Microaggressions and stereotype threat in psychological practice

¶ … Microagression and the Concept Stereotype Threat

The objective of this brief study is to examine microaggression and the concept of stereotype threat.

Micro-Aggression

The American Psychological Association reports that all individuals "exist in social, political, historical and economic contexts." (2008, p. 377) The work of Ross-Sheriff (2012) reports that social workers and academians who are female are "targets of microaggression." (p. 1) This si reported to often be the case when these individuals are coping with institutions on behalf of their clients or in the management of "relations and careers within their own institutions." (Ross-Sheriff, 2012, p. 1) Chester M. Pierce coined the term microaggression and reported that microaggression is "...subtle, stunning, often automatic and nonverbal exchanges which are put downs of blacks by offenders." (cited in Ross-Sheriff, 2012) Microaggression is defined as "verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intention, or unintentional that communicate hostile derogatory or mental indignities, where intention or unintentional that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial slights and insults toward people of other races." (Ross-Sheriff, 2012, p.1) The most effective way of assisting the client in coping with microaggression is the psychologist assisting the client in the recognition that microaggression is debilitating for the client and to assist the client in their understanding of the outcomes of the behavior and in communicating this knowledge to the client. The social worker should additionally assists the client in strategy development and implementation and further in the mitigation of the effects of microaggression and the ability to conduct an examination of their own behaviors that may be microaggression. The individual's culture must necessarily be given consideration in the treatment of others as many misunderstandings occur and result in complications that could have otherwise been avoided. The work of The American Psychological Association work entitled "Guidelines of Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice and Organizational Change for Psychologists' states that general practice psychologists rarely have "formal training in the psychology of aging as part of their generic training in psychology." (2008, p. 1)

Summary and Conclusion

In summary, the social worker's practice has experienced transition and change as the societal landscape has changed and the social worker is in need of training to deal with these changes more than ever in recent history. Multicultural considerations are of key importance as is the need to gain knowledge for the purpose of avoiding negative stereotyping of groups rendering these groups incapable of change upon the basis of the lack of awareness fo the social worker rather than upon the client's lack of functional stabilizes.