<p dir="ltr">The feeling of invisibility threatens fundamental needs and negatively affects mood. One could conclude from this research that more visibility should minimize need threats and negative moods. However, studies have also shown that, in some instances, experiences of hypervisibility are distressing. Social media is flooded with videos and articles of Black men and women feeling invisible in the medical fields and not receiving the treatment they deserve. Likewise, social media examples abound of Black individuals feeling monitored in retail situations or being killed by the police because of racial stereotypes. Researchers also found adverse experiences of invisibility or hypervisibility among Black individuals that appear to be contradictory at a phenomenological level. My research aims to assess how invisibility and hypervisibility are experienced qualitatively and how manipulations of invisibility and hypervisibility may cause different psychological effects. In Study 1, Black participants were asked to recall their experiences with both invisibility and hypervisibility. Participants had little difficulty reporting both experiences, in which strangers either dismissed, ignored, and excluded them or spotlighted them because of race-based stereotypes. Coding themes also showed that participants could recall positive events and emotions when asked about hypervisibility but not invisibility. In Study 2, I manipulated invisibility and hypervisibility using a novel method: comics. Results showed that Black participants experienced threatened needs when reading a comic about a Black child being invisible or hypervisible. However, their needs were more threatened when the child recalls an invisibility experience. Lastly, in Study 3, I replicated Study 2 but also added necessary control conditions. Additionally, I examined the impact of comic-induced invisibility and hypervisibility on cognitive interference using a Stroop test. The results of Study 2 were replicated, but there was no difference in cognitive interference between the conditions. In summary, although the present research shows that invisibility and hypervisibility are both aversive, invisibility leads Black individuals to feel worse and have lower need satisfaction. Additionally, invisibility and hypervisibility threaten the needs of self-esteem and control similarly, but invisibility leads to more threats to belonging and meaningful existence than does hypervisibility. Using an innovative method of comics, my research demonstrates the aversive psychological impact of invisibility as well as the aversive reactions to hypervisibility. Future research should focus on whether hypervisibility is primarily detrimental because the individual may feel that while their stereotypic physical or social features are highly noticed, their core attributes of what makes them a person are not.</p>

The problem of racial microaggressions in the United States has important implications for counseling due to the mental and physical health concerns individuals who experience them may develop. Although the current literature addresses racial microaggressions among Black individuals and implications for counseling, no qualitative studies that included the voices of Black individuals using relational cultural theory were found. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Black individuals who have encountered racial microaggressions and learn their perspectives on what counselors can do to help them in counseling. Adding this perspective will help fill this gap in counseling literature and aid counselors in promoting mental wellness among Black clients. Through semi structured interviews, 7 Black adults living in Florida shared their lived experiences with racial microaggressions and gave perspectives on how counselors can serve Black clients in counseling. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was the research design used in the study, in concordance the 6-step approach used to analyze the data, and relational cultural theory was the theoretical framework. The following 7 themes emerged from the study: lived experiences with racial microaggressions, emotional responses to racial microaggressions, intersectionality, coping with racial microaggressions, advocacy and social justice, neighborhood and community social support, and implications for counseling. These results provided implications for social change because they can add to counselors' knowledge on how to improve services to Black clients, which can improve their lives.