Here is a poster of my work for this past semester. It has all you need to know about my game in its current state.
Category Archives: Project 11
PROJECT-11 FINAL PROJECT
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For the past 5 months I have been tasked with creating a game for learning purposes. This game was supposed to be about a topic of interest to me that is currently a hot topic in the Psych community. The topic I chose was Microaggression and this critical analysis that follows is based upon the game I came up with.
The Game: “Black In America” by Najahwan Goode/ CUNY York College
Learning Elements
This game is trying to teach the player about microaggression and its different forms. The game is trying to create a world that the player can relate to and an experience they can use in their rea life in the future. The main form of interaction the player has is through conversation with a NPC. This supports the learning objective because it is the closest one can get to talking to another person without actually talking to them. This game affects social and behavioral processes the most. The game attempts to socialize individuals to respond appropriately when faced with microaggressions. It essentially tries to shape social behavior.
Formal Elements
This game is single player and non-competitive. The game objective is to lead the most successful life possible within the parameters of the games environment. This supports the learning objective because this game is trying to improve real world outcomes, and if one can—to some extent—replicate their success in game in real life they would be achieving the learning objective. The rules of the game is that you must interact with the NPC and you must choose the most appropriate response to become successful in the game. This repetitive non-optional exposure to microaggressions can help shape the player’s behavior in actual situations which supports the learning objective. There are no resources that are acquired in the game that can be exchanged, although interactions in the game do determine the outcome.
Conflict in game is introduced with each new scenario the player is placed in. It is resolved at the conclusion of each scenario. It can escalate or deescalate depending on the responses of the player throughout each scenario. The game limits the player’s ability to act in unacceptable ways by limiting the player to generated answer choices instead of allowing the player to make up their own responses to the conversations they are in. this limits the fun for some player’s because they are not allowed to create their own choices, but this is made up for by how imaginative some of the choices available are and the different outcomes that are possible within the game. This limitations does however support the learning objective because it helps give the player a basis in which to reply in some situations. This kind of guideline makes it easier for an individual to understand the confines of microaggression. The game ends very similar to the game of life, when the player is an adult, with/without a family, a career, and a set plan for retirement.
Dramatic Elements
The main character is an African American male/female avatar, created by the player. Their motivation is the fact that they are forced to grow up in a world of microaggressions, and they are given a choice. They choose to thrive or fail at life. The avatar is the player’s window into a world that is either foreign, or all too familiar. They are tasked with doing the same thing they have to do in real life, decide who they want to become. The player is faced with scenarios with varying levels of microaggressive content. The player must develop and master the ability to recognize and respond to microaggressions in an appropriate manner. The fictional world is modern day America, 2016.
The premise is that the player is supposed to grow up and decide what they want to do with their life in a world propelled by microaggression. The story is a branching narrative guided by the player’s choices. Players choose how to react in situations and their reactions lead to different tracks for the story to follow. This game is playful in the same way Tell Your Own Story books are playful. The player can experiment with all kinds of responses to lead them in different imaginative outcomes, but at the heart of the dialogue the player can really learn how to grow as a person that deals with microaggressions on a regular basis.
The story provides opportunities for conflict by using different realistic microaggression comments/ attitudes. The player can choose to escalate or deescalate these situations how they see fit, but it is very possible for the player to play through the game without much tension at all. The game creates conflict in this same manner as well. It provides the space for issues to brew but waits for the player to decide whether any specific situation is an issue or not.
System Dynamics
The game has no physical objects that can be manipulated besides speech choices but it does include backgrounds of different locations like school, various work places, avatar homes’, precincts, etc. all the places one interacts with within their life within the states. The only behavior is communication through dialogue; a scenario occurs, player reacts, consequences unfold.
The aesthetics are there for visual effect entirely. The only dynamic aspect is the conversation, which drives the locations, and characters a player interacts with. The system informs the player that they are about to embark on a journey that can be aggressive and offensive at times. The player is informed of what microaggressions are, the different types of microaggressions, what domains the responses to the microaggressions are associated with, but the player is never informed about the origin, or the reason for these microaggressions. Their feedback from the system is in the form of the consequences of their choices. Good choices end with positive outcomes and possibilities. Bad choices have negative outcomes and limits the possibilities for the player to progress in a positive fashion—good job, happy family, etc.
Functionality, Completeness, & Balance
This game is not fully functional. The openness of the game is very limited and the array of choices are not the best as of yet. The game is complete. It has a clear message and tells a story a deliberate story.
The game is balanced. There is not one way to be successful, rather a specific tone of what to be done is key. The player has to learn when to react intensely to a situation and when to make light of what could have been a potentially serious situation. When the player learns the types of responses to make to different forms of microaggression they will do well, regardless of the specific paths they choose.
Fun and Accessibility
The game is engaging when one understands what the game represents. The elements of the game support the learning objective by not adding too much to that game that it distracts the player from what is most important. The game makes it feel as though any choice can be meaningful or frivolous and therefore the player should put thought into every choice they make. Given this nature all choices made in each scenario are meaningful. At times some of the scenarios are boring and do not resonate because of how covert the microaggression is. This artful display is important for the learning objective but takes away from the fun of the game sometimes.
This game is very easy to play. To figure out how to play does not take long. Players learn to play through in-game tutorials.
Hope you have enjoyed the last 14 or so weeks reading my blogs and following my progression learning how to program and design my own game. Thank you for your interest!
Black In America Beta Playtest Results
SUBJECTS: For this playtest there were three subjects used. We were put into groups in class to playtest each other’s games. The subjects were given the paper prototype of a game that was designed for a digital platform to test if the mechanics were functioning.
APPARATUS: The paper prototype had all instructions written on it. Also included scenarios the player would be involved in, the responses they could choose, and the outcome of each response. The player was given these pieces without instructions from me to see if they could navigate the game without assistance. When the players were stuck they expressed the enigma they faced, I assisted them through it, then took notes on what needed to be fixed.
PROCEDURES: The game consisted of the most basic form of the first chapter just to see if it was playable. By the end I will have fleshed out each conversation to make it a complete dialogue but for now each conversation consisted of one scenario, a microaggression, the responses available, and the consequences of each choice.
RESULTS: The playtest was successful in proving that the game was playable. It also helped me understand the two paths I could take next to further the production of this game. From the information gathered I can either make each mission of the first chapter a full quest, or I could create the main storyline for the rest of the game. I think I will further enhance the first chapter before moving onto the next one.
Thank you for reading. stay tuned for further progress with Black In America
PROJECT-11 WEEK 10
BLACK IN AMERICA
PROGRESS
My game was unable to be tested but we talked about it in class and some important things were brought forth to be addressed. For this forum the subjects included my professor and fellow classmates. The only condition was that they were all novice to the game. The class consisted of mostly minorities and our professor who was Caucasian.
BRAINSTORM RESULTS
We used a white board to brainstorm ideas for how the game can play out. After taking into account the information I decided on a linear texted base game modeling the old fashion “Choose Your Own Adventure” story books. The player will go through chapters that highlight the different steps one goes through as they develop—elementary school, high school, college, then career.at each junction they will be given choices that affect the choices they will be able to make in the future. One new element I decided to add after the forum is the ability to die earlier than intended. The initial idea was to play through the entire story each time with different outcomes. To give the players more room for fun there will be characters that if the interaction is bad enough they will be able to come back in later chapters to cause trouble. Another thing we discussed was including RMA that affected all minorities. Doing this would make the game a lot longer and harder to predict so I decided to stay with the initial idea of focusing on African Americans for this version. I was having a hard time coming up with decent microaggressions so I decided to lookup commonly used ma and modify them to make the ones used in game more realistic.
PROCEDURE
The two conditions compared will be frequent interactions involving RMA and interactions that have no RMA and the choice will be up to the player. To explain this and other rules/conditions there will be choices at menu screens and “hint” options in game for players who want to learn about what the game encompasses and the point of the game. The players who do not wish to know do not have to and can just play the game without any deeper understanding.
CONCLUSION
The outcome was just another set of necessary changes that need to be made to make the game more fun and accessible to players.
PROTOTYPING PROGRESS
I am rapping up the second prototype and learning much. I have completed the first level with one minor issue that I will skip for now because there is much more important things to learn. The issue occurs once I play the program. Once I start the program after a few seconds the Castle’s top levels collapse.
Aside from that all the physics are in place and I can proceed to making the other Castles. The clouds, projectile speed, screen tracking and other aspects are fully functioning.
I have learned about how to set appropriate colliders create scrolling back drops and what I consider to be most useful, how to quickly insert code by using tab and the first letter of the words included in the command I am trying to enter.
PROJECT-11 WEEK 9
Progress since last week in Black In America
LEARNING ELEMENTS:
This game is trying to teach the frequency, levels of subtlety, and issues of dealing with Racial Microaggressions. At its base the game is trying to simulate the issues that one—of many—minority groups deal with.
The primary game mechanic simulated conversation the player engages in with different NPC’s. These generated NPC’s take on the persona of all the different people we interact with on the daily bases that we have no control over.
This game has high behavioral and social implications. This games if working properly will give its players the knowledge and skill base to interact in social settings and respond in positive ways to microaggressions that will promote a healthy mental state. The design is essentially exposure based therapy to help players develop the coping mechanisms necessary to not be damaged by the effects of microaggressions.
FORMAL ELEMENTS:
This is a single player game. The player interacts with NPC’s as they would in a real situation. The primary learning objective is to be able to identify racial microaggressions—among other forms of microaggressions—and understand how to deal with them. This game supports this because it introduces players to the different levels of RMA and gives the players opportunities to respond to them to build familiarity with what they look like and what to do when they are put in a RMA situation.
The engine limits behavior so that the only rule is to respond to the NPC’s. Whether we want to or not we are constantly placed in social setting in social predicaments and we have to do or say something. This is in line with the learning objective. There are no feasible materials required in this game. All the materials are transparent. In other words the consequences of your actions don’t affect how you play the game but they affect the outcome of the game. The conflicts are introduced and built upon in each chapter. For instance the player begins in elementary school and encounters their first bully. Then they encounter other related conflicts up until they graduate form elementary school and then those conflicts are all concluded.
This game is an imagination based game. The player is not able to traverse a map or board, they are allow to choose a destination and responses. This limits what they can do physically in game but allows them more time to focus on their choices. As they make these choices they are allowed to revisit their choices to see what lead to their current position and allowed them to tactically decide where they want to go. This does not contribute to the learning objective but maybe fun for players who like to play through games for all possible outcomes. The player could end up dead depending on the choices they make, or they could play through the game and see where they end up in life—level of wealth, success, happiness, etc.
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS:
The main character is an avatar the player names. Their motivation is to live the most prosperous life they can. This is the player’s opportunity to do the different things they wish they could do in real life (rl) without the rl repercussions.
The basic challenges include the understanding of how to deal with the RMA they encounter. The player must develop the ability to identify microaggressions. Once they do this they could choose to react as they would in rl or intentionally push buttons to get reactions out of people. This takes place in a much realistic current 2016 in America where Trump is running for president and racial salience is at an all-time modern day high.
The premise is that we deal with these aggressions on the daily basis so we should learn how to deal with them. This game has a linear branching story. This game is playful in the same way a story book is playful; it has many possible outcomes for the player to find. This game is for the adventure players because of its level of replayability.
The tension is perceptually resolved when a player gets to a new chapter, which in game is a new place in life. For example all high school tension is relieved when a player graduates high school but begins again in college.
SYSTEM ELEMENTS:
The objective behavior in this game is verbal communication through the means of premade dialect choices. The NPC’s a players interacts with appear to be not important but are able to reappear later in game depending upon their previous interaction with the player. The system in this game is not emergent but the severity of reactions by NPC’s can become drastic as the game develops.
Initially the idea behind what microaggressions are and what they encompass is hidden. This is brought to the player’s attention as they progress through the game. The player is to an extent responsible for the NPC’s reactions. As the player makes decisions about how they respond to the NPC the NPC will respond and the game can take drastically different paths.
Today’s blog will be about will be about the steps post Pre-Alpha for Black In America
“I play-tested the game with some friends, family, and acquaintances. the following is the results.”
METHODS: For the first play-test only 5 subjects for were used. They included two members from my family, two of my fellow class students, and my professor. They were asked to participate in my games first play-test and if they accepted they were allowed to participate. For this test there was no exclusion criteria, I wanted the opinions of anyone willing to participate to get general feedback. The condition included only one play through which tested the story line. The choices of the subjects were very limited just to see if the mechanics worked. 3 of the 5 participants were between 20 and 32 and the other 2 were younger than 60. Of the 5 subjects 2 considered themselves Black/African American, one considered themselves mixed, and the last 2 were Hispanic and Caucasian respectively. Of the 5 subjects 2 were male and 3 were female.
Apparatus: I used paper, pen, whiteout, and a stapler to collect data and adjust the materials as needed for the follow up play test. The game is supposed to be digital so the play testers were presented with a paper play through version of the game. Each page had choices that were circled like buttons and labeled. Once a player selected a choice the games response would be on the appropriately labeled page and the player would be able to view what would happen next within the game. I was there to observe and take notes of the players’ reactions and suggestions.
PROCEDURE: The conditions included choices that would lead to a prosperous future and choices that would lead to a fruitless future. In both conditions the player was presented with Racial Microaggressions in the form of speech bubbles with quotes form figures of authority and they were given choices as responses. There is initially an option for backstory on the first menu page. Since I did not create the backstory page I verbally relayed the backstory to the players when they selected that option. The data was collected in the form of notes I recorded on a separate sheet of paper for me to review later when making more edits to the game.
RESULTS: The most substantial change I was made aware of that also will help with future data collection is the type of story line used. Making the story line linear delayed branching style I can record the stats of player’s choices. For the sake of recording useful data I can change the responses to RMA to coincide with the 5 domains associated with microaggression. The data I collected so far was only to help with the formatting of the game and the mode in which I could collect data in the future. Therefor eat this moment I am unable to provide descriptive or inferential data pertaining to the internal elements of the game dealing with microaggression.
Again thanks for reading!
Tune in next week for the progression!
This is a concept for a learning based game designed by Najahwan Goode
Introduction: Racial microaggression is a phenomenon that has just gained notoriety in recent years due to its significance in America. I hope to create a game that will bring enlightenment to those who play it and give them a better understanding of what some people have to go through in this country.
LEARNING ELEMENTS
The intent of the game is to raise awareness of the dangers of Racial Microaggressions in the United States and how it can affect Black adults as they enter the adult world. The experience goal for the player is to understand how difficult it can be dealing with Racial Microaggressions while trying to get one’s life together.
In this game the player will be put into situations where they have to have conversations that decide their future in the game. They have several choice options to choose from and select a choice with either a mouse click, or using the directional buttons on the keyboard. This in theory will support the learning objective because they will—if they play the game dutifully—have to think about their actions and afterward they will see how their actions in some cases will not even make a difference.
This game will mostly have cognitive, social, and behavioral effects on the player based upon the design. It attempts to engage a player cognitively, in realistic social situations. At the end of the different parts of the game the players’ responses will be compared to the Reaction Domains associated with racial microaggressions and the player will be able to see what their choice means as well as possible options for future incidents they encounter in real life that involve microaggressions.
FORMAL ELEMENTS
This game will be one player and consist of interactions between the player and Non-Player Characters. The primary objective is similar to that of the board game Life: where the goal is to have the most successful outcome possible. The difference here is that it will be a span of around 20 years instead of an entire life time. The game object will be to simulate the difficulties of trying to procure a successful future through the controversies of microaggressions.
The main rule is 
to make it to the end of the game (Age 40). A player can simulate parts of the game but if they do decisions will be made for them at random that may not be favorable. If a player is dies (there are many way in which this can occur) gets life in prison, or does something that will result in them not being able to make it to age 40 or live as an emancipated individual by age 40 they lose. The procedure changes depending on the part the player is at. The scenarios change based upon age (ranges from 17 -40) and location (school, home, work, etc). The resources the player will acquire throughout their play through include material possession (cars, money etc), reputation, infamy, food, shelter, friends, and other relationships. The exchange of the resources that are material is up to the player, what they want/ need to spend their money on. The less tangible things like reputation and infamy are build or lost based upon the player’s choices of words in social environments in the game like conversations, and their actions like stealing or illegal activity.
Conflict in game is introduced by the players need to carry out daily activities like working, going to school, socializing, and other daily activities. How it is maintained or resolved is then up to the player and the settings. If a player wants to end a relationship with an individual they will have that option when conversing with that individual. If a player wants to quit their job and get a new one they have that option. The game comes into play when they have to interact with other races, like if they are playing with racial microaggressions on a higher level and apply to a job with a white employer they will have a much lower chance of getting the job. This is but one example of how the games RMA setting will affect a player’s access to the game. The environment is fixed so the playe
r can only access what they are allowed to. Actions like high levels of aggression and other outrageous behavior will be checked by realistic aspects like law enforcement. The law enforcement limitation can be fun similar to how it is fun in other popular games for players who want to test the bounds of how the game will pursue malicious behavior. The level of RMA would have less severe acts like J walking in the streets have higher penalties than normal and would exaggerate the point of the learning objective, that things are treated differently when minorities are involved.
The game ends when the player reaches the age limit. At this time the player is shown the results of everything they did in the game. This list includes but is not limited to, amount of arrests, jobs they worked, salaries they have earned, family size. Some things would be more stressed than other, like their average reaction style to microaggressions and how that would translate to real life if they reacted in the same way as they did in the game in real life.
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
The main character is a young black male in his last two years of high school, trying to become as successful as possible within their journey through life. The player is essentially living through the character/avatar to experience the different possibilities of how racial microaggressions can impact their one’s life. On top of the normal challenges of procuring a successful future in today’s competitive American society the player has to deal with the stigma and racial microaggressions that are faced on a daily bases by black people.
In takes place in a simulated American State. A young adult about to finish 
school and embark on the journey of life with little guidance from his family. It is literally him against the world. The story is linear in at its base. The players are all heading in the same direction. It is emergent in nature as the player makes decisions new options and new directions become available. They are given places they can go and people they can interact with. Based upon how they react with the individuals and where they choose to go the story line unfolds.
It definitely encompasses the elements for achievers and adventures. It offers a competitive player the challenge of thriving in a society where the deck is literally stacked against them if they choose to. There is also plenty of room for a player to explore all that the world has to offer if they just want to test what is possible. Tension is created when one tries to become more than expected of them. For instance when one tries to go from an entry level position, to manager, to CEO, the tension will rise exponentially and is resolved when one recedes to a more expected role based upon the stereotypes of their race—in this case black. Depending on the ambition of the player, much like real life the tension could possibly not be resolved until the end when they reach 40 and retire to a secluded location where th
ey are outside of the reach of RMA… if such a place even exists. Conflict is created when the player tries to interact with NPC’s. Whether it be through direct conversation or the pursuit obtain something material, like a house in a specific location. Where ever there is an opportunity for microaggressions there is a chance for conflict to be created.
SYSTEM DYNAMICS
The components on the game will include NPC’s, buildings, and currency/resources. The buildings will serve purposes, means of income, shelter, and ways to acquire skills too progress. The people will either provide or mitigate opportunities. Currency will serve as a means of trade. Buying, communicating, and compromising are the main system behaviors.
The basic relationship I player decides what they want to do àplayer sets out to attain what they wantàgame introduces RMA to deter playeràplayer reevaluates how much they really want something—if they choose to continueàfigure out another way to get it. At this point there is either another deterring microaggression or the player gets to the desired goal, but usually there is another deterrence. The system is controlled by the players will to go against the microaggressions.
The economy is multifaceted. The player has to obtain money to get other things like a house or food but obtaining money requires them to interact with the NPC’s. Interactions with the NPC’s then requires another currency which is reputation. This currency is harder to gain as the player becomes more successful in the game because the player then has to deal with more attention from oppressors, the individuals that are usually the culprits behind microaggressions.
The player early on just has to build a rapport with their parents and go to school. As the game progresses the player gets involved in more institutes, like work, higher education and so on. The player then has to balance interacting with these institutes and the people involved. As the person strays further from their people and stereotypical areas they encounter the most important engine of the game, racial microaggressions. The emergence of the system is more player based than procedurally based. The choices the player has to make is exposed. Why the game becomes harder and more resistant to the player become successful in the game is hidden until the end. The players control over the system lies in their attempt to be successful within the system. The more they try to become successful within the system the more difficult making independent choices will become, the less they try to become successful the less resistance they will face from the system.
FUN AND FUNCTIONALITY
Very much so. They promote the objective by raising difficulty in a realistic since which causes a real sense of success when doing well in the game. All choices involving career, family, and life success. The objective is to see how every day choices an effect life time success.
The part that may seem broken is how difficult the game gets when a player is nearing success in all aspects of life, good job, happy family, and happy friends. The length of the game and the level of difficult could become exhausting. Life as a black person in a white supremacist society can seem like an unsurmountable obstacle most of the time.
It would be easy to the target group—Black people in America. The understanding and difficulty may increase based upon demographics drastically different than the intended. Initially a few minutes but there are new systems that get introduced during game progression. Through tutorials and an initial story introduction.
I hope you like the concept. If so show support for BLACK IN AMERICA in the comment section that will follow.
Methods for Racial Microaggression: Experimental Game
Introduction: This week’s blog will be about the methods that will be used in an experimental game I am in the process of designing. The game if to test how people of color (POC) respond to Racial Microaggressions (RMA). I will give an in-depth description of the subjects, the apparatus, and the procedure I plan to use for the experiment.
Subjects: The population of interest for this experiment is late adolescence, early adulthood college/ high school POCs
within the United States. Because the method of experimentation here is through computer game the sample will consist of as many high school college students that have access to a computer that care to participate. The methods for contacting these students will include ads on school websites, presentations at cooperating schools, and the incentive will be extra credit for described however the instructors of the students at their home institutes see fit. There will be three groups for this experiment, one controlled and two experimental. The Control group: will include interactions between players and the game engine that have no RMA in them. ). Experimental Group 1: Will have interactions with the engine that have frequent RMAs directed at the self-identified ethnicity of the player. Experimental Group 2: Players will interact with RMAs that are not geared specifically to their self-identified 
ethnicity. The criteria of importance in selecting subjects for this sample include ethnicity (POCs only), age (18-24), and enrollment status (currently enrolled in high school or an undergraduate program). The students will take a short survey before participation that will find out their ethnicity, age, and level of education. Those that do not meet the requirements will be unable to participate in the study. Ethnicity (non POC), age (outside of age range), non – student. If the participant is of a non-minority eg. European, Caucasian, and other groups not considered POC. The average age should be between 20 and 22. Education and ethnicity will be important parts of the demographic. As of now gender will not be important for the demographic but data will be collected comparing the results of male POC and female POC. Motivation for participation in this experiment includes: Movie tickets, extra credit for courses, and the understanding that they would be learning more about how they are perceived by the rest of the world.
Apparatus: The game engine used for designing this game will be the Unity 3d. The stimuli for this experiment will consist of comments by Non player characters (NPC) that will be 1 of 3 responses; the NPC will respond to the player with a neutral stimuli (non RMA related comment) or 1 of 2 negative stimuli – a RMA related to the specific ethnicity or a random RMA directed at another group other than the players identified group. These stimuli will be presented in dialogue between the player and game characters as the player goes through everyday life within the virtual world. The player’s responses will be measured on a scale of psychological hygiene – from psychologically unhealthy to psychologically healthy. The player will be asked to fill out surveys before and after a session with the game.
Procedures: there will be three conditions: 1- No RMAs, 2 – Racially Salient RMAs, and 3 – Non-Racially salient RMAs. The subjects will be tasked with carrying out everyday tasks for their age range; things like go to school, go to work, hangout with friends, spend time with family, and other daily tasked young adults may partake in within this role playing game (RPG). The subject will be enlightened to the concept of Microaggressions and asked to play a game where they will be addressed by different people who m
Note: This images was obtained from google and edited with information geared toward my project not a custom design of my own
ay or may not be using RMAs while communicating with them. They are then asked to act as close to their normal persona as possible and answer the questions how they would if they were asked the questions in real life, or how they would like to respond to the questions and to clearly determine which attitude they were playing with – real answers or desired answers – when asked in the survey after their experience. This information will be presented to the player in the game description and during the early game tutorials. Each response in the game will be recorded for later input into a data analysis program like SPSS for further analysis.
Thank you for your support! Stay tuned in to watch the development of this project.
Project-11 Week 5
Racial Microagression
Microaggression consists of daily common place verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities both intentional and unintentional. These derogatory negative comments and behaviors are usually directed at minority groups by groups who view themselves as superior. Some examples of these comments could include “she has good hair for a Black girl”, or “he drives well compared to most Chinese people”. These comments m
ay sometimes just be based upon stereotypes or personal biases and said with no intent to hurt someone else but they do register and can cause a host of physiological and psychological issues for the individuals these acts are directed toward.
Some of the top contributions to this field:
- The Taxonomy of Microaggressions; call for research.
- The correlations between a student’s sense of cultural identity, how much more likely they are to interpret negative learning environments, and how they are more likely to perceive racial MAs within that environment.
- Fears of white students related to being perceived as racist, acknowledging if they are racist or seeming racist.
- Themes identified that affect black faculty dealing with Racial Microaggressions (RMA).
- MA’s being the most common form of racism reported by visible minorities and female students.
- The identification of 5 domains related to the experience of Mas for Black people.
- Explored intersections of racial and gender Mas for Black, Latina/o, and White students.
- How RMAs often lead to difficult dialogues on race in the classroom.
- Frequently experiencing RMAs in the form of racist jokes
- Parents providing social and cultural opportunities for their children can mitigate the negative psychological effects of RMAs.
- A negative correlation between the perception of RMAs by the supervisor in supervision and the work alliance.
- Those who experience RMAs are less likely to seek treatment.
Some Gaps in the study of this topic that remain:
- Should the taxonomy of RMA be the same for all People of Color (POC) or should different taxonomies be developed for each racial group?
- Do members of the non-visible racial and ethnic minorities experience MA differently if at all?
- How do RMA compare to, or fit with other theoretical models of discrimination?
- How do coping mechanisms mitigate the effects of MA and what is the actual relationship between MA and coping mechanisms.
- Lack of longitudinal and experimental data.
- Effective scales for measuring MA.
- The accumulative effect of RMA across one’s life.
- Psychological and physical health outcomes of RMA in the long-term.
The purpose of my study is to find out more about actual therapeutic approaches to dealing with individuals that deal with RMAs and finding out how much they gain from the therapy. In the end I want to create a virtual means of therapy that takes place through a players interactions within a simulated world. As they reach certain milestones time-wise I would like to give them surveys using a scale to gather quantitative data about how the treatment affects them.
It is predicted that as people of color reach miles stones within the therapeutic program they will be better able to deal with the RMAs they experience every day and it will have less physical and psychological impact on their lives.
Racial Microaggression is a serious issue. people say things all the time without knowing the weight of the things they say. Minorities whether it be a racial minority, gender minority, or even sexual preference minority the comments those who are viewed as the majority have serious impact on others and it is my personal goal to even the field any way possible.
My intent is to make sure comments like this will no longer negatively effect people of color again.
PROJECT-11 WEEK 4
What is the best way to deal with Microaggression?
Thesis
My thesis will eventually be about the best way to treat microaggression. The question I want to answer is “what is the best way to fight microaggression?” By this I mean is it more effective to educate the masses on the psychological trauma that comes from microaggression in an attempt to educate individuals on how their actions affect others, or should attention be focused more on therapeutic methods for those who are victims of regular microaggression. the second question.
Related to Psychology
The cognitive process I would like to focus on is microaggression. More specifically I want to understand what causes microaggression, how do the populations affected by microaggression behave as a result, and what methods of treatment are most effective when dealing with microaggression.
Socially Relevant
Given the country we are in race is always a relevant controversial topic. To the best of my current knowledge microaggression is the result of racial discrepancies and therefore it is socially relevant. The outcome I am looking for by the end of this project is to create a medium for people to become more aware of the effects of microaggression and how everyone can contribute to reducing their aggression toward another group or their ability to defend themselves against this abuse.
Contribution to the Field
I have not heard of microaggression until I looked it up and through my research this issue has only come to the light in the last few years therefore ways in which to address it have not been discovered. What I want to do is see if there are any methods of therapy for individuals who struggle with microaggression and implement a way to have them treat themselves through virtual therapy. In essence it would be similar to virtual reality for PTSD patients—a fairly new treatment—for individuals having difficulty dealing with microaggression. What is unclear yet is if it would be for those who display microaggression toward others or those who are on the receiving end of the aggression.
Personal Interest in the Topic
Since I am a black male I am in one of the minority groups who deal with microaggression, racism and other forms of racial discrimination this topic I personal. I hope to at the very least gain a deeper insight to some of the issues my people deal with. Another reason why this is interesting to me is because I plan on treating late adolescence/early adulthood minority groups and microaggression maybe something they deal with regularly.
