning theorists avoid teacher-directed learning, defined as transmission of knowledge, because they believe the most important learning and growth cannot be transmitted directly from person to person (knowles, 1975; rogers, 1957, 1989). rather, they believe knowledge integration is a natural process occurring in a facilitative environment (rogers & freiberg, 1994). because learning requires this environment, humanistic educators focus first on themselves and their ability to provide that environment (combs, 1982; rogers & freiberg, 1994). in this article, the term educator is used in the broadest sense of the word to mean a facilitator of learning. rogers’s conditions in humanistic learning theory most humanistic learning theorists base their view of the educator–learner relationship on rogers’s (1957) three therapist-provided conditions for personality change: congruence, empathic understanding, and unconditional positive regard (combs, 1986; mearns, 1997; rogers & freiberg, 1994). in an educational setting, empathic understanding, which rogers (1951) considered a sensitive understanding of a person’s internal frame of reference, involves focusing on the person rather than only on course content (mearns, 1997). for example, the educator also would value and empathize with learners’ reactions to course content as well as other circumstances in learners’ lives that might impact their experience in the class. unconditional positive regard is an experience of accepting and prizing another person regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the person’s behaviors or ideology (rogers, 1957). rogers and freiberg (1994) described unconditional positive regard as “a basic trust—a belief that this other person 359  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  is somehow fundamentally trustworthy” (p. 156). this trust differentiates unconditional positive regard from the common use of the term acceptance. in a classroom setting, unconditional positive regard for students can mean valuing and respecting students wherever they are in their growth processes and trusting they are moving toward growth as they are ready or able (kunze, 2013). for example, if a student struggles to accept feedback in supervision, the counselor educator will accept the student in that moment and trust that there are valid reasons for the student’s difficulty. this acceptance is an attitude and does not mean educators abandon their professional gatekeeping roles. congruence, also called transparency in a classroom setting, involves openness to one’s experience within a relationship, including an acceptance of one’s own feelings or desires at any moment, even if one chooses not to act upon those feelings (mearns, 1997; rogers, 1951; rogers & freiberg, 1994). transparency is closely tied to a non-defensiveness that promotes openness rather than debate as well as the formation of respectful, trusting relationships between educators and learners (mearns, 1997). these trusting relationships form the basis for open dialogue. the result of the interaction between these conditions can be transformational for students in the classroom. when an educator makes a genuine effort to help a learner feel understood rather than evaluated, the learner is more free to stop judging or evaluating oneself and to creatively explore the learning environment with the security of knowing that any ideas, even those that conflict with the educator’s views, will be respectfully acknowledged and discussed (combs, 1982; rogers & freiberg, 1994). meaningful learning can occur in an environment in which the contributions and ideas of learners are valued just as much as those of the educator (kleiman, 2007). humanistic educators strive to provide some level of rogers’s (1957) three conditions to all learners.  rationale for use of person-centered learning theory the goal of facilitating relationships in a learning environment characterized by the person-centered conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy is to provide learners with the opportunity for the growth and development of the whole person (dollarhide & granello, 2012; rogers & freiberg, 1994). some of the results of such a learning environment are a deeper understanding and acceptance of oneself, a strong connection and openness to the experiences of others, and the development of skills and knowledge to facilitate the growth of both the individual and society. because of these outcomes, a person-centered approach to learning is an appropriate match for counseling faculty and supervisors who believe these growth processes are key purposes of training counselors (combs, 1986; dollarhide & granello, 2012). one of the primary goals of counseling faculty is to develop the counselor-in-training’s (cit’s) belief system about counseling and about oneself as a counselor (combs, 1986; gibson, dollarhide, & moss, 2010). from a phenomenological perspective, beliefs influence behavior; therefore, person-centered counseling faculty can focus on helping cits develop their own beliefs about themselves in the context of counseling relationships (combs, 1986; dollarhide & granello, 2012). when counseling faculty facilitate genuine, accepting, and empathic relationships between themselves and learners and among learners, they create an environment in which cits are free to examine those beliefs that are both more and less accepted by society and then to modify those beliefs in ways that are more helpful (mearns, 1997). for example, if a cit holds stereotypical beliefs about a certain population, the cit will be better able to express and challenge those beliefs in an open rather than judgmental environment.  360  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  additionally, in a person-centered learning environment, cits develop confidence in their abilities to find creative responses to difficult situations, such as client challenges and ethical dilemmas (combs, 1986). alternatively, when cits feel they must act a certain way, they can learn to say the right words but fail to internalize a belief system that is meaningful to them. therefore, when they are challenged or when the external evaluator is no longer present, they will quickly fall back into arguably less helpful ways of being with clients, such as giving advice. by offering a person-centered learning environment, counseling faculty help students meet cacrep standards related to facilitating a helping relationship (cacrep, 2015, 2.f.5.). relatedly, person-centered counseling faculty can utilize the learning environment as a microcosm of the helping relationship to allow cits to experience the type of relationships counseling faculty hope they will provide their clients (combs, 1986). rogers (1957, 1989) argued that educators may foster the values and attitudes of a helping relationship by providing those same values and attitudes to learners. although the professor–student relationship differs from the counselor–client relationship, the basic attitudes (care, warmth, prizing), values (worth of the person), and purpose of the relationship (growth) remain the same (mearns, 1997). most students in counselor education programs are intelligent and able to accomplish the academic work, but the relational skills necessary for an effective counselor cannot be memorized or studied for (mcauliffe, 2011; nelson & neufeldt, 1998). therefore, it is critical that counseling faculty provide experiences that facilitate the development of relational abilities. in addition to developing intrapersonally and interpersonally, cits must develop good judgment and the ability to critically reflect on their counseling practice, including their work with clients and both current and future educational experiences (mcauliffe, 2011; nelson & neufeldt, 1998). both the aca code of ethics (american counseling association [aca], 2014) and many state laws require new and experienced counselors to continue to seek professional development, and students need to be able to evaluate the training they are receiving. additionally, in their analysis of extensive interviews with master therapists, skovholt and ronnestad (1992) found that those therapists considered continual reflection on their experiences and their growth process to be a key aspect of their professional growth. this finding supports king and kitchner’s (2004) reflective judgment theory. they posited that as individuals progress in their development, they move on a continuum from viewing knowledge as truth that can readily be conferred by experts to seeing it as something that can be approximated based on what is known but can never be fully obtained because of the fallibility of human knowing. counselors whose beliefs fall toward the reflective judgment end of this continuum will not assume that something must be true just because a professor or trainer told them it is the best way to do it. in addition, they will be more open to many views of the world and will also be able to critically yet nonjudgmentally evaluate those perspectives. counselors are frequently required to tolerate ambiguous situations in which there is no clear right or wrong answer (mcauliffe, 2011; skovholt, jennings, & mullenbach, 2004). person-centered educators aim to foster a tolerance of ambiguity by encouraging learners and supervisees to examine the evidence themselves rather than implying that there is only one answer or one response to a given counseling concern or question (rogers, 1951). the facilitation of open-mindedness in this way is relevant to cacrep standards related to diversity and advocacy. cits need to be able to address needs from clients with diverse backgrounds and expectations (cacrep, 2015, 2.f.2.; mcauliffe, 2011). one key aspect of multicultural competency is for counselors to be aware of their own attitudes, biases, and beliefs (arredondo et al., 1996). additionally, counselors must be able to think critically about the impact of their personal values on others (cacrep, 2015). a humanistic learning environment provides the opportunity for in-depth self-understanding and  361  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  critical thinking (combs, 1986; dollarhide & granello, 2012). rogers (1951) described people moving toward self-actualization as “necessarily more understanding of others and . . . more accepting of others as separate individuals” (p. 520). this attitude embodies that of a multiculturally competent counselor (arredondo et al., 1996). objectives of a humanistic learning environment when educators provide the environment described above and students begin to take responsibility for their own learning, certain results related to this self-actualization process can be expected. one key outcome of the humanistic approach to learning is a deeper understanding of self (dollarhide & granello, 2012), an important characteristic of a counselor. increased self-understanding can lead to deeper learning. learning can be enhanced when adult learners are able to accept themselves as they are while continuing to work toward growth (knowles, 1959; kunze, 2013). similarly, combs (1982) indicated that highly self-actualized individuals tend to view themselves in a positive way while honestly accepting their areas for growth, an attitude that leads to freedom to take more risks in educational settings. for example, learners who do not base their self-worth on grades might feel more free to focus on the meaning class material has for their future careers rather than on retaining facts in order to make a high grade in the class. in clinical classes, supervisees who have both a sense of self-worth and an openness to growth are more likely to be authentic with their clients and supervisors as well as less concerned about finding the “right” thing to say, and can focus more on what is most helpful in the context of that specific counseling relationship rather than being self-focused on performing well. further, when learners are given substantial control over their own learning, they are better able to regulate their own processes of thinking and learning, leading to greater integration of the material (mccombs, 2013). a humanistic learning environment also promotes a sense of care, acceptance, and respect toward individuals in society as well as a connection to the human condition (combs, 1982; knowles, 1959; rogers, 1951). combs (1982) argued that when learners feel a sense of belonging with those around them, they naturally become curious about their peers’ interests, and thus their learning opportunities are expanded. rogers (1951) believed that when a person can accept one’s own experience, the person is free to be more open to and accepting of the experiences of others. similarly, combs (1982) wrote that highly self-actualized people can “confront the world accurately, realistically, and with a minimum distortion” (pp. 106–107). this openness to their experiences impacts their problem-solving abilities because they have more perceptual information from which to make decisions. in a classroom setting, this connection or sense of belonging can result in positive, in-depth group discussions that facilitate the learning of all involved beyond what an individual instructor could accomplish by sharing only one perspective. further, an openness to the experience of others can lead to challenging one’s implicit or explicit beliefs about groups of people who have previously been seen as “other.” in clinical settings, supervisees will undoubtedly be exposed to individuals who hold differing beliefs, and an openness to their own experiences can help supervisees work better with these clients. concrete knowledge and skills are an outcome in humanistic learning theory, though they are generally considered more of a byproduct than the primary focus of learning. rogers (1951) stated that one of the goals of learning is to develop knowledge relevant to the specific problem of focus, as well as to develop strategies for acquiring knowledge for new problems. knowles (1959) noted the importance of acquiring skills that will aid a person in reaching their full potential and allow that person to positively influence society. furthermore, combs (1986) emphasized that knowledge leading toward self-actualization does not have to be academic. these humanists believed that learners who experience a facilitative learning environment will better retain knowledge and skills because they will have critically examined, applied, and connected it to their lives (mccombs, 2013). 362  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  other considerations in a humanistic learning environment because application of humanistic learning theory requires a paradigm shift for both educators and learners, some learners may struggle to feel comfortable with the idea that the educator’s responsibility is to facilitate a learning environment and the learner’s responsibility is to pursue growth (mearns, 1997). many learners have grown up in educational environments where acquisition of knowledge was almost exclusively the goal of learning, and an educator who presents them with a different way of learning may induce stress. however, person-centered and humanistic learning theorists have emphasized that empathically helping students in the process of gaining self-responsibility helps the whole person develop (knowles, 1975; rogers & freiberg, 1994; smith, 2002). providing a warm, transparent, empathic environment does not preclude counselor educators from giving students feedback that may challenge them. when students struggle, person-centered and humanistic educators try to develop an empathic understanding of the struggling student’s view of oneself, to be accepting of that view, and to be transparently honest with the learner about his or her standing in the program. this conversation can involve counseling the student out of the program by communicating understanding that counseling may not be a good fit with the student’s current development. the educator attempts to make such discussions a collaborative effort in promoting the learner’s growth rather than a communication that the learner is failing (dollarhide & granello, 2012).  application of person-centered learning theory in counselor education counseling faculty today are not only tasked with helping students develop their growth potential and learn the process of becoming effective counselors, but are also required to engage in assessment activities in addition to many other roles (cacrep, 2015). the purpose of the following section is to describe some specific ways in which a humanistic theory of learning can be applied to teaching and accountability measures. teaching given that the educator–student relationship is a model for the counselor–client relationship, and that students must feel accepted and understood in order to learn, the person of the educator is crucial in a humanistic classroom (combs, 1982; rogers, 1951). of utmost importance is the counseling faculty member’s belief in the growth tendency of the human being. the attitudes of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding for the learner’s perceptual world are predicated upon this foundation, and any practical intervention in the classroom must be firmly based in those attitudes rather than adherence to a specific technique. however, there are specific classroom practices that are more facilitative of a humanistic way of learning than others. lecturing and other forms of direct knowledge transmission are generally considered among the least person-centered methods for learning because they are typically based on a power differential in which the teacher is considered the expert (rogers & freiberg, 1994). freire (2011) described this type of teaching as a banking system of education because it involves teachers “depositing” information in their students’ heads, and he compared it to a system of education in which the students are active participants in deciding what is most important to learn and how. he believed students who were more active and took more responsibility for their own learning were better able to critically question their own and others’ beliefs and thus promote growth. this assertion does not mean lecture is never used or valuable in a person-centered classroom (e.g., cornelius-white, 2005), but the personcentered educator works to have an attitude of humility and collaborative exploration (combs, 1982; dollarhide & granello, 2012; freire, 2011; nelson & neufeldt, 1998). a person-centered theory of 363  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  learning requires the counseling faculty to give up much of their power and trust the learners’ ability to contribute equally to the learning environment. person-centered counseling faculty might also relinquish power regarding learning objectives for individual learners (knowles, 1975; rogers & freiberg, 1994). the educator can have broad goals for the course, but counseling faculty can engage cits in developing their own specific learning objectives and in deciding how those objectives will be met. although it is clearly not possible to meet the needs of every individual in a course, counseling faculty can address the most common learning needs within the structure of the course and provide resources for individuals with unique learning interests (cornelius-white, 2005; knowles, 1975; mearns, 1997). projects proposed by students exemplify a humanistic-oriented way of helping students meet their learning objectives because selfchosen projects tend to be based on problems that are of relevance to the students (rogers & freiberg, 1994). humanistic counseling faculty give students responsibility for the creation and implementation of projects and act as a resource when assistance or experience is needed. projects that provide a resource or service to the community can help students reach learning objectives in an experiential way (burnett, long, & horne, 2005; svinicki & mckeachie, 2011) and meet cacrep standards related to advocacy and diversity. in one classroom, student journal entries indicated that service learning increased the students’ “awareness, knowledge, responsibility, and skills related to cultural, social . . . and civic concerns of diverse communities” (burnett et al., 2005, p. 166). educators also may encourage the self-direction of students by engaging students in posing a large-scale problem and giving the students the responsibility to investigate and propose possible reasons for the problem and ways to address the problem (rogers & freiberg, 1994). one way that person-centered counseling faculty help cits develop critical thinking is to place responsibility for learning upon the learners (combs, 1986; mearns, 1997). knowles (1975) described self-directed learning as students taking “the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes” (p. 18). however, he realized that the typical student was not socialized to learn this way; therefore, he emphasized the importance of using small steps to facilitate self-direction. although person-centered counseling faculty do not take responsibility for cits’ learning, they do feel much responsibility to students to provide a facilitative environment by developing meaningful relationships with cits, serving as resources, providing needed supervision, and making necessary changes to the environment as learners pursue their growth process (dollarhide & granello, 2012; mearns, 1997). teaching cits to think for themselves and helping them develop the basic attitudes toward people that are facilitative of change will give beginning counselors the tools to respond to difficult or unique counseling situations and to know how to find the type of supervision or support they need. ethical and legal issues are another important dimension for cits (aca, 2014, f.7.e., f.5.a.; cacrep, 2015, 2.f.1.), and one for which a humanistic approach to learning is particularly appropriate because of the focus on helping learners develop the ability to critically think through problems (knowles, 1975). one way that person-centered counseling faculty can model ethical principles is by giving their students a full disclosure of what to expect from a humanistic-oriented learning environment. cits need to be informed of expectations regarding their responsibility for learning, expectations for self-disclosure, and how grades will be assigned (aca, 2014, f.9.a.; cacrep, 2015, 2.d.; morrisett & gadbois, 2006). although these disclosures are necessary in any classroom, special clarification of the differences between a humanistic learning environment and a typical classroom may be necessary to  364  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  help decrease learners’ anxiety about an unfamiliar learning environment (knowles, 1975). counseling faculty can emphasize that grades will not be reflective of learners’ self-disclosure, but they also note the role of honesty about one’s experience in facilitating growth (aca, 2014, f.8.d.). finally, counseling faculty can clarify appropriate faculty–student roles (aca, 2014, f.10.; morrisett & gadbois, 2006). this may be particularly important in a humanistic classroom where the power differential between faculty member and student is decreased. teaching from a person-centered perspective is not an all-or-nothing endeavor. just as each of the attitudes of a person-centered educator lie on a continuum, so do activities that may be utilized in the classroom (rogers & freiberg, 1994). for example, self-assessment and student-directed inquiry are on the more purely humanistic side of the spectrum while lecture and questioning are on the teacherfocused extreme. projects, portfolios, and role-plays fall somewhere in the middle. additionally, person-centered counseling faculty may choose to assign one self-directed project and several teacher-directed assignments for practical reasons or because of their personal comfort level. accountability. one purpose of accountability measures, such as licensure and accreditation standards, is to confirm that individuals are qualified to provide the services they are offering, and institutions that make some statement to the public about the qualifications of an individual also have a responsibility to that public to graduate only those who meet such qualifications (mearns, 1997). from a purely theoretical person-centered perspective, such external requirements as cacrep standards and the grades required by universities represent an external locus of control and could impede the process of learning by causing the learner to conform to external methods of evaluation (gould, 2012; rogers & freiberg, 1994). ideally, individuals would pursue learning solely out of an intrinsic desire for growth, and facilitators of learning would not have to worry with grades or formal assessments. rogers disliked summative assessment because it implied that a person had reached an endpoint (mearns, 1997), and person-centered educators believe growth is a dynamic process (knowles, 1959; rogers, 1957). however, from a practical perspective, accountability is necessary, both at the course level and the program level, to ensure cits are adequately prepared and to protect students from programs that purport to train counselors but do not have sufficiently rigorous standards to adequately prepare their students for the work of effective counseling. cacrep standards are aimed at ensuring that counseling programs produce competent counselors. although many practices required to meet accreditation standards, such as the use of program-wide rubrics for specific classes, are not consistent with a person-centered and humanistic approach to learning (hansen, 2009), person-centered educators can find ways to work within this context to maintain a facilitative learning environment. one possibility is for counseling faculty to give students the learning objectives for a certain course or rubric for a key assessment and allow students to create individual projects or products that will show their competency in the learning outcomes the standard or assessment is intended to address. another option is the use of portfolios to measure some of the learning outcomes (barrio minton & gibson, 2012). these alternate assignments are not intended to be viewed as ways of circumventing the cacrep standards, but as ways of meeting them via practices that are most meaningful for students and that best facilitate their learning. although person-centered counseling faculty have to operate in a learning environment that emphasizes external accountability requirements, they do not have to give up their approach to learning (hansen, 2009; mearns, 1997). even if program policies require some specific assessments, counseling faculty have flexibility with other measures of learning outcomes. furthermore, they can frame what they are already doing in terms that appeal to accreditation reviewers. mearns (1997) 365  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  argued that person-centered teachers use a great deal of diagnostic and formative assessment as they help cits develop learning objectives and assess whether those are being met. the type of assessment must fit the outcome desired (cobia, carney, & shannon, 2011). if counseling faculty value process over the product, then they will focus on both formative and summative assessment throughout the process, such as the use of embedded assessments (svinicki & mckeachie, 2011). contracts are one form of assessment that encompasses aspects of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment and also rely on the self-direction of the individual (knowles, 1975; rogers & freiberg, 1994). with the use of contracts, each learner creates individual learning objectives and a plan for accomplishing the objectives. once the educator and the learner agree on the terms of the contract, it is used to guide the learner throughout the course. at the end of the course, the learner completes a self-assessment on whether the contract has been completed sufficiently. the counseling faculty member typically has final authority over the grade the student assigns themself (mearns, 1997). although contracts can be helpful in bridging the gap between student-directed learning and the need for accountability, their use evolves into a completely behavioral method without the attitudes that embody a humanistic learning environment (rogers & freiberg, 1994). for example, if a faculty member engages students in creating learning contracts but does not simultaneously demonstrate respect and trust that the learners are capable of directing their own learning, the assignment is no longer humanistic. by including the students in all aspects of the assessment process, the counseling faculty member indicates a respect for the students’ input and facilitates an internalized locus of control. by involving students in their own assessment, counseling faculty model ethical assessment procedures (cacrep, 2015, 2.f.7.) in that counselors also should seek client input before evaluating client functioning (aca, 2014, a.1.c.). challenges. regardless of how much an educator trusts the self-actualizing tendency in others, there are instances in which the timeline of the learning institution does not allow students sufficient time for their growth process (o’leary, 1989). person-centered counseling faculty do not see students as failing, but continuing their development in an environment that is more conducive to their current growth process. when a student needs to be counseled out of the program, counseling faculty are honest and empathic (mearns, 1997). maintaining an attitude of unconditional positive regard does not mean thinking everything a student does is fine. however, when dismissing a student from a program, counseling faculty work to maintain an empathic, caring relationship throughout the process in hopes that the student might continue to feel valued as a person by the counseling faculty. limitations. this approach may not be a good fit for all counselor educators, particularly those who do not identify with more humanistic modes of learning. in addition, this approach to learning is not always appreciated by all students. some students prefer the teacher tell them what they need to know and how to demonstrate their knowledge. the idea of taking responsibility for their learning can be stressful for some students. counselor educators utilizing this theory of learning need to assess whether such stress levels are facilitative or debilitating for learners.  conclusion humanistic learning theory is a way of approaching counselor education that emphasizes the humanistic underpinnings of the profession rather than the current reductionist approach of diagnosis and skills development (hansen, 2009). person-centered counseling faculty can utilize humanistic learning theory to facilitate an open, accepting, and understanding environment in which they engage cits in directing their own learning. counseling faculty can focus on cits’ attitudes and beliefs about people in relation to knowledge and skills. person-centered counseling faculty hope to foster cits’ self-understanding, caring and accepting attitudes toward people, and the acquisition 366  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  of concrete knowledge and skills needed in the counseling profession. counseling faculty using humanistic learning theory engage learners in assessment of their learning as much as feasible, while honoring the realities of external evaluation through accreditation. conflict of interest and funding disclosure the authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript.  references american counseling association. (2014). aca code of ethics. alexandria, va: author. arredondo, p., toporek, r., brown, s. p., jones, j., locke, d. c., sanchez, j., & stadler, h. (1996). operationalization of the multicultural counseling competencies. journal of multicultural counseling and development, 24, 42–78. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.1996.tb00288.x barrio minton, c. a., & gibson, d. m. (2012). evaluating student learning outcomes in counselor education: recommendations and process considerations. counseling outcome research and evaluation, 3(2), 73–91. doi:10.1177/2150137812452561 burnett, j. a., long, l. l., & horne, h. l. (2005). service learning for counselors: integrating education, training, and the community. the journal of humanistic counseling, education and development, 44, 158– 167. doi:10.1002/j.2164-490x.2005.tb00028.x cobia, d. c., carney, j. s., & shannon, d. m. (2011). what do students know and what can they do? assessing competence in counselor education. in g. mcauliffe & k. eriksen (eds.), handbook of counselor preparation: constructivist, developmental, and experiential approaches (pp. 367–376). thousand oaks, ca: sage. combs, a. w. (1982). a personal approach to teaching: beliefs that make a difference. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. combs, a. w. (1986). person-centered assumptions for counselor education. person-centered review, 1, 72–82. cornelius-white, j. h. d. (2005). teaching person-centered multicultural counseling: collaborative endeavors to transcend resistance and increase awareness. the journal of humanistic counseling, education and development, 44, 225–239. doi:10.1002/j.2164-490x.2005.tb00033.x council for accreditation of counseling and related educational programs. (2015). 2016 cacrep standards. retrieved from www.cacrep.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2016-standards-with-citations.pdf dollarhide, c. t., & granello, d. h. (2012). humanistic perspectives on counselor education and supervision. in m. b. scholl, a. s. mcgowan, & j. t. hansen (eds.), humanistic perspectives on contemporary counseling issues (pp. 277–305). new york, ny: routledge. freire, p. (2011). pedagogy of the oppressed (m. b. ramos, trans.). new york, ny: continuum. gibson, d. m., dollarhide, c. t., & moss, j. m. (2010). professional identity development: a grounded theory of transformational tasks of new counselors. counselor education and supervision, 50, 21–38. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2010.tb00106.x gould, j. (2012). learning theory and classroom practice in the lifelong learning sector. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hansen, j. t. (2009). counselor education and the meaning-reduction pendulum. the journal of humanistic counseling, education and development, 48, 65–76. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1939.2009.tb00068.x king, p. m., & kitchner, k. s. (2004). reflective judgment: theory and research on the development of epistemic assumptions through adulthood. educational psychologist, 39, 5–18. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep3901_2 kleiman, s. (2007). revitalizing the humanistic imperative in nursing education. nursing education perspectives, 28, 209–213. knowles, m. (1959). informal adult education. new york, ny: association press. knowles, m. (1975). self-directed learning: a guide for learners and teachers. new york, ny: association press.  367  
  the professional counselor volume 9, issue 4  kunze, d. (2013). the person-centered approach in adult education. in j. h. d. cornelius-white, r. motschnigpitrik, & m. lux (eds.), interdisciplinary applications of the person-centered approach (pp. 115–123). new york, ny: springer. mcauliffe, g. j. (2011). constructing counselor education. in g. mcauliffe & k. eriksen (eds.), handbook of counselor education and preparation: constructivist, developmental, and experiential approaches (pp. 3–12). thousand oaks, ca: sage. mccombs, b. l. (2013). the learner-centered model: from the vision to the future. in j. h. d. cornelius-white, r. motschnig-pitrik, & m. lux (eds.), interdisciplinary applications of the person-centered approach (pp. 83–113). new york, ny: springer. mearns, d. (1997). person-centred counselling training. london, england: sage. morrissette, p. j., & gadbois, s. (2006). ethical consideration of counselor education teaching strategies. counseling and values, 50, 131–141. doi:10.1002/j.2161-007x.2006.tb00049.x nelson, m. l., & neufeldt, s. a. (1998). the pedagogy of counseling: a critical examination. counselor education and supervision, 38(2), 70–88. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.1998.tb00560.x o’leary, e. (1989). the expression of disapproval by teachers and the maintenance of unconditional positive regard. person-centered review, 4, 420–428. penn, j. d. (2011). future directions for assessing complex general education student learning outcomes. new directions for institutional research, 149, 109–117. doi:10.1002/ir.384 rogers, c. r. (1951). client-centered therapy: its current practice, implications, and theory. oxford, england: houghton mifflin. rogers, c. r. (1957). the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. journal of consulting psychology, 21, 95–103. doi:10.1037/h0045357 rogers, c. r. (1989). personal thoughts on teaching and learning. in h. kirschenbaum & v. l. henderson (eds.), the carl rogers reader (pp. 301–304). new york, ny: houghton mifflin. (reprinted from merrillpalmer quarterly, 3, 241–243.) rogers, c., & freiberg, h. j. (1994). freedom to learn (3rd ed). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. skovholt, t. m., & ronnestad, m. h. (1992). themes in therapist and counselor development. journal of counseling & development, 70, 505–515. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1992.tb01646.x skovholt, t. m., jennings, l., & mullenbach, m. (2004). portrait of the master therapist: developmental model of the highly functioning self. in t. m. skovholt & l. jennings (eds.), master therapists: exploring expertise in therapy and counseling (pp. 125–146). boston, ma: pearson. smith, m. k. (2002). malcolm knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy. the encyclopedia of informal education. retrieved from www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm svinicki, m., & mckeachie, w. j. (2011). mckeachie’s teaching tips: strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed). belmont, ca: wadsworth cengage learning. tolan, j. (2017). skills in person-centered counseling & psychotherapy (3rd ed). thousand oaks, ca: sage.  368  
       


authors_index: torres-harding, susan turner, tasha
secondary_title_index: evaluation &amp; the health professions
title_index: assessing racial microaggression distress in a diverse sample
abstract_index:
       racial microaggressions are everyday subtle or ambiguous racially related insults, slights, mistreatment, or invalidations. racial microaggressions are a type of perceived racism that may negatively impact the health and wellbeing of people of color in the united states. this study examined the reliability and validity of the racial microaggression scale distress subscales, which measure the perceived stressfulness of six types of microaggression experiences in a racially and ethnically diverse sample. these subscales exhibited acceptable to good internal consistency. the distress subscales also evidenced good convergent validity; the distress subscales were positively correlated with additional measures of stressfulness due to experiencing microaggressions or everyday discrimination. when controlling for the frequency of one’s exposure to microaggression incidents, some racial/ethnic group differences were found. asian americans reported comparatively lower distress and latinos reporting comparatively higher distress in response to foreigner, low-achieving, invisibility, and environmental microaggressions. african americans reported higher distress than the other groups in response to environmental microaggressions. results suggest that the racial microaggressions scale distress subscales may aid health professionals in assessing the distress elicited by different types of microaggressions. in turn, this may facilitate diagnosis and treatment planning in order to provide multiculturally competent care for african american, latino, and asian american clients.     

full_text_index:
       assessing racial microaggression distress in a diverse sample  evaluation & the health professions 1-27 a the author(s) 2014 reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalspermissions.nav doi: 10.1177/0163278714550860 ehp.sagepub.com  susan torres-harding1 and tasha turner2  abstract racial microaggressions are everyday subtle or ambiguous racially related insults, slights, mistreatment, or invalidations. racial microaggressions are a type of perceived racism that may negatively impact the health and wellbeing of people of color in the united states. this study examined the reliability and validity of the racial microaggression scale distress subscales, which measure the perceived stressfulness of six types of microaggression experiences in a racially and ethnically diverse sample. these subscales exhibited acceptable to good internal consistency. the distress subscales also evidenced good convergent validity; the distress subscales were positively correlated with additional measures of stressfulness due to experiencing microaggressions or everyday discrimination. when controlling for the frequency of one’s exposure to microaggression incidents, some racial/ethnic group differences were found. asian americans reported comparatively lower distress and latinos reporting comparatively higher distress in response to foreigner, low-achieving, invisibility, and environmental  1  department of psychology, roosevelt university, chicago, il, usa roosevelt university, chicago, il, usa  2  corresponding author: susan torres-harding, department of psychology, roosevelt university, 430 s. michigan ave., chicago, il 60605, usa. email: storresharding@roosevelt.edu  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  2  evaluation & the health professions  microaggressions. african americans reported higher distress than the other groups in response to environmental microaggressions. results suggest that the racial microaggressions scale distress subscales may aid health professionals in assessing the distress elicited by different types of microaggressions. in turn, this may facilitate diagnosis and treatment planning in order to provide multiculturally competent care for african american, latino, and asian american clients. keywords racial microaggressions, stressfulness, distress, reliability, validity  much research has found that perceived and implicit discrimination is related to psychological outcomes and likely contributes to health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities in the united states (carter, 2007; torres, driscoll, & burrow, 2010; williams & mohammed, 2009). racial microaggressions are a form of perceived racism that have recently received considerable attention (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007). pierce, carew, pierce-gonzalez, and wills (1977) defined the term racial microaggressions as intentional or unintentional daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental actions that may indicate negative racial insults perceived by the targeted person or group. microaggressions have been conceptualized as broadly affecting people from racial and ethnic minorities due to their inherently subordinate status in u.s. society. racism includes both attitudinal and behavioral components. the term racism can include the belief that one race is superior to another and discrimination, the behavioral manifestations of such racial attitudes (mcneilly et al., 1996). the idea of racial discrimination is based upon the idea of race, a socially constructed rather than a true biological construct, which nonetheless purports the idea of essentialized and innate ancestral, cultural, or phenotypical differences (paradies, 2006). paradies (2006), in a systemic review of the literature, found that self-reported racism tended to be conceptualized as either exposure to various types of race-related experiences (racist behaviors/actions, racist attacks, harassment, exclusion, major life events such as being fired, or daily hassles due to race) or as a form of chronic stress. perceived racism refers to one’s exposure and emotional reactions to behavioral manifestations of racism, such as discrimination or the prejudicial attitudes of others (mcneilly et al., 1996). self-reported or perceived racism has been labeled in many different ways, such as perceived discrimination  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  3  (pascoe & richman, 2009), racial battle fatigue (smith, allen, & danley, 2007), race-related stress (utsey & ponterotto, 1996), or race-based traumatic stress (carter, 2007). sue, capodilupo, et al. (2007) described racial microaggressions as being more subtle or ambiguous than other forms of perceived discrimination, such as hostile racism. they used the term microaggressions to describe the everyday manifestation of racism on an interpersonal level, as compared to systemic racial oppression manifested through the existence of discriminatory laws and policies. they also described microaggression experiences as situations where the intent of the perpetrator may be hard to discern. these experiences have also been termed everyday discrimination by some researchers (i.e., stucky et al., 2011), which refers to chronic, everyday, and routine minor experiences with discrimination. although there is considerable overlap between everyday discrimination and microaggressions, sue and colleagues use the term microaggressions to specifically include microassaults, which involve hostile name calling and racial slurs; microinsults, which are communications that are perceived as rude, offensive, or insulting; and microinvalidations, which include communications that marginalize, exclude, or nullify the thoughts, ideas, values, experiences, or perspectives of people of color. thus, microaggressions do not include incidents such as racial violence or racial discrimination in the workplace or the housing market. rather, microaggressions are interpersonal or environmental situations where the prejudicial beliefs of the perpetrator are manifested consciously or unconsciously in their communication styles or behaviors toward a person of color. this view of microaggressions as being subtle and hard to uncover fits well with social psychological research investigating the nature of contemporary forms of racism. overt racism, which involves explicitly endorsing an ideology of white superiority, is increasingly less common. however, some white individuals who explicitly endorse antiracist, egalitarian attitudes may also hold implicit racial attitudes which unconsciously cause one to behave in a racially biased manner (dovidio, 2001; quillian, 2008). individuals are more likely to allow prejudicial racial attitudes to affect their behaviors in ambiguous situations where multiple explanations are possible (dovidio, 2001). this allows the perpetrator to disavow racial attitudes because if someone questions their behavior, they can provide other plausible explanations (i.e., i didn’t hire him because he was a poor candidate, not because he was latino; i asked for her id because she was acting suspiciously, not because she was black). in contrast, an individual with negative racial attitudes is unlikely to behave in a racially biased manner when the  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  4  evaluation & the health professions  only explanation for differential treatment could be race, such as in the situation of whether to hire a highly qualified racial minority candidate over a less qualified white candidate (dovidio, 2001). therefore, subtle behavioral manifestations of racial prejudice may be hard to detect and address because they are more likely to occur in situations where multiple explanations are possible. despite the ambiguous nature of these interactions, people from racial and ethnic minority groups do appear to be able to detect these racially related incidents. individuals have consistently reported experiencing these kinds of racially related interactions across many research studies and with individuals from diverse racial and ethnic groups, including african americans (constantine, 2007; constantine & sue, 2007; sue, capodilupo, & holder, 2008; sue, nadal, et al., 2008; torres et al., 2011; solorzano, ceja, & yosso, 2007; smith et al., 2007), latinos (yosso, smith, ceja, & solorzano, 2009), asian americans (ong, burrow, fuller-rowell, ja, & sue, 2013; sue, bucerri, lin, nadal, & torino, 2007; wang, leu, & shoda, 2011), american indians (clark, spanierman, reed, soble, & cabana, 2011), and british asians (burdsey, 2011). researchers have suggested that microaggressions, thought seemingly trivial, may provoke considerable distress and might cause even more distress than overt racism experiences (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007; wang et al., 2011). microaggressions may be especially stressful because individuals might not know how or whether to respond to such ‘‘mild’’ incidents of racism. they may also be harmful because, although mild, their frequency may cause negative cumulative effects. finally, experiencing microaggressions may be harmful because they serve as painful reminders of one’s lower status in society and contribute to a negative or hostile racial climate (solorzano et al., 2000; sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007; wang et al., 2011). understanding the nature of microaggressions and their effects is particularly important for health professionals because experiencing microaggressions may be a unique chronic stressor with detrimental effects on physical and mental health of people of color (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007). researchers have consistently found links between exposure to racism and negative impacts on psychological and physical health (for more comprehensive overviews, please see carter, 2007; paradies, 2006; and pascoe & richman, 2009), so it is likely that racism contributes to existing health disparities for people of color in the united states (carter, 2007; torres et al., 2010). thus, it is important for health professionals to examine whether racial microaggressions, which are more subtle and seemingly more benign form of racism, might have similar impacts on health when  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  5  compared to other forms of racism, in order to provide multiculturally competent care. many researchers (i.e., carter, 2007; clark, anderson, clark, & williams, 1999; harrell et al., 2011; helms, nicolas, & green, 2010; king, 2005; landrine, klonoff, corral, fernandez, & roesch, 2006; meyer, 2003) have utilized a stress or cognitive appraisal framework for understanding the impact of racism on the health and well-being of people from racial and ethnic minority groups. when specifically examining the impact of racial microaggressions, individuals have reported an array of negative psychological, physical, and psychosocial outcomes in quantitative and qualitative investigations. these effects have included increased anxiety, depression, perceived stress, anger, frustration, scorn/contempt, resentment, anxiety, shame, embarrassment, self-doubt, frustration, fatigue/exhaustion, discouragement, negative affect, somatic symptoms, alcohol misuse, and feeling powerless or invisible (blume, lovato, thyken, & denny, 2012; ong et al., 2013; solorzano et al., 2000; sue et al., 2008; torres et al., 2010; wang et al., 2011). individuals exposed to racial microaggressions have also reported negative impacts on the quality of interpersonal relationships with therapists, work or school peers, instructors/professors, and training supervisors (constantine, 2007; constantine & sue, 2007; solorzano et al., 2000; sue et al., 2008). while many studies have found significant long-term links between either racism or racial microaggressions and health and well-being, comparatively few have examined the immediate stressful reactions or distress which might mediate the link between racism-related experiences and longer term impacts on physical and psychological health (carter & forsyth, 2010; noh, kaspar, & wickrama, 2007). carter and forsyth (2010) found that individuals who had experienced racial discrimination also experienced a range of immediate emotional reactions to those specific incidents, including feeling angry, disrespected, insulted, disappointed, frustrated, outraged, hurt, or shocked. their study did not focus specifically on the immediate reactions to microaggressions, but more broadly to a range of discrimination experiences (i.e., dealing with hostile work environment, verbal or physical racial assaults, being profiled, or stereotyped). similarly, noh, kaspar, and wickrama (2007) found that individuals who experienced subtle, but not overt racial discrimination, were more likely to experience emotional arousal such as sadness, anger, aggression, and cognitive appraisal reactions such as experiencing exclusion, powerlessness, and shame. until recently, the distress elicited by microaggressions was difficult to assess because of a lack of instruments to measure experiences with  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  6  evaluation & the health professions  microaggressions. the racial and ethnic microaggressions scale (rems; nadal, 2011) and the racial microaggressions scale (rmas; torresharding, andrade, & diaz romero, 2012) have been developed to measure the frequency of microaggression experiences in people from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds. both groups of researchers used sue, capodilupo, et al.’s (2007) microaggression taxonomy as the primary theoretical foundation for the development of their respective scales. the rems (nadal, 2011) measures the frequency of microaggression experiences across six factors derived from principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis: assumptions of inferiority, second class citizen and assumptions of criminality, microinvalidations, exoticization/ assumptions of similarity, environmental microaggressions, and workplace and school microaggressions. similarly, the rmas (torresharding et al., 2012) measures the frequency of perceived microaggressions across six factors derived from exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis: low-achieving/dysfunctional culture, foreigner/not belonging, sexualization, criminality, invisibility, and environmental microaggressions. however, neither investigation reported a measure to assess the stressful reactions to these microaggression experiences. mercer, zeigler-hill, wallace, and hayes (2011) developed a scale to measure the distress elicited by microaggressions committed against black americans, the inventory of microaggressions against black individuals (imabi). this scale was intended to closely mirror the index of race related stress (irrs; utsey & ponterotto, 1996). therefore, like the irrs, it used a likert-type response choice that combined both the occurrence of a given microaggression (i.e., whether it had occurred vs. not) and its perceived stressfulness if it had occurred. unlike the rems and the rmas, the final scale fit best with a unidimensional model and the items included in the final scale consisted predominantly of microinvalidations, or experiences where one’s ideas, values, contributions, or viewpoints are ignored, dismissed, marginalized, or minimized. the results of this study found that invalidation experiences might be particularly distressing for african americans, suggesting that this is an important dimension to measure. more recently, huynh (2012) developed the ethnic microaggressions scale (ema) to measure ethnic microaggressions in latino and asian american youth. this scale included three subscales (denial of racial reality, emphasis on differences, and negative treatment) and measured not only the frequency of these experiences but also the stated stressfulness for microaggressions believed to be especially pertinent to asian americans and latinos. this study found differences in the reported level of types of  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  7  microaggression experiences (frequency) when comparing the asian american and latino youth; however, huynh noted no differences in the young people’s appraisal of the stressfulness of these experiences when present. this suggests that measuring distress in addition to the frequency of microaggressions is an important separate dimension that may impact psychological functioning and that distress may be similarly impactful across racial/ethnic groups. however, the ethnic microaggression scale and the imabis were developed to measure microaggressions in either latinos and asian americans (ema), or in black americans (imbi), respectively. the current investigation seeks to address this gap by testing a scale that measures distress more broadly across these three racial/ethnic groups. in addition, many scales exist to measure perceived racism, everyday discrimination, or perceived discrimination, which are related constructs. these scales include the perceived ethnic discrimination questionnaire (brondolo et al., 2005), the irrs (utsey & ponterotto, 1996), the everyday discrimination scale (eds; williams, yu, jackson, & anderson, 1997), the perceptions of racism scale (green, 1995), the perceived racism scale (mcneilly et al., 1996), the schedule of racist events (landrine & klonoff, 1996), and the general ethnic discrimination scale (geds; landrine et al., 2006). these scales vary in terms of whether they combine or separate the experience of the frequency of the discrimination experiences from the emotional or stressful/cognitive appraisal of these experiences. the schedule of racist events (landrine & klonoff, 1996), the geds (landrine et al., 2006), which is a modification of the schedule of racist events, and the perceived racism scale (mcneilly et al., 1996) measure both the frequency of racism related events and the distress elicited by those events. however, these scales pool distress or emotional reactions across situations, so that the distress elicited by specific types of racist incidents, such as microaggressions, cannot be distinguished from more overt forms of racism. additionally, each assesses a broad range of racism related experiences which can include microaggressions, but they do not measure the distress specifically elicited by different types of microaggressions as described by sue, capodilupo et al.’s (2007) theoretical model. huynh, devos, and dunbars (2012) proposed that the perceived racism frequency and perceived stressfulness/emotional reactions to racism-related events are dimensions that should be assessed separately. they noted that some people may respond to seemingly ‘‘milder’’ experiences of racism in the moment by denying that the event has any emotional impact whatsoever. thus, racism experiences may not always necessarily lead to a stated  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  8  evaluation & the health professions  emotional appraisal as the incident causing distress or an emotional impact. many factors might mediate the individual’s perception of whether they experience the event as distressing, such as the use of coping strategies, racial/ethnic identity, individual resilience factors, differences in attribution of responsibility, or attempts to deny or minimize the impact of such events. self-stereotyping, internalization of the view that racism is no longer a problem in today’s society, or simple fatigue/exhaustion of dealing with such events may cause some people to be motivated to discount or ignore the stressful impact of these recurrent events. however, in the case of more ‘‘mild’’ forms of perceived racism, such as with microaggressions, huynh et al. (2012) suggested that there may be differences in stated stressfulness, which they describe as the self-reported stressfulness of a given experience, and derived stressfulness, which they defined as the impact of racism experiences on one’s psychological health which may occur outside of a person’s awareness. thus, they argue that it is critical to measure both the occurrence and frequency of racism-related experiences and the selfreported perceived stressfulness of such experiences because these might have differential impacts on psychological or physical health. the current study seeks to validate six new subscales of the racial microaggression scale (rmas: torres-harding et al., 2012) that assess the distress elicited by racial microaggression events. these distress subscales correspond to huynh et al.’s (2012) concept of stated stressfulness as well as mirror the scale structure of other scales which separately measure the frequency and the appraisal of stress evoked by such experiences (i.e., the schedule of racist events and the geds). as stated previously, measuring the distress elicited by seemingly ‘‘mild’’ or innocuous microaggressions experiences is important so that researchers and health professionals might ultimately determine whether microaggressions are in fact harmful. the development of these distress scales would allow health professionals to measure the perceived stressfulness of the incident and more fully understand the impact of these events on their clients. two studies were conducted to test the reliability and validity of the rmas distress subscales. in the first study, the reliability of these microaggression distress subscales was assessed to determine whether these subscales were found to be internally consistent, as evidenced by a cronbach’s a of .70 or higher (devellis, 2003). second, as suggested by microaggression theory, it was expected that individuals who reported more frequent microaggression experiences would also report more distress resulting from these incidents because of a presumed cumulative effect  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  9  (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007). thus, correlational analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the rmas frequency subscales and each corresponding distress subscale. it was also expected that these correlations might exhibit a small to medium effect size, as defined by cohen (1992), because the general racism and health literature has found small effect sizes in the relationship between exposure to racism and health (pascoe & richman, 2009). third, it was expected that the distress levels would be similar across racial/ethnic groups and that no group differences would be found in terms of how stressful or upsetting the respondents found the microaggression experiences, as suggested by huynh (2012). thus, analyses were conducted to examine whether any racial or ethnic group differences might occur in responses to the six distress subscales. to establish convergent validity, a second study was conducted to examine the associations between the six rmas distress subscales and three measures of either racial microaggressions or subtle, everyday experiences with racism: the geds (landrine et al., 2006), the ema (huynh, 2012), and the eds (williams et al. 1997). both the geds and the ema include subscales that measure the stated stressfulness, distress, or stress reactivity/ appraisal in response to enduring microaggression experiences in everyday life. it was expected that rmas distress subscales would be significantly correlated with the geds appraised discrimination subscale and the three ema reactivity subscales.  general methods procedure an implied consent procedure was used to preserve anonymity of the study responses. all participants were recruited from a medium-sized private midwestern university setting. participants were recruited through the use of an online research scheduling system, classroom announcements, by visiting student groups’ meetings, and by disseminating links to the survey to student organizations who directly served students of color. after reading an implied consent statement, participants completed an anonymous online survey. this study was reviewed and approved by the university institutional review board to ensure that all ethical standards were fully met in the conduct of the study. only individuals who identified as being a member of a racial or ethnic minority group were included in the study analysis. individuals who identified as white or caucasian were excluded from all study analyses.  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  10  evaluation & the health professions  study 1: reliability of the rmas distress scales methods first, data were collected from 374 individuals. these individuals completed only the rmas (torres-harding et al., 2012). all data were collected using an online anonymous survey. the data were drawn from a larger study examining the impact of microaggressions on health and well-being.  measures rmas: (torres-harding et al., 2012). the rmas measures how frequently individuals experience specific racial microaggressions incidents and the distress elicited by these incidents. for each item, respondents were asked ‘‘how often does this happen to you?’’ with no specific time frame given. all of the items on the subscales measuring microaggression frequency were assessed on a 4-point likert-type ordered categorical scale, with 0 1⁄4 never, 11⁄4 a little/rarely, 2 1⁄4 sometimes or a moderate amount, and 3 1⁄4 often/frequently. the reliability and validity of the original six rmas frequency subscales were examined by torres-harding, andrade, and diaz romero (2012). exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the derived factors, and these factors were compared to the theoretical categories of microaggressions proposed by sue, capodilupo, et al. (2007). the foreigner subscale measured how often individuals reported being treated as a foreigner, as not american, or as if they didn’t belong in a given setting. the low-achieving subscale measured how frequently individuals were treated as if their racial culture was dysfunctional, low achieving, or undesirable, and how frequently others viewed academic success as due to affirmative action or as an, ‘‘exception to the rule.’’ the sexualization subscale measured how frequently individuals reported that others treated them in an overly sexual manner or sexually stereotyped them because of their race. the criminality subscale measured how frequently individuals reported others treating them as if they were aggressive or likely to engage in criminal behavior. the invisibility subscale measured how frequently individuals reported that others overlooked, invalidated, or dismissed their views or contributions because of their racial heritage, and the extent to which they felt marginalized by others. the environmental subscale measured how frequently individuals found themselves in settings in which they are the ‘‘only one,’’ and to what extent they observed the absence of people from their own racial heritage in work settings, school settings, media, or positions  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  11  of authority. reliability of the original subscales, as measured by cronbach’s a analyses, was found to be very good: foreigner 1⁄4 .70; low-achieving 1⁄4 .87; sexualization; .83; criminality 1⁄4 .85; invisibility 1⁄4 .89; and environmental 1⁄4 .81 (torres-harding et al., 2012). for the current study, a second set of subscales was derived examining the distress elicited by each category of microaggression experience. each item on the rmas included an additional query assessing how stressful, bothersome, or upsetting they found the incident (i.e., ‘‘if this does happen to you, how stressful, upsetting, or bothersome is this for you?’’). individuals indicated how distressing they found a particular incident on a 1–4 likert-type scale, where 0 1⁄4 not at all, 1 1⁄4 a little, 21⁄4 moderate level, and 3 1⁄4 high level. if the individual reported experiencing a particular racial incident at all (i.e., at least a 1 for the frequency of the experience), they were asked to indicate their stressful reaction to the particular item. if the individual reported not experiencing a microaggression, they were coded as a ‘‘0’’ for the distress item. demographic questionnaire. in addition to the rmas scale, demographic information was collected from the participants, including age, gender, race status, whether one identified as either heterosexual or nonheterosexual (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgender, queer, or questioning [lgbtq]), immigration/generational status, and disability status.  results participants this sample of 374 individuals included 132 (35.3%) african americans, 110 (29.4%) latinos, 89 (23.8%) asian american, south asian, or middle-eastern individuals, and 43 (11.5%) individuals who identified as being biracial or multiracial. within the biracial/multiracial group, the ethnicities reported were varied and included individuals who were white and african american/black (7; 17.1%), hispanic/latino and white (8; 19.5%), asian american and latino (4; 9.8%), black and hispanic (4; 9.8%). black and asian (1; 2.4%); american indian and white (3; 7.3%), asian and white (2; 4.9%); black and american indian (1; 2.4%), three or more ethnicities (5; 12.2%); and some who identified only multiracial or biracial with no additional identifiers (8; 14.6%). because some individuals identify being latino/hispanic as their ethnic group and either white or black as their race, we only classified these individuals  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  12  evaluation & the health professions  table 1. internal consistency scores for entire sample and for separate racial subgroups, as measured using the cronbach’s a. racial microaggressions scale distress subscale foreigner distress criminality distress sexualization distress low achieving/ undesirable culture distress invisibility distress environmental distress  asian african latino entire sample american (n 1⁄4 american multiracial (n 1⁄4 374) (n 1⁄4 132) 110) (n 1⁄4 89) (n 1⁄4 43) .77 .87 .87 .90  .69 .89 .85 .90  .77 .82 .88 .88  .74 .82 .86 .88  .80 .81 .88 .88  .86 .82  .83 .81  .86 .82  .88 .82  .88 .83  as biracial if they indicated two clearly separate cultural heritages (e.g., ‘‘puerto rican and irish,’’ ‘‘mexican and italian’’). if individuals identified with only one latino or hispanic heritage, they were classified as ‘‘latino/ hispanic.’’ the average age of the participants was 23.76 years old (sd 1⁄4 6.08; age range from 18 to 52 years old). the sample was predominantly female (297; 79.4%), with 74 (19.8%) males and 3 (.8%) people not indicating their gender. ten (2.7%) participants identified as having a disability. three hundred and thirty individuals (88.2%) were heterosexual, 32 (8.6%) identified as being lgbtq, and 12 (3.2%) declined to identify their sexual orientation status. regarding immigration/generational status, 40 (10.7%) were first-generation immigrants (born outside the united states); 133 (35.6%) were second-generation (born in united states, either parent born outside the united states); 33 (8.8%) were third-generation immigrants (any grandparent born outside the united states), 7 (1.9%) individuals identified as foreign nationals, and 161 (43.0%) indicated as the question not being applicable.  internality consistency of the distress subscales first, analyses were conducted to evaluate the reliability of the distress subscales. cronbach’s as were computed to examine the internal consistency of each distress subscale for the entire sample and for each of the racial/ethnic groups (see table 1). all of the distress subscales were found to exhibit reliabilities of .70 or higher, indicating very good reliability of all of the subscales in the entire sample and in almost all of the subscales as measured in  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  13  torres-harding and turner  table 2. pearson’s r correlation coefficients between the frequency scales and the corresponding distress scales. asian african latino entire sample american (n 1⁄4 american multiracial (n 1⁄4 374) (n 1⁄4 132) 110) (n 1⁄4 89) (n 1⁄4 43) foreigner and foreigner distress criminality and criminality distress sexualization and sexualization distress low achieving/ undesirable culture invisibility and invisibility distress environmental and environmental distress  .62***  .68***  .54***  .57***  .52***  .78***  .65***  .87***  .80***  .82***  .73***  .77***  .68***  .69***  .75***  .80***  .71***  .80***  .80***  .76***  .83***  .79***  .89***  .82***  .84***  .61***  .71***  .63***  .50***  .67***  note. *p .05. **p .01. ***p .001.  each ethnic/racial group. the exception to this was the foreigner distress subscale as measured in the african americans. the cronbach’s a for this subscale was .69, indicating moderately acceptable reliability.  comparison with rmas frequency subscales next, the distress subscales were compared to the previously developed frequency subscales (torres-harding et al., 2012) within the entire sample and across the four racial/ethnic groups. table 2 reports results of the pearson correlation coefficient analyses for each pair of frequency and distress subscales. as expected, the results indicate that a higher frequency of reported microaggression experiences within each category was associated with higher perceived stressfulness of those experiences. these correlations ranged from .50 (environmental frequency and distress for asian americans) to .89 (invisibility frequency and distress for latinos).  demographic comparisons finally, multiple regression analyses were used to examine whether differences occurred across racial/ethnic group categories in self-  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  14  evaluation & the health professions  reported microaggression distress. using multiple regression analyses allowed for the inclusion of the microaggression frequency scale scores as independent variables into these analyses. guidelines presented by cohen, cohen, west, and aiken (2003) were used to dummy code race, a four-level categorical variable (african american, latino, asian american, and multiracial). three comparison groups were created: multiracial versus all others, latinos versus all others, and asian americans versus all others. the african americans were chosen as the reference group because they represented a welldefined group with a proportionally larger sample size, as recommended by cohen et al. (2003). in these multiple regression analyses, after controlling for the frequency of reported microaggressions, no racial/ethnic group differences were found for the criminality distress or the sexuality distress subscales. however, racial/ethnic group differences were found for foreigner distress, f(4, 309) 1⁄4 50.61, p 1⁄4 .000; low-achieving distress, f(4, 309) 1⁄4 17.41, p 1⁄4 .000; invisibility distress, f(4, 309) 1⁄4 151.31, p 1⁄4 .000; and environmental distress, f(4, 309) 1⁄4 54.61, p 1⁄4 .000. in order to examine the effect size of the racial/ethnic group differences, partial correlation coefficients of the dummy-coded variables were computed, as suggested by cohen et al. (2003). these analyses indicated, after controlling for microaggression frequency, latinos were more likely to exhibit foreigner distress (r 1⁄4 .13, p 1⁄4 .003), low-achieving distress (r 1⁄4 .18, p 1⁄4 .001), invisibility distress (r 1⁄4 .12, p 1⁄4 .031), and environmental distress (r 1⁄4 .16, p 1⁄4 .005) when compared to the other racial/ethnic groups. asian americans were less likely to exhibit foreigner distress (r 1⁄4 .14, p 1⁄4 .017), low-achieving distress (r 1⁄4 .14, p 1⁄4 .014), invisibility distress (r 1⁄4 .18, p 1⁄4 .001), and environmental distress (r 1⁄4 .29, p .001) than the other groups. african americans were more likely to exhibit environmental distress (r 1⁄4 .15, p 1⁄4 .008). there were no differences between the multiracial participants and the other racial/ethnic group members on any of the six distress subscales.  study 2 procedure in order to test the convergent validity of the four scales, data were collected from a second group of 84 research participants. participants completed an anonymous online survey.  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  15  measures the rmas was completed by all of the participants. additionally, the following measures were administered. geds. the geds is a scale containing 18 items (landrine et al., 2006). for each item, individuals were asked to report how frequently they had experienced the event during the past year, during their entire lifetime, and the level of stress provoked by the experience. examples of racist events measured in this scale included being treated unfairly because of one’s race by teachers or neighbors, being called racist names, experiencing violence or physical threats because of one’s race, or experiencing negative emotional reactions in response to racist treatment. landrine and colleagues reported very good internal consistency for the appraised discrimination (a 1⁄4 .95), recent discrimination (a 1⁄4 .94), and lifetime discrimination (a 1⁄4 .94) subscales (landrine et al., 2006). ema: (huynh, 2012). the ethnic microaggression scale measures an individual’s experiences with subtle discrimination during the previous year. this scale was developed by huynh (2012) and used with latino and asian american adolescents. this scale assesses three types of microaggression categories: emphasis on differences assesses whether one is treated as a foreigner; denial of racial reality assesses the experience of having others invalidate the reality of bias and discrimination; and negative treatment assesses the degree to which an individual is ignored or treated as a second-class citizen. each category includes a frequency subscale, which measures how often the individual experiences a given microaggression, and a reactivity subscale, which measures how much the event bothered them. the frequency items are measured using a 6-point scale (0 1⁄4 0 times/never, 1 1⁄4 once a year (rarely), 2 1⁄4 3–4 time a year (sometimes), 3 1⁄4 once a month (somewhat frequently), 4 1⁄4 once a week (frequently), and 5 1⁄4 almost every day (all the time)). the reactivity items are measured on a 5-point scale (1 1⁄4 this event made me feel good, 2 1⁄4 it did not bother me, 3 1⁄4 it bothered me slightly, 4 1⁄4 it upset me, 5 1⁄4 this event upset me extremely). the reliability of these subscales was found by huynh (2012) to be in the acceptable to good range: emphasis on differences frequency, a 1⁄4 .71 and reactivity, a 1⁄4 .66; denial of racial reality frequency, a 1⁄4 .71, and reactivity, a 1⁄4 .76; and negative treatment frequency, a 1⁄4 .71, and reactivity, a 1⁄4 .72.  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  16  evaluation & the health professions  eds: (williams et al., 1997). this scale measured unfair treatment and more chronic, routine, and minor experiences of discrimination. this scale included 9 items assessing experiences such as being treated with less courtesy than others, receiving poorer service in restaurants and stores, being treated as if one is less intelligent, or being threatened or harassed. for each item, respondents were asked to indicate ‘‘in your day-to-day life, how often do any of the following things happen to you?’’ with no specific time frame indicated. respondents indicated the frequency of encountering these types of experiences using a 6-point likert-type style, with 0 1⁄4 never, and 6 1⁄4 almost every day. the responses were summed in order to derive a total score. williams, yu, jackson, and anderson (1997) reported excellent reliability, a 1⁄4 .88.  results participants of this sample, 32 (38.1%) were african american, 23 (27.4%) were latino, 16 (19.0% were asian american, and 13 (15.5%) were multiracial. within the biracial/multiracial group, the ethnicities reported included individuals who were white and african american/black (2; 15.4%), hispanic/ latino and white (2; 15.4%), asian american and latino (1; 7.7%), black and hispanic (2; 15.4%); black and asian (1; 7.7%); three or more ethnicities (2; 15.4%); and some who identified only as multiracial or biracial with no additional identifiers (3; 23.1%). because some individuals identify being latino/hispanic as their ethnic group and either white or black as their race, we only classified these individuals as biracial if they indicated two clearly separate cultural identities. sixteen (19.0%) participants were male, 67 (79.8%) were female, and 1 (1.2%) identified as transgender. eight participants (9.5%) identified as having a disability. the average age in this sample was 23.50 (sd 1⁄4 6.55; range 1⁄4 18 to 58 years old). eleven participants (13.1%) identified as being lgbtq, with 73 (86.9%) identifying as heterosexual. convergent validity. in order to test the convergent validity of the rmas distress subscales and the additional measure subscales, pearson correlation coefficients were computed among all of the measure subscales scores. as hypothesized, all of the rmas distress subscales were found to exhibit significant positive moderate-level correlations with all additional subscales that assessed stressfulness or distress. correlations between the ged  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  17  appraised discrimination subscale and the rmas distress subscales were as follows: foreigner distress, r 1⁄4 .53, p .001; sexualization distress, r 1⁄4 .53, p .001; criminality distress, r 1⁄4 .54, p .001; lowachieving distress, r 1⁄4 .60, p .001; environmental distress, r 1⁄4.61, p  .001; invisibility distress, r 1⁄4 .77, p .001. correlations between the ema emphasis on differences reactivity subscale the rmas distress subscales were as follows: sexualization distress, r 1⁄4 .43, p .001; lowachieving distress, r 1⁄4 .43, p .001; criminality distress, r 1⁄4 .44, p .001; invisibility distress, r 1⁄4 .52, p .001; foreigner distress, r 1⁄4 .57, p .001; environmental distress, r 1⁄4 .57, p .001. correlations between the ema denial of racial reality reactivity and the distress subscales were as follows: foreigner distress, r 1⁄4 .23, p 1⁄4 .024, sexualization distress, r 1⁄4 .30, p 1⁄4 .007; environmental distress, r 1⁄4 .36, p 1⁄4 .001; criminality distress, r 1⁄4 .38, p .001; invisibility distress, r 1⁄4 .44, p .001; lowachieving distress, r 1⁄4 .56, p .001. finally, correlations between the ema negative treatment reactivity subscale and the distress subscales were as follows: sexualization distress, r 1⁄4 .32, p 1⁄4 .003; criminality distress, r 1⁄4 .48, p .001; foreigner distress, r 1⁄4 .49, p .001; environmental distress, r 1⁄4 .54, p .001; invisibility distress, r 1⁄4 .64, p .001; low-achieving distress, r 1⁄4 .67, p .001. the rmas distress subscales were also found to be positively associated with the additional subscales assessing the frequency of microaggressions. the distress subscales were significantly positively associated with all of the geds subscales, with associations ranging from .33 (sexualization distress with recent discrimination) to .75 (invisibility distress with lifetime discrimination). the rmas distress subscales were positively associated with many of the ema frequency subscales (range of correlations: .27–.60), with the exception of the association between criminality distress and emphasis on differences frequency, and the association between low achieving distress and emphasis on differences frequency, which were not statistically significant. the rmas distress subscales were positively associated with the eds total score (range of correlations: .33–.62), with the exception of the association with sexualization distress. similarly, the rmas frequency subscales were also found to be positively significantly associated with most of the frequency and stressfulness subscales (range of correlations: .23–.78), with the following exceptions: foreigner frequency and ema denial of racial reality frequency, criminality frequency with ema emphasis on differences frequency, and sexualization frequency with the eds total score.  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  18  evaluation & the health professions  discussion these studies provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the rmas distress subscales. the original rmas subscales (torresharding et al., 2012) examined the degree of frequency with which one might experience different types of microaggression experiences. developing and validating the additional distress subscales is important because other researchers have found that the impact of stress on physical and mental health is mediated by one’s cognitive appraisal of that particular environmental stress or demand (huynh et al., 2012). the internal consistency of the rmas distress scales appeared to be very good. the foreigner distress subscale exhibited somewhat lower reliability for african americans, but this still fell within the moderately acceptable level of reliability (a 1⁄4.69). it is unclear why this subscale was somewhat lower for this group when compared to the other racial/ethnic groups. only five (3.8%) of the african american group reported being a first generation immigrant (i.e., born outside of the united states), so the majority of this group were u.s.-born. it is possible that they were less likely to be treated as if they were a foreigner or perhaps they felt that these questions were less relevant to them when compared to the other groups. regarding the convergent validity, all six subscales were found to correlate well with the appraised discrimination subscale from the geds, a general measure of how much racism-related experiences are upsetting or troublesome to an individual. correlations ranged from .50 to .76 with the appraised discrimination subscale. additionally, all six rmas distress subscales were significantly correlated with the three reactivity subscales from the ema, which also measures how upsetting or bothersome the respondents found specific microaggression experiences. correlations with the emphasis on differences, denial of racial reality, and negative treatment reactivity subscales ranged from .25 to .67. additionally, the distress subscales were all found to be significantly associated with their corresponding original rmas subscale measuring the frequency of microaggression experiences. correlations between the rmas frequency subscales and their corresponding distress subscales ranged from .50 to .89. the positive correlations between frequency and distress subscales fit with microaggression theory, which contends that microaggression experiences have a cumulative effect on emotional distress (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007). these results also fit well with results reported by huynh et al. (2012) who found that frequency of racial discrimination and stated stressfulness were significantly modestly correlated (i.e.,  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  19  r 1⁄4 .40) when using the schedule of racist events scale. the finding of associations between many of the rmas distress subscales and the ethnic microaggression scale frequency subscales, the geds recent and lifetime discrimination frequency, and the eds score again suggests that there is a relationship between frequency of microaggression experiences and distress elicited by these experiences. regarding the differences among the racial/ethnic groups, we did find some variation across the following subscales, even after controlling for microaggression frequency: low-achieving distress, foreigner distress, invisibility distress, and environmental distress. latinos appeared to be more likely to report distress after experiencing foreigner microaggressions, invisibility microaggressions, low-achieving microaggressions, and environmental microaggressions. asian americans, in contrast, reported comparatively less distress after foreigner microaggressions, invisibility microaggressions, low-achieving microaggressions, and environmental microaggressions. finally, african americans reported comparatively more distress after environmental microaggression, but the level of reported distress with the other distress subscales did not vary from the other racial/ethnic groups. the multiracial group’s distress level did not vary from the other racial/ethnic groups on any of the distress measures. it is important to note that the effect sizes for these relationships were small (i.e., between .12 and .15), and the size of these differences were smaller than the effect sizes for the microaggression frequency’s impact on distress. in the multiple regression analyses, microaggression frequency exhibited large effect sizes (b 1⁄4 .60–.79) when examining the relationship between each microaggression frequency subscale and its corresponding distress subscale. however, although small, these differences were statistically significant. thus, latinos may have exhibited more distress than the other groups, and asian americans comparatively less distress. this contrasts with results reported by huynh (2012), who found differences between latino and asian american adolescents in the frequency of some types of microaggressions, but no differences in the self-reported stressfulness of these microaggressions across latinos and asian americans. it is possible that reminders of physical and linguistic exclusion, such as ‘‘english only’’ laws or antiimmigration policies aimed predominantly at latinos, might lead to comparatively more distress when a latino has to confront these microaggressions. given the current media attention on immigration reform, activism around pro-immigration legislation such as the dream act, and ongoing deportations of undocumented people in the united states, experiencing racial microaggressions may seem particularly threatening to  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  20  evaluation & the health professions  members of this group. it is possible that asian americans reported comparatively less distress in the face of these microaggressions because asian americans are stereotyped as the model minority (sue, bucerri, et al., 2007). the sample consisted entirely of university students, so this setting may have especially primed respondents to the stereotypes of asian americans as being more intelligent and academically more competent, thus lessening the comparative impact of these microaggression experiences when compared to the other racial/ethnic groups. also, it is possible that there may have been differences in generational status between the asian americans and the other group. if one group was more likely to be foreign-born, then this might have affected reported distress. in the first study, 20 (23%) of the asian americans were firstgeneration immigrants (i.e., born outside the united states), when compared to only 13 (11.9%) of the latinos, 2 (4.7%) of the multiracial individuals, and 5 (3.8%) of the african americans. it is possible that asian americans experienced less foreigner distress because they were somewhat more likely to have been foreign-born. further, research conducted by noh and kaspar (2003) suggested that, for asian americans, contextual factors such as immigration/generational or refugee status may impact reactions to discrimination because of differences in social and cultural resources, such as family support, employment stability, income, and educational levels. availability of these resources might impact the types of emotional reactions that individuals experience in response to discrimination experiences (noh & kaspar, 2003). finally, it is important to note that, even for asian americans, microaggression experiences were still perceived as stressful and may be harmful to the sense of well-being, security, and feelings of belonging, although perhaps somewhat less when compared to the other racial/ethnic groups. regarding the clinical implications of this study, it is important for clinicians to understand the impact of microaggression experiences in order to provide multiculturally competent care. microaggression experiences are, by their nature, ambiguous and difficult to discern (sue, capidilupo, et al., 2007). thus, therapists, especially white therapists, may have a difficult time recognizing when these racism-related experiences have occurred or may not fully understand how upsetting or distressing these experiences may be for some clients of color. assessment of microaggression experience and the resulting distress fits well with the most recent diagnostic and statistical manual, fifth edition (dsm-5; american psychiatric association, 2013) cultural formulation interview. in the current dsm-5 system, the focus has shifted away from cultural bound syndromes  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  21  toward using a more flexible assessment approach to understand the differential impact of culturally important variables such as discrimination experiences on the development of psychopathology. the cultural formulation interview generally assesses the client’s perceptions of stressors, such as discrimination. however, this interview does not specifically assess microaggression-related distress. using this scale to assess microaggression distress in conjunction with the dsm-5 cultural formulation interview may help clinicians to integrate racism-related stressors in their conceptualization of the client’s difficulties and help the clinician to avoid inappropriately attributing distress to intrapsychic or personality factors. this will also help the clinician to more fully understand how microaggressionrelated distress may elicit or maintain emotional difficulties, such as depression or anxiety, or whether it may underlie ineffective coping strategies. finally, understanding the distress elicited by microaggressions is important to help guide the treatment process and the development of trust within the therapeutic relationship. some clients may be reluctant to bring up any race-related issues because of cultural mistrust, which involves avoiding discussing issues of race in therapy because of fear of being told that they are paranoid about racism, being oversensitive to racial issues, or being pathologized as overly resistant and suspicious (whaley, 2001). also, if microaggressions occur within the clinical therapeutic relationship, it can lead to increased mistrust, attrition, or lack of compliance, and may negatively impact the quality of care experienced by people of color within the health care system (constantine, 2007). these incidents are harmful because they delegitimize the patients’ ‘‘racial reality’’ and privilege the worldview and perspective of the clinician over that of the clients (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007). asking clients about racism-related distress as part of an intake assessment allows the clinician to acknowledge that racism-related issues are legitimate concerns to be addressed in therapy (whaley, 2001). awareness of microaggressions and the resulting distress for their client may help the clinician avoid engaging in microaggressions in therapy. finally, clinicians may be able to assist clients with understanding how microaggressions may be impacting their prevailing mood or ongoing psychological difficulties. helping clients to develop effective short-term coping strategies for the emotional arousal caused by microaggression experiences may be helpful. clinicians might be able to help clients figure out how to function more effectively at work or at school in the face of experiencing upsetting microaggressions from peers, coworkers, professors, supervisors, and others. clinicians might also explore with clients how  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  22  evaluation & the health professions  experiencing specific microaggressions, such as being treated as if one is from a dysfunctional culture, might impact their sense of self, self-worth, and identity. finally, clinicians can help to empower clients by placing these distressing experiences into a larger sociopolitical context and then facilitating the client’s own choices about how to confront these experiences. ultimately, this may enhance the client’s self-efficacy and competence. clinicians can help the client avoid self-blame and resist these harmful racial stereotypes, so that they may eventually develop healthy and positive racial and cultural identities. limitations of the study include the fact that the current sample consisted of a convenience sample of university students, so generalizability to other populations or other settings is unclear. the scale was administered in english, and the current analyses excluded individuals who spoke spanish or other languages. therefore, generalizability to spanish-speaking latinos or to asian americans whose predominant language is not english is unclear. also, it is important to note that the partial correlation coefficients for the racial groups were computed using dummy coded variables, and, according to cohen et al. (2003), the exact correlation coefficient value using a dummy coding method may underestimate the value of the proportion of each racial group to the overall sample size. however, cohen et al. (2003) notes that this likely is not a significant issue if the proportion of the sample is similar to that of the population from which it is drawn. for the current study, the racial/ethnic composition was similar in proportion to the larger university setting’s racial/ethnic composition; thus, it is likely that the estimates are accurate. however, more research should be done to further examine racial/ethnic group differences in the reported stressfulness of these microaggression experiences. finally, more sophisticated methods for evaluating the psychometric properties of the subscales, such as using item response theory, were not conducted. therefore, these analyses should be considered preliminary and more research needs to be done in the future to more fully test the reliability and validity of these subscales.  summary analyses examining the reliability and validity of these distress subscales were conducted to determine whether these subscales might serve as useful tools for researchers and clinicians seeking to measure the perceived stressfulness of microaggression experiences for individuals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. this study found preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the distress scales in a sample of african  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
  torres-harding and turner  23  american, latino, asian american, and multiracial adults. the subscales generally appeared to be reliable and to be associated with similar measures of racism-related distress. this suggests that these distress subscales may be promising tools for exploring the potential impacts of microaggression experiences. however, additional research should be conducted to more fully assess the utility of these scales across settings. examining the immediate distress elicited by racial microaggression experiences may allow health researchers and health professionals to more fully understand the distress evoked by these seemingly mild but recurrent forms of racism. the current analyses suggest that individuals do report immediate distress in response to these experiences, but the significance and long-term impact of this stressful response in racially diverse individuals should be further explored in future research. development of the distress scales might aid investigations into the stress appraisal process, the emotional reactions of people of color, and the short-term and long-term impacts on physical and psychological health due to these microaggression experiences. finally, it is important for health professionals to become aware of the impacts of microaggressions on the health and well-being of their clients, so that they don’t inadvertently marginalize their patients but, rather, provide the highest possible quality of care. authors’ note the racial microaggressions scale is available upon request from the corresponding author.  declaration of conflicting interests the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.  funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.  references american psychiatric association. (2013). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-5. arlington, va: american psychiatric association. blume, a. w., lovato, l. v., thyken, b. n., & denny, n. (2012). the relationships of microaggressions with alcohol use and anxiety among ethnic minority college students in a historically white institution. cultural diversity and ethnic minority psychology, 18, 45–54. doi:10.1037/a0025457  downloaded from ehp.sagepub.com at purdue univ library tss on may 21, 2015  
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title_index: williams-et-al-2021-after-pierce-and-sue-a-revised-racial-microaggressions-taxonomy
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       994247  research-article2021  ppsxxx10.1177/1745691621994247williams et al.after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy  association for  psychological science  after pierce and sue: a revised racial microaggressions taxonomy  perspectives on psychological science 2021, vol. 16(5) 991 –1007  the author(s) 2021 article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691621994247 doi: 10.1177/1745691621994247 www.psychologicalscience.org/pps  monnica t. williams1 , matthew d. skinta2, and renee martin-willett3,4 1  school of psychology, university of ottawa; 2department of psychology, roosevelt university; department of psychology and neuroscience, university of colorado boulder; and 4institute of cognitive science, university of colorado boulder 3  abstract harvard psychiatrist chester pierce’s conception of “subtle and stunning” daily racial offenses, or microaggressions, remains salient even 50 years after it was introduced. microaggressions were defined further by sue and colleagues in 2007, and this construct has found growing utility as the deleterious effects of microaggressions on the health of people of color continues to mount. many studies seek to frame microaggressions in terms of a taxonomic analysis of offender behavior to inform the assessment of and interventions for the reduction of racial microaggressions. this article proposes an expansion and refinement of sue et al.’s taxonomy to better inform such efforts. we conducted a review of published articles that focused on qualitative and quantitative findings of microaggressions taxonomies (n 32). sixteen categories of racial microaggressions were identified, largely consistent with the original taxonomy of sue et al. but expanded in several notable ways. building on our prior research, other researchers supported such new categories as tokenism, connecting via stereotypes, exoticization and eroticization, and avoidance and distancing. the least studied categories included the denial of individual racism from sue et al., and newer categories included reverse-racism hostility, connecting via stereotypes, and environmental attacks. a unified language of microaggressions may improve understanding and measurement of this important construct. keywords microaggressions, racism, taxonomy, categorization, ethnic minorities almost 50 years ago, chester pierce described “subtle and stunning” daily racial offenses, known as microaggressions, and suggested therapeutic processes to address the deleterious effects that these acts had on the health and well-being of targeted groups (pierce, 1970). pierce’s seminal description of the construct of microaggressions laid the groundwork for sue, capodilupo, and colleagues (2007), who defined racial microaggressions as subtle, daily, and unintentional racial slights committed against members of racialized groups. as described by pierce and sue et al., this phenomenon is similar to what has been termed everyday racism (essed, 1991) and is characterized by small instances of discrimination that are routine and chronic. despite an apparent overall decline in overtly offensive racist actions, these aggressive slights toward targeted racial or ethnic groups persist and have been found to correlate to aggressive tendencies in offenders (williams, 2021). further, the  frequency and impact of microaggressions may increase with the intersectionality of gender, sexual orientation, and additional stigmatized identities (capodilupo et al., 2010; weber et al., 2018). in the wake of sue et al.’s (2007) description and taxonomy of racial microaggressions, there has been a surge of qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical work that has expanded our understanding of the nature, experience, and consequences of microaggressions across multiple groups (sue & spanierman, 2020; wong et al., 2014). however, the development of a consensus lexicon within the field has been limited by competing proposals; multiple overlapping categories have been suggested that have varied degrees of empirical support corresponding author: monnica t. williams, school of psychology, university of ottawa email: monnica.williams@uottawa.ca  
  992 (e.g., huynh, 2012; j. a. lewis & neville, 2015; nadal, 2011; torres-harding et al., 2012). in this article, we reexamine and revise the taxonomy proposed by sue and colleagues in an effort to consolidate and integrate the qualitative and quantitative research stimulated by early work. we hope that this proposal of a common language serves to further research and understanding and better facilitate communication around racial microaggressions and interpersonal expressions of racism. the further use of the term microaggression in this article is intended to describe racial microaggressions unless otherwise noted.  causes and maintenance of microaggressions in agreement with a large number of other scholars, sue and spanierman (2020) noted that people “inherit” biases from their parents, grandparents, and other ancestors. for many, this inheritance may lead to conscious or unconscious racism or pro-white views that are expressed regularly through everyday encounters as microaggressions. because of the subtle and covert nature of microaggressions, they are sometimes minimized as simple cultural missteps or racial faux pas. microaggressions, however, are not innocuous errors; rather, they are a form of oppression that reinforces unjust power differentials between groups, whether or not this was the conscious intention of the offender (williams, 2020). pathological stereotypes are the product of legitimizing myths (sidanius et al., 1992; williams et al., 2012) that reflect and reinforce existing power structures and underlie microaggressive acts. the enactment of microaggressions, in turn, reinforces unfair pathological stereotypes about people of color and may communicate othering and exclusion (sue, capodilupo, et al., 2007). this reinforcement of a power differential contributes heavily to the maintenance of microaggressions because it favors the ingroup, and, in an effort to retain the extant power structure, out-group members are punished socially when they challenge microaggressions. furthermore, however “unintentional” the offense may be does not absolve its damaging effects, and some have even argued that deliberate forms of bigotry are more effectively managed by targets than those forms that are said to be unintentional or unconsciously racist ( salvatore & shelton, 2007; sue & spanierman, 2020).  harms of microaggressions the cumulative daily stress caused by discriminationrelated stressors, including microaggressions (pierce,  williams et al. 1970), has been reliably associated with negative physical and emotional health outcomes. multiple studies have indicated significant associations between experiencing microaggressions and higher levels of depression (huynh, 2012; nadal, griffin, et al., 2012), anxiety ( williams et al., 2018), posttraumatic stress disorder (williams et al., 2018), impaired psychological well-being (forrest-bank & cuellar, 2018; hurd et al., 2014), and decreased self-esteem (donovan et al., 2013; nadal, wong, et al., 2014). in a study of cognition and prejudice, black and latino/latina participants in the subtle-racism condition performed worse on a stroop interference task than did those in the overt-racism condition (murphy et al., 2013), highlighting the insidious manner in which microaggressions can affect the thinking process. overt or microaggressive discriminatory stress is also associated with adverse physical outcomes, including hypertension (din-dzietham et al., 2004), hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (hpa) axis dysfunction ( jackson et al., 2010), and higher body mass index (brody et al., 2018; keith et al., 2017). in one study among american indians with type 2 diabetes mellitus, the experience of microaggressions was positively correlated with a history of heart attack and prior-year hospitalizations (m. l. walls et al., 2015). the harms of microaggressions can also be systemic, and there are downstream, consolidating, and concentrating effects that are irrevocably damaging and increasingly visible in the current political climate. sue and spanierman (2020) and others have drawn attention to the increasing normalization of racist views, particularly since the 2016 u.s. national election (bursztyn et al., 2017, 2020). other work has noted how implicit biases contribute to dangerous and deadly circumstances such as police brutality (alang et al., 2017), biased judicial rulings (clair & winter, 2016; gamblin et al., 2021), or suboptimal medical care (spencer & grace, 2016). likewise, microaggressions in judicial systems, education, health care, and other domains have downstream effects on racialized individuals, contributing to negative outcomes. for example, microaggressions by teachers toward students can result in disengagement from educational advancement, and microaggressions by healthcare providers can lead to poor health when people of color fail to return for routine preventative care (e.g., steketee et al., 2021; williams & halstead, 2019). microaggressions are also damaging to young people and adults alike, and the context of students of color in academic settings is particularly salient. school campuses in the united states have long been recognized as sites that magnify racial tensions that are present in the broader society (hurtado, 1992; williams, 2019), and young people may be exposed to microaggressions  
  after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy at school quite frequently (suarez-orozco et al., 2015). studies have demonstrated a significant relationship between microaggressions and psychological distress (robinson-perez et al., 2019), increased substance use (t. t. clark et al., 2015; pro et al., 2017), delinquency (de coster & thompson, 2017), and decreased academic success (ackerman-barger et al., 2020; johnsonahorlu, 2013). among students, depression symptoms have been found to mediate a relationship between racial microaggressions and suicidality (e.g., o’keefe et al., 2015), elevating the seriousness of the consequences of daily microaggressions. overall, as the negative effects of microaggressions have become increasingly clear, a clear need emerged for an ability to better name these subtle insults and thus begin to mitigate their harm.  classifications of microaggressions and scales sue et al. (2007) proposed the following nine categories of racial microaggressions: (a) assumptions that a person of color is not a true american, (b) assumptions of lesser intelligence, (c) statements that convey colorblindness or denial of the importance of race, (d) assumptions of criminality or dangerousness, (e) denials of individual racism, (f) promotion of the myth of meritocracy, (g) assumptions that one’s cultural background and communication styles are pathological, (h) being treated as a second-class citizen, and (i) having to endure environmental messages of being unwelcome or devalued. numerous researchers have examined these categorizations since this taxonomy was proposed and have found generally similar groupings based on qualitative and factor-analytic studies. (sue et al. also proposed the “form” categories microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations; these categories are not addressed in this study.) for example, smith, allen, and danley (2007) identified two major themes of microaggressions from interviews of black male college students at predominantly white institutions: (a) anti-black male stereotyping and marginality and (b) hypersurveillance and control. a. e. lewis et al. (2000) identified academic stereotyping, behavioral stereotyping, pressures or expectations to assimilate, white ignorance and interpersonal awkwardness, and white resentment and hostility about affirmative action. the groupings from sue et al. (2007) also form the basis of several validated scales for the assessment of microaggressions (wong et al., 2014). the racial and ethnic microaggressions scale (nadal, 2011) includes dimensions described as assumptions  993 of inferiority (assumptions about being poor or unsuccessful), second class citizen and assumptions of criminality (in which others exhibit fear and avoidance), microinvalidations (being told not to talk about race or racism), exoticization/assumptions of similarity (stereotyped beliefs about cultural practices or appearance), environmental microaggressions (being portrayed positively in the media and prominent positions), and workplace and school microaggressions (feeling ignored or unwelcome in academic and professional settings). torres-harding et al. (2012) developed the racial microaggressions scale (rmas) for which exploratoryand confirmatory-factor analyses yielded six dimensions of racial microaggressions: invisibility (feeling devalued or ignored), criminality (stereotyped as a criminal or threatening), low-achieving/undesirable culture (viewed as incompetent and dysfunctional, and any success is perceived to be due to unfair advantage), sexualization (oversexualized or eroticized), foreigner/not belonging (viewed as an immigrant or not a “true” american), and environmental invalidations (negative environmental messages about an individual’s race). huynh (2012) developed the ethnic microaggressions scale (ema) to measure ethnic microaggressions in latino/latina and asian american youth. this scale included three subscales—denial of racial reality (dismissive toward racism), emphasis on differences (questions about ethnic origins), and negative treatment (being treated as inferior)—and measured the frequency and stated stressfulness for microaggressions believed to be especially pertinent to asian americans and latino/latinas. j. a. lewis and neville (2015) developed the gendered racial microaggressions scale for black women, which includes four factors: assumptions of beauty and sexual objectification (focused on appearance and sexual objectification), silenced and marginalized (being unheard and unseen in professional settings), strong black woman stereotype (being seen as sassy, independent, and assertive), and angry black woman stereotype (being perceived as angry or told to calm down). in the same vein, keum et al. (2018) developed the gendered racial microaggressions scale for asian american women (grmsaaw), which includes the subscales ascription of submissiveness (expectations of being compliant and submissive), assumption of universal appearance (comments that asians look alike), asian fetishism (sexual curiosity and expectations of receptivity to advances), and media invalidation (asians excluded in the media or shown as stereotypical).  
  williams et al.  994 there has also been nascent work in understanding microaggressions from the offender’s perspective. using a diverse sample of students, mekawi and todd (2018) developed the acceptability of racial microaggressions scale (arms) on the basis of how acceptable it is for white individuals to say different types of racially microaggressive statements. the arms comprises four categories: victim blaming (criticizing minorities for social problems and pathologizing on the basis of stereotypes), color evasion (denying the importance of race and focusing on shared humanity), power evasion (assertions that racism and white privilege are not problems), and exoticizing (sexualized and objectified notions about different minority groups). kanter et al. (2020) developed a similar scale called the cultural cognitions and attitudes scale (ccas) on the basis of a person’s self-reported likelihood of engaging in microaggressions within several specific contexts. an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of a large white student sample identified four categories: colorblindness (focusing on common human experiences and belief in meritocracy), negative attitudes (hostile and critical attitudes toward people of color), objectifying (focusing on the racially specific features of the person of color), and avoidance (physical distancing and avoidance of difficult conversations about race).  focus of this study in the second edition of sue and spanierman’s microaggressions in everyday life (2020), the authors revisited their original taxonomic structure and called for a renewed focus on identifying and deconstructing microaggressions toward the health and well-being of all target groups and for the well-being of those who deliver microaggressions. given both the overlap and differences found in the many categorical studies of microaggressions in light of this renewed call to action, it may be time to reexamine and synthesize the research to date. the aim of this study is to better understand microaggressions and their place within a continuum of racial offenses. as the field moves toward the development of effective tools for the reduction of racial microaggressions, a revised taxonomy that accounts for recent developments across the literature and is easily operationalized may have great utility. this article seeks to update sue and colleagues’ taxonomy of racial microaggressions through a review of the expanding literature that has similarly examined these issues, building on recent work focused on microaggressions experienced by black students on predominantly white college campuses (williams et al., 2020).  although some scholars have explored the unique microaggressions experienced by those with intersectional identities (e.g., weber et al., 2018), the current study focuses on racial microaggressions. this study does not include lgbtq microaggressions because the categories identified in the intersectional literature either specify established racial microaggressions that occur within lgbtq spaces or are lgbtq-specific microaggressions that occur within people-of-color spaces. a review of microaggressions affecting lgbtq people can be found in nadal (2013).  method an extended literature search was conducted using relevant search engines and databases, including google scholar, proquest, and psycinfo. studies were included for further analysis if they were (a) experimental in nature and featured microaggressions as a primary outcome or predictor, (b) were qualitative and took an integrative phenomenological or other related analytical approach to categorizing microaggressions, or (c) took a taxonomic approach to microaggressions by analyzing new data. search terms were used separately and in combination with each other and are included in appendix a. this search resulted in 61 studies on microaggressions and the effects of microaggressions on health, mental health, or academic outcomes. of those studies, 19 studies discussed health outcomes related to microaggressions. of the remaining 42 studies, 32 studies (not including sue and colleagues’ foundational article) took a taxonomic/categorical approach to assessing microaggressions. the authors used an iterative approach to classify each of the categories in each of the final studies. this process proceeded in three stages. first, after a close reading and discussion of the themes present across articles, one author selected 16 tentative categories that appeared to capture the range. next, each author independently sorted the variables in each study according to those 16 categories, which allowed for an initial test of both comprehensiveness (i.e., whether categories remained that could not be captured within these categories) and parsimony (i.e., whether all 16 categories were used when sorting into the proposed categories). in the final stage, ratings were compared across all three sets of coding, and iterative discussion and recoding occurred until consensus was reached. these categories are summarized in table 1 and table 2 for qualitative and quantitative studies, respectively.  
  after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy  995  table 1. focus groups and semistructured interviews identifying categories of microaggressions participants study canel-cinarbas & yohani (2019) clark et al. (2014)  endo (2015)  harwood et al. (2012)  study type  n  description  categories of microaggressions identified  focus group, semistructured interviews, observation focus group  7  canadian college students with indigenous backgrounds indigenous canadian undergraduates  themes included (a) overt discrimination, (b) assumption of intellectual inferiority, (c) assumption of criminality, (d) invalidation or denial, (e) second-class citizen, (f) racial segregation, and (g) myth of meritocracy themes included (a) encountering expectations of primitiveness, (b) enduring unconstrained voyeurism, (c) withstanding jealous accusations, (d) experiencing curricular elimination or misrepresentation, and (e) living with day-to-day cultural and social isolation themes included (a) being one/few/token person of color, (b) racialized sexualization, and (c) assumption of foreignness grounded theory coding of microcategories mapped to assaults, insults, and individualizations; also individual and environmental microaggressions  survey and qualitative interviews focus group  6  10  asian american female schoolteachers  81  undergraduates and graduates (black, asian, latino/latina, native american) black male 8th-grade students (13–14 years old)  henfield (2011)  semistructured interviews  5  houshmand et al. (2014)  qualitative interviews  12  east and south asian international college students  huber & cueva (2012) johnson-ahorlu (2013)  focus group  20  focus group  94  mexican american females undergraduates (african american, asian, latino/latina, native american, white); 19 aa participants featured  lewis et al. (2000)  focus group  75  undergraduate students of color  leyerzapf & abma (2017)  focus group, semistructured interviews, observation  6  minikellacocque (2013)  qualitative, cross-case analysis/ semistructured interviews  6  focus-group members of 13 different nationalities at a dutch medical school; 26 interviews latino/latina undergraduates  nadal, griffin, et al. (2012)  focus group  10  muslim americans  themes included (a) not identifying any racism in school, (b) assumed superiority of white values/styles, (c) assumptions of deviance, and (d) assumed universality of black experience themes included (a) excluded and avoided, (b) ridiculed for accent, (c) being rendered invisible, (d) disregarded international values and needs, (e) ascription of intelligence, and (e) environmental discussions of academic inferiority by nonnative young women in the educational system grounded-theory coding of barriers; african american students identified (a) stereotypes and (b) stereotype threat as the greatest barriers to academic success at 4-year schools only, stereotypes expressed by students and faculty toward participants, stereotype threat linked to anxiety by participants, and (c) participants reported feeling responsible to “represent” their entire ethnic group themes identified were (a) academic stereotyping, (b) behavioral stereotyping, (c) expectations to assimilate, (d) white ignorance/interpersonal awkwardness, (e) white resentment/hostility about affirmative action, (f) focus on black/white, and (g) institutional context and interactions with faculty themes identified were (a) intercultural training as affirming stereotypes instead of increasing awareness, (b) lack of faculty role models/faculty cultural awareness, (c) experiencing disrespect, and (d) segregation between students themes identified were (a) getting stared at and feeling isolated, (b) ignored at bus stop and angry bus drivers, (c) stereotyping, (d) insensitivity and ignorance, (e) online hatred at a midwestern university and intentionality: not so “micro,” and (f) the nickname story: a contested microaggression themes included (a) stereotypes of muslims as terrorists, (b) pathology of islam, (c) assumption of homogeneity, (d) exoticization, (e) islamophobic and mocking language, and (f) alien in own land (continued)  
  williams et al.  996 table 1. (continued) participants study type  n  description  categories of microaggressions identified  nadal et al. (2013)  focus group  9  multiracial participants  nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012)  focus group  12  filipino americans  poolokasingham et al. (2014)  focus group  7  south asian canadian undergraduates  robinson-wood et al. (2015)  semistructured interviews  17  schwitzer et al. (1999)  focus groups  22  black women with master’s degrees or higher african american 4thyear undergraduates  smith, allen, & danley (2007) smith, yosso, & solorzano (2007)  focus group  36  focus group  36  suarez-orozco et al. (2015)  observational qualitative  60  sue, bucceri, et al. (2007)  focus group  10  asian americans  sue et al. (2008)  focus group  13  african americans  themes included (a) isolation within family, (b) favoritism within family, (c) questioning of authenticity, (d) denial of identity, and (e) feelings about not learning about family heritage categories of microaggressions: (a) alien in one’s own land, (b) second-class citizen, (c) invalidation of interethnic differences, (d) exoticization and sexualization of women and demasculinization of men, (e) pathologizing of cultural values and behaviors, (f) invisibility and lack of knowledge of filipino americans, (g) assumption of criminality or deviance, (h) assumption of inferior status or intellect, (i) use of racist language, (j) assumption of filipino stereotypes, (k) exclusion from the asian american community, (l) assumption of universal filipino experience, and (m) mistaken identity themes included (a) perceived as fresh off the boat, (b) excluded from social life, (d) notion that being brown is a liability, (e) assumption of ties to terrorism, (f) compelled to be a cultural expert, (g) ascription of intelligence in stereotypical domains, (h) invalidation of interracial differences, and (i) being treated as invisible themes were entitled (a) mighty melanin tax, (b) the acrid academy, (c) underrating race, (d) coping as optimal resistance, and (e) armored coping descriptive-model analysis: (a) sense of being underrepresented, (b) direct perceptions of racism, (c) hurdle of approaching faculty, and (d) effects of faculty familiarity microaggressions categorized into (a) campus–academic, (b) campus–social, and (c) campus–public data aligned with smith’s four misandrist stereotypes: (a) the criminal/predator stereotype, (b) ghetto-specific stereotype, (c) the nonstudent but athletic stereotype, and (d) the anti-intellectual stereotype trained raters observed and recorded at least one microaggression in 28% of classrooms; themes included (a) intelligence related, (b) culturally related, (c) gendered, and (d) intersectional themes included (a) alien in own land, (b) ascription of intelligence, (c) denial of racial reality, (d) exoticization of asian american women, (e) invalidation of interethnic differences, (f) pathologizing cultural values/ communication styles, (g) second-class citizenship, (h) invisibility, and (i) underdeveloped incidents/responses themes included (a) assumption of intellectual inferiority, (b) second-class citizenship, (c) assumption of criminality, (d) assumption of inferior status, (e) assumed universality of the black american experience, (f) assumed superiority of white cultural values/ communication styles, and (g) underdeveloped incidents/responses  study  black male college students african american male college students; data analysis from literature community-college students that were 86.6% non-white  (continued)  
  after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy  997  table 1. (continued) participants study type  n  description  walls & hall (2017)  focus group  22  african american undergraduates  wang et al. (2011)  focus group (from multiple waves of larger study) focus group  9  asian american college students  36  black american university students  study  williams et al. (2020)  results there were 16 categories in the final taxonomy based on the review of studies that derived categories of microaggressions. the descriptions for each category were developed by reviewing the literature and carefully considering and discussing the composite themes through the same iterative process used to identify categories. categories noted in the literature were not used if they did not focus on microaggressions (e.g., blatant, overtly racist behaviors or consequences to the victims of the act). the definitions we derived do not wholly constitute perfect composite definitions from all of the reviewed literature because not all reported categories were in exact alignment across studies. nonetheless, a complete list of all studies in which the category (or a highly similar category) was included can be found in table 3. the following section describes the 16 resultant categories.  1. not a true citizen this type of microaggression, first described by sue et al. (2007) as “alien in [one’s] own land,” is based on assumptions that the target is not a “true american,” reinforcing notions that non-whites are probably immigrants and thus not legitimate citizens or a meaningful part of the larger society. it communicates exclusion and lack of belonging that can make people of color feel like outsiders. this type of microaggression was most often described in relation to the experiences of  categories of microaggressions identified themes identified were (a) awareness/black perspective/ represent, (b) group tension, (c) contemplate/withdraw vs. engage/educate, (d) premicroaggression, and (e) positive and negative influence of the environment themes identified were (a) feeling invisible, (b) being perceived as a foreigner in one’s own land, and (c) being treated like a second-class citizen themes identified were (a) not true citizen; (b) racial categorization and sameness; (c) assumptions about intelligence, competence, status; (d) false colorblindness; (e) criminality or dangerousness; (f) denial of individual racism; (g) myth of meritocracy/race irrelevant for success; (h) reverse racism hostility; (i) pathologizing minority culture or appearance; (j) second-class citizen/ invisible; (k) connecting via stereotypes; (l) exoticization and eroticization; (m) avoidance & distancing; (n) environmental exclusion; and (o) environmental attacks  asian and latino/latina americans (e.g., wang et al., 2011) but has also been reported by african americans (williams et al., 2020). there is evidence that these type of microaggressions are common among those with middle eastern and north african heritage as well, although this link is understudied and may be conflated with anti-muslim religious microaggressions (e.g., husain & howard, 2017).  2. racial categorization and sameness this category is intended to describe the microaggressions that occur when a person of color is compelled to disclose their racial identity to others (williams et al., 2020), which may expose them to the expression of pathological stereotypes based on that identity (see the next category). assumptions that people of a given race are all alike similarly applies (e.g., assumed universality of the black american experience; sue et al., 2008). the threat of exposure to harmful stereotypes and their application to the self may serve to disconnect individuals from their actual heritage or lived experience, internalize false attributes regarding one’s heritage, or force unwanted traits or group responsibility to an individual. microaggressions of forced racial categorization are experienced by people of color as being squeezed into a one-size-fits-all box that overlooks the complexity of a person’s identity. individuals who identify as biracial or multiracial may struggle to feel accepted and experience identity confusion; they may also experience  
  williams et al.  998 table 2. quantitative studies identifying categories of microaggressions participants study type  n  description  scale  categories of microaggressions identified  huynh (2012)  quantitative survey  247 113  kanter et al. (2020)  scale development and validation  978  latino adolescents asian american adolescents non-hispanic white undergraduate students  ethnic microaggression scale cultural cognitions and actions scale  keum et al. (2018)  scale development and validation  304  asian american women  gendered racial microaggressions scale for asian american women  lewis & neville (2015)  scale development and validation  259  black women  gendered racial microaggressions scale  mekawi & todd (2018)  focus group, scale development and validation scale development and validation  8  ethnoracially diverse 8thgrade students  661  african americans, latinas/ latinos, asian americans, and multiracial participants  acceptability of racial microaggressions scale racial and ethnic microaggressions scale  factors included (a) emphasis on differences, (b) denial of racial reality, and (c) negative treatment factor analyses suggested a four-factor structure with the following subscales: (a) objectifying, (b) colorblindness (denial of racism focusing on common human experiences), (c) negative attitudes (hostile and critical attitudes toward poc), and (d) avoidance (physical distancing and avoidance of conversations about race) factor analyses suggested a four-factor structure with the following subscales: (a) ascription of submissiveness, (b) assumption of universal appearance, (c) asian fetishism, and (d) media invalidation an exploratory factor analysis resulted in four factors: (a) assumptions of beauty and sexual objectification, (b) silenced and marginalized, (c) strong black woman stereotype, and (d) angry black woman stereotype factor-analysis-derived categories included (a) victim blaming, (b) color evasion, (c) power evasion, and (d) exoticizing  377  diverse poc  study  nadal (2011)  torresharding et al. (2012)  scale development and validation  racial microaggressions scale  the six-factor structure included (a) assumptions of inferiority, (b) secondclass citizen and assumptions of criminality, (c) microinvalidations, (d) exoticization/ assumptions of similarity, (e) environmental microaggressions, and (f) workplace and school microaggressions the six factors identified were (a) invisibility, (b) criminality, (c) low-achieving/ undesirable culture, (d) sexualization, (e) foreigner/not belonging, and (f) environmental invalidations  note: poc people/person of color.  social pressure to identify with a single, foreclosed identity (williams et al., 2018). intersectional experiences of people of color who also possess a marginalized gender identity, sexual orientation, or religion may also be ignored or minimized.  3. assumptions about intelligence, competence, or status this category is intended to include any positive or negative ascriptions of intellectual abilities, competence,  education, or social standing on the basis of racial assumptions. one common phenomenon encountered in the focus-group study of african american college students by williams et al. (2020) was counterstereotypical surprise or assumed exceptionalism (e.g., “you’re not like other black people”). many people of color report that they encounter disbelief when they demonstrate academic excellence or express professional career ambitions (canel-cinarbas & yohani, 2018; robinson-wood et al., 2015). however, reverse assumptions are often made about people of asian heritage;  
  after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy  999  table 3. categories of microaggressions no.  category name  description  1  not a true citizen  when a question, statement, or behavior indicates that a person of color is not a real citizen or a meaningful part of society because they are not white  huynh (2012); torres-harding et al. (2012)  2  racial categorization and sameness  huynh (2012); kanter et al. (2020); keum et al. (2018); nadal (2011)  3  assumptions about intelligence, competence, or status  when a person is compelled to disclose their racial group to enable others to attach pathological racial stereotypes to the person; includes the assumption that all people from a particular group are alike when behavior or statements are based on an assumption about a person’s intelligence, competence, education, income, or social status derived from racial stereotypes  4  false color blindness/ invalidating racial or ethnic identity  kanter et al. (2020); mekawi & todd (2018); nadal (2011)  5  criminality or dangerousness  expressing that individual’s racial or ethnic identity should not be acknowledged, which can be invalidating for people who are proud of their identity or who have suffered because of it demonstrating belief in stereotypes that poc are dangerous, untrustworthy, and likely to commit crimes or cause bodily harm  6  denial of individual racism  7  myth of meritocracy/ race is irrelevant for success reverse-racism hostility  8  when a person tries to make a case that they are not biased, often by talking about antiracist things they have done to deflect perceived scrutiny of their own biased behaviors when someone makes statements about success being rooted in personal efforts and denial of existence of racism/white privilege expressions of jealousy or hostility surrounding the notion that poc get unfair advantages and benefits because of their race  quantitative findings  nadal (2011); torres-harding et al. (2012)  qualitative findings endo (2015); nadal, griffin, et al. (2012); nadal et al. (2013); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); wang et al. (2011); williams et al. (2020) henfield (2011); nadal, griffin, et al. (2012); nadal et al. (2013); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); w. a. smith, yosso, & solorzano (2007); sue et al. (2008); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); williams et al. (2020) canel-cinarbas & yohani (2018); d. a. clark et al. (2014); houshmand et al. (2014); huber & cueva (2012); johnson-ahorlu (2013); a. e. lewis et al. (2000); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); robinson-wood et al. (2015); w. a. smith, yosso, & solorzano (2007); suarez-orozco et al. (2015); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); sue et al. (2008); williams et al. (2020) canel-cinarbas & yohani (2018); a. e. lewis et al. (2000); nadal et al. (2013); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); williams et al. (2020)  j. a. lewis & neville (2015); nadal (2011); torresharding et al. (2012)  canel-cinarbas & yohani (2018); henfield (2011); nadal, griffin, et al. (2012); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); w. a. smith, allen, & danley (2007); w. a. smith, yosso, & solorzano (2007); sue et al. (2008); williams et al. (2020) harwood et al. (2012); minikel-lacocque (2013); williams et al. (2020)  huynh (2012); mekawi & todd (2018)  canel-cinarbas & yohani (2018); robinson-wood et al. (2015); williams et al. (2020)  mekawi & todd (2018)  d. a. clark et al. (2014); a. e. lewis et al. (2000); williams et al. (2020)  (continued)  
  williams et al.  1000 table 3. (continued) no.  category name  9  pathologizing minority culture or appearance  10  description  quantitative findings  qualitative findings  when people criticize others on the basis of perceived or real cultural differences in appearance, traditions, behaviors, or preferences  kanter et al. (2020); j. a. lewis & neville (2015)  second-class citizen/ignored and invisible  when poc are treated with less respect, consideration, or care than is normally expected or customary; may include being ignored or being unseen/ invisible  huynh (2012); keum et al. (2018); j. a. lewis & neville (2015); nadal et al. (2011); torresharding et al. (2012)  11  tokenism  12  connecting via stereotypes  13  exoticization and eroticization  when a person of color is included simply to promote the illusion of inclusivity and not for the qualities or talents of the individual; expecting one to understand or speak for a whole ethnic group when a person tries to communicate or connect with a person through the use of stereotyped speech or behavior to be accepted or understood; can include racist jokes and epitaphs as terms of endearment when a person of color is treated according to sexualized stereotypes or attention to differences that are characterized as exotic in some way  d. a. clark et al. (2014); leyerzapf & abma (2017); minikel-lacocque (2013); nadal, griffin, et al. (2012); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); suarezorozco et al. (2015); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); sue et al. (2008); williams et al. (2020) canel-cinarbas & yohani (2018); houshmand et al. (2014); a. e. lewis et al. (2000); minikel-lacocque (2013); nadal et al. (2013); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); sue et al. (2008); wang et al. (2011); williams et al. (2020) endo (2015); johnson-ahorlu (2013); poolokasingham et al. (2014); j. k. walls & hall (2017)  14  avoidance and distancing  when poc are avoided or measures are taken to prevent physical contact or close proximity  15  environmental exclusion  16  environmental attacks  when someone’s racial identity is minimized or made insignificant by excluding decorations, literature, or depictions of people that represent their racial group when decorations pose a known affront or insult to a person’s cultural group, history, or heritage  note: poc people/person of color.  harwood et al. (2012); suarez-orozco et al. (2015); williams et al. (2020)  kanter et al. (2020); keum et al. (2018); j. a. lewis & neville (2015); mekawi & todd (2018); nadal (2011); torresharding et al. (2012) kanter et al. (2020)  keum et al. (2018); nadal (2011); torres-harding et al. (2012)  d. a. clark et al. (2014); endo (2015); minikel-lacocque (2013); nadal, griffin, et al. (2012); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); suarez-orozco et al. (2015); sue, bucceri, et al. (2007); williams et al. (2020)  canel-cinarbas & yohani (2018); houshmand et al. (2014); leyerzapf & abma (2017); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); poolokasingham et al. (2014); williams et al. (2020) d. a. clark et al. (2014); harwood et al. (2012); henfield (2011); a. e. lewis et al. (2000); leyerzapf & abma (2017); nadal, vigilia escobar, et al. (2012); j. k. walls & hall (2017); williams et al. (2020) williams et al. (2020)  
  after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy others assume they are smart, studious, and good at math and science (e.g., poolokasingham et al., 2014; sue, bucceri, et al., 2007).  4. false color blindness/invalidating racial or ethnic identity color blindness includes statements that indicate a person does not want to acknowledge race and instead focus on shared humanity (sue et al., 2007). people of color may welcome the idea that they could be treated equally by others rather than being racialized. however, they do not actually believe that their race is unseen or unnoticed by those individuals professing color blindness. for this reason, the category is renamed here as “false color blindness” to highlight the various examples in the data and the literature in which color blindness functionally prevents honest discussions about important racial issues, such as when people of color try to express something about their racial or ethnic experience but are invalidated by “color-blind” statements.  5. criminality or dangerousness this microaggression occurs when someone demonstrates a belief in or otherwise acts on stereotypes that people of color are dangerous, untrustworthy, or likely to commit crimes or cause bodily harm. it could also include concerns about being treated badly by people of color (i.e., verbal aggressions) leading to emotional harm. african american and latino american males tend to be victims of these types of microaggressions most often, and sometimes law enforcement is involved (i.e., smith, allen, & danley, 2007). this assumption of criminality extends beyond a concern that a man of color will engage violently; there is a reciprocal belief that the criminality of men of color is to blame, even when they are the ones being harmed. for example, when african american men are victims of homicide, jurors express less empathy and a greater assumption that the victim was at fault in some way than when the victim is white (girgenti-malone, 2019).  6. denial of individual racism in contrast to false color blindness, this type of microaggression occurs when a person asserts a lack of racial bias, generally in response to perceived scrutiny of their behavior. this assertion may be expressed through one’s friendship or social connections with other people of color or elaborating on past antiracist things that the person has done. although described at length by sue et al. (2007), no validated measures focus on this facet  1001 of microaggressions. minikel-lacocque (2013) described this as “the contested microaggression.” when used as a response to criticism, it can be invalidating to people of color who are trying to draw attention to a problematic behavior. victims of microaggressions will expend cognitive resources questioning and analyzing the experience to ensure that what happened cannot be explained by anything other than racism (essed, 2002). this can make it very frustrating when people call into question the veracity of the event because the individual has gone through that process already.  7. myth of meritocracy/race is irrelevant for success this microaggression occurs when people deny the ongoing existence of systemic racism or harmful discriminatory behavior, specifically in regard to personal achievement or barriers to achievement. they embrace the myth of meritocracy and the notion that the determinants of success are unequivocally rooted in personal efforts, refuting that white privilege is an unearned benefit resulting in tangible differences in outcomes at a personal or societal level (canel-cinarbas & yohani, 2018; robinson-wood et al., 2015).  8. reverse-racism hostility this microaggression includes expressions of jealousy or hostility surrounding the notion that people of color get unfair advantages and benefits because of their race. these expressions are often coupled with assertions that whites are being treated unjustly and are suffering as a result. often embedded in this sentiment is that idea that people of color are undeserving of success. this category is represented by smith, yosso, and solorzano’s (2007) conceptualization of white resentment and hostility about affirmative action. this category is applicable in other cultures and countries as well. d. a. clark et al. (2014) described the theme “withstanding jealous accusations” in relation to indigenous people in canada. this category does not have a prominent focus in any measures of experiences of microaggressions, but it is a subscale of the arms.  9. pathologizing minority culture or appearance this microaggression occurs when people of color are criticized because of real or perceived cultural differences in appearance, traditions, behaviors, or preferences. also embedded in this sentiment is the idea that whiteness is preferred, and consequently there is  
  williams et al.  1002 something negative or shameful about a non-white identity (leyerzapf & abma, 2017; minikel-lacocque, 2013; suarez-orozco et al., 2015). hence, microaggressions may include statements that advance pronouncements of apparent whiteness as complimentary. however, people of color often find such statements to be upsetting and insulting (williams et al., 2020).  10. second-class citizen/ignored and invisible this microaggression captures situations in which people of color are treated with less respect, consideration, or care than is normally expected or customary. this category is meant to include both the experience of being treated as a “second-class citizen” (e.g., the preferential treatment of white individuals; sue et al., 2007) and the experience of being ignored, unseen, or invisible.  11. tokenism tokenism is defined here as when a person of color is included simply to promote the illusion of inclusivity, not in the interest of true diversity or for the qualities or talents of the individual. it is also manifested in the automatic homogenization of diverse groups and their members on the basis of race and/or the expectation that an individual’s views will represent the views of their perceived group (nadal, 2011; weber et al., 2018).  12. connecting via stereotypes many people of color describe awkward situations in which white people attempt to communicate or connect through the use of stereotyped speech or behavior, believing that it will help them be accepted or understood. this category can include using racial jokes or even racist epitaphs to try to fit in or as terms of endearment (nadal, vigilia escobar, et al., 2012). this category of microaggressions is not well-represented in any validated measures, although people of color have noted this problem in various contexts (e.g., harwood et al., 2012). for example, endo (2015) described situations in which asian american respondents described being asked to teach their friends vietnamese words or asked what to order in a korean restaurant.  13. exoticization and eroticization this occurs when a person of color is treated according to sexualized stereotypes or perceived differences are characterized as exotic in some way. many blacks have also shared microaggressions they have experienced  surrounding their hair and the frustration they have felt when someone asked them pointed questions about it or attempted to touch it (e.g., williams et al., 2020). asian women have also described situations in which they felt exoticized (sue, bucceri, et al., 2007). these types of microaggressions were not described in sue et al.’s (2007) original taxonomy but are represented in most of the validated measures of microaggressions and many qualitative studies as well (d. a. clark et al., 2014; endo, 2015; minikel-lacocque, 2013; nadal, griffin, et al., 2012; nadal, vigilia escobar, et al., 2012; suarezorozco et al., 2015).  14. avoidance and distancing this microaggression occurs when people of color are avoided or measures are taken to prevent physical contact or close proximity (canel-cinarbas & yohani, 2019; houshmand et al., 2014; kanter et al., 2017; leyerzapf & abma, 2017; nadal, vigilia escobar, et al., 2012; poolokasingham et al., 2014). this includes the exclusion of members of targeted groups through physical distancing. it can also include avoiding close relationships and difficult discussions about race.  15. environmental exclusion certain microaggressions that are more apparent on systemic and environmental levels have been defined previously as “environmental microaggressions” (sue et al., 2007). environmental exclusion is a microaggression that occurs when someone’s racial identity is minimized or made insignificant by excluding depictions, art, or literature that represents their racial group. it can also be used to describe situations in which entire categories of people are not present in the environment. harwood et al. (2012) further described segregated spaces as a form of environmental microaggression, particularly with respect to nonvoluntary segregated dormitory living groups, which can communicate to students of color that they do not belong and contribute to feeling unwelcome.  16. environmental attacks this category is intended to describe situations in which decorations or depictions pose a known affront or insult to a person’s cultural group, history, or heritage (e.g., buildings named after slave owners, confederate monuments, columbus day). we split this category from the larger category of environmental microaggressions to capture these particularly hurtful and often frightening depictions (e.g., desai & abeita, 2017; murty & vyas, 2017), which have been an ongoing source of  
  after pierce and sue: new revised taxonomy consternation, public attention, and institutional resistance (crowe, 2018).  discussion subtle forms of racism, such as microaggressions, can be difficult to identify, quantify, and rectify because of their nebulous and unnamed nature. although racial maltreatment exists on a continuum of discriminatory action ranging from gross and intentional to tiny unconscious slights (garcia & johnston-guerrero, 2015), there is a need for a unified language in the study of the experience of this form of covert racism if people are to actively identify and confront microaggressions when they occur. the burgeoning research on the topic of microaggressions, although important in identifying the vast scope and depth of the problem, has made it increasingly difficult to identify such a unified language that integrates multiple studies into a coherent framework. this review of the extant literature, and new research on the topic, identified 16 common categories of microaggressions as experienced by people of color. these categories are consistent with the original taxonomy of sue et al. (2007) but expand it in several notable ways. first, several of the categories from sue et al. have been slightly revised or redefined to take into consideration new data and themes that have emerged, including alien in own land, which is now represented by two categories, not a true citizen and forced racial categorization, and environmental microaggressions, which have been distinguished as environmental exclusions and environmental attacks. in addition, several new categories are defined that were not well represented by sue et al. but were observed by multiple other researchers. these categories include tokenism, connecting via stereotypes, exoticization and eroticization, and avoidance and distancing (williams et al., 2020). it is worth noting that a number of the studies examined here included themes of blatant racism that were far more severe than what most would consider a microaggression (e.g., cordova & cervantes, 2010; houshmand et al., 2014; minikel-lacocque, 2013). as this field evolves, it is increasingly important to set clear boundaries between where microaggressions end and overt racism begins. in addition, several studies included categories that centered on the experience or result of microaggressions (stereotype threat, isolating one’s self, coping strategies, etc.; e.g., johnson-ahorlu, 2013; robinson-wood et al., 2015; schwitzer et al., 1999), and although these categories are important, they do not constitute microaggressions per se. this deficiency perhaps underscores the need for more precise language to discuss the nature, experience, and impact of microaggressions.  1003 it was clear that some types of microaggressions were better represented in the literature than others. the most studied categories of microaggressions were assumptions about intelligence, competence, or status and second-class citizen/ignored and invisible; the least studied categories were reverse-racism hostility, denial of individual racism, and connecting via stereotypes. environmental attacks were the least represented among any of the categorical studies of microaggressions that we reviewed (williams et al., 2020), although this type of microaggression has been described in several other types of studies of microaggressions (e.g., desai & abeita, 2017; murty & vyas, 2017); because this category has been studied more, we may find other examples of a more systemic nature that could fit here (e.g., gerrymandering school-district lines, putting police at polling locations to frighten black voters). these less studied categories signal areas in need of further research and, for the most part, problematic areas that are not currently being captured by existing measures of microaggressions. this study is not without limitations. although we sought to develop a revised taxonomy by accounting for ethnically diverse cohorts described in the literature, the review was not completely exhaustive across disciplines. future work on this topic may result in an updated taxonomy that accounts for the increasing intersectionality of marginalized identities such as gender, sexual orientation, or religious identification. for example, donovan and colleagues (2013) assessed the intersectionality of race and gender among female graduate and postgraduate students, and weber and colleagues (2018) interviewed graduate students that identified as sexual minorities.  conclusion in the absence of an adequate classification or understanding of the elusive dynamics of subtle racism, the risk remains that microaggressions will continue to harm the lives and standard of living of people of color without adequate attention or understanding. whereas previous studies have either embraced the taxonomy developed by sue and colleagues or proposed a novel taxonomy unique to specific data, this study synthesizes the sue framework in concert with the contributions of other researchers. a unified language of microaggressions may better allow for improved measurement of this construct in both qualitative and quantitative studies. it may also lead to a better public understanding of microaggressions, such that aggressors might improve their ability to both note and accurately self-report their behavior with a better understand of resulting negative social outcomes. it may similarly support recipients of  
  williams et al.  1004 repeated microaggressions and reduce the burdensome expectation to “prove” the validity of their perceptions and experiences (banks, 2014). the updated categorizations presented here may be seen as a holistic accounting of the diversity of racial microaggressions. it is hoped that this comprehensive taxonomy may support efforts to develop a unified language among researchers of microaggressions, thereby advancing the study of prejudice, racism, and the social harms that they entail.  appendix a table a1. search terms used in the literature search allophilia culture discrimination exclusion ipa minority stress perceived discrimination racism social inclusion subtle insult thematic analysis  bias cultural competency ethnic exclusionary microaggression misandry perceived stress segregation stereotypes sue et al.  critical race theory discriminate ethnicity integrative phenomenological minority misogyny racial bias social exclusion subtle bias taxonomy  transparency action editor: laura a. king editor: laura a. king declaration of conflicting interests the author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article.  orcid id monnica t. williams  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0095-3277  references ackerman-barger, k., boatright, d., gonzalez-colaso, r., orozco, r., & latimore, d. 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secondary_title_index: journal of diversity in higher education
title_index: documenting weblog expressions of racial microaggressions that target american indians.
authors_index:
       clark, d. anthony     spanierman, lisa b.     reed, tamilia d.     soble, jason r.     cabana, sharon     

full_text_index:
       smith scholarworks theses, dissertations, and projects 2011  a new praxis : exploring class-based microaggressions and the application of relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology in social work practice and research lynn hutton smith college  lynn elizabeth hutton  follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses part of the social and behavioral sciences commons  recommended citation hutton, lynn and hutton, lynn elizabeth, "a new praxis : exploring class-based microaggressions and the application of relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology in social work practice and research" (2011). masters thesis, smith college, northampton, ma. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/1043  this masters thesis has been accepted for inclusion in theses, dissertations, and projects by an authorized administrator of smith scholarworks. for more information, please contact scholarworks@smith.edu.  
  lynn hutton a new praxis: exploring class-based microaggressions and the application of relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology in social work practice and research abstract this theoretical thesis was undertaken to explore and describe the field of microaggression research, bring attention to the existence of class-based microaggressions, and consider contemporary theoretical approaches to research and practice that could be applied to the field of social work in the context of class-based oppression. relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology were examined for their relevance to social work's role in addressing classbased microaggressions in practice and research. literature was reviewed in areas related to racial and ethnic microaggressions, gender microaggressions, sexual orientation microaggressions, class-based microaggressions, and the theoretical frameworks of relationalcultural theory and liberation psychology. through exploring these topics and their relation to social work's professional code of ethics, social workers are challenged to consider their profession's role in helping people in need, addressing social problems, challenging social injustice, and valuing the inherent dignity and worth of the person in their practice and research.  
  a new praxis: exploring class-based microaggressions and the application of relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology in social work practice and research  a project based upon independent investigation, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of social work.  lynn hutton smith college school for social work northampton, massachusetts 10163 2011  
  acknowledgements this thesis could not have been completed without the support and encouragement of so many people. to all of my friends, family, professors, and colleagues, past and present, thank you for helping me get here. your contributions are deeply appreciated. i would like to thank my research advisor, jo rees. without jo's encouragement, support, sense of humor, and exceptional advising, i would not have been able to complete this process. thank you for making qualitative research feel important and meaningful, and for helping me understand, finally, what the word epistemology means. thank you, nora, for bringing laughter, friendship, love, support, wisdom, and true partnership to my life on this social work journey. it has been such a joy to share this experience with you. i look forward to our future adventures! for all of their love, support, and encouragement over the last three years, i would especially like to thank my mom, sharolyn and my sister, christina. i hope that i can provide you both with as much love and support as you've provided me. i would also like to express my sincere gratitude to kathy, for her loving support and generosity. thank you martin and nina. your hospitality, friendship, and encouragement, provided a much-needed sense of home and camaraderie. the carbonara wasn't bad either! maddy & tones, thank you for your friendship and perspective. go team thesis 2011! finally, i would like to say a special thank you to georgia fowler, my little sister, who continued to remind me of what was important in life. all of the work i have invested in earning this m.s.w. is dedicated to the loving memory of my dad, david e. hutton. thank you, dad.  ii  
  table of contents acknowledgements..........................................................................................  ii  table of contents .............................................................................................  iii  chapter i  introduction................................................................................................  1  ii  microaggressions .....................................................................................  8  iii  class-based microaggressions .........................................................  23  iv  relational-cultural theory.............................................................  35  v  liberation psychology ..........................................................................  49  vi  discussion and conclusions................................................................  61  references .............................................................................................................  63  iii  
  chapter i introduction in this theoretical thesis, i will conduct a literature review to explore the phenomenon of class-based microaggressions, a relatively new area of investigation in the field of psychology research and social work. following an explication of general microaggressions and class-based microaggressions, i will propose the application of two theoretical frameworks - relationalcultural theory and liberation psychology - to social work research and practice. such theories, i will argue, have the potential to increase awareness of unintentional class-based discrimination in social work practice and empower both clients and social workers to work towards eradication of class-based oppression, be it on an individual or community level. i will begin chapter 2 by providing background information on the origin of the study of microaggressions, reviewing the empirical literature and addressing how and why microaggressions are understood as causing psychological harm. in chapter 3, i will build on the discussion of general microaggressions by delving into the specific phenomenon of classbased microaggressions, providing examples of classism in everyday life and highlighting the relevance of class and class-based discrimination to the mental health field and social work practice. in chapters 4 and 5, i will summarize the theoretical frameworks of relationalcultural theory and liberation psychology. these two approaches are well-suited to address the harm of class-based microaggressions and merit further exploration for their potential to empower both clients and clinicians. finally, i will conclude with a brief discussion about the relevance of increasing awareness of class-based microaggressions in social work practice and  1  
  incorporating the aforementioned theoretical frameworks, as they hold tremendous potential for empowering clients and social workers to address the marginalization of people based on their social class status. class means different things to different people, so to say that one is exploring class-based microaggressions is not to propose the study of a universally accepted or agreed upon phenomenon. class, as a word and a concept, is murky territory. this is precisely why it is so important to make the effort to engage in critical thinking about class and shed light on the many ways issues of class impact our lives and identities. the aim of this theoretical thesis is not to propose one universal understanding of definition of classism. rather, my aim is to increase awareness of class as a significant dimension to one's identity and experience and expose how unexamined classist beliefs and language contribute to oppression and psychological harm. i will begin by sharing a personal reflection from a recent experience in the field of clinical social work. my intention is two-fold. first, i would like to provide an example of a real-life clinical experience to illustrate my understanding of how unintentional class-based microaggressions can manifest in social work practice. second, i would like to be transparent about the fact that i am a researcher with a particular subjective viewpoint. sharing a personal clinical perspective is my attempt to counter the notion of value-neutral research and advise the reader of my orientation towards the material. reflections from the field to illustrate both the embedded and often invisible nature of class-based microaggressions, i would like to begin with a vignette from my graduate fieldwork. the setting is my first year field placement and i'm learning how to do an intake and assessment for a new client. the client comes into the agency for the first time, looking nervous and defiant at the  2  
  same time, like the new kid in school who doesn't want a room full of strangers to sense that he has any vulnerability. "glad you made it!" the clinical supervisor says, "why don't you come in here and we'll get started." the three of us walk into the student intern office, a small room with two desks and a circular table by the door. we sit down at the table and the clinical supervisor introduces me, "this is one of our new interns and she'll be learning how to do intakes today, so she's going to be observing and helping me." the supervisor turns to me and, as if there was no one else in the room, says, "now, what you're going to want to do is start by getting his contact information, birthday, social, medicaid number..." etc. as the supervisor gives me instructions, the new client sits in the chair and looks out the window. the door is left open and other interns are wandering in and out of the office while phase one of the intake is underway. i wonder if he feels as uncomfortable as i do while the supervisor talks to me about the client as if he weren't there. it's only my second week of placement, so i'm nervous about doing anything that could be perceived as causing trouble. even though my stomach is in knots, i don't say anything about closing the door or offering the client more privacy. the intake and training continue. the supervisor doesn't say anything explicitly offensive, but she continues to ask the client personal questions with no apparent regard for the total lack of privacy. eventually, we finish this portion of the intake and the client is taken to one of the "rehabilitation" groups. later, i ask the supervisor about the protocol for offering clients privacy during their intake. she says something along the lines of, "oh, they're fine. they're so used to this...most of them have been in the system for a long time and they're totally unfazed by giving us their personal information. don't worry about it." it was true that most of the clients at this agency had been in "the system" of social services for quite sometime. most of the clients had also been raised in urban poverty and were  3  
  subsisting on various types of public aid. they had been, or were, homeless and were trying to access "the system" for help. as far as i knew, none of these people had any financial resources at their disposal. it bothered me that we weren't making more of an effort to respect their privacy and individuality during intakes. while it was true that the new clients appeared nonchalant and "cooperative" during their intakes and no one requested that we close the door, i couldn't help but feel there was something deeply problematic and disrespectful about our approach. given that social workers have an ethical responsibility to respect clients' rights to privacy and confidentiality, a principle that is written in to our professional code of ethics (nasw code of ethics, 2008, pp. 10-12), this didn't sit well with me. it gnawed at me for the entire year. i did what i could to create as much privacy as possible within the physical space limitations of the agency, but i could never guarantee a private space to conduct intakes and assessments. (keep in mind that intake assessments usually include detailed questions about people's personal histories, a point to which i will return.) the agency in this example served people who were on medicaid and/or medicare, social security disability insurance (ssdi), supplemental security income (ssi), or public assistance. in other words, all of our clients were living in poverty. in general, the agency served its clients with the warmth and compassion and staff did the best they could with the resources they had. that said, i felt that "the system" - not necessarily the individual actors working within the system - was not adhering to the mandate to respect privacy and confidentiality of clients. i would like to stress again that i don't believe any one individual working at this particular agency had classist or racist intentions, which is ultimately one of the main points of this literature review. the system in which social workers practice is part of an even larger societal context with inherently classist, racist, and sexist tendencies (among others). had the individuals coming into the agency owned more financial resources and more social  4  
  currency, they probably would not have been required to go through an intake, nor asked to share their personal information in a public setting. i don't believe they would have been treated as if they were simply unaffected by the lack of privacy and respect for their individual experience. with more resources and access to power, clients have a choice in where they seek services and, therefore, are not expected to comply with a system that doesn't respect their unique and individual experience. again, there were no intentionally classist or racist staff members acting out their conscious biases in this situation. in fact, the majority of staff people came from poor and working-class backgrounds and there was a fair amount of racial and ethnic diversity amongst the staff. this is what is so insidious about working in a larger context in which laws are made and cultures are created that reinforce class biases - acts of class-based discrimination are often subtle, under the radar, and invisible, especially in the "helping" professions, where some of us may assume that we don't hold implicit or explicit biases based on class. in graduate school, we talk about the socioeconomic status of our clients, we acknowledge the role of poverty in creating difficulties for our clients, and we even name the oppressive sociocultural systems in place. rarely, though, do we engage in a deep exploration of what class is, how it affects our lives and our clients' lives, and how we can address and dismantle classism in our profession. as a result, the deleterious effects of class-based bias remain invisible and part of the status quo. the purpose of this thesis is to explore and describe the phenomenon of class-based microaggressions and provide two theoretical approaches that could readily be applied to addressing classist microaggressions in practice and in research. both theoretical frameworks are embedded with a social justice mandate. i would like to continue with the fieldwork example of intakes and assessments in a community mental health or public clinic setting, as i believe that these interventions, in and of  5  
  themselves, could be experienced as a form of microaggression. (i will define the concept of microaggressions in the following chapter.) imagine that you have ended up at a county mental health clinic or a small community mental health agency. perhaps you have been experiencing symptoms that have alarmed you or your loved ones and you are seeking help. you don't have health insurance and you can't afford to pay for private mental health services. most likely, during your first in-person visit to the clinic you will go through the administrative process of an intake. during this intake, the mental health worker - possibly a clinical social work graduate student - will ask you for some basic information: name, birth date, address, social security number (if you have one), address, emergency contact, etc. once this demographic information is collected, your worker will probably advise you that she or he will need to ask you some personal questions in order to complete an assessment. the assessment is to determine how well you are functioning, what services you might benefit from, etc. depending on the worker assigned to you, you may or may not be advised that you don't need to answer any questions that make you feel uncomfortable. the assessment portion of intake begins and includes questions like: "have you ever been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons? have you ever had any legal problems? if so, please describe. how often do you drink alcohol or use drugs? if so, which ones and how much? what is your sexual orientation? if gay, how old were you when you came out? when was your first sexual experience? was it consensual? have you ever been the victim of physical or sexual abuse? if so, please describe. are you in a relationship?" etc. the questions asked on an initial assessment will vary from agency to agency, but in my experience, they tend to include questions like those listed above, among many others. for some people, answering such questions is not problematic in any way. in fact, it may even be liberating, as they are relieved to finally have the opportunity to speak with a caring professional about their  6  
  experience. i would argue, however, that including such questions as a routine part of an intake at a community mental health clinic, where the majority of clients are poor to low-income, initial assessments have the potential to enact microaggressive interventions. poor and low-income clients are asked to reveal an enormous amount of highly sensitive detail about their personal experience on their first or second day of meeting the intake worker, in which there may not yet be a sense of trust. in order to receive treatment, they must comply with the intake and assessment process (though, they have the option of not answering questions of their choosing, but rarely exercised this option in the intakes i conducted). conversely, clients who can afford to pay for a private mental health practitioner are generally not required to go through any manualized intake assessment procedure. during the first appointment, the majority of mental health practitioners will most likely ask something along the lines of, "so, what brings you here today?" then, over the course of treatment, the client will control how and when to share personal information. these examples are intended to show how socially embedded class-based bias has the potential to impact the people we serve and how subtle, often invisible, forms of unequal treatment play out. it is generally not the intention of a community mental health worker to cause harm or distress to their new clients. the worker is part of a larger system, however, where unintentional discrimination happens on a daily basis. in the next chapter, i will begin to address the phenomenon of class-based microaggressions through an exploration of the empirical literature available in the field of microaggression research. chapter 2 will focus on the historical foundation of microaggression research and summarize many of the themes that emerged from the study of racial, gender, and sexual orientation microaggressions.  7  
  chapter ii microaggressions in this chapter, i will rely primarily on a review of the empirical literature related to microaggressions as i explore the origin of this relatively new field of study and describe the phenomenon of microaggressions in detail. the term "microaggression" originated in a 1978 study by the harvard psychiatrist chester pierce, along with fellow researchers jean v. carew, diane pierce-gonzalez and deborah wills. the study was called, "an experiment in racism: tv commercials" and was published in the journal television and education. the aim of the study was to teach media literacy through helping people discern hidden messages being communicated through media and empowering them to be active and conscientious consumers rather than passive receivers of biased, commercial information. through this study, the researchers constructed a methodology that they hoped could be applied to other types of interpersonal interactions in addition to racism, such as sexism or childism. according to the 1978 study's authors, it was an earlier study of childism (pierce and allen, 1975) that led to the "experiment in racism" study. the emerging field of microaggression research and can be seen in pierce and allen's (1975) definition of "childism" as "the automatic presumption of superiority of any adult over any child" (pierce & allen, 1975, p. 267). regarding the impact of such an automatic presumption of superiority, the authors asserted that this behavior could often results in serious and protracted psychologic, such as low self-esteem, peer conflicts, and craving for attention and, further, that physiologic stress that frequently carries over into the child's adult life (pierce and allen, 1975, p. 268). contemporary microaggression research is based on this  8  
  foundational understanding that an automatic presumption of superiority over others leads to prolonged mental and physiological stress. microaggressions are currently defined by sue (2010) as "the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership" (p. 3). often, "these hidden messages may invalidate the group identity or experiential reality of target persons, demean them on a personal or group level, communicate they are lesser human beings, suggest they do not belong with the majority group, threaten and intimidate, or relegate them to inferior status and treatment" (sue, 2010, p. 3). microaggressions are everyday occurrences that may appear trivial or harmless at first glance, but cumulatively, carry significant power. the most widely cited scholar in contemporary microaggression research is derald wing sue, a professor of psychology and education in the department of counseling and clinical psychology at teachers college and with the school of social work at columbia university. a review of the microaggression research literature conducted in 2010 revealed that there have been 20 published papers in recent literature specifically on microaggressions. of these publications, 10 are nonempirical or theoretical. of the remaining 10 empirical studies the majority were qualitative in their approach, with the dominant methodologies being consensual qualitative research (cqr) and interpretive phenomenological analysis (ipa), which will be described in greater detail later on. what is important to note here is that these qualitative measures allow for detailed exploration and description of the phenomenon, rather than attempting to provide an "answer" or explanation. this model of research privileges the complex over the reductionist, thereby fostering an appreciation for the complexity of the human experience. this literature review will draw  9  
  heavily on the findings of sue and his colleagues, as they are currently the leaders in the field of microaggression research. in microaggressions and marginality (2010), sue revisits and expands on the themes raised in his earlier 2007 work, microaggressions in everyday life: race, gender, and sexual orientation, and states that "the most detrimental forms of microaggressions are usually delivered by well-intentioned individuals who are unaware that they have engaged in harmful conduct toward a socially devalued group" (sue, 2010, p. 3). the power of these "small slights" lies in their ability to operate under the radar of consciousness or intention, mask themselves in the disguise of a compliment and/or to leave the target of the microaggression questioning their subjective perception of reality. sue (2010) restates his earlier categorization of the three types of microaggression: 1) microassault, 2) microinsult, and 3) microinvalidation (sue, 2010, p. 7). microassaults are conscious biased beliefs or attitudes that are held by individuals and intentionally expressed or acted out overtly or covertly toward a marginalized person or socially devalued group. this category most closely resembles what sue (2010) defines as "old-fashioned racism, sexism, or heterosexism" (p. 9), whereby people feel comfortable blatantly expressing their biased beliefs. microinsults differ from microassaults in that they are "likely to occur outside the level of conscious awareness of the perpetrator" (sue, 2010, p. 9). microinsults are either interpersonal interactions (verbal/nonverbal) or environmental cues that communicate rudeness, insensitivity, slights, and insults that demean a person's racial, gender, sexual orientation, group identity and heritage, or other group membership (sue, 2010, p.9). microinvalidations "are similar to microinsults in that they generally occur outside the level of conscious awareness of perpetrators" (sue, 2010, p. 10). this form of microaggression, however, is perhaps the most insidious, damaging, and harmful form, because microinvalidations  10  
  directly attack or deny the experiential realities of socially devalued groups" (sue, 2010, p. 10). socially dominant groups hold the power to define reality, as their norms tend to dictate the expectations and standards for all people living in a particular society. as a result, the day-today experiences of reality for people who are marginalized in a society fall outside of the "norm." thus, their subjective reality is invalidated and the subjective reality of the dominant group is institutionalized as "objective reality." to illustrate the nature of microaggressions, i have included the following examples: •  a white man or woman clutches her purse or checks his wallet as a black or latino man approaches or passes them. (hidden message: you and your group are criminals);  •  an asian american, born and raised in the united states, is complimented for speaking "good english." (hidden message: you are not a true american. you are a perpetual foreigner in your own country);  •  an assertive female manager is labeled as a "bitch," while her male counterpart is described as "a forceful leader." (hidden message: women should be passive and allow men to be the decision makers);  •  a female physician wearing a stethoscope is mistaken for a nurse. (hidden message: women are less capable than men);  •  students use the term "gay" to describe a fellow student who is socially ostracized. (hidden message: people who are weird, strange, deviant, or different are "gay") (sue, 2010, p. 4).  11  
  in the field of microaggression research, the categories of racial, gender, and sexual orientation microaggressions have been the most widely studied to date, with racial microaggressions making up the bulk of that research, followed by gender and sexual orientation, respectively. microaggressions, however, can be enacted upon any group that is marginalized in a society. they may, for example, be based on gender identity, religion, (dis)ability, social class, immigration status, indigenous heritage, etc. what is so salient about the phenomenon of microaggressions is how inextricably linked it is to oppression, social injustice, and psychological distress, and how incompatible it is with the professional values of social work, specifically the ethical principles of challenging social injustice and respecting the dignity and worth of the person (nasw code of ethics, 2008, p. 5). racial & ethnic microaggressions the bulk of microaggression research is focused on racial and ethnic manifestations of microaggressions. such research has primarily studied the phenomenon in academic and counseling settings, though there are some studies focused, for example, on the "black american experience" or the "asian american experience" that have been extrapolated upon and applied to more specific situations. the following study exemplifies the major themes found in the existing research exploring the experience of students of color. while this study explores the experience of black undergraduate students, similar themes emerge in the studies of latina/o students and asian american students. watkins, labarrie, and appio (2010) used consensual qualitative research (cqr) as a methodology to explore the experiences of black undergraduates and their perceptions of the impact of racial microaggressions in their lives. ten self-identified black undergraduate students from a predominately white northeastern university participated in semi-structured  12  
  interviews about their experience. ten domains, or themes, emerged from the analysis. i've summarized the themes below, as they help trace the progression and accumulation of racially based tensions and negative experiences in academic settings. further, the research supports the stance that much of the harm from microaggressions stems from its cumulative effects on target populations over time (sue, 2010). participants reported having high-school related experiences in which they described feeling racially stereotyped and/or experienced racial tension with peers, teachers, and guidance counselors in high school. upon entering the university setting, participants described the demographic climates of their universities, which included students, faculty, and administrators, as predominately white. the racial stratification of jobs on campus was also noted by participants, who indicated that black and latino/a staff were often employed in lower-status positions in comparison to white counterparts. participants also noted that they typically felt disappointed that their college climate was unwelcoming and did not embrace racial diversity (watkins et al., 2010, pp. 32-33). with regard to the participants' perceptions of and reactions to racial microaggressions, participants generally described being racially stereotyped and having encountered racism. all participants reported experience on campus with stereotypes, for example, that black people are (1) ignorant or unintelligent; (2) loud, tactless, low class, or "ghetto"; and (3) angry, violent, or criminal. participants typically felt that white people did not understand racism or the race-related experience of people of color because their experiences in society are very different. participants typically described experiences with subtle racism or racial microaggressions as having a subjective quality, making them difficult to identify and prove, because this form of racism can be unintentional in comparison to more blatant forms of racism (watkins et al., 2010, pp. 33-35). this is a critical point with regard to the study and  13  
  experience of microaggressions. research on aversive racism, a contemporary form of bias "that hides in the assumptions/beliefs/values of well-intentioned people" and "is difficult to identify in its motivational manifestations" (sue, 2010, pp. 13-14), creates a barrier to identifying racism and, therefore, showing the "harm perpetrated against socially devalued groups in our society" (sue, 2010, p. 14). as such, targets of aversive racism or invisible microaggressions may expend a great deal of psychic energy trying to process interactions in which the perpetrators motivations for a microaggressive comment or action were unclear (sue, 2010). watkins et al.'s (2010) study also revealed that participants experienced subtle racism, racial tension, and/or discomfort with faculty and students in the classroom, as well as with administrators and staff. a number of participants reported being confused by experiences with administrators and/or staff in which they perceived subtle racism. notably, participants often felt that working with administrators and staff who are either people of color of have experience working with students of color was beneficial. amongst peers, a number of participants maintained friendships with mostly other students of color. these participants hypothesized that the makeup of these friendship groups was either a product of similar life experiences or was typically due to involvement in race-based and/or class-based academic support programs. other participants typically maintained a diverse, interracial group of college friends. the intersections of race, gender, and social class also emerged in watkins et al.'s (2010) study. participants typically expressed that black males are frequently seen as academically inferior and/or physically threatening. a variant number of female participants reported being perceived to be oversexualized and/or portrayed as having an attitude. participants' experiences related to social class background or financial issues indicated students of color experienced a lack of financial support and face challenges in affording college and, further, encountered ignorance from white people about the difficulties and barriers people  14  
  of color ace in paying for college, or they are assumed to be working class. participants typically reported having to balance multiple physical responsibilities, e.g., school, work, campus positions, etc., or having to take on tasks without support (watkins et al., 2010, pp. 37-39). watkins et al.'s (2010) study also asked about factors that promote resilience. participants revealed several factors that helped them cope with the negative psychological impact of microaggressions, including family, friends, religious faith, academic support programs, the multicultural center, involvement in clubs, academic leadership positions and journal writing. participants typically expressed being inspired by those who work toward change and influence others, including peers, influential alumni, celebrities, and the university's mission. results were similar to those found by hernandez, carranza, & almeida (2010), in which they reported on active coping strategies that reduced stress and promoted resilience in mental health professionals who had been targets of racial microaggressions. both studies revealed the importance of engaging in an active coping skills, e.g., journal writing, organizing, seeking support from friends, that help targets deal with "the perniciousness of subtle racism" (hernandez et al., 2010, p. 207). this study (watkins et al., 2010) confirmed that black college students are experiencing racial microaggressions on campus, with white peers, faculty members, administrators, and campus staff being primary perpetrators of subtle racism. racial microaggression research in mental health counseling settings has explored cross racial supervisor-supervisee dyads (constantine & sue, 2007), microaggressions against black psychologists (constantine, smith, redington, & owens, 2008), mental health professionals' adaptive response to microaggressions (hernandez et al., 2010), racial microaggressions against african american clients in cross-racial counseling relationships (constantine, 2007), microaggressions against black americans and implications for counseling (sue et al., 2008),  15  
  microaggressions by supervisors of color (murphy-shigematsu, 2010). the themes that emerged from each study are summarized here. constantine et al. (2008) studied the phenomenon of microaggressions against black psychologists. their results revealed that black psychologists reported alternating feelings of invisibility/marginalization and/or hypervisibility; having their qualifications or credentials questioned or challenged by other faculty colleagues, staff members, or students; receiving inadequate mentoring in the workplace; being expected to serve in service-oriented roles with low-perceived value by administrators or other faculty colleagues; experiencing difficulties determining whether subtle discrimination was race or gender based, feeling self-consciousness regarding their choice of clothing, hairstyle or manner of speech; and coming up with coping strategies to address racial microaggressions in their work environment (constantine et al., 2008, pp. 348-355). constantine and sue (2007) researched cross-racial supervisor-supervisee dyads, in which supervisee participants reported the following themes with regard to their experiences with supervisors. participants felt there were invalidating racial-cultural issues; their supervisors made stereotypic assumptions about black clients; their supervisors made stereotypic assumptions about black supervisees; supervisors were reluctant to give performance feedback for fear of being viewed as racist; they focused primarily on clinical weaknesses, blamed clients of color for problems stemming from oppression; and, finally, offered culturally insensitive treatment recommendations (constantine & sue, 2007, pp. 142-153). in sue et al.'s (2008) study of racial microaggressions against black americans and the resulting implications for counseling, black american participants reported that others made assumptions of their intellectual inferiority; they felt treated like a "second-class citizen," they  16  
  experienced assumptions of criminality, assumptions of inferior status; an assumed universality of the black american experience; and an assumed superiority of white cultural values and communication styles (sue et al., 2008, pp. 330-338). constantine (2007) looked at racial microaggressions against african-american clients in cross-racial counseling relationships, which is a common scenario in mental health clinic settings where a predominant number of professional are white. participants reported experiencing their cross-racial counselors as overidentifying with the african-american clients experience; denying personal or individual racism; assigning unique/special status on the basis of race or ethnicity; making stereotypic assumptions about members of a racial or ethnic group; accusing africanamerican clients of hypersensitivity regarding racial or cultural issues; espousing the meritocracy myth; providing culturally insensitive treatment considerations or recommendations; accepting of less than optimal behaviors on the basis of racial-cultural group membership; idealization of african-american clients; and dysfunctional helping/patronization (constantine, 2007, pp. 1-16). finally, in murphy-shigematsu's (2010) study of microaggressions by supervisors of color against supervisees of color, supervisees of color reported hearing the following from their supervisors of color: "but you look white!” and "you know what it's like to be on welfare." supervisees of color reported that they had the following response to their supervisors: "i'm white, but i'm not american" and "you're not seeing me!” (murphy-shigematsu, 2010, pp. 1618). in all of the above studies, participants reported multiple negative assumptions being made about their identities and experience based solely on their racial group membership. a tangible current of invalidation and dismissal of individual experience ran through the majority  17  
  of themes, giving voice to the disempowering and insidious nature of microaggressions. as stated by constantine et al. (2008), microaggressions are like "death by a thousand cuts" (p. 86). hernandez et al. (2010) researched how mental health professionals cope with experiencing racial microaggressions. in their study of mental health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, results demonstrated that actively engaging with coping strategies promoted resilience. participants reported that they follow their own individual processes of identifying thoughts, feelings and responses to perceived microaggressions; engage in self-care; draw on their spirituality; confront microaggresions; seek and receive support; document microaggressions; seek mentoring; and participate in collective organizing (hernandez et al., 2010). actively engaging in some type of coping strategy in response to an environment in which microaggressions are commonplace appears to be a key factor in how mental health professionals and others protect themselves from the negative impact of racial microaggressions, as participants in more than one study (e.g., watkins et al., 2010) reported on factors that promote resilience or help with coping. as the field of microaggression research moves forward, it will be important for social workers to have an understanding of protective factors and coping skills that can be employed in the service of reducing the harm inflicted by microaggressions as well as eliminating microaggressions altogether. in the earlier example of black undergraduates' experiences with microaggressions (watkins et al., 2010), maintaining a focus on future success has been shown to encourage optimism and resilience in black people as they confront racism (utsey, hook, fischer, & belvet, 2008, pp. 208). in addition, participants who felt supported, encouraged and inspired by influential alumni, celebrities, and fellow peers felt optimistic and inspired to work towards future change, which, in turn, promotes resilience (watkins et al., 2010, p. 45).  18  
  other socially devalued group microaggressions the literature also reveals microaggressive behaviors perpetrated against other socially devalued groups, for example, american indians (clark, spanierman, reed, soble, & cabana, 2011), lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer clients (shelton & delgado-romero, 2011), and women (nadal, 2011). microaggressions against other socially devalued groups will be explored only briefly here, as the concept of microaggressions and how they are unintentionally perpetrated has been thoroughly illustrated in the above subsection on racial and ethnic microaggressions. because i will be building my chapter 3 investigation of class-based microaggressions on the foundation of previous microaggression research, however, it is worthwhile to spend some time reviewing the literature on microaggressions perpetrated on other socially devalued groups. second to race and ethnicity, gender-based microaggressions appear to be the most explored (though, scholarly research studies are scarce). nadal (2011) addresses gender-based microaggressions, as do capodilupo et al. (2010), and sue (2010). research on gender-based microaggressions appears to be emerging primarily from the core group of researchers (referenced above) who are working out of teachers college, columbia university. while overt sexism may no longer be legally sanctioned in the u.s., acts of gender discrimination remain culturally embedded. acts of subtle and covert sexism tend to remain hidden or unnoticed because they are built into cultural and societal norms (swim & cohen, 1997). few studies have investigated the dynamics of subtle sexism, but the literature that does exist suggests that subtle sexism invalidates women, dismisses their contributions and accomplishments, and limits their effectiveness in social and professional settings (benokraitis, 1997; nielson, 2002; watkins et al., 2010). in swim and cohen's (2001) study of subtle sexism and its consequences on men and women, evidence emerged that subtle sexism is experienced  19  
  regularly by women and that it can lead to a myriad of psychological stressors for women including a decrease in comfort and self-esteem and feelings of anger and depression. in order to understand gender microaggressions, researchers capodilupo et al. (2010) examined the literature on various forms of sexism and explored how gender microaggressions could be different from other manifestations of sexism. one way is that gender microaggressions can be categorized as gender microassaults, gender microinsults, and gender microinvalidations (nadal, 2010). as mentioned earlier, microassaults are described in the literature as resembling "oldfashioned" sexism, i.e., blatant and overt sexist behavior (capodilupo et al., 2010, p. 195). microinsults are described as "behaviors and statements that are often unintentional and convey negative messages about women" and microinvalidations "deny the experiential reality of people based on their membership in a particular gender group" (sue, 2010, p. 195). capodilupo et al. (2010) conducted focus groups in order to document women's experiences with gender-based microaggressions and create a corresponding taxonomy of gender-based microaggressions. focus group participants reported experiencing sexual objectification, being treated like secondclass citizens, assumptions of inferiority, denial of the reality of sexism, assumptions of traditional gender roles, use of sexist language, denial of individual sexism, and environmental microaggressions. participants in the above research overwhelmingly reported incidents and perceived messages that represented sexual objectification and assumption of traditional gender roles (capodilupo et al., 2010). as with racial microaggressions, gender-based microaggressions ascribe stereotypical characteristics based on dominant cultural norms to individuals who are members of a certain group, regardless of the accuracy of such traits or an individual's experience outside of the "norm." further, like racial microaggressions, the reality that many people experience as true is denied and redefined by the culture at large. the same phenomenon  20  
  is also being played out with regard to microaggressions against lgbtq individuals (shelton & delgado-romero, 2011). to date, there is a scarcity of literature studying the manifestations of microaggressions on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. shelton and delgado-romero (2011) studied the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer clients in psychotherapy and their findings support the existence of sexual orientation microaggressions within the therapeutic environment. participants reported that their therapists tended to focus on their sexual orientation as the problem bringing them to therapy, overidentify with lgbq clients, make stereotypical assumptions, warn of the dangers of identifying as lgbq, express heteronormative bias, and/or avoid and minimize the client's sexual orientation (shelton & delgado-romero, 2011, p. 215). nadal et al.'s (2010) acknowledged the lack of scholarly literature about the lgbtq experience with microaggressions and extrapolated on previous studies in order to provide a conceptualization of sexual orientation and transgender microaggressions. nadal et al. (2010) propose the following taxonomy of lgbt microaggressions as a starting place for understanding the potential impact of microaggressions on these groups and individuals and laying a foundation for future research: (1) use of heterosexist terminology; (2) endorsement of heteronormative culture/behaviors; (3) assumptions of universal lgbt experience; (4), exoticization; (5) discomfort/disapproval of lgbt experience; (7) assumption of sexual pathology/abnormality; (8) denial of individual heterosexism; and (9) environmental microaggressions (nadal et al., 2010, pp. 227-229). in all of the aforementioned examples of microaggressions, there is an invalidation of individuals' lived reality that takes place. while explicit discrimination is easy to identify and, therefore, "easier" to work against, subtle invalidations and discrimination are more difficult to  21  
  identify and are likely to cause targets to feel isolated and disoriented. thus far, this literature review has focused on microaggressions based on race, gender, and lgbtq identity. in the next chapter, the dynamics of class and class-based microaggressions will be explored.  22  
  chapter iii class-based microaggressions while there is a substantial body of historical literature dedicated to exploring socioeconomic class, locating research that specifically address the phenomenon of class-based microaggressions proved to be difficult. works about classism and human welfare are available (bullock, 1995; bullock & lott, 2006; collins & yeskel, 2005; strier, 2008), but studies dedicated to class-based microaggressions were elusive. to my knowledge, the primary scholar writing about class-based microaggressions is laura smith at teachers college, columbia university. her work will be referenced shortly. my perspective on class, which is informed by growing up as white in the united states in a family of modest means, is that class location intersects with every aspect of one's identity in some way or another. further, given the hyper-capitalist culture of the united states, class (like race) is often used as a measure of a person's value and worth. in my experience, "what do you do for a living?" is one of the first questions americans (from the united states) ask each other. given that one's social class has far-reaching consequences in how that person will experience life, it is of critical importance that social workers consider how classist beliefs, language, and practices impact the populations with whom we work as well as the work itself. strier (2008) states, "without cultural competence, skills and awareness of the presence of biases in professional practices, social work could remain ethnocentric and part of the clients' oppression system" (p. 237). even jane addams, hull house founder and early social worker, acknowledged that "the role of social work and the key to social justice should be found in inter-  23  
  class cooperation" (strier, 2008, p. 238). considering the field of social work's emphasis on increasing self-awareness and integrating cultural considerations into practice, it stands to reason that social workers should be concerned with the class-based realities of our clients and closely examining our own relationship to class, always with an eye towards uncovering possible unconscious biases. to not examine the phenomenon of class-based microaggressions and implicit class-based bias will only increase the likelihood of unwittingly participating in microaggressive acts or judgments towards those we are committed to serving. as referenced above, one of the scholars leading the movement to examine classism and class-based microaggressions in the mental health helping professions is laura smith of teachers college, columbia university. in smith (2010), relevant research on classism is synthesized, examples of everyday classism are provided and the author proposes that mental health professionals must conscientiously bring class considerations alongside other cultural considerations, such as race and gender. rather than being strictly about money, class encompasses identity, education, language, social location, etc. (smith, 2010). when people think of class, a number of ideas come to mind - wealth, or lack thereof, status, prestige, or lack thereof, newspapers with photos of wealthy people dressed up for social events, lords and ladies of english nobility, the caste stratifications of traditional indian culture, or words like classy, trashy, and low-rent (smith, 2010, p.5). the idea of class conjures up a mix of language, images, beliefs and standards by which people navigate the world. smith (2010) proposes a social justice understanding of social class, "... that accounts for the ways in which social class is not just a question of different lifestyles or even just a function of money, it is also a question of structural power, privilege, and disadvantage" (p.5). with regard to class, every person's individual story plays out within a broader sociocultural context in which privilege and  24  
  disadvantage are not distributed equitably. social work's professional ethic that "change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice" (nasw code of ethics, 2008, p. 5) places social work on the side of advocating for those who are oppressed by classism. simultaneously, social work's professional ethic to "respect the dignity and worth of the person" (nasw code of ethics, 2008, p. 5) means that social workers are uniquely suited to consider the psychological impact of classism on individuals and communities. social work professionals are required, by trade, to look at the full context of a person's life when assessing how best to provide services that won't be complicit in maintaining an oppressive status quo. one way of understanding social class is as a dimension of socially constructed identity and oppression on the order of race, gender, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability, with the corresponding system of class-based bias and discrimination labeled as classism (smith, 2010, p.7). bullock and lott (1995) define classism as "the oppression of the poor through a network of everyday practices, attitudes, assumptions, behaviors, and institutional rules" (p. 119). "because cultural narratives shape our ability (or inability) to see the existence of social class, the examples of classism all around us often manage to evade notice" (smith, 2010, p. 31). smith (2010) organizes examples of classism in categories such as "cultural invisibility," or "educational inequity," and also creates a category for "class-based microaggressions" as one form of classism. i would argue that microaggressions are the manifestation of all types of classism and that the terms classism and class-based microaggression can often be used interchangeably. in other words, the actions and beliefs that are informed by classist attitudes and that smith (2010) labels classism could be labeled microaggressions as well, due to the hostile, derogatory, or negative messages they convey to target persons or populations. i interpret smith's (2010) taxonomy of classism to also be a  25  
  taxonomy of class-based microaggressions and will present it as such. this taxonomy includes: cultural invisibility, negative attitudes and beliefs toward the poor, educational inequities, health care inequities, disparities in the judicial system, and environmental injustice (smith, 2010, p. 31). cultural invisibility harvard professor of sociology lee rainwater wrote in 1970 that the predominant way of seeing the poor is to not see them as part of society at all: "the central existential fact of life for the lower class...is that their members are not included in the collectivity that makes up the 'real' society of the 'real' people" (p. 10). lott (2002) came to the same conclusion when stated that "the dominant response to the poor by the nonpoor is that of distancing...in the form of exclusion, separation, devaluing, and discounting" (p. 108). about growing up in poverty, the writer dorothy allison (1994) observed, "my family's life was not on television, not in books, not even in comic books" (p. 17). a more current example, and according to smith (2010), perhaps one of the best examples of the taken-for-granted invisibility of the poor people in the mainstream u.s. cultural experience [was] the widespread astonishment at the depth of american poverty revealed in the aftermath of hurricane katrina, which struck the gulf coast in 2005. (p.32) after seeing who escaped the flood and who remained behind, it's impossible to ignore the shocking breadth of the gap between rich and poor. it's as if we don't even see poor people in this country anymore. (robinson, 2005, para. 3)  26  
  negative attitudes and beliefs toward the poor ehrenreich, (2001), writes about the year she spent working minimum-wage jobs to see if she could support herself (she couldn't). ehrenreich (2001) describes the contemptuous attitudes towards poor and working-class people. about wearing her maids uniform in public, she writes, "i used to stop [at the supermarket] on my way home, but i couldn't take the stares, which were easily translatable into: what are you doing here?" (ehrenreich, 2001, p. 100). smith (2010) also provides a glimpse into the social psychological literature in which ehrenreich's experience is supported. cozzarelli, wilkinson, and tagler (2001) found that "stereotypes about the poor were found to be significantly more negative than stereotypes about the middle class" (p. 225). participants "endorsed traits such as lazy, stupid, dirty, and immoral more often for poor people than for middle-class people" (cozzarelli et al., 2001, p. 215). hoyt (1999) found that the most frequently referenced stereotypes for poor people were uneducated, lazy, dirty, drug/alcohol user, and criminal (pp. 189-210). bullock, wyche, and williams (2001), analyzed media representations of poor people and found that when the poor do appear in mainstream media, it is often via daytime reality shows such as jerry springer or police live action programs where they are presented to viewers negatively as dysfunctional, unruly, promiscuous, and/or drug users. smith (2010) conducted a survey in which participants' responses showed they were more likely to assign certain types of crimes with specific class categories. for example, when asked who would commit the infraction of embezzling money from the company that one owns, the criminal would most likely have to be wealthy to begin with, and such actions were associated with the wealthy. only poor people, however, were considered most likely to commit infractions that could be committed by people at any class position, such as painting graffiti in public places (smith, 2010, p. 33).  27  
  educational inequities kozol (2005) documents unequal access to educational opportunities, showing that students in poor communities attend schools that have fewer computers, fewer library books, fewer classes, fewer extracurricular activities, and fewer teachers than students in more affluent neighborhoods (chapter 2). in fine, burns, payne, and torre's (2004) study with poor and working-class youth in california, the young people who participated in focus groups attest to the messages communicated to them about their worth through the decaying buildings and inadequate resources: it makes you feel less about yourself, you know, like you sitting here in a class where you have to stand up because there's not enough chairs and you see rats in the buildings...so in all honesty, it really makes me feel bad about myself. obviously, you probably can't understand where i'm coming from, but it really do. and i'm not the only person who feels that. it really make you feel like you really less than. and i already feel that way because i stay in a group home because of poverty. (p. 2199) health care inequities, disparities in the judicial system, & environmental injustice the annual united nations human development report in 2005 reported that "among poor people and people of color...health indicators are worse in the united states than in some developing countries" (smith, 2010, p 36). in a series of articles on class by the new york times (that was later made into a book), it was reported that class is associated with everything from risk factors for chronic illnesses to quality of care, access to care, availability of social and financial support during illnesses, relationships with doctors, and overall stress level (scott, 2005).  28  
  regarding classist disparities in the judicial system, smith (2010) begins by offering one simple word: bail. "mentioned casually in television reports and newspaper headlines, this overt form of discrimination operates blatantly as the poor remain in prison cells while wealthier people accused of the same crimes go home" (smith, 2010, p.37). further, smith (2010) reports, despite claims by the u.s. that it's a leader in human rights, america spends considerably less than other developed countries on legal assistance for poor and working-class citizens, allocating only about a sixteenth of what great britain budgets for civil legal assistance, a sixth of what new zealand provides, and a third of what some canadian provinces guarantee (p.37). american university philosophy professor jeffrey reiman (2007) has posited that the criminal justice system itself is classist at the deepest levels of its operations. reiman's (2007) perspective is that the criminal justice system keeps the threat of crimes within public awareness, for example by focusing on rising and falling crime rates, characterizing crime as misdeeds of the poor, and distracting public awareness or sustained interest away from the actions of class elites via corporate fraud, hazardous working conditions, risky high-level financial service ventures, etc. the system protects the interests of the powerful as it "deflects the discontent and potential hostility of middle america away from the classes about them and toward the classes below them" (reiman, 2007, p. 4). classism and racism also play a significant role in environmental injustice, so that waste tends to flow towards communities with "weak response capacity" (heiman, 1996, para. 10). in urban areas this could mean garbage dumps, bus depots, trash-burning plants. in rural areas, such as the appalachian mountains, this could mean slurry ponds of coal sludge, a tar-like mixture of soil, water, and the toxic chemicals used in coal processing. environmental injustice in the appalachian mountain region extends to the working conditions inside the mines as well, where  29  
  there have been "literally hundreds of fatal mining disasters over the last century" (smith, 2010, p. 38). in one example, smith (2010) reports that the sago mine in sago, west virginia, had "racked up 270 safety violations over...two years, with government records showing that the owner knew about and failed to correct many of them" (p. 38). an unlivable minimum wage and the deprecation of labor organizations for people working in the middle-and owning-classes, smith (2010) argues, the right of organizing and advocating for concerns that relate to their own or their business' welfare chambers of commerce, professional associations, lobbying groups, and think tanks, for example - is taken for granted. when poor and working-class people organize to participate in workplace negotiations and decision-making, however, they are not greeted with the same casual acceptance. labor unions are, perhaps, the sole avenue by which working-class people can have a voice in their workplaces, where they do not own or control resources, where they do not have authority in the content or availability of jobs, and where they don't occupy roles in the corporate power structure. "cultural acceptance of the devaluing and undermining of working people's right to have their voices be heard seems contradictory in a country that prides itself on democracy and the idea of a level playing field" (smith, 2010, p.41). psychological dynamics of class-based microaggressions "negative attitudes toward the poor leave their traces within ordinary, unexamined experiences and language use...once we become aware of them, we can see that everyday interactions and popular culture are replete with class-based messages and slights" (smith, 2010, p. 33). a key point that smith (2010) makes is that "although the perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware of the implications of their behavior, poor people who are exposed to classist microaggressions are usually able to detect that they are being insulted, even  30  
  if politely" (p.34). she illustrates this point with a reference to a collection of essays by lesbians about their class backgrounds. author and contributor, chaney (1994), transitioned from a working-class youth on a hog farm to a privileged college campus in an urban area and wrote about the unconscious symbols and rituals that her new peers at college used to signal class membership, "table manners seem to evoke some of the ugliest class righteousness'" (chaney, 1994, p. 174). from the same collection of essays, author, evans (1994), described the impact of a casual comment by a friend who was a dental student: "what kind of parents wouldn't provide their children with something as important as dental care?" i grow quiet as i think of my childhood, of not having gone to the dentist until i was in my mid-teems, of having teeth pulled because they were too decayed to fill...shame washed over me as i realize that i am the type of person the dental student is talking about, shame that my parents couldn't manage money better, shame that there wasn't more money to manage...[but] i keep my mouth shut, for my mouth is one of the places that i carry evidence of my poverty. (evans, 1994, p. 163) sue (2010) identified four major psychological dilemmas or dynamics created by racial microaggressions and, with regard to moving microaggression research forward, has said this, "as the understanding of psychological dynamics of racial microaggressions has developed, many other marginalized groups have begun to translate how microaggressions may be tied to group-specific stereotypes, biases, and misinformation" (p. 18). i propose building on the existing framework for understanding the psychological dilemmas and dynamics caused microaggressions, while holding the reality that this research is a work in progress and that other socially devalued groups will experience microaggressions in ways that are similar and  31  
  dissimilar to members of targeted racial and ethnic groups. the psychological dilemmas or dynamics, as identified by sue (2010) are: (1) the clash of realities between the dominant group and socially devalued group members, (2) the invisibility of unintentional bias and discrimination, (3) the perceived minimal harm of microaggressions, and (4) the catch-22 of responding (p. 11). in the first case, the dominant group in a society has the power to construct what is true and normative in the larger cultural discourse, so experiences that do not align with the dominant culture's definition of normal are seen as abnormal and problematic. targets of class-based microaggressions, therefore, are given the message that their perceptions of reality are inaccurate or wrong and the personal experiences which they know to be true are not valid. second, the invisibility of unintentional bias and discrimination maintains the status quo, prevents people from recognizing discrimination and taking action against it, and fosters an environment in which biased cultural conditioning goes unchallenged. sue and colleagues (2010) frequently allude to their position that overt discrimination is much "easier" to challenge than invisible discrimination, because it can be seen and addressed. thirdly, minimizing the impact of microaggressions on a target person can lead to a number of negative consequences. the cumulative affect of microaggressions over a lifetime and the invalidating imperative to "get over it" or "stop making such a big deal about it" can contribute to a hostile and invalidating campus and work climate (dovidio et al., 2009; rowe, 1990; solorzano et al., 2000), devalue social group identities (purdie-vaughns et al., 2008), lower work productivity and educational learning (salvatore & shelton, 2007; sue, 2010), perpetuate stereotype threat (cardinu, maas, rosabianca, & kiesner, 2005; steele, spencer, & aronson, 2002), create physical health problems (brondolo, rieppi, kelly, & gerin, 2003; clark, anderson, clark, & williams, 1999), and assail mental health by creating emotional turmoil, low self-esteem, and psychological  32  
  energy depletion (sue, 2010). finally, there is also the catch-22 of responding to a perceived microaggression. because many microaggressions are not consciously or intentionally delivered, the target person is in the position of trying to ascertain whether or not an insult took place, what the motivations behind it might have been, if they (the target) are overreacting, and if or how to respond. if the person chooses not to respond, "he or she may suffer from a sense of low selfesteem, a feeling of not being true to the self, and a loss of self-integrity. yet, to confront the perpetrator or to raise the issue may result in negative consequences" (sue, 2010, p.17). what is clear in all of the above examples is that microggressions have the power to negatively impact individuals' overall well-being and that dealing with microaggressions on a daily basis uses a considerable amount of psychic and emotional energy. thus far, this literature review has focused on describing and exploring the phenomenon of microaggressions, with special attention to class-based microaggressions. shedding light on this phenomenon and suggesting that issues of class bias and discrimination are real and merit further exploration is one of the primary goals of this paper. the call for further exploration would be incomplete, however, without also considering theoretical frameworks that social workers could apply to their practice in the service of increasing awareness of class-based bias and, further, reducing the likelihood that they will unwittingly become entangled in the dominant cultural practices that maintain a classist status quo. social workers are mandated by their code of ethics to challenge social injustice (nasw code of ethics, 2008, p. 5). the value of service to others is also reflected in the social work professional mandate, as the code of ethics states that the primary professional goal for social workers is to "help people in need and to address social problems" (nasw code of ethics, 2008, p. 5). it is, therefore, critical that social workers attempt to understand all of the ways their clients have experienced marginalization and that they  33  
  actively seek therapeutic frameworks designed to address multiple dimensions of relational experience, social context, and psychological difficulty while staying true to the mandate for social justice. traditional, western psychodynamic frameworks place a premium on individuation and autonomy, seeing "the self as functioning better if it is more independent of other selves" (jordan, 2010, p. 2). in the context of oppression based on group identity, such as classism, it may be advisable to incorporate therapeutic frameworks that have been built around the centrality of human relationships in a social context. i propose, therefore, that social workers consider using a relational-cultural based style of social work practice when trying to address the dynamics of class-based oppression. relational-cultural theory is based on a model of human development that places connection [with others] at the center of growth (jordan, 2010, p. 3). further, relational-cultural theory posits that "human beings seek to participate in relationships in which people both give and receive" (jordan, 2010, p. 4). by incorporating the tenets of this theory into social work practice, there may be increased potential to reduce individual victimblaming (for example, blaming someone for living in poverty), empower clients and social workers to increase community connections and engage in social action, and to allow for a less hierarchical stance of therapist-over-client. this theoretical framework is well-suited to social workers wanting to work against class-based microaggressions due to its emphasis on the socialrelational context, its commitment to mutual empowerment between people, and its stance against individual victim-blaming. a synthesis of relational-cultural theory follows.  34  
  chapter iv relational-cultural theory formulated by women psychologists at the stone center at wellesley college, relationalcultural theory/therapy (rct) was a response to the western-centered psychological theories that generally depict human development as a trajectory for dependence to independence. such theories value autonomy, independence from others, and the concept of an internally and individually based self (jordan, 2010). relational-cultural theory (rct) is a departure from this concept. relational-cultural theory "is built on the premise that, throughout the life span, human beings grow through and toward connection. it holds that we need connections to flourish, even to stay alive, and isolation is a major source of suffering for people, at both a personal and cultural level" (jordan, 2010, p.1). further, "rct challenges not only the prevailing developmental theories, which frame independence as the hallmark of mature development, but some of the basic tenets of 21st century western culture, which celebrate autonomy, self-interest, competition, and strength in isolation" (jordan, 2010, pp.1-2). jordan (2010) provides a comprehensive overview of rct, tracing its history and development in the 1970's through the present and providing suggestions for new and future applications of the theory. (judith jordan, phd, is currently the director of the jean baker miller training institute and founding scholar at the stone center at wellesley college. she is also an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at harvard medical school. dr. jordan has spent the past 20 years working with the late jean baker miller, irene stiver, and jan surrey on the development of what is now known as relationalcultural theory.)  35  
  relational-cultural theory grew out of the work of psychiatrist jean baker miller's "groundbreaking book, toward a new psychology of women (1976)" (jordan, 2010, p.9). miller critically examined psychiatry's perspective on what would be considered women's "weaknesses" and argued that they could be seen as strengths. she began to deconstruct the concept of the "neutral" psychology of the individual (i.e., a strictly autonomous, internal, individual self that grows and develops according to its own internal programming) and proposed instead that hidden forces of power and dominance play a major role in shaping social and individual development (jordon, 2010, p.9). rct's theoretical proposition is that relationships are at the center of growth and the utility of the concept of a self, specifically a separate self, is called into question (jordan, 2010, p. 9). in 1978, miller began to work with the psychologists judith jordan, irene stiver, and jan surrey to critique the ways in which traditional psychodynamic theories misrepresented women's experience. their collaboration is what became known as the stone center theory and self-in-relation theory, which generated the body of work that comprises rct. it should be noted that another psychologist at harvard, carol gilligan, was separately and independently exploring similar questions about traditional developmental theories and their application to the psychology of women (jordan, 2010, p. 10). according to jordan (2010), while rct grew out of and embraced a feminist and social justice perspective, early rct theory was skewed by the fact that the original writers were all white, middle class, and well educated. she elaborates by saying that, unfortunately, early rct was duplicating the very power distortions they were trying to protest by "talking about woman's voice rather than women's voices" (p.11) and "women of color, lesbians, other sexually identified women, physically challenged women, and women from different economic backgrounds personally communicated in conferences, workshops, and works in progress that 'the theory group' was  36  
  committing the very distortions of exclusion they were protesting" (p.11). this feedback illustrated how "the assumption of universality by the privileged dominant group creeps in to even the post conscious attempts to incorporate diversity and appreciate power inequities" (jordan, 2010, p.11). according to jordan, members of the original rct group acknowledged that they were coming from a position of great privilege and unearned advantage with the unchecked assumptions of universality that often accompany such a position, or to quote bell hooks (1984), living at "the center" rather than at the "margin" (as cited in jordan, 2010, p.11). the fact that the rct "founders" heard the feedback and incorporated it into the practice of rct is one of the ways that rct stands out as particularly applicable to addressing microaggressions, social injustice, and espousing social work values. jordan (2010) outlines the basic tenets of contemporary relational-cultural theory. first and foremost, rct places a premium value on the importance of relationships, especially "growth-fostering" relationships (p. 23). rather than endorse the notion of the supremacy of autonomy and individualism, rct "seeks to lessen the suffering caused by chronic disconnection and isolation, whether at an individual or societal level, to increase capacity for relational resilience, and to foster social justice" (jordan, 2010, p. 23). the effects of privilege, marginalization, and cultural forces are seen by rct as central to psychological development...[and] relational development is always completely suffused with social and cultural identities" (jordan, 2010, p. 23). the core concepts, as articulated by jordan (2000 & 2010) are: 1. people grow through and toward relationship throughout the life span. 2. movement toward mutuality rather than separation characterizes mature functioning.  37  
  3. relationship differentiation and elaboration characterize growth. 4. mutual empathy and mutual empowerment are at the core of growth fostering relationships. 5. authenticity is necessary for real engagement and full participation in growthfostering relationship. 6. in growth-fostering relationships, all people contribute and grow or benefit. development is not a one-way street (p. 24). one of the goals of development from a relational perspective is the development of increased relational competence and capacities over the life span (jordan, 2010, p. 24). rather than moving toward greater separateness and independence, the goal is to increase people's capacity for relational resilience, mutual empathy, and mutual empowerment (jordan, 2010, p.24). in essence, rct acknowledges and honors interdependence among people and systems. jordan's elaboration on the core theoretical concepts of rct follows. mutual empathy and growth-fostering relationships mutual empathy is the core process that allows for growth in relationship, defined as openness to being affected by and affecting another person. in mutual empathy, both people move with a sense of mutual respect, an intention for mutual growth, and an increasing capacity for connectedness. for mutual empathy to lead to growth, both people must see, know, and feel that they are being responded to, having an impact, and mattering to one another. the growth that occurs is both affective and cognitive and leads to an enlarged sense of community. supported vulnerability, a feeling that one's vulnerability will not be taken advantage of or violated, is necessary for mutual empathy. (jordan, 2010, p. 104)  38  
  ideally, mutual empathy allows people to feel that they can bring more and more of themselves into relationship without feeling that it is necessary to split off and hide the parts of their experience that could be seen as unacceptable or threatening (to themselves or others in the relationship, be it individuals or community). rct proposes that the need for connection, i.e., "an interaction between two or more people that is mutually empathic and mutually empowering," in which growth is a priority, is the primary motivation in people's lives (p. 102). such relationships would ideally have five outcomes, or "the five good things," as outlined by jean baker miler: a sense of zest; a better understanding of self, other, and the relationship (clarity); a sense of worth; an enhanced capacity to act or be productive; and an increased desire for more connection (miller & stiver, 1997). disconnection jordan (2010) writes that disconnection occurs when one person misunderstands, invalidates, excludes, humiliates, or injures another person in some way (p. 25). rct views disconnections as a normal part of relationships and an area for enormous growth, provided that the disconnection can be addressed and reworked. for example, "when an injured person, particularly one who has less power, can represent her or his experience of disconnection or pain to the more powerful person and be responded to, with interest or concern, the less powerful, hurt person has a sense of 'mattering,' of having an effect on the other" (jordan, 2010, p.25). through such processes, connections are strengthened, relational competence is strengthened, and places of "empathic failure" can be transformed into places of increasing trust and strength in relationships. what is critically important to note, as it relates to microaggressions, is that from an rct perspective, if the target person is not allowed or encouraged to voice her or his hurt or anger, that person will learn to suppress that aspect of her or his experience. thus, she or he  39  
  learns to hide aspects of themselves, mold themselves to fit in, and present to others (especially those holding more power) with inauthenticity in order to stay in relationship. this can lead to the less powerful person feeling "profoundly disempowered and unseen" (jordan, 2010, p. 26). if this happens repeatedly, the relationship itself (be it to a person, a community, or a larger societal system) is diminished and a condition of chronic disconnection may develop. often, the person who is less powerful in the situation feels that he or she is to blame for the disconnection and feels "immobilized and increasingly isolated" (jordan, 2010, p. 26). from an rct perspective, as explicated by jordan, this kind of dynamic not only creates isolation and disempowerment at the personal level, it also preserves the politics of dominance, making the case once again that "the personal is political, the political is personal" and, according to jordan, "the rewriting of a psychological paradigm becomes an act of social justice" (jordan, 2010, p. 26). relational images rct uses the term "relational images" to conceptualize the inner constructions and expectations we each create out of our experiences in relationships (miller & stiver, 1997). in other words, our past relationship experiences are remembered in our psyche (as "relational images") and these images, or understandings and expectations of relationships, are brought to bear on current and future relationships. this is another psychodynamic way of understanding that our present is anchored in our past, and specifically, our relational past. ideally, relational images are flexible, can be adjusted, and do not create inappropriate generalizations. jordan states that when relational images are overly generalized or rigid, they can prevent people from fully participating in the actual relationships at hand. in this way, she says, they operate similarly to the psychodynamic language of "transference" in therapy, i.e., "bringing  40  
  expectations from the past to bear on the present in a way that distorts current reality" (jordan, 2010, p. 26). rct sees "transference" as a phenomenon that emerges in all relationships, not just in the therapy room, and thus, "replication becomes problematic when it keeps people 'stuck in the past' and not free to engage in new relationships in the present" (miller & stiver, 1997, p. 138). rct does not advocate "neutrality" in the therapy room, rather, the therapist is encouraged to actively participate in helping to reshape relational images through exploring memories of past relationships, the accompanying images, and the contingent expectations of relationships. in rct, individuals search for "discrepant relational images" to counteract the core relational images that paint relationships in "all or nothing " terms. in essence, a discrepant relational image is re-framing and re-working a previously held idea about oneself in relationship, i.e., countering the negative belief with something more optimistic. for example, the relational image of "no one likes me when i start acting like my real self" could be countered by the discrepant relational image of "when i show my true self, my friend, _______, appreciates me." within the context of relational images, jean baker miller came up with the concept of "condemned isolation" (miller, 1989). jordan (2010) explains condemned isolation was a way of understanding how fixed the pain of relational images can be when they keep us locked out of relationship and out of hope. in condemned isolation, we feel immobilized, unworthy, and alone, and we feel we have created this reality. the individual feels that she or he is to blame for her or his powerlessness and hopelessness and there is something intrinsically 'wrong' with her or him. under such conditions, she or he will not risk the vulnerability necessary to make connections, [as] the threat of further isolation is too great. (jordan, 2010, p. 28)  41  
  this idea of condemned isolation brings to mind the manifestations of classism and the example of the student from a poor school district in chapter 3. this student's school didn't have enough chairs in the classroom, so students had to stand during class. rats were seen running around the building. the student who participated in the study perceived that the dilapidated school environment communicated that the students who were poor were valued less by society than those who were not. in addition, the student assumed that the interviewer wouldn't have a shared experience and understand the student's reality, that is, the student's experience was isolated and outside the norm. about the lack of resources and supplies at school, the student said, "it makes me feel bad about myself...and less than...you probably can't understand where i'm coming from" (fine et al., 2004, p. 2199). in order to address and transcend the experience of condemned isolation, a therapist in this case may want to consider addressing the social issues that created the disempowering school environment in the first place while simultaneously exploring the student's positive relational images in the service of counteracting negative beliefs about the self. by discussing negative beliefs and re-framing them with something more optimistic, clients may feel a renewed sense of agency in establishing connections with others, even though the system itself erects barriers to social connections. as in watkins et al. (2010), study participants reported that feeling optimistic and working towards future change promoted resilience when coping with the oppression of microaggressions (p. 45). another example from chapter 3 that comes to mind when considering the powerlessness and hopelessness of condemned isolation is that of evans (1994), who described her dental student friend as making a judgmental statement about the "kind" of people who don't take their children to the dentist. evans (1994) identified her parents as being those "kind" of people because they couldn't afford  42  
  to take her to the dentist and wrote of feeling ashamed and needing to keep her mouth shut in order to hide the parts of herself that were not acceptable to others.  43  
  controlling images and shame this dimension of rct is particularly relevant to the phenomenon of class-based microaggressions. jordan references the work of african american sociologist patricia hill collins in which she "explored the ways society creates controlling images to shame and disempower certain groups" (jordan, 2010, p. 28). controlling images define who we are, what is acceptable, and what we can do. collins' (2000) stance is that "that controlling images - like stereotypes of 'mammies, matriarchs, [and] welfare mothers" are actually lies that hold people in their place and induce the notion that change cannot happen" (pp. 69-70). when immersed in a sea of distorting and controlling images, jordan (2010) writes, it is hard for people to stay with their own truth (p. 29). another stone center colleague, walker (2005), is quoted as saying: "from a relational-cultural perspective, strategies of disconnection give rise to internalized oppression, a complex of relational images grounded in the distortions and disinformation required to normalize the inequalities of a power-over culture" (walker, 2005, p. 54). strategies of disconnection (or, in ego psychology terms, defenses) tend to arise around shame and a sense of unworthiness. in rct, shame is thought to be a contributing factor to the sense of immobilization people feel as well as a major source of chronic disconnection. rct portrays shame as a tool that is imposed on people to control and disempower them (jordan, 2010, p.29). further, shame is not only a powerful way to silence and isolate individuals, but it also plays a large role in silencing and disempowering marginalized groups whose members are strategically, if often invisibly, shamed in order to reinforce their isolation and thus their subordination (jordan, 2010, p. 29). jordan (2010) touches on the phenomenon of microaggressions, stating that a dominant group's authority can be maintained by the widespread power tactic of silencing those who present differing views of reality; when seemingly small acts of violence or disrespect  44  
  go unnamed and unchallenged, their invisibility plays into the power tactics of the dominant systems (jordan, 2010, p.29). marginalized groups often internalize the dominant group's standards and internalized oppression functions to perpetuate shame and disempowerment (jordan, 2010, p. 30). similar to the findings of earlier cited racial microaggression research, in which an "active coping" strategy helped reduced the negative psychological impact of experiencing microaggressions, rct posits that, often, "moving from group shame to a sense of worth is based on the effects of creating a cohesive group pride, [e.g.] gay pride, black pride, girl power, etc." (p. 30). creating or joining a community buffers individuals from the disempowerment of marginalization and creates an empowered movement in which people reclaim their dignity and their right to be respected by others. relational resilience and relational courage the essence of relational resilience, as defined by rct, is "the capacity to move back into connection following disconnection and the capacity to reach out for help" (jordan, 2010, p. 31). rct suggests that developing relational resilience is crucial to anyone's healing, however, therapists must not force or push a connection with clients. rather, therapists must slowly and deliberately provide experiences of safe connection and of reworking empathic failures (jordan, 2010, pp. 31-32). a crucial point that jordan makes is that therapists must demonstrate to clients that the well-being of the relationship and the client is more important than certainty, being right, or maintaining our own self-images as "good, empathic therapists." an rct therapist must work actively with disconnections and relational failures. for example, jordan states that therapists should apologize when they are wrong, work with their own defensiveness when under attack, and not assume automatically that the entire problem rests in the client (e.g., therapist not reducing the disruption to "projective identification" to explain therapists reaction). the idea of  45  
  relational resilience is a way of explicitly communicating to the client that they have an impact on the therapist and matter to the therapist. this, in essence, places paramount value on the relationship and provides a new relational image or "road map" for navigating complex human relationships in a way that fosters mutual growth. related to the concept of relational resilience is relational courage. in the context of rct, relational courage is meant to challenge the concept of courage as an internal trait, that is, a characteristic of individuals who undertake enormous risks alone, or that strong people will not experience fear or uncertainty in frightening situations (jordan, 2010, p. 32). instead, courage is viewed as feeling the fear and finding support to deal with it. in other words, rct talks about the importance of en-couraging other people, helping develop courage in one another. encouragement is understood as being akin to empowerment, as it involves facilitating the development and maintenance of a sense of confidence and hope in the face of trying conditions (jordan, 2010, p. 32). relational-cultural therapy contributes a cohesive approach to doing psychotherapy, but it also serves as a conceptual framework for undertaking social action. rct practitioners in clinical settings frame their work around healing the suffering of the individuals they see in treatment. but they also recognize a larger mission of changing the social conditions that create much of the suffering that people endure. rct is not about changing people to fit into dysfunctional cultural conditions but empowering them to heal in connection and in turn to heal others in connection. a part of the ripple effect of growth in connection often spills into participating in social change through creating alliances or communities that are built around relational values. (jordan, 2010, p. 33)  46  
  i am proposing relational-cultural theory as a framework for social workers to use in their work against the manifestations of class-based microaggressions because it is my belief that the theory's orientation towards growth-fostering relationships de-stabilizes the dominant cultural myth that poverty is a result of individual failures. also, rct is structured to value mutual relationships and well-being over whether or not the therapist is "good" or "right" (jordan, 2010). with the freedom to be in relationship with people, instead of over people, my interpretation of rct is that social workers can use it to create and maintain egalitarian therapeutic structures in any number of contexts. in order to strengthen the whole fabric of community, people must engage in relationships with one another. if models of growth-fostering and mutuallyempowering relationships can be incorporated into social work practice, i see the potential to enhance empathic connections with others, reduce the shaming and blaming of individuals for societal problems, and promote a culture that holds the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. i would like to propose another therapeutic framework for working against class-based microaggressions and simultaneously serving social work's social justice mandate. challenging the conditions that cause poverty, suffering, and unequal treatment is a core concept in social work practice. i would be remiss if i did not also include a theoretical framework that is organized around the guiding principles of social justice and preferential treatment for those who are oppressed. liberation psychology, as envisioned by ignacio martin-baro (1994), speaks explicitly to the social justice principles embedded in social work. this is a model that prioritizes the position of marginalized people in society and calls on mental health professionals to stand with marginalized people and engage in social action to counter oppressive dominant paradigms. liberation psychology is a theoretical orientation that, in my mind, can provide social workers with the tools and courage to truly engage in anti-oppression work. because  47  
  liberation psychology is rooted in the principles of standing side-by-side with people who are poor and marginalized, engaging in a practice based on liberation psychology may be an extremely effective way to address and work towards dismantling class-based microaggressions. while liberation psychology isn't entirely new, it is not well known in the field of clinical social work in the united states. therefore, included in the following summary of liberation psychology principle is historical background on this orientation.  48  
  chapter v liberation psychology building on the previous chapter's assertion that a relational approach can serve as a conceptual framework for taking social action, i would like to explore a different, yet complementary, theoretical framework in which social justice is a central guiding principle. liberation psychology, inspired by the christian movement liberation theology, is an approach to psychology (though applicable to all "helping professions,") that calls for the field of psychology to "stop focusing attention on itself, stop worrying about its scientific and social status, and instead propose an effective service to the needs of the majority of the population" (martin-baro, 1994, p.26). the purpose of this chapter is to bring attention to this particular orientation and consider its application to social work, specifically with regard to conducting research in the service of social justice. martin-baro, the jesuit scholar and psychologist who proposed the concept of a liberation psychology, wrote and published his works in spanish. the majority of his writings have not been translated into english. as a result, this chapter relies heavily on the 12 essays that have been translated, as well as scholarly secondary sources written in english about martin-baro and liberation psychology. goodman, walling, and ghali (2010) assert that social justice must be a primary concern of the psychological sciences explore the lives and works of european philosopher emmanuel levinas and latin american social psychologist ignacio martin-baro, both of whom advocated that justice must be a central component in psychological thought and practice. an exploration of the work of the philosopher emmanual levinas (see levinas, 1969, 1985, 1989, 1990; malka,  49  
  2006) is outside the scope of this literature review, as the focus here lies specifically on martinbaro and the application of liberation psychology to clinical social work and classist microaggressions. levinas' work, characterized by his critiques of western philosophy and its understanding of the self as defined without reference to other (goodman et al., 2010), is, however, quite relevant to the field of social work and social justice and relational-cultural frameworks. goodman et al. (2010) address the role of psychology and social psychology in implicitly espousing certain cultural values. they reference the ideas of cushman (1995) that state that the field of psychology is inevitably tied to the surrounding sociopolitical, economic, and religious context and, therefore, implicitly endorses particular values and, further, that the field of psychology has been critiqued for acting in a complicit manner with an unjust status quo, reflecting and perpetuating oppressive societal structures and cultural practices. (p. 586). one way of countering this tendency, according to goodman et al. (2010), is to bring social justice frameworks to the center of their social psychology practice and research. the field of social work aspires to do as well (nasw code of ethics, 2008, pp. 5-6). as a means to bring social justice to the center, goodman et al. (2010) suggest that mental health professionals incorporate the work of ignacio martin-baro and his idea of liberation psychology into social psychology research methods and practice. i propose that the field of social work also consider bringing liberation principles to the center of research and practice as a strategy to counter social injustice. i have chosen to explore a small, yet significant piece of martin-baro's work here: his application of liberatory research methods to public opinion polls. by highlighting this aspect of martin-baro's work in latin america, goodman et al. (2010) demonstrate how empirical study can be practically applied to uncover oppressive practices so as to affect social change. i see this  50  
  approach as having particular relevance to the study of class-based microaggressions because the goal of martin-baro 's public opinion polls was, in large part, to shed light on that which was invisible and to give voice to the silence maintained by oppressive practices (goodman et al., 2010). because ignacio martin-baro and liberation psychology are not well known to the field of psychology or clinical social work, i will include goodman et al.'s (2010) overview of martinbaro's background here. martin-baro was born in spain in 1942. when he was seventeen, he entered the society of jesus (jesuits) of the catholic church in orduna, spain. he was transferred to el salvador in 1960. after spending several years studying theology in latin america and europe and engaging in his pastoral duties in rural el salvador, he was ordained as a jesuit priest in 1970, at age 28. shortly thereafter, he began graduate study in social psychology at the university of chicago. throughout his graduate studies, he frequently returned to el salvador to teach, write, and participate in the functions of his religious community. after completing his doctorate, martin-baro became the head of the psychology department and the vice rector at the universidad centroamericana (university of central america; uca) in san salvador. he also became the founder and director of the university institute of public opinion and was a member of the american psychological association. during his life he lived and studied in south america, europe, and the united states, always, however, returning to el salvador. the sociopolitical climate in el salvador during martinbaro's life was filled with turmoil, as the majority of citizens lived in abject poverty and worked on farms or in factories that generated wealth for a small class of the powerful elite. a civil war ravaged el salvador from 1980 to 1992, throughout which, 70,000 citizens lost their lives (mason, 1999) and 30% of el salvador's population was displaced (brockett, 1994). described  51  
  by goodman et al. (2010) as "an academic with leftist leanings" (p. 593) as well as a jesuit priest, martin-baro found himself working in an overtly hostile environment in which fliers saying "be a patriot, kill a priest" (p. 593) were distributed on the streets of san salvador. many people in the catholic church, under the leadership of archbishop oscar romero and the influence of liberation theology, rallied around the cause of the poor and marginalized who were systematically oppressed by the corrupt military government. the catholic church sided with the campesinos (i.e., agricultural workers without land ownership), women, children, and workers. taking the side of the poor, however, was not without significant risk. archbishop romero was assassinated in 1980 after calling for soldiers to disobey orders that violated human rights (goodman et al., 2010, p. 594). for martin-baro, being a catholic leader serving in solidarity with poor or rural communities now meant being an enemy of the military and, therefore, the nation. martin-baro had a prescient sense that he would be killed for his work, as he stated to an american colleague, "in your country it's publish or perish. in ours, it's publish and perish" (aron & corne, 1996, p. 2). in fact, six attempts were made on his life. on november 16, 1989, 30 men dressed in the military fatigues of the u.s.-trained atlactl battalion entered his campus living quarters and killed martin-baro along with five other priests. he was 47 years old. (goodman et al., 2010, p. 594). martin-baro spent his career in psychology developing a liberation psychology based on his latin american context. liberation psychology is based partly on the tenets of liberation theology, a reading of the christian tradition, which emerged out of latin america in the 19601970's. according to goodman et al. (2010), the most basic premise of the liberation theories is the pursuit of justice, equality, and dignity - or, liberation - for oppressed and impoverished peoples everywhere (p.594). martin-baro conceptualized liberation as occurring through  52  
  concientizacion, a transformative process through which humans engage in a "gradual decoding of the world" and its oppressive structures, which leads to the development of a critical consciousness that opens up new possibilities for action. stated another way, concientizacion is developing a "critical consciousness" (martin-baro, 1994, p. 187). burton and kagan (2005) conceptualize concientizacion as seeing reality as it is, which allows for the possibility of new knowledge, and as one engages in a truthful understanding of self and social context, the embedded origins or roots of the present reality are exposed and it becomes possible to reshape the future. (p. 68) in the context of martin-baro's el salvador, seeing reality for what it was included exposing the "social lie" (martin-baro, 1994, p. 188) promulgated by the dominant salvadoran government. the lie, for example, that civil war was the will of the people (goodman et al., 2010, p. 595). martin-baro exposed this social lie as false by polling the people about their attitudes towards the civil war. a parallel with the "social lie"' can be drawn with class-based microaggressions and how they relate to the dominant cultural myth of the american dream. upon closer examination, this myth does not reflect the lived reality of most people in the united states. millions of people may hold that this myth is true, but the stark contrast between the haves and have-nots reveals a different reality. exploring the research principles of liberation psychology and considering how they could be applied to social work may be a worthwhile endeavor with respect to the study of microaggressions and bringing invisible phenomena to light.  53  
  as stated above, a central tenet to liberation psychology and its research methods is concientizacion, that is, developing a "critical consciousness" (martin-baro, 1994, p. 187). prilleltensky (1994) posits that psychology can assist in martin-baro's concept of concientizacion by studying the process of resistance to the system that dominates. he outlines the components of a "counter-hegemony" project, such as denunciation, exchange of information, triggering action, reactance and annunciation (prilleltensky, 1994, pp. 196-199). each of these components can be understood as acts to counter the dominant cultural narratives by making visible the lived realities that fall outside of the purported "norm." in each stage, according to prilleltensky (1994), psychology can offer theory and research to support the process. one of martin-baro's strategies to bring about concientizacion to the salvadoran people was to use social psychology research methods in a way that countered the military government's controlling propaganda. in the service of that goal, martin-baro asked ordinary citizens what they thought about political topics of the day through simple polling procedures and, then, he published the results without getting approval from the salvadoran government (aron & corne, 1994). (martin-baro had received permission from the government to conduct public opinion polls, provided he shared the results with government officials prior to publishing.) (aron & corne, 1994). regarding the psychological impact of dominant cultural narratives and controlling propaganda on ordinary people, martin-baro hypothesized that by hearing only distortions of "public opinion," salvadorenos became isolated from each other. people assumed that they were alone in disagreeing with the government's political stance and actions, and that they alone were experiencing dissonance, confusion, and oppression as a result of the news they read and heard. (goodman et al., 2010, p. 595)  54  
  martin-baro believed that the media reports were fabrications of the truth, which attempted to demonstrate homogeneity and unanimity of public opinion and he used the public opinion polls to reveal this misinformation (goodman et al., 2010). martin-baro collected data in five studies between 1981 and 1984. the sample populations varied, but different groups included university students, urban professionals, high school students, and a stratified sample of the general population. the results of the polls showed that peaceful negotiations were consistently favored over continued military intervention" (martin baro 1985/1996 as cited in goodman et al., 2010, p. 595). such results directly contradicted the media's earlier portrayal of the "will of the people" and the government's position on the civil war was called into question once the results of the study were made public. thus, in the language of prilleltensky's (1994) stages of counter-hegemony, an exchange of information and a public announcement ("annunciation") of the information that had previously been invisible took place. by simply asking and reflecting their own words, martin-baro offered concientizacion to the salvadorian public. to ensure that his findings would meaningfully and accurately represent the perspectives of his participants, and thus, be liberating, martin-baro adhered to four specifications when conducting research: 1) systematization, 2) representation, 3) wholeness, and 4) dialectics (martin-baro 1985/1996 as cited in goodman et al., 2010, p.596). regarding systemization, martin-baro believed that social psychological research must be conducted in a systematic way, ideally with multiple time points and comprehensive questionnaires. a high degree of systemization allows researches to observe changing opinions and ideologies over time and decreases the possibility that the questions and analysis will be overly influenced by propaganda and social distortions. the characteristic of "representation" is interpreted to mean that liberating  55  
  research must be representative of those it is designed to serve. if research is to accurately convey the experiences of any group, representative sampling is of utmost importance. goodman et al. (2010) point out that even an introductory class on research methods will touch on the topic of representative sampling. yet, what makes martin-baro s point about representative sampling so unique and salient is the reality that systematic oppression results in the virtual disappearance of large subsets of the population. all too frequently, people who are marginalized and oppressed end up being invisible to the major structures of a society, including academic research. it is the goal of liberation psychology to expose such injustices by depicting the whole of reality, and especially, the reality of those on the margins. the third characteristic that martin-baro pursued in research was "wholeness." this meant that true social psychology not only reported research findings, but also addressed how the findings were related to contextual factors, how various findings connect to each other, and identifying the historical and social structures that gave roots to the observed results. this person-in-context is intended to make research holistic in nature. whole research is grounded in theory, culturally informed, and takes seriously the investigators' obligation to not only relay information but to understand it. finally, the fourth essential component of a liberating social psychology research program is its dialectic nature, by which martin-baro meant that research must be debated and discussed in front of and with ordinary citizens so that they too would have the opportunity to reflect on whether findings accurately represent their lived experiences or whether findings align with the dominant sociopolitical discourse. rather than the more traditional style of academic research in which scientists carry on a conversation of theories amongst themselves and privilege only traditional methodologically-obtained results as the "pinnacle of knowledge," research methods leave the "ivory tower" and engage with ordinary people within the context of their lives.  56  
  martin-baro's public opinion research is one example of the way psychological tools can be used to achieve the liberation of a group of poor, rural citizens. goodman et al. (2010) propose that this type of justice-promoting research, while grounded in liberation psychology and the latin american context, should be a universal task for the ethical psychologist (p. 597). martin-baro sought not only to infuse social psychology with the ethics and actions justice requires, he also called for the liberation of psychology itself from western-centric, power-laden theories that served to uphold structures of enslavement and marginalization (p.597). the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm), for example, could be perceived as westerncentric, power-laden tool that is used in the service of maintaining dominant power structures by pathologizing individuals rather than examining oppressive social systems. the field of microaggression research is already incorporating liberatory research principles by using qualitative approaches that ask people to share their subjective experience and reality. through surveys and interviews, microaggression researchers are attempting to make the invisible visible. if social work researchers are to formally incorporate a liberation psychology framework into their research, which i propose they consider doing, research methods should integrate the following research paradigm shifts: 1) a new object of study, 2) a new epistemology, and 3) a new praxis (marin, 1991, p. 532). by pursuing a new object of study, martin-baro meant that researchers must take seriously the realities of those being studied, in other words, "a psychology of the people and not psychology about people" (marin, 1991, p. 532). psychologists (or social workers) are challenged to enter into the lives and narratives of the communities they serve and to see the human faces and human suffering behind the statistics and manuscripts. this approach would require the researcher to ask different questions, questions that specifically target solutions to the most desperate needs of the community instead of questions focused on  57  
  individual, psychological problems (goodman et al., 2010). the second shift, towards a new epistemology, would explicitly locate research psychologists within their historical context. in other words, the researcher's "historical lookout point" (goodman et al., 2010, p. 598), i.e., the cultural lens through which they see the world, is explicitly identified and acknowledged. ideally, this allows for an open and honest examination of one's own position in relation to the research goals (goodman et al., 2010). as goodman et al. (2010) ask, "does checking 'hispanic' on a demographic form accurately convey the historical power distinctions between a first generation immigrant to the united states who is a survivor of the civil war in guatemala and a person who descended from a family who has owned vineyards in california for decades?" (p. 598). martin-baro (1985/1996b) wrote that "only by identifying the historical lookout points of both ourselves and those we serve can psychologists achieve an adequate understanding of the most profound problems that burden the majority of the population today" (p.46). the third shift in psychological research is a change in praxis, "wherein psychology moves beyond the lecture hall and the observation room to bring about human well-being" (goodman et al., 2010, p. 598). martin-baro argued that psychology is a moral project (burton & kagan, 2005) and that if psychologists do not enter into the dynamics of oppression and liberation they cannot make a meaningful contribution to the real problems that distort mental health in modern society (aron & corne, 1996). according to martin-baro and the tenets of liberation psychology, psychological (or, social work) interventions, be they research, clinical practice, or otherwise "should not be centered on where the work is done, but rather by whom; nor should it be looking at how something is done, so much as for whose benefit" (martin-baro, 1994, p. 45). by adopting a liberation framework for conducting research, social workers can minimize the likelihood of engaging in research practices in which they are complicit with maintaining the  58  
  status quo and unintentionally allowing social injustice to go unchallenged. drawing on the personal reflection of conducting clinical assessments in chapter 1, one could argue that the standard practice of assessments is about clients rather than with clients. perhaps social workers should ask for whose benefit are assessment questions being asked. it may be that the answer confirms the notion that the assessment is for the benefit of the client. without asking the question, however, social work may unwittingly be maintaining an unjust status quo. bringing a critical consciousness, or concientizacion, to how assessments are conceptualized could help to ensure that social workers are respecting the dignity and worth of their clients, challenging social injustice, and ethically serving marginalized populations. goodman et al. (2010) propose that psychologists engaged in research ask of themselves, do we have the eyes to see the realities that our society overlooks or hides? does our research reflect the realities of oppression and social, economic, and political injustice? is it inclusive of those who are frequently excluded from society? (p. 599) if researchers choose not to do this, research will continue to put forth the reality of white, middle class college students, who make up the majority of studies in social psychology today (pancer, 1997). martin-baro (1994) himself said this: the choice is between accompanying and not accompanying the poor and oppressed majorities in their effort to emerge into history, in their struggle to constitute themselves as a new people in a new land. this is not a question of whether to abandon psychology; it is a question of constructing a society where the welfare of the few is not built on the wretchedness of the many, where the fulfillment of some does not require that others be  59  
  deprived, where the interests of the minority do not demand the dehumanization of all. (p. 46) in thinking about the connections i see between social work and liberation psychology, i am drawn to images of early social work practice, in which social workers went into impoverished communities to live and work. while the early roots of social work are worthy of the critique that social workers were paternalistic and imposed their values on those they tried to help, the ideal of service to people in need remains a noble one. in addition, i don't believe that social work has necessarily escaped its complicity in endorsing dominant cultural values, despite contemporary social work's emphasis on cultural competence and social diversity. with regard to conducting research, it would be easy to fall into the trap of creating a well-intentioned study that inadvertently treats the subject as "other." liberation psychology is not a panacea, but it does offer some very clear guidelines regarding how one should design and conduct research in order to maintain a commitment to serving those in need. developing one's own critical consciousness has the potential to help increase awareness of one's own social location, reduce the harmful effects of implicit bias, and uphold the ethical mandates of social work's professional code.  60  
  chapter vi discussion and conclusion the purpose of this literature review was to explore and describe the field of microaggression research, bring attention to the existence of class-based microaggressions, and consider contemporary theoretical approaches to research and practice that could be applied to the field of social work. social work, as a profession, is uniquely positioned to address and work towards eradicating class-based discrimination due to the field's ethical obligations to help people in need, address social problems, and challenge social injustice. social work's focus on the context of person-in-environment requires that therapeutic interventions take social and environmental factors into account. by incorporating the tenets of relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology into research and practice, social workers have the opportunity to approach their interventions critically and holistically while remaining firmly rooted in social work principles. both of the theoretical frameworks described in this literature review are strongly aligned with the social work principles of recognizing the central importance of human relationships and challenging social injustice. microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership (sue et al., 2007). microaggressions may communicate to targeted people that they do not belong with the majority group, they are lesser human beings, and they deserve inferior treatment. social class is one dimension of identity that has been a microaggressive target, the manifestations of which can  61  
  be seen in social exclusion, class discrimination, etc. citing rainwater (1970) again, "the central existential fact of life for the lower class is that their members are not included in the collectivity that makes up the 'real' society of the 'real' people" (p. 10). allowing this invisible phenomenon to go unchallenged is incompatible with the professional values of social work. exploring the subtle and often invisible forms of discrimination can be challenging. just as i understand my life experience to be true and real, so does someone else understand their life experience to be true and real. as social workers, we are taught to adopt a non-judgmental stance, honor cultural and human diversity, engage in curious inquiry, and critically examine our own belief systems. when considering class-based discrimination in the form of microaggressions, the microaggression literature reveals that people have felt snubbed, discriminated against, looked down upon, etc. for their membership in a socially devalued group and that these experiences cause them psychological distress (sue, 2010). being the target of a class-based microaggression is a true, lived experience for many people. therefore, social workers have an obligation to listen to this reality and ask themselves how they are addressing social injustice in their practice, research, publications, etc. many helping professionals are asking this question, thus the growing interest in therapeutic models and frameworks that strive to prioritize the value of mutually empowering human relationships and integrate a tangible social justice perspective. relational-cultural theory and liberation psychology, which are grounded in relational, person-in-environment, and social justice ideals, have the potential to provide a roadmap for social workers to conceptualize their role and practice in a way that privileges the realities of those who have experienced marginalization.  62  
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  nielsen, k. l. (2010). subtle, pervasive, harmful: racist and sexist remarks in public as hate speech. journal of social issues, 58(2), 265-280. pancer, s. m. (1997). social psychology: the crisis continues. in d. fox & i. prilleltensky (eds.), critical psychology: an introduction (pp. 150-165). london: sage publications. pierce, c. (1978). television and education. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. pierce, c. & allen, g. (1975). childism. psychiatric annals (5)7, 266-270. prilleltensky, i. (1994). the morals and politics of psychology: psychological discourse and the status quo. albany, ny: state university of new york press. purdie-vaughns, v., davis, p. g., steele, c. m., & ditlmann, r. (2008). social identity contingencies: how diversity cues signal threat or safety for african americans in mainstream institutions. journal of personality and social psychology, 94, 615-630. rainwater, l. (1970). neutralizing the disinherited. in allen, v. l. (ed.), psychological factors in poverty (pp. 9-28). chicago: markham. reiman, j. (2007). the rich get richer and the poor get prison. new york: pearson. robinson, e. (2005, september 9). no longer invisible. washington post. retrieved june 19, 2011 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2005/09/08/ar2005090801535.h tml rowe, m. p. (1990). barriers to equality: the power of subtle discrimination to maintain unequal opportunity. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 3, 153-163. salvatore, j., & shelton, j. n. (2007). cognitive costs of exposure to racial prejudice. psychological science, 18, 810-815.  67  
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secondary_title_index: sociological inquiry
title_index:
       more than just insults: rethinking sociology's contribution to scholarship on racial microaggressions     

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       see discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316355456  more than just insults: rethinking sociology's contribution to scholarship on racial microaggressions article in sociological inquiry · may 2017 doi: 10.1111/soin.12184  citations  reads  36  784  3 authors, including: david g. embrick  silvia dominguez  university of connecticut  northeastern university  60 publications 1,529 citations  31 publications 1,045 citations  see profile  all content following this page was uploaded by silvia dominguez on 25 may 2018.  the user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.  see profile  
  more than just insults: rethinking sociology’s contribution to scholarship on racial microaggressions*  david g. embrick, university of connecticut silvia dom inguez and baran karsak, northeastern university  our goal with this special issue is to expand currently untapped ideas about racial microaggressions from a sociological point of view. as noted, research on this issue comes largely out of psychiatry, psychology, and education—disciplines that tend to place less emphasis on structural and institutional causes of racism. there is a need for more sociologically guided research to examine how subtle, covert, and non-apparent forms of racism affect minorities physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally—and how these micronooses can best be understood in a larger context of structural racism. examination of racial microaggressions from a sociological point of view promises additional insight to help understand the complexities of contemporary race and racism in america and abroad.  introduction a consensus among social scientists is that racism operates in the united states differently today compared to the pre-civil rights era. however, the ways researchers interpret these differences vary considerably. for some scholars, changes in our legal system and the civil rights movement have produced a society in which race no longer matters (d’souza 1995). for others, perceived racial discrepancies can be better explained by genetic differences (herrnstein and murray 1994; sarich and miele 2004), class (west 1994; wilson 1978) or even culture (sowell 1994). despite positive changes in the legal system since the civil rights era, many critical race experts contend that racial practices and mechanisms (see hughey, embrick, and doane 2015) that work to keep blacks and other minorities subordinate have become covert, subtle, and ambiguous (bonilla-silva 1997; bonilla-silva and lewis 2000; smith 1995). race scholars have labeled these subtle insults (verbal, visual or nonapparent) directed toward racial/ethnic minorities as racial microaggressions (e.g., solorzano et al. 2000; sue et al. 2007; sue 2010; smith, allen, and danley 2007) and have begun to measure their everyday impact on people of color living in the united states.  sociological inquiry, vol. 87, no. 2, april 2017, 193–206  2017 alpha kappa delta: the international sociology honor society doi: 10.1111/soin.12184  
  194  david g. embrick et al.  limitations of research on micro-contexts of racism as sociologists, we understand that social inequality (ridgeway 2014) and racial inequality (bonilla-silva 1997; essed 1990, 1991) are structured, reproduced, and challenged at all levels—micro, meso, and macro—of our everyday lives. scholars interested in understanding race and racism in major u.s. institutions point to the micro-contexts of work (embrick 2011; vallas 2003), schools (blau 2004; brantlinger 2003; lareau 2003; lewis and diamond 2015), family (dalmage 2003), or religious institutions (emerson 2001), to name just a few examples, to investigate the interactional and contextually grounded processes of inequality, its reproduction, and mechanisms of change (hughey, embrick, and doane 2015; see also hedstr om and ylikoski 2010). in many of these studies, while scholars might be interested in what happens at the individual or small group level, they are also interested in understanding such phenomena as connected to larger social forces. yet, in the arena of racial microaggressions, the research has been mostly limited, both theoretically and empirically, to an understanding of the phenomenon as individual or psychological acts of discrimination. this is understandable given that the study of microaggressions, particularly racial microaggressions, has been dominated by psychologists, psychiatrists, and educational psychologists. in those fields, one can find myriad studies ranging from how individuals interpret racial slights directed toward themselves, to coping strategies employed by racial minorities to address the stressors that result from everyday racial microaggressions. overwhelmingly, the data demonstrate how everyday racial microaggressions have dramatic effects on physical and mental health. the cumulative effects of racial microaggressions are staggering and life altering. but we still do not know much about the structural conditions that promote racial microaggressions and foster hostility, overtly or covertly condone racial violence, or promote exclusive white spaces. racial microaggressions and the legacy of systemic and institutional racism in the united states affect all racial and ethnic minority groups (chestler, lewis, and crowfoot 2005). the multiplier effect of pro-white policies such as preferential treatment in housing (krysan and farley 2002), voting rights (feagin 2012; see also bonilla-silva 2012), hiring (royster 2003), and social space (anderson 2011; moore 2008), coupled with everyday racism (subtle and apparent), works to maintain the overrepresentation of blacks and other racial and ethnic groups in the lower economic, political, and social strata (bonilla-silva and embrick 2006). despite often being non-obvious to whites, there is evidence that contemporary forms of racial discrimination produce negative social, psychological, and physiological consequences (bennett et al. 2005; bowen-reid and harrell 2002; constantine 2007; feagin and mckinney  
  more than just insults  195  2003; sellers and shelton 2003; smith, allen, and danley 2007; sue et al. 2007). the extant research offers a uniform and unpleasant conclusion—that racial microaggressions erode the fabric of a just society (dovidio and gaertner 2005) and are stressors that result in negative physical and mental health outcomes (usdhhs 2001). our goals for this special issue our objective with this special issue is to expand currently untapped ideas about racial microaggressions from a sociological point of view. as noted, research on this issue comes largely out of psychiatry, psychology, and education—disciplines that tend to place less emphasis on structural and institutional causes of racism. there is a need for more sociologically guided research to examine how subtle, covert, and non-apparent forms of racism affect minorities physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally—and how these micronooses, to borrow the term from eduardo bonilla-silva (see kabas 2015), can best be understood in a larger context of structural racism. examination of racial microaggressions from a sociological point of view promises additional insight to help understand the complexities of contemporary race and racism in america and abroad. what is to come in what follows, we highlight some of the literature that has informed social science research on racial microaggressions, with particular attention to contributions from psychiatry, psychology, and education. we then move to the influence of sociology on the topic and highlight philomena essed’s “everyday racism,” a concept established in the early 1990s. we promote a sociological perspective to extend what we already know at the psychological level, and that contextualizes racial microaggressions to allow a deeper understanding of structural conditions that give rise to them and the racialized mechanisms within institutions that help reaffirm white supremacy. we end by outlining the contributions of this special issue, each article reflecting our unique call for sociologists to rethink how we understand and research racial microaggressions in the post-civil rights era. we do not presume to point to a particular sociological approach to racial microaggressions, but we do believe this special issue presents creative scholarship that is cutting-edge in how researchers think about and through these issues. what do we know about racial microaggressions? from chester pierce to derald wing sue—contributions from psychiatry and psychology the concept of microaggressions originated in psychiatric and psychological practice and represents a way to understand microaggressions at the  
  196  david g. embrick et al.  individual level. the leading proponents of individualized interaction-based microaggressions are chester pierce and derald sue. as practicing clinicians, both found that microaggressions impact the lives of their clients, and both also touch on the role of context—albeit with some limitations which we will discuss. chester pierce, one of the first practicing black psychiatrists at harvard university medical school, is credited with coining the term “microaggressions.” his experiences treating black patients led him to develop a theory of offensive mechanisms based on injuries his patients suffered daily and cumulatively. in 1970, he wrote a chapter in a book titled the black seventies, edited by floyd b. barbour. pierce’s chapter, “offensive mechanisms,” outlined a way for psychiatrists to acknowledge racism, and that whites work in ways to devalue blacks. he referred to these offensive mechanisms as microaggressions. pierce argued that feelings of superiority motivate one group of people to brutalize, degrade, abuse, and humiliate another group. he noted, the superiority feelings accompanying contemptuous condescension toward a target group are so rampant in our society that it is virtually impossible for any negotiation between blacks and whites to take place without the auspices of such offensive tactics (265).  while microaggressions are often subtle, their comutative effect is of “unimaginable magnitude.” pierce conceptualized microaggressions to occur in the interaction between blacks and whites and proposed that superiority stemming from racism could manifest as micro-offenses which “minimize the social importance of black achievement so that blacks see themselves as useless, unlovable and unable” (268). microaggressions allow for blacks to be denied equality in education and employment while also being more overtly terrorized by police departments in black neighborhoods. pierce implicated u.s. culture as making microaggressions automatic and even obligatory on the part of whites. further, he argued that while these mechanisms may be seen as conscious, unconscious, or preconscious to white people, to blacks they are salient and automatic. pierce envisioned microaggressions as a public health issue due to its magnitude and damaging effects on blacks. three decades later, psychology found interest in the concept of microaggressions and added to its utility by making it more intersectional—that is, incorporating elements of gender and sexual orientation to racial microaggressions. scholarship began to move beyond the black/white binary and assess the experiences of other minorities’ experiences of racial microaggressions in the united states. renewed interest in the topic was sparked by publication of sue et al. “racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice,” published in the american psychologist (2007)—cited over 500 times in the past five years (see also yosso et al. 2009). in this seminal article,  
  more than just insults  197  sue et al. defined microaggressions as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group” (sue et al. 2007:273). sue et al. categorized these manifestations of racism into three distinct types: microassaults (overt and conscious manifestations of racism, such as verbal and nonverbal attacks using racial epithets), microinsults (communication that conveys hidden insults to demean a person’s racial heritage or identity), and microinvalidations (communication that invalidated the reality of minority people). in his 2010 book, microaggressions in everyday life: race, gender, and sexual orientation, sue elaborated on these concepts, further shaping our understanding of what constitute acts of microaggressions. sue and others focus on the effects of racial microaggressions on individuals’ mental well-being. this interest has led researchers to experimental designs oriented toward measuring various psychological impacts of covert forms of racism, and work by psychiatrists and psychologists has focused on their deleterious psychological effects (constantine 2007; sue et al. 2008; burrow and ong 2010; torres et al. 2010; burrow and hill 2012; ong et al. 2013; sue et al. 2009; nadal et al. 2014a; 2014b). sue’s research found that microaggressions limit the lifespan of blacks and constituted a public health issue and that the impact of microaggressions can be worse than that of overt racism and can have significant psychological effects. overall, psychiatrists and psychologists who have initiated research on microaggressions have demonstrated the utility of an individual perspective, emphasized the psychological and physiological consequences for life expectancy and mental health, and characterized microaggressions as interactional in nature and individualized in motivation and consequences. contributions from education scholars—racial battle fatigue and emotional coping while psychiatrists and psychologists like pierce and sue opened the way for scholars to better understand microaggressions (and specifically racial microaggressions), education researchers made advancements in empirically testing how microaggressions have affected students’ performance in schools, colleges, and universities. the majority of this research on microaggressions has focused on the black experience in u.s. colleges and universities (allen 1985, 1992; allen, epp, and haniff 1991; allen, spencer, and oconnor 2002; smith, allen, and danley 2007; smith, hung, and franklin 2011). more recently, scholarship on racial microaggressions has expanded to the experiences of other minorities (kohli 2012a, 2012b; mcgee, thakore, and lablance 2016) and employed more refined empirical instruments and methodologies (nadal 2011).  
  198  david g. embrick et al.  new and innovative research on racial microaggressions includes work by william a. smith et al. smith, allen, and danley (2007) coined the term “racial battle fatigue” to refer to the “result of constant physiological, psychological, cultural, and emotional coping with racial microaggressions in lessthan-ideal and racially hostile or unsupportive environments” (2007:555). this racial battle fatigue affects many african americans who deal with both the constant rigors of everyday life (i.e., the everyday stressors of being human in society), and being black or brown in america. smith, hung, and franklin (2011) further argue that black males are more likely to suffer from racial battle fatigue than any other group. since smith and company (smith, allen, and danley 2007; smith, hung, and franklin 2011), other education scholars have examined research on “battle fatigue” and microaggressions to include other minority groups. for example, mcgee et al. (mcgee, thakore, and lablance 2016) examined how asian undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) students accept, navigate, and challenge the model minority myth in their fields. the researchers contend that asian undergraduate students utilize different coping strategies to deal with racial stressors they face in colleges and universities. mcgee, thakore, and lablance (2016) place emphasis on the role of undergraduate advisors and professors to be more aware of these dynamics in consideration of their asian students. recently, education scholars turned to the daily experiences of non-whites to better understand and analyze everyday forms of racism, and how racial microaggressions are tied to institutions and racial ideologies (see smith, hung, and franklin 2011; for example). in “racial microaggressions as a tool for critical race research,” lindsay p erez huber and daniel g. solorzano (2015) utilize critical race theory (crt) to better understand how racial microaggressions operate in the united states. huber and solorzano argue that everyday racist events are “systemically mediated by institutionalized racism (i.e., structures and processes), and guided by ideologies of white supremacy that justify the superiority of a dominant group (whites) over no n-dominant groups (people of color)” (2014:1). a crt approach to racial microaggressions allows for deeper consideration of the connections between discriminatory acts by an actor or actors—subtle or otherwise—and the institutional and ideological mechanisms that help maintain these discriminatory acts as normal. a crt lens allows scholars to recognize systemic, everyday racism as instrumental for keeping minorities in their place. however, crt has been criticized as a pseudo theory in that it offers no testable propositions, and a range of scholars challenge the legitimacy of crt, from henry louis gates, jr. to daniel a. farber and suzanna sherry, and others who argue that lack of a testable thesis is a barrier to legitimacy. despite  
  more than just insults  199  this, crt remains relevant by offering a set of tenets that most race scholars hold to be fundamental to better understand how race and racism work structurally and systemically. these include that race is a socially constructed concept; that white supremacy and racial power are maintained over time; and that laws are a mechanism designed to maintain racial status quo (see hughey, embrick, and doane 2015). but even while crt questions current law and order practices and institutions, and even social order, it misses the connections between micro-, meso-, and macrolevel understandings of how race works in society. sociology’s contributions and moving forward recently, sociologists have become reinvested in the study of racial microaggressions, perhaps due to a general consensus that racism operates differently today as opposed to the pre-civil rights era. despite positive changes in the legal system since the civil rights era, many race experts contend that practices and mechanisms that work to keep blacks and other minorities subordinated have become more covert, subtle and ambiguous (bonilla-silva 1997; bonilla-silva and lewis 2000; smith 1995). scholars have begun to measure everyday interactional and institutional indignities and their impact on people of color living in the united states in different institutional and organizational contexts. but absent sociological theorization on racial microaggressions, many sociologists approach them through a psychological or educational lens. some sociological thinking about racial microaggressions and their impact on people of color does exist. before bonilla-silva’s (1997, see also 2001) notable piece on racialized social systems, and around the same time as omi and winant’s (1986) celebrated book, racial formations, philomena essed contributed to race scholarship with her groundbreaking work on everyday racism (essed 1986, 1990, 1991). in everyday racism: reports from women of two cultures (1991), essed distinguished between cultural, institutional, and individual racism. cultural racism involved the racialized imagery and perception of blacks in society. institutional racism had to do with the racial mechanisms (direct or indirect) in societal institutions designed to limit the rights and opportunities of certain racial and/or ethnic groups both overtly and covertly. finally, essed suggested that individual racism included prejudice and covert forms of discrimination. such racism could involve “. . .ignoring a black colleague by never inviting her for a drink after work, or by excluding her from other types of contact among colleagues. . .” (essed 1991:24). it could also be about one’s choice of friendships, relationships, or even how one chooses the neighborhood in which to live. beyond these distinctions, essed coined the concept of everyday racism, “. . .the various types and expressions of racism experienced by ethnic groups in everyday contact with members of the more  
  200  david g. embrick et al.  powerful (white) group” (essed 1991:31). for essed, everyday racism is defined from the point of view of the minority groups who experience it. essed’s contributions to the scholarship of racial microaggressions are among the earliest in this area, and essed was among the first race scholars to distinguish between overt and covert racism, and to suggest that covert racism not only makes it hard for blacks’ claims of racial discrimination to be taken seriously, but it normalizes racist actions in ways that serve to absolve whites from any responsibility for their actions. consider the following passage from essed’s book (1991:34): covert racism does not necessarily imply that the underlying racist feelings are being concealed intentionally. in a racist society, public morality and the accepted norms may actually condemn racism. but the concepts of white superiority and the rejection of blacks will already have established themselves to such an extent that instead of being exceptional, they become ‘normal.’  minorities experience racial prejudice and discrimination in ways that have tangible mental, physiological, and health implications, and the consequences of these interactions may be exacerbated because of the denial by the perpetrator of a racial act (e.g., “i did not mean it that way,” “you’re too sensitive,” or “it was only a joke.”). since essed’s work on everyday racism, little sociological research has paid serious consideration, or attention, to racial microaggressions. sociology does not ignore the issue, but contributions from sociologists have been scarce in comparison to scholars from other fields, notably psychologists and education scholars. one exception is joe r. feagin, who spent a significant part of his life examining contemporary forms of racial discrimination that produce negative social, psychological, and physiological consequences (see, in particular, feagin and mckinney 2003; feagin 2000; feagin, vera, and imani 1996). these and other sociological contributions allow us to better understand racial microaggressions from a sociological point of view. but one substantial issue has been left undone—how to approach racial microaggressions with a sociological perspective of how race works in society, and how to employ a more macrolevel understanding of race and racism (bonilla-silva 1997; essed 1990; feagin 2000). special issue highlights this special issue offers new research by sociologists who explore racial microaggressions beyond the individual level in collaborative and interdisciplinary inquiry. we contend that racial microaggressions are not solely acts perpetrated by individuals, but may come about as a result of racialized mechanisms within institutions that help reaffirm white supremacy. such mechanisms  
  more than just insults  201  might include symbols of racial oppression such as statues and celebrated portraits of former slave owners, the u.s. confederate flag, or even the lack of racial diversity in public spaces. each article in this special issue reflects our unique call to sociologists to rethink how we might understand and research racial microaggressions in the post-civil rights u.s. era. the first article by zambrana et al. uses mixed methods to examine overt and covert forms of discrimination faced by african american, mexican american, and puerto rican tenure-track faculty members working in “predominantly white” research-intensive colleges. they find that the perception of and reaction to discriminatory practices by targeted individuals (whether to report discrimination or not) vary by race, gender, and class, reasserting the crucial significance of intersectionality with gender and class in microaggressions. the authors reveal covert and outright forms of discrimination in the academic institution, so-perceived as the “liberal bastion,” and demonstrate how the discourse of “color-blindness” within this setting obscures the actual practices of discrimination. keith et al. examine the effects of phenotype (evaluated by skin tone and body weight) and gender on the level of discriminatory treatment that african americans receive on a daily basis. their analysis contributes to racial microaggressions literature by exploring the racialization of a phenotypic feature other than skin color: body weight. hypotheses that predict positive correlations between darker skin color and increased discrimination, and between body weight and increased discrimination, are confirmed. while body weight’s positive correlation with discrimination holds true for african american men, it does not for african american women. results also reveal gender differences in the reporting of unfair treatment. senter and ling argue that victims’ reactions to microaggressions demonstrate how whites attempt to sustain racial dominance when threatened. blumer’s (1958) group threat theory is applied to native americans and euroamericans relations in a midwestern community where native americans have made significant economic and social gains through gaming operations. this allows a case study of racism stemming from a threat to group position. findings indicate that social and economic gains by native americans did not change the attitudes of whites toward them, and old-fashioned overt racism and microassaults persisted. while this study adds to the sociological understanding of microaggressions as influenced by structural factors, it is also noteworthy in its application to a native american population. moore and bracey study the evangelical church, which claims to be “welcoming” to all, yet remains highly exclusionary and segregated. through what the authors call “race tests,” people of color are kept out of these communities while they simultaneously produce an image of accepting diversity. through  
  202  david g. embrick et al.  the invocation of stereotypes such as a simple question of “but, do you sing?” or introduction of a person of color to someone else of color for no apparent reason, white community members actively build walls that keep people of color out of their predominantly white churches. moore and bracey show how daily microaggressions help re-establish group boundaries and hierarchies, and safeguard existing group privileges. this study demonstrates the value of ethnographic research on microaggressions. detailed knowledge of the repertoire of these deceptive acts is essential to understanding and tackling covert forms of racism that create and recreate group hierarchies. hughey et al. propose a retheorization of microaggressions in sociological terms, inspired by essed’s (1991) earlier approach. in this conceptualization, “everyday racism” refers to the accumulation of recurring practices that (re)produce racial inequalities. focusing on three processes, “(1) the marginalization of people of color; (2) the problematization of non-white cultures and identities; and (3) symbolic or physical repression through humiliation or violence,” the authors aim to explore everyday microaggressions. hughey et al. borrow from psychological research designs while at the same time rethinking the definition of microaggressions in sociological terms. using a vignette method, they recruit university undergraduate students (n 320) to read either a vignette that includes typical examples of microaggressions or the control vignette that has no microaggressive content, and then ask students to complete a survey based on the vignettes. their findings indicate a complicated picture with effects of microaggressions varying from one individual to another based on multiple factors. “those most likely to use microaggressions are the ones most benefiting from the current arrangement of racial and gender social order—white men.” the merits of this study lie in the use of rigorous scientific methodology from psychology to develop a sociological understanding of microaggressions, and a consideration of both micro (individual)- and macro (societal)-level factors. guided by goffman’s (1961) idea of “patterns of mortification” within “total institutions” like prisons where systemic, targeted, and uneven degradations are used as mechanisms of surveillance and punishment, rengifo and pater’s work links “microaggressions to the broader institution of policing and racial tensions with the public.” analyzing data from in-depth interviews with young blacks and latinos, the authors explore the range of microaggressions, their perception by targeted individuals, and the effects of race and gender in acts of microaggressions during police stops in new york city. their findings indicate that microaggressions during police–minority encounters can be divided into two categories: those implying criminality and those implying inferiority. through the production of these hierarchies, the authors view such police interactions as “emerging models of social control.” while racist policing tends to draw attention only at moments of overt violence, rengifo and pater explore  
  more than just insults  203  the continually racialized and gendered nature of police–minority interactions and their implications for (re)producing social hierarchies. baker looks at a homogenous white space in newfoundland and labrador, canada to explore the nature of racial microaggressions as perceived by white youth among a sample of first-year undergraduate students, adding another context in which case studies of microaggressions are likely to be overlooked. baker examines microaggressions focused on racialized minorities in an overwhelmingly white community by examining a setting with very few non-white minority members, yet a surprisingly high incidence of observed microaggressions among white students. this finding seems to refute a group threat perspective but finds a connection between microinsults and generalized frustration due to muslims and blacks “taking jobs” away from whites. finally, ballinas argues for more research examining how mexican students have been received in historically white colleges and universities and the immediate areas that surround these higher education institutions. he argues that from the patterns of racial microaggressions that dominate their lives—spatial whiteness, interpersonal subordination, and exclusion that reproduce systemic racism—mexican students not only encounter racialization as non-white, but also come to learn of their status as second-class citizens or even outsiders. with this special issue, we initiate a conversation to promote more theory and research designed to bring microaggressions into sociological focus. we feel that sociologists must begin to establish some ownership of the study of microaggressions given obvious links to structural dynamics and the discipline’s long history of inquiry into race and racism. with this special issue, we plant a seed.  endnotes *please direct correspondence to david g. embrick, university of connecticut, 44 mansfield road, unit 1068 manchester hall, storrs, ct, usa; e-mail: david.embrick@uconn.edu  references allen, walter. 1985. “black student, white campus: structural, interpersonal and psychological correlates of success.” journal of negro education 54(2):134–47. ———. 1992. “the color of success: african american college student outcomes at predominantly white and historically black colleges and universities.” harvard educational review 62(1):26–45. allen, walter r., edgar g. epp, and nesha z. haniff, eds. 1991. college in black and white: african american students in predominantly white and historically black public universities. albany, ny: suny press.  
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secondary_title_index: frontiers in psychology
title_index:
       you’re prettier when you smile: construction and validation of a questionnaire to assess microaggressions against women in the workplace     

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       original research published: 16 march 2022 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809862  you’re prettier when you smile: construction and validation of a questionnaire to assess microaggressions against women in the workplace mona algner and timo lorenz* department of psychology, medical school berlin, berlin, germany  edited by: prathiba natesan batley, brunel university london, united kingdom reviewed by: intan hashimah mohd hashim, universiti sains malaysia (usm), malaysia gabriela goncalves, university of algarve, portugal *correspondence: timo lorenz timo.lorenz@medicalschool-berlin.de specialty section: this article was submitted to quantitative psychology and measurement, a section of the journal frontiers in psychology received: 05 november 2021 accepted: 23 february 2022 published: 16 march 2022 citation: algner m and lorenz t (2022) you’re prettier when you smile: construction and validation of a questionnaire to assess microaggressions against women in the workplace. front. psychol. 13:809862. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809862  gender microaggressions, especially its subtler forms microinsults and microinvalidations are by definition hard to discern. we aim to construct and validate a scale reflecting two facets of the microaggression taxonomy: microinsults and microinvalidations toward women in the workplace, the mimi-16. two studies were conducted (n1 500, n2 612). using a genetic algorithm, a 16-item scale was developed and consequently validated via confirmatory factor analyses (cfa) in three separate validation samples. correlational analyses with organizational outcome measures were performed. the mimi-16 exhibits good model fit in all validation samples (cfi 0.936–0.960, tli 0.926–0.954, rmsea 0.046–0.062, srmr 0.042– 0.049). multigroup-cfa suggested strict measurement invariance between all validation samples. correlations were as expected and indicate internal and external validity. scholars on gender microaggressions have mostly used qualitative research. with the newly developed mimi-16 we provide a reliable and valid quantitative instrument to measure gender microaggressions in the workplace. keywords: scale development, genetic algorithm, test validation, sexism, diversity, gender microaggressions, women at work, confirmatory factor analyses  introduction although since the 1960s and 1970s organizations and lawmakers alike have implemented policies to reduce gender discrimination, movements in which women speak up against sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace are on the rise (e.g., #metoo, time’s up) indicating the continuing existence of sexism (diehl et al., 2020). a recent study by the german federal ministry of family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth presented supporting evidence: 63% of women (compared to 49% of men) experienced or witnessed some form of sexism in their direct environment (wippermann, 2019).  microaggressions there is an argument that sexism has morphed into a more ambiguous form (dovidio and gaertner, 2000; nguyen and ryan, 2008; sue, 2010a). discrimination characterized by beliefs that women are inferior, sexist stereotypes and open acts of discrimination are becoming increasingly uncommon (swim et al., 1995; cortina, 2008). hence, old-fashioned, blatant forms of prejudice,  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  1  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  so-called overt discrimination are to be contrasted with more subtle forms of discrimination (jones et al., 2016), referred to as microaggressions. other related concepts include incivility (lim and cortina, 2005; cortina, 2008), subtle gender bias (tran et al., 2019) or benevolent sexism (e.g., flattering women while simultaneously implicitly emphasizing their inferiority; dardenne et al., 2007). we will use the term gender microaggressions to account for gender discrimination from here on. microaggressions have more recently been defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual-orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group” (sue et al., 2007, p. 5). these actions are often unconscious and ambiguous in their intent to harm, making them difficult to pinpoint, yet they might be just as detrimental to the target as the more blatant forms of discrimination (jones et al., 2016; diehl et al., 2020). microaggressions can be divided into three major categories: microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations (sue et al., 2007; sue and capodilupo, 2008; sue, 2010a).  unconscious, or even with good intent (sue, 2010b). third, the construct differentiates between levels of explicitness ranging from ambiguous microinvalidations to slightly more overt microinsults to explicit microassaults (basford et al., 2013). since the 1980s women in the united states are obtaining more university degrees than men, yet only 18% of top leadership positions are held by women (diehl and dzubinski, 2016). in 2020, 27.8% of the board members and 7.4% of the ceos of the largest publicly listed organizations in the european union were female (european institute for gender equality, 2020b). the same holds true for germany, where approximately 51% of the graduates are female, while women represented only 14.7% of the board members of the 200 largest organizations in germany, and 8.0% of the ceos (kirsch et al., 2022). in line with these numbers, a growing body of research suggests that despite efforts to foster equality (i.e., equal opportunities act) gender microaggressions persist in the workplace (jones et al., 2016; tran et al., 2019). one of the reasons for the continued gender inequity might be rooted in the fact that discrimination has morphed into subtler forms, which are more difficult to detect (hebl et al., 2002) and hence are reported less (jones et al., 2016). in a meta-analysis, jones et al. (2016) found that subtle gender discrimination might be at least as detrimental as overt discrimination. their results built on attributional ambiguity theory (e.g., crocker and major, 1989), which posits that members of a marginalized group find it difficult to discern whether harmful actions occur because of their marginal status or other unrelated reasons. stigmatized individuals will attribute negative feedback to prejudice against their group in situations where the situation is clear rather than ambiguous, i.e., the negative experience associated with discrimination can more easily be externalized when discrimination is overt. in case of subtle gender microaggressions females might tend to internalize the experience (e.g., “it’s my fault”). according to their metaanalytic findings, jones et al. (2016) report that experimental studies (e.g., crocker et al., 1991; barreto and ellemers, 2005; salvatore and shelton, 2007; tao et al., 2017) support the assumptions that subtler microaggressions might be even more stressful for the target resulting in negative effects on cognitive functioning, higher levels of anxiety, increase of negative mood and decrease of positive mood. subtle discriminatory behavior occurs more frequently than overt forms (pearson et al., 2009; yoo et al., 2010). it is their chronic nature that can make them more detrimental than their overt counterpart (jones et al., 2016), which might be due to the accumulation of seemingly slight microaggressions resulting in serious impact for the target analogous to the concept of daily hassles (cortina, 2008; king and jones, 2016; jones et al., 2017). gender microaggressions are often hardly visible, which makes them difficult to prove (sue, 2010b; jones et al., 2016) and because of their subtlety tend to get trivialized (sue et al., 2007).  microassaults microassaults are conscious, explicit discriminatory actions (verbal, non-verbal, or environmental) with the intent to harm the recipient. they resemble so-called old-fashion racism or sexism, for example telling sexist jokes, referring to women as “bitches” (sue, 2010b).  microinsults microinsults are often unconscious communications or actions “that convey stereotypes, rudeness, and insensitivity” (sue, 2010b, p. 31) demeaning a person’s gender identity. this includes mistaking female doctors for nurses (sue and capodilupo, 2008).  microinvalidations microinvalidations describe communications that negate or exclude thoughts, feelings, or the experiential reality of a stigmatized person. gender blindness or denying individual discrimination via statements like “i am not sexist, i have a daughter” fall into this category (sue, 2010b).  gender microaggressions gender microaggressions are defined as daily, commonplace indignities toward women (nadal, 2010). other concepts of sexism are objectification theory (fredrickson and roberts, 1997), benevolent sexism (glick and fiske, 1996, 2001) or everyday sexism (swim et al., 2001). research on subtle forms of sexism is not new (nadal et al., 2013), still the concept of gender microaggressions can contribute to the existing literature in three ways. first, unlike previous studies (e.g., swim et al., 2001), it integrates interpersonal, systemic and environmental discrimination into one framework considering a broad range of categories (nadal, 2010; sue, 2010b), mirroring the lived experience of women who encounter barriers on several levels (diehl and dzubinski, 2016; fitzsimmons and callan, 2016). second, microaggressions can be conscious,  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  gender microaggression at the workplace gender microaggressions at the workplace can have costly consequences for organizations and female leaders alike (diehl et al., 2020). gender microaggressions, or other forms of subtle gender discrimination, have been shown  2  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  sought to construct and validate a scale reflecting two facets of the microaggression taxonomy: microinsults and microinvalidations. we decided to exclude microassaults from our scale for several reasons: not only is the prevalence of overt sexism declining (european institute for gender equality, 2020a), it is also increasingly socially proscribed (wippermann, 2019). furthermore, laws like the general act of equal treatment in germany or directive 2006/54/ec implement principles of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in german and eu labor law, respectively. we are not arguing that sexism does not exist anymore, we are arguing that societal and legal progress makes it easier to discern and report overt gender microaggressions compared to their subtler counterparts. in excluding the microassault facet, we further follow the recommendations of several scholars to adapt the microaggression concept in general. they have questioned the inclusion of microassaults, since they are per definition not subtle in nature and further bear the risk of trivializing overt acts of discrimination (minikel-lacocque, 2013; wong et al., 2014; garcia and johnston-guerrero, 2015; lilienfeld, 2017). to differentiate more clearly between the overt and covert nature of discriminatory actions, donovan et al. (2013) suggested to label microassaults as macroaggressions instead.  to negatively affect job satisfaction (cortina et al., 2001; chan et al., 2008), well-being (lim and cortina, 2005; brondolo et al., 2008), self-esteem (nadal, 2010; oswald et al., 2019), engagement, organizational commitment, professional self-efficacy (dardenne et al., 2007; jones et al., 2016), subjective feelings of competence at the workplace (glick and fiske, 1996, 2001) and workplace performance (chan et al., 2008; jones et al., 2014). others found a positive relation with turnover intention (elvira and cohen, 2001; king et al., 2010). gender microaggressions are considered to be one of the main barriers for women’s professional advancement (diehl et al., 2020), by keeping women from meeting their vocational potential (nadal and haynes, 2012), as well as reaching leadership positions (ely et al., 2011; jones et al., 2016). for example, compared to men women are less frequently perceived as having what it takes to be a leader (eagly and carly, 2007; hoyt, 2010; hoyt and murphy, 2016). other scholars have found that women in power are rated as less effective (lucas and baxter, 2012; hoyt and burnette, 2013; hoyt and simon, 2016), receive lower performance ratings, fewer rewards (i.e., salary, bonuses and promotions; joshi et al., 2015) and are less likely to be hired in male-dominated jobs than men (koch et al., 2015). further, work performance of women is more scrutinized (kanter, 1977; ryan and haslam, 2007; brescoll, 2016) and women are held to higher standards when it comes to promotions compared to their male colleagues (lyness and heilman, 2006; inesi and cable, 2015; hoobler et al., 2018). these findings emphasize the necessity of instruments to measure gender microaggressions at the workplace. not only to detect their presence, but to foster a better understanding of the challenges women face at the workplace, as well as facilitating the development of interventions to decrease them.  construction of a new gender microaggression scale in a seminal manuscript, loevinger (1957) proposed a theorydriven approach to scale construction involving three aspects of construct validity: substantive validity, structural validity, external validity. amongst others, simms (2007), took this framework and developed a guideline for contemporary scale development, defining construct validity as its guiding principle for each of the three phases. the different foci of each phase are (i) construct conceptualization and generation of an initial item pool, (ii) item selection and construct validity, and (iii) assessment of convergent, discriminant and criterion-related validity (simms, 2007). following these principles, we divided the scale construction in three stages, using a mixed-methods approach to develop the microinvalidation and microinsult scale-16 (mimi-16). stage one included a review of the relevant literature in order to develop a theory-driven conceptualization of constructs. in a pre-study we conducted semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 13 women to generate insight in their experiences with gender microaggressions. since we aimed to develop a scale that can be used in different work settings, we specifically wanted to recruit a diverse sample of women regarding their age (21–61 years) and occupation (e.g., attorney, police officer, and teacher). integrating theory and results from the interviews, we generated an initial item pool of 102 items reflecting the microaggression subfacets microinsults and microinvalidations (sue et al., 2007). following lilienfeld (2017), we included a male individual as member of a majority group in the item creation process to minimize the risk of being predisposed to endorsing the concept. we presented the original items to a diverse group of individuals to make sure the items were comprehensible and to establish content validity.  measuring gender microaggressions gender microaggressions, especially its subtler forms microinsults and microinvalidations are by definition hard to discern. in the past, some scholars developed instruments to measure subtle forms of discrimination. for example, cortina et al. (2001) examined the quality of workplace social environments in general: their workplace incivility scale (wis) assesses subtle forms of workplace harassment such as gossiping, spreading rumors or ignoring others, but does not specifically focus on gender. other scales that do focus on gender are intended for use in specific areas of the workplace, such as women in leadership positions (gender bias scale for women leaders; diehl et al., 2020), women in academia (perceived subtle gender bias index, psgbi; tran et al., 2019) or focuses more on old-fashioned overt sexism (e.g., nude pictures, women are better suited for raising children than working; leskinen and cortina, 2014).  aim of this study to our knowledge, there is no questionnaire to assess microaggressions toward women in the workplace. hence, we  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  3  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  (judge et al., 2001; harter et al., 2002), higher citizenship behavior (judge et al., 2017), decreasing turnover intentions (judge and klinger, 2008) and less absenteeism (scott and taylor, 1985). prior research on the relation between gender microaggressions and job satisfaction suggests that gender microaggressions lead to job dissatisfaction (foley et al., 2005; king et al., 2010; moors et al., 2014). in a meta-analysis chan et al. (2008) further reported corrected correlations between sexual harassment and job satisfaction of ρ 0.30. consequently, we expect a moderate negative correlation between microaggressions and job satisfaction.  consequently, we excluded several items, resulting in an item pool of 68 items. in the second stage, we selected items and established construct validity. study 1 consisted of a quantitative survey, including the original item pool of the mimi-16, demographics and three validation measures. we used an automated item selection procedure to reduce the original item to the final scale and cross-validated our findings using a split-sample. we hypothesized a strong positive relation between our newly created measure and the wis (cortina et al., 2001) and the psgbi (tran et al., 2019), respectively. we decided to include these two instruments, because they are conceptually similar but still distinct enough: the wis focuses on uncivil behavior in the workplace (i.e., no gender focus, but work related) and the psgbi assesses subtle gender bias, but in a specific work environment (i.e., academia). in stage three, in order to establish external validity, we ran bivariate correlational analyses with relevant work-related constructs. to test the external validity of the mimi-16 we selected several important psychological constructs–meaning of work, job satisfaction, work engagement, occupational selfefficacy, and turnover intention. furthermore, we investigate construct validity by means of a multiple regression analysis to test the impact of microaggression on turnover intentions, controlling for job satisfaction and other control variables. the specific hypotheses regarding the associations between the mimi-16 and these constructs are discussed below.  work engagement work engagement is defined as a “positive, fulfilling, workrelated state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption” (schaufeli et al., 2002). among the antecedents of work engagement are the perception of emotionally, culturally, and physically safe environments and self-efficacy (for reviews see wollard and shuck, 2011; kim et al., 2013), all likely to be compromised in individuals experiencing microaggressions. in several experimental studies, dardenne et al. (2007) found that benevolent, but not hostile sexism reduced motivation and cognitive performance of women. we expect a small to moderate negative correlation between gender microaggression and work engagement.  occupational self-efficacy occupational self-efficacy refers to the confidence a person feels regarding their ability to successfully fulfill the tasks involved in their job (bandura, 1977; rigotti et al., 2008). previous studies suggested that gender microaggressions have a negative impact on self-esteem (nadal, 2010; oswald et al., 2019) and occupational self-efficacy (dardenne et al., 2007; jones et al., 2014). furthermore, experimental evidence showed that gender microaggressions negatively influenced women’s self-efficacy and that self-efficacy mediates the relation between gender microaggressions and workplace performance (jones et al., 2014). we expect a moderate negative correlation between gender microaggressions and occupational self-efficacy.  meaning of work human beings search for meaning and often do so through work (aguinis and glavas, 2019), i.e., they want to experience their work as personally significant and worthwhile (lysova et al., 2019). a growing body of research has established the association between meaning of work and some of the most important organizational outcomes, e.g., work motivation, stress, job satisfaction, career development and performance (for reviews, see e.g., rosso et al., 2010; lysova et al., 2019). meaning of work is typically conceptualized as significance, broader purpose, and self-actualization (martela and pessi, 2018). others have defined it as self-actualization, belongingness, and sense of achieving goals (feser et al., 2019). microaggressions are established to have a negative impact on subjective feelings of competence at the workplace (glick and fiske, 1996, 2001) and organizational commitment (jones et al., 2016). previous studies found that microaggressions keep women from realizing their full vocational potential (nadal and haynes, 2012), which is conceptualized as part of self-actualization (martela and pessi, 2018). we thus expect a moderate negative correlation between microaggressions and meaning of work.  turnover intention turnover intention is a withdrawal behavior and that has been linked with underidentification with work (e.g., bakker et al., 2004). it has been defined as the “conscious and deliberate willingness to leave the organization” (bothma and roodt, 2012 p. 5). employee turnover is costly (tracey and hinkin, 2008; boushey and glynn, 2012), not only because of separation fees, but also due to hidden costs such as productivity loss or increased error rate of overburdened workers (o’connell and kung, 2007). previous studies suggest that gender microaggressions increase employees’ intent to leave (foley et al., 2005; szymanski and mikorski, 2016). hence, we expect a moderate positive correlation between gender microaggressions and turnover intention.  job satisfaction how individuals think about and relate to their work, and more specifically, the assessment of the favorability of a job (i.e., job satisfaction) is one of the most prolific research areas in work and organizational psychology (judge et al., 2017). job satisfaction has been associated with several relevant organizational outcome measures, such as increased performance  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  control variables core self-evaluations (cse; judge et al., 1997) represent the fundamental appraisals individuals make about themselves,  4  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  especially about their own worthiness and capabilities (chang et al., 2012) and comprise the subfacets self-efficacy, self-esteem, emotional stability and locus of control. cse are considered a stable personality trait and have been linked to job satisfaction (judge et al., 1998; judge and bono, 2001). we further control for the gender composition of the workplace.  perceived subtle gender bias perceived subtle gender bias was measured using the psgbi, a scale originally intended for use in academia (tran et al., 2019). the german version of this scale was derived using a standard translation-back-translation procedure. we further adapted the scale to be used in universal workplace settings (e.g., “female faculty members” was replaced with “females”). the 21-item measure included four facets of perceived gender bias: gender inequality, collegiality, mentorship, and institutional support. participants rated statements such as “some people are not comfortable being subordinate to a woman” on a 6-point likert-scale ranging from 1 (disagree) to 6 (agree). cronbach’s alpha and mcdonald’s omega were α 0.91 and ωt 0.94.  method: study 1 participants: study 1 study 1 consisted of 500 participants of which 497 selfidentified as female and three as non-binary. the participants averaged 39.16 years (sd 12.56) and were predominantly from a higher education background with 69% (n 321) holding a university degree. half of the participants (n 256) were employed full-time, another 36.4% worked part-time. the remaining 12.4% (n 62) of the sample were either apprentice, civil servant or self-employed. on average participants worked 33.91 h per week (sd 9.71) and had 15.20 (sd 13.30) years of working experience. regarding their current work, the majority of participants (80.4%) stated occupation in the groups “health care, social affairs, and education” (n 145), “company organization, accounting, law and administration” (n 110), “humanities, social sciences and economic sciences, media, art, culture and design” (n 74) and “commercial services, retail, sales and distribution, hotels and tourism” (n 73). every sector of the classification of occupation (bundesagentur fur arbeit, 2011) was represented at least once. the study was conducted in german and participation was voluntary, hence no incentives were supplied. participants were recruited via personal and professional networks as well as several online social media platforms.  meaning of work meaning of work was measured with a german meaning of work scale (sia, for “meaning of work” in german; feser et al., 2019). the sia included three dimensions of meaning of work: selfrealization, belongingness, and justification. participants were asked to rate how much they agree with statements such as “i am blossoming at work.” answer scales ranged from 1 (i do not agree at all) to 6 (i fully agree). cronbach’s alpha (α) and mcdonald’s omega (ωt ) were 0.92 and 0.94, respectively.  microinvalidations and microinsults the newly developed mimi-16 was used to measure microinvalidations and microinsults. on a scale from 1 (i do not agree at all) to 6 (i fully agree), participants rated 68 items such as “it happens that male colleagues continue a meeting after the women have left the room” or “i have been sexualized in a professional context” (for the final items in the mimi-16, please refer to table 1).  data analysis materials: study 1 demographics  we used an automated item selection algorithm to develop the mimi-16. since algorithmic approaches are not yet common practice in organizational and social sciences, we give a brief overview [for an in-depth introduction to metaheuristics in general and genetic algorithms in particular, please refer to gendreau and potvin (2010) and reeves (2010), respectively]. scale development, i.e., selecting items to create a psychometrically sound scale, can be defined as a combinatorial problem (kerber et al., 2022). combinatorial problems, such as the knapsack problem (“choose a set of objects, each having a specific weight and monetary value, so that the value is maximized and the total weight does not exceed a predetermined limit;” schroeders et al., 2016, p. 4) refer to the process of finding a discrete and finite solution given a set of constraints (hoos and stutzle, 2005). although the concept is most prevalent in economics (e.g., the well-known traveling salesman problem), it has recently been applied to the item selection process in psychological scale construction (e.g. schultze, 2017; kerber et al., 2022). in this context the problem can be understood as selecting a set of items from an original item pool that fulfills certain predefined criteria (e.g., building a two-dimensional scale with good model fit). contemporary approaches solve these combinatorial problems using automatic optimization algorithms such as  participants were asked to state their age, gender, highest level of completed education, employment status, weekly working hours, how long they have been working and sector of employment encoded with the classification of occupations 2010 (bundesagentur fur arbeit, 2011). we further asked the participants to rate the size of their place of residence and their place of work (ranging from 1 rural to 5 metropolitan), their personal feminist attitude (ranging from 1 not at all to 5 strong), how much they agreed that gender equality already exists (1 completely disagree to 5 completely agree), as well as the approximate ratio of men and women in their workplace (ranging from 1 predominantly male to 5 predominantly female).  incivility incivility was measured using the german version of the wis (jimenez et al., 2018). via eight items participants were asked to rate the frequency of supervisor incivility and coworker incivility, respectively (e.g., “ignored me or did not respect my opinion”). participants answered on a likert-scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (daily). cronbach’s alpha (α) and mcdonald’s omega (ωt ) were α 0.93 and ωt 0.95.  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  5  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  genetic algorithms (ga; holland, 1975) based on natural evolution. instead of selecting items based on their unique qualities, as classical approaches do, these so-called heuristic item selection algorithms aim to improve the psychometric properties of a set of items given a predefined set of constraints (schultze, 2017). one important aspect is the approximate rather than deterministic nature of metaheuristics (blum and roli, 2003). thus, they cannot be understood as approaches that guarantee finding the single-best solution (yarkoni, 2010). yet, approximate algorithms are often the only solution to obtain near-optimal solutions for complex combinatorial problems in an appropriate time, or at low computational cost (dorigo and stutzle, 2010). in other words, meta-heuristics are particularly useful because the psychometric criteria can only be computed in combination with other items, with the aim to improve the quality of the scale as a whole (olaru and danner, 2021). recent findings in scale development or adaptation suggest that algorithmic approaches perform at least as well as traditional approaches (sandy et al., 2014) or even outperform them (schroeders et al., 2016; olaru and danner, 2021).  table 1 items of the mimi-16. factor  nr.  german wording  english wording  invalidations  1  es kommt vor, dass mannliche kollegen ein meeting fortsetzen, nachdem die frauen den raum verlassen haben  it happens that male colleagues continue a meeting after the women have left the room  2  ich habe das gefuhl, dass man mir weniger zutraut, weil ich eine frau bin  i have the feeling that people expect less of me because i am a woman  3  frauen bekommen komplimente fur ihr auseres, manner fur ihre arbeitsleistung  women get compliments for their appearance, men for their work performance  4  andere nehmen an, dass sich familiengrundung negativ auf die arbeitsleistung von frauen auswirkt  others assume that starting a family has a negative impact on women’s work performance  5  meine durchsetzungskraft wird im beruflichen kontext negativ bewertet  my assertiveness is viewed negatively in a professional context  6  man hat mir schon einmal zu verstehen gegeben, dass meine berufliche leistung anders bewertet wird, als die von mannern  i have been made to feel that my professional performance is valued differently from that of men  7  ich habe das gefuhl standig meine berufliche qualifikation beweisen zu mussen  i have the feeling that i have to prove my professional qualifications all the time  8  vorschlage werden eher akzeptiert, wenn sie von einem mann geausert werden  suggestions are more likely to be accepted if they are made by a man  9  manchmal bekomme ich komplimente, die ich als unangebracht empfinde  sometimes i receive compliments that i consider inappropriate  10  unter meinen kolleg*innen werden manchmal anzugliche witze gegenuber frauen gemacht  among my colleagues, sometimes suggestive jokes are made toward women  11  es ist schon vorgekommen, dass kolleg*innen meine kleidung kommentierten  it has happened that colleagues have commented on the way i was dressed  12  ich wurde in meinem arbeitsumfeld schon nach meinem menstruationszyklus gefragt  i have been asked about my menstrual cycle at my workplace  13  ich bin im beruflichen kontext sexualisiert worden  i have been sexualized in a professional context  14  es kam schon vor, dass man mir an meinem arbeitsplatz anzugliche kosenamen gegeben hat  it has happened that i have been given suggestive pet names at my workplace  15  mein verhalten wurde schon einmal aufgrund meines geschlechts scherzhaft nachgeahmt  my behavior has been jokingly imitated because of my gender  16  ich habe das gefuhl, dass mein aussehen mehr fur meinen beruflichen erfolg verantwortlich ist, als meine qualifikation  i feel that my appearance is more responsible for my professional success than my qualifications  insults  item selection procedure in this study we used a genetic algorithm to select items from our original item pool to develop the final version of the mimi16. gas aim to reduce a large set of variables by employing stochastic search methods based on evolutionary processes, i.e., the chance of a solution to survive and reproduce, its fitness, determines its quality (galan et al., 2013). they are based on two processes, variation, and selection. while the first fosters diversity and novelty, the second rewards quality. the idea is to eventually generate an optimal or near-optimal solution (galan et al., 2013). applied to scale development, the procedure starts with genes, each representing different parameters or variables. combining the genes to a string, the resulting chromosome, can be understood as a set of items or scale. the algorithm creates an initial population by randomly generating a predefined number (typically 100–200 individuals) of chromosomes from the original item pool, thereby ensuring variability (yarkoni, 2010). because the overall goal is to construct a scale with good psychometric properties (e.g., maximal reliability and validity while also exhibiting a good model fit of the measurement model), the next step requires the definition of a fitness function to evaluate the quality of a solution. in every generation the fittest chromosomes are extracted as a breeding ground for the next generation. to increase genetic diversity, mutation, i.e., spontaneous change of items in a scale, and recombination, i.e., exchange of items between two scales, are frequently employed. in a predefined number of iterations (i.e., 100 ), usually define the fittest chromosome as the optimal solution. we used a genetic algorithm implemented in the r package “stuart” version 0.9.1 (schultze, 2020) with the aim to construct a two-dimensional scale. the original dataset was randomly split into a training (n1 250) and a test dataset (n2 250). the solutions were evaluated against an objective function consisting of a combination of the model fit criteria root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), standardized root mean square residual (srmr) and the comparative fit index (cfi) as well  mimi-16, microinvalidations and microinsults scale.  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  6  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  as a composite reliability computed as mcdonald’s ω. in the next step we validated our findings using k-fold cross-validation with the test dataset using the “crossvalidate” function of the r package “stuart” (schultze, 2020).  with the second half of the data indicated that the assumption of strict measurement invariance holds across the two subsamples: χ2 (252) 366.34, p 0.001, cfi 0.960, srmr 0.056, rmsea 0.043, χ2 24.69, 1df 16, p 0.076.  evaluation of model fit, measurement invariance, and external validity  method study 2  model fit is evaluated using standard recommendations proposed by hu and bentler (1999). these comprise of χ2 significance testing as well as a combination of several fit indices, i.e., rmsea 0.05, srmr 0.07, cfi 0.95. the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) is run with the r package “lavaan” (rosseel, 2012). preliminary analyses revealed that microinvalidations, microinsults, and the total scale gender microaggressions was only slightly non-normally distributed (microinvalidations: skew 0.37, kurtosis 0.74; microinsults: skew 0.96, kurtosis 0.32 and total scale: skew 0.58, kurtosis 0.37). to account for non-normal distribution, we used a robust maximum likelihood estimator (mlr). furthermore, the selected scale will be validated using k-fold cross-validation, in order to examine whether the solution holds in a test sample with regard to the four standard measurement invariance assumptions based on meredith (1993). to evaluate divergent and convergent validity of the mimi16, pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated with other relevant measures. correlations were evaluated as follows: correlations 0.1–small, 0.3–moderate, and 0.5–strong. because we used a forced-choice answer format, no data was missing.  study 2 consisted of 612 participants of which 606 self-identified as female and six as non-binary with an average age of 37.16 years (sd 9.45). in this study 72% (n 441) hold a university degree, 49.2% of the participants (n 301) were employed full-time and 35.9% worked part-time (n 220). the remaining 14.8% (n 91) of the sample were either apprentice, civil servant or self-employed. we excluded two values due to implausible answers regarding their weekly work hours. on average participants worked 34.58 h per week (sd 9.86) and had 11.70 (sd 10.09) years of working experience. the majority of participants (83.3%) stated their current occupation in the groups “health care, social affairs, and education” (n 216), “humanities, social sciences and economic sciences, media, art, culture and design” (n 130), “company organization, accounting, law and administration” (n 88), and “commercial services, retail, sales and distribution, hotels and tourism” (n 76). in this study the military sector was not represented. the study was conducted in german and participation was voluntary, hence no incentives were supplied. participants were recruited on several online social media platforms.  study 1: results demographic results  materials: study 2 demographics  on average, participants lived in rather urban environments (m 3.54, sd 1.45). similar applied to the place of work (m 4.00, sd 1.17). participants had more female than male colleagues (m 2.93, sd 1.17), self-identified as rather feminist (m 3.66, sd 1.03) and on average rated the current state of gender equality at 2.24 (sd 0.78).  participants were asked the same demographic questions as in study 1.  participants: study 2  job satisfaction we measured job satisfaction with three items (judge and klinger, 2008). the first item assesses global job satisfaction with a dichotomous answer format (“all things considered, are you satisfied with your present job?”). the second item (“how satisfied are you with your job in general?”) measures the extent of satisfaction with the present job on a five-point likert-scale ranging from 1 very dissatisfied to 5 very satisfied. with the third item, participants are asked to estimate the percentage of time they feel satisfied, dissatisfied, and neutral about their present job on average (“the percent of time i feel satisfied with my present job”). job satisfaction was assessed with the mean score of the z-standardized items. cronbach’s alpha (α) and mcdonald’s omega (ωt ) were 0.81 and 0.82, respectively.  descriptives and correlations table 2 presents descriptive statistics, mcdonald’s ω, cronbach’s α and the correlation matrix for the respective variables. the strong correlations (r 0.68–0.70, p 0.001) between the newly created mimi-16 and the incivility scale and the psgbi, respectively, indicate the mimi-16 measures a similar, yet distinct concept. as hypothesized, the mimi-16 correlated moderately negatively with the sia.  model fit and latent structure in the construction sample the ga selected 16 of the 68 original items representing the two factors microinvalidations and microinsults with eight items each (figure 1). the final solution exhibits good model fit with satorra-bentler-χ2 (103, n 250) 117.01, p 0.163, cfi 0.989, tli 0.987, srmr 0.043, rmsea 0.023, 90%-cirmsea [0.000; 0.042]. standardized loadings of the factor microinvalidations ranged from 0.50 to 0.83 and for microinsults from 0.41 to 0.72. all factor loadings including standard errors can be found in the supplementary material. cross-validation  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  core self-evaluation we measured core self-evaluations with the german version of the core self-evaluation scale (g-cses; heilmann and jonas, 2010). the g-cses consists of 12 statements (“i am confident i get the success i deserve in my life”). participants rated these items on a five-point likert-scale from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree. cronbach’s alpha and mcdonald’s omega were α 0.84 and ωt 0.87.  7  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  table 2 descriptives and inter-correlations for study 1. m  sd  mimi-16 total  microinsults  microinvalidations  sia  mimi-16 total  2.58  0.96  0.91 (0.89)  microinsults  2.34  1.00  0.89***  micro-invalidations  2.82  1.13  0.91***  0.62***  sia  4.37  1.00   0.39***  psgbi  3.01  0.93  incivility  1.55  feminism  psgbi  incivility  feminism   0.25***   0.44***  0.94 (0.92)  0.71***  0.48***  0.78***   0.58***  0.94 (0.91)  1.11  0.68***  0.56***  0.65***   0.55***  0.72***  3.66  1.03  0.24***  0.19***  0.24***  0.05  0.15**  0.05  equality  2.24  0.78   0.34***   0.25***   0.35***  0.12*   0.33***   0.23***   0.21***  we  2.93  1.17   0.21***   0.15***   0.23***  0.16***   0.22***   0.06  0.02  equality  0.95 (0.93)   0.03  mcdonald’s omega (cronbach’s alpha) is displayed in diagonals if applicable. mimi-16, microinsult and microinvalidation scale; sia, meaning of work scale; psgbi, perceived subtle gender bias index; we, work environment. * 0.05; ** 0.01; *** 0.001.  figure 1 measurement model for the mimi-16 in the construction sample. mimi-16, microinsults and microinvalidations scale, abbreviated items refer to table 1.  turnover intention  occupational self-efficacy  intention to leave their current job was measured with the german turnover intention scale proposed by bohm (2008). on a five-point likert-scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree participants rate three statements such as “i often think about leaving my job at my current company.” cronbach’s alpha and mcdonald’s omega were α 0.86 and ωt 0.86.  occupational self-efficacy was evaluated with the short version of the german occupational self-efficacy scale (oss-sf; rigotti et al., 2008). six items, such as “when i am confronted with a problem in my job, i can usually find several solutions.” are rated on a six-point likert-scale (from 1 not at all true to 6 completely true). cronbach’s alpha (α) and mcdonald’s omega (ωt ) were 0.87 and 0.91, respectively.  work engagement data analysis evaluation of model fit, measurement invariance, and external validity  we used the german utrecht work engagement scale-9 (uwes9; sautier et al., 2015) to measure work engagement. the uwes-9 consists of nine items (e.g., “at my work, i feel bursting with energy.”), which participants rated on a 7-point likert-scale (from 0 never to 6 always). cronbach’s alpha (α) and mcdonald’s omega (ωt) were 0.93 and 0.95, respectively.  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  the original dataset was randomly split into two sub-datasets (n1 306, n2 306). model fit was evaluated by means of cfa using the same criteria as presented in study 1. we tested the four standard measurement invariance assumptions  8  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  between the two datasets using the r package “psych” (revelle, 2020). to evaluate divergent and convergent validity of the mimi-16, pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated with other relevant measures. correlations were evaluated as follows: correlations 0.1–small, 0.3–moderate, and 0.5– strong. because we used a forced-choice answer format, no data was missing.  (β 0.11; p 0.02) are statistically significant predictors of turnover intentions while the work environment (β 0.02; p 0.38) and core self-evaluation (β 0.01; p 0.90) do not become statistically significant predictors.  regression analysis  in this study, we developed and validated an instrument to assess microinsults and microinvalidations against women in the workplace using an automated item selection algorithm. in four distinct samples (n 1,112) the mimi-16 exhibited good psychometric properties. furthermore, microaggressions were a statistically significant predictor for turnover intentions, even when it was controlled for job satisfaction, work environment and core self-evaluation.  discussion  the data was checked for the necessary prerequisites to conduct multiple regression analysis. we used the r package “car” to assess the variance inflation factor (vif). the vif over all variables was good with scores between 1.08 and 1.28 (o’brien, 2007).  study 2: results demographics  factorial structure  participants lived in rather urban environments (m 3.77, sd 1.18) and similarly applied to the place of work (m 3.58, sd 1.35). on average, participants had more female than male colleagues (m 3.01, sd 1.18), self-identified as feminist (m 4.16, sd 0.84) and rated the current state of gender equality in society at 1.87 (sd 0.86).  following the recommendations of scholars in the past (i.e., lilienfeld, 2017), by excluding the factor microassaults we reduced the complexity and adapted the existing conceptualization of the microaggression taxonomy. we developed a scale using a genetic algorithm with the goal to assess the two facets microinsults and microinvalidations. the microinvalidations factor consists of items focusing on the unequal standards women are held against compared to their male colleagues (e.g., women might have to prove themselves more and find their work overly scrutinized compared to men, ryan and haslam, 2007; brescoll, 2016; hoobler et al., 2018). the factor microinsults includes items that convey hostility such as sexualization, being made fun of or mentioning the menstrual cycle. another aspect that has been criticized before is the lack of factorial analyses in previous studies (lilienfeld, 2017). we established factorial validity of the mimi-16 by means of a cfa. the mimi-16 exhibited good model fit in the construction sample, as well as in three validation samples. multigroup cfa suggested that assumptions of strict measurement invariance hold between all samples. with this scale, we provide a valid instrument to empirically assess microinvalidations and microinsults against women.  descriptives and correlations descriptive statistics, mcdonald’s ω, cronbach’s α and bivariate correlations are presented in table 3. as expected, the mimi16 exhibited a moderate negative correlation with core selfevaluations and job satisfaction (r 0.32 and 0.32), as well as a moderate positive correlation with turnover intention (r 0.31, all at p 0.001). we expected a small to moderate correlation between the mimi-16 and work engagement. the hypothesis was confirmed albeit smaller than expected (r 0.15, p 0.001). the negative correlation between mimi-16 and occupational self-efficacy was r 0.18, p 0.001 and thus smaller than hypothesized.  model fit and latent structure in two separate validation samples model fit of the newly developed mimi-16 was good in both validation samples (numbers in squared brackets refer to fit indices in sub-dataset 2): cfi 0.936 [0.960], srmr 0.049 [0.042], 90%-cirmsea 0.050–0.074 [0.038– 0.064]. measurement models for the mimi-16 in all datasets are presented in table 4. standardized loadings of the factor microinvalidations ranged from 0.49 to 0.81 (sub-dataset 2: range [0.55;0.86]) and for microinsults from 0.44 to 0.78 (sub-dataset 2: range [0.43;0.76]). all factor loadings including standard errors can be found in the supplementary material, table 2. strict measurement invariance holds between the two samples [χ2 (250) 488.74, 1χ2 17.42, 1df 16, p 0.359].  correlations with organizational outcomes we ran correlational analyses with several organizational outcome measures such as job satisfaction and turnover intention. the results correspond with previous studies (e.g., chan et al., 2008; king et al., 2010). the mimi-16 correlated negatively with meaning of work, work engagement, occupational self-efficacy, and job satisfaction and positively with turnover intention. the data suggest a low association between the mimi-16 and work engagement and occupational self-efficacy, respectively. this might point to the fact that women in general feel the need to work harder in order to fulfill the higher standard and receive promotions (brescoll, 2016; hoobler et al., 2018), regardless of their experience of microinvalidations and -insults. another possible explanation for this result could be rooted in  regression analysis the model composed of job satisfaction, microaggressions, the work-environment, and core self-evaluation as predictors of turnover intention and was tested using multiple regression analysis (radj 0.42). the results are in favor of our hypothesis. job satisfaction (β 0.61; p 0.01) and microagressions  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  9  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  table 3 descriptives and inter-correlations for study 2. m  sd  mimi-16 total  microinsults  microinvalidations  uwes-9  mimi-16 total  3.17  1.12  0.91 (0.89)  microinsults  2.97  1.18  0.92***  microinvalidations  3.38  1.24  0.93***  0.70***  uwes-9  4.16  1.18   0.15***  oss-sf  4.39  0.92  tis  3.04  g-cses  oss-sf  tis  g-cses  js  fem   0.15***   0.13**  0.95 (0.93)   0.18***   0.15***   0.18***   0.51***  0.91 (0.87)  1.29  0.31***  0.26***  0.31***   0.48***   0.26***  0.86 (0.86)  3.42  0.63   0.32***   0.29***   0.30***  0.42***  0.67***   0.028***  jsa  0.00  0.85   0.35***   0.30***   0.34***  0.63***  0.39***   0.65***  0.40***  0.82 (0.81)  fem  4.16  0.84  0.22***  0.18***  0.23***   0.05   0.07  0.10   0.12**   0.06  equal  1.87  0.86   0.35***   0.29***   0.35***  0.14***  0.20***   0.15***  0.25***  0.13**   0.28***  we  3.01  1.18   0.28   0.23   0.28  0.01  0.01   0.05  0.02  0.08*   0.05  equal  0.87 (0.84)   0.06  mcdonald’s omega (cronbach’s alpha) is displayed in diagonals if applicable. mimi-16, microinsult and microinvalidation scale; uwes-9, utrecht work engagement scale-9; oss-sf, occupational self-efficacy scale-short form; tis, turnover intention scale; g-cses, german core self-evaluation scale; js, job satisfaction; fem, feminism; equal, subjective equality; we, work environment. a standardized z-scores * 0.05; ** 0.01; *** 0.001. table 4 measurement models for mimi-16 using mlr estimatora . n  χ2  df  p  cfi  tli  srmr  rmsea  90%ci rmsea  250  150.34  103  0.002  0.959  0.953  0.049  0.046  0.029–0.062  dataset 1  306  207.43  103   0.001  0.936  0.926  0.049  0.062  0.050–0.074  dataset 2  306  174.84  103   0.001  0.960  0.954  0.042  0.051  0.038–0.064  mimi-16 study 1 dataset 2 study 2  mimi-16, microinvalidations and microinsults scale. a cfa calculated with satorra-bentler adjusted χ2 .  criticized before (geisinger, 1994), in future studies it would be helpful to follow guidelines for cross cultural research (e.g., bartram et al., 2018). fourth, the questionnaire was developed and validated in germany, hence when applying the mimi-16 in different cultural settings, scholars in the future should keep in mind that the manifestations of gender microaggressions might differ.  the fact that the majority of participants held a university degree, indicating the possibility that they are operating on a high level of professionalism.  limitations before discussing specific results of the study, we discuss some limitations regarding generalizability. first, we recruited participants using personal and professional social networks resulting in a non-probability sample. although this strategy increases response rates and allows recruiting individuals from diverse backgrounds, it raises concerns regarding generalizability. second, in both studies we relied on self-report data, which tend to get criticized as being inherently biased. on the other hand, chan (2009) argues that self-report data is not that flawed after all. we, too, believe women to be the best source of information when it comes to their lived experiences. still, future research might have a look into developing multisource instruments to gain further insights into the matter. we measured all variables via self-report at the same time, which poses the risk of common method bias (podsakoff et al., 2003). then again, other scholars argue that this assumption distorts and oversimplifies the true issue, doubting that common methods inflate correlation to any significant degree (wagner and crampton, 1993; spector, 2006). third, the psgbi was not available in german and was translated-back-translated by us. this technique was  frontiers in psychology www.frontiersin.org  implications and future directions our research advances understanding of gender microaggressions in several ways. to our knowledge we are the first to provide a validated instrument to measure microinvalidations and microinsults against women in the workplace with the claim to be applicable for women in all positions and industries. the existing body of literature on gender microaggressions has shed light on an often-overlooked area of bias. we add to the research on gender microaggression theory by adapting the existing threefold taxonomy thus integrating some of the conceptual concerns raised by scholars in the past (e.g., regarding the microassault factor, lilienfeld, 2017). to our knowledge, scholars on gender microaggressions have mostly used qualitative research (capodilupo et al., 2010; lau and williams, 2010). with the newly developed mimi-16 we provide a quantitative instrument to measure gender microaggressions. possible future studies should evaluate the impact of gender  10  march 2022 volume 13 article 809862  
  algner and lorenz  development and validation mimi-16  microaggressions using longitudinal study designs. for example, our data suggests a statistically significant moderate negative correlation (r 0.32) between core self-evaluation and gender microaggressions. it might be worthwhile to further investigate the longitudinal interaction of the manifestation and quality of core self-evaluation with gender microaggressions, in order to potentially establish a causal direction. other questions of interest could include the effect of microinvalidations and microinsults across different levels of professionalism and organizational hierarchy, as well as on women at early stages of their career. furthermore, the possible measurement of microinvalidations and microinsults allows the evaluation of organizational interventions to reduce the phenomena in organizations.  ethics statement  data availability statement  supplementary material  the original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.  the supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg. 2022.809862/full#supplementary-material  references  bundesagentur fur arbeit (2011). klassifikation der berufe 2010. nuremberg: bundesagentur fur arbeit. capodilupo, c. m., nadal, k. l., corman, l., hamit, s., lyons, o. b., and weinberg, a. 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