PSCH 231 Community Psychology

Individualistic perspectives

Explains people's behavior and problems by looking at the individual, such as their personality, choices, abilities, or behaviors.

Settings

Places or social environments that influence people's behavior, experiences, and opportunities.  It can span multiple places and can apply to microsystems (family, school, workplace) and larger organizations (church, health centers).  

Mediating structures

Organizations or groups that connect individuals to larger society and public life. Include schools, churches, self-help groups, clubs, etc. Help protect people from feeling isolated

Individuals

The smallest ecological level of analysis. Community psychology considers the person's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, relationships, experiences, culture, and circumstances.

Values

Deeply held ideals in individuals and communities about what is considered moral, right, or good. They can influence goals, the means to achieve those goals, or both

Distributive justice

The fair and equitable allocation of resources ( e.g., money, access to good quality health services or education ) among members of a social group.

Organizations

Structured groups that have particular purposes, roles, rules, and activities (e.g., workplaces, religious congregations, neighborhood associations, schools). They often consist of multiple microsystems and can be part of larger social units ( e.g., a neighborhood association operates within a city )

Empowerment and citizen participation:

Increasing people's ability to have control over decisions and resources that affect their lives. Help individuals and communities to gain power and strength (politically, economically, spiritually, socially).

Microsystems

Immediate environments in which people communicate and have direct, usually face-to-face interactions ( e.g., families, classrooms, musical groups, sports teams)

Respect for human diversity

Recognizing and respecting differences among people and communities. These differences can include culture, race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, beliefs, experiences, and other aspects of human identity.

Community psychology

Examines the relationships between individuals and the communities and societies in which they live. It combines research and action to understand and improve quality of life for individuals, communities, and societies.

Errors of logical typing

Taking action at the wrong ecological level ( e.g., city ordinances that limit panhandling, which targets individual behaviors resulting from homelessness, not the root causes of homelessness within localities and macrosystems).

Context

The surrounding social, cultural, organizational, and environmental conditions that influence people's lives. Includes family relationships, schools, neighborhoods, organizations, cultural norms, gender roles, and socioeconomic conditions.

Collaboration

Equal relationship between community psychologists and community members. Work with community’s strengths as opposed to exclusively understanding their problem

Social justice

Fair and equitable distribution of resources, opportunities, obligations, and power across communities within a society. All members in a socially just society have the same rights and are subject to the same processes, which are developed collaboratively with input from all members of that society. 

Alternative settings

Environments created or organized in ways that provide alternatives to existing institutions or systems that may not adequately meet people's needs.

Populations

Group of people who are linked due to shared characteristic or experience. They can form the basis of a community ( e.g., the Deaf community, gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion)

Macrosystems

The largest systems within an ecological framework that include large-scale social, cultural, political, and economic forces that influence people's lives.

First-order change

Altering, rearranging, or replacing the individual members of a group without addressing the structural issues that are the root cause of the problem.

Procedural justice

Ensures that everyone has the same rights and is subject to the same procedures

Empirical grounding

Basing community psychology research and action on evidence and systematic observation, rather than assumptions or opinions alone

• Acquisition of knowledge though scientific methods 

Structural perspectives

How systemic factors at various levels (laws, policies, norms, resources) impact the lives of individuals, families, and other groups within a community.

Sense of community

A feeling of belongingness, interdependence, and mutual commitment that links individuals as a collective. It is integral to community and social action and is a resource for social support and clinical work

Collective wellness

The well-being of groups and communities as a whole, not simply the absence of problems in individual people.

Consultation

Community psychologist works with individuals, organizations, or groups to help them understand and address problems.

Second-order change

Resolving a problem by changing relationships within a community, which includes shared goals, roles, rules, and power dynamics

Oxford House

A community-based recovery setting for people recovering from substance use. Residents live together, support one another, and manage the home themselves, rather than relying entirely on professionals.

How is community psychology distinct from other sub-divisions in psychology?

Offers a different way of understanding human behavior and how to support individuals, family and community wellness. Focus on how community interactions impact individuals behavior. 

Community psychologists use an ecological perspective, meaning they consider multiple levels of influence—from the individual and immediate relationships to organizations, communities, and larger social systems.

Community psychology are interested in effective ways to prevent problems rather than treat them after they arise

What are the main values in community psychology?

• Social Justice

• Respect for Human diversity 

• Sense of community

• Collective Wellness

• Empowerment and Citizen participation

• Collaboration

• Empirical Grounding

• Multilevel, Strengths-based perspective

Why does community psychology embrace its values?

Community psychology recognizes that values influence what we study, how we conduct research, and what kinds of changes we pursue.

Values help clarify choices for research and action. Even defining a problem is a value-laden choice, strongly influencing subsequent action

Understanding a culture or community involves understanding its distinctive values. Each community has distinctive values that are culturally embedded.

Explain how ecological levels of analysis can be used to understand complex problems.

Thinking in terms of ecological levels of analysis helps clarify how a single event or problem has multiple causes.

Thinking in terms of ecological levels of analysis also helps illustrate multiple ways to address an important question for community psychology: What is a community?

Ecological levels of analysis are helpful tools in shifting perspective about where to look to improve social outcomes. Systematically examining an issue across levels of analysis can uncover multiple contributing factors to that issue.

What is second-order change and how does it differ from first-order change?

First-order change makes changes within an existing system while leaving the basic structure of that system intact. Second-order change changes the system itself.

Linking science

Looks for relationships among factors across multiple ecological levels, including individuals, microsystems, localities, and macrosystems. Through this approach, community psychology seeks a comprehensive understanding of what influences the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

The Swampscott Conference

Meeting held in 1965 that helped establish community psychology as a distinct field. Psychologists came together to discuss how psychology could move beyond traditional mental health services and focus more on prevention, communities, social environments, and improving people's well-being.

Participant-conceptualizer

Refers to someone who contributes their expertise in research and / or intervention methods to creating positive social change in collaboration with community members. 

Top-down approach

Strategies for creating social change that are developed by professionals, leaders, or other elites. Their strategies are rooted in empirical research and often backed by more resources, but they can also reflect biases and interests of the powerful and privileged

Fair play

The idea that people should have equal opportunities to participate and compete fairly for social, educational, or economic advancement, rather than being unfairly excluded. It assumes that everyone starts in the same place and that different results are due to individuals

Liberation psychology

Inspired by liberation theology in Latin America, this approach seeks to focus on understanding and addressing the effects of oppression, inequality, and power differences. It emphasizes values like citizen empowerment and social justice and has influenced community psychology's development. 

Program evaluation

The ability to partner with community members and assess whether programs are meeting their goals

Linking practice

Brings together multiple community stakeholders, including members who are often overlooked, to address community issues. Community psychology uses this approach to develop comprehensive, collaborative interventions.

Public health

Focuses on protecting and improving the health of populations and communities, rather than only treating individual patients.

It emphasizes:

• Prevention

• Health promotion

• Population-level interventions

• Environmental influences

• Reducing risk before problems occur

Civil Rights

Rights of people to receive equal treatment and protection under the law, regardless of characteristics such as race.

The civil rights movement influenced community psychology by emphasizing equality, participation, empowerment, and social justice.

Blaming the victim

Thinking about societal problems from an individualistic perspective, we attribute a person's problems primarily to their own characteristics or choices while ignoring the social and environmental conditions that contribute to the problem.

Fair shares

People should have fair access to resources and opportunities. It looks beyond individual factors and considers broader influences, such as access to resources or opportunities, to ensure equal competition for social, educational, and economic

Action research

 Research that informs and contributes to positive social change.

1. Identify a problem

2. Collect information

3. Develop an intervention

4. Take action

5. Evaluate what happened

6. Use what was learned to make improvements

The people affected by the problem are active participants in the research rather than simply being research subjects.

Divergent reasoning

An approach to social issues that avoids simplistic, one -sided answers and recognizes that conflicting viewpoints can coexist and lead to more effective solutions. It also involves questioning the status quo or commonly accepted viewpoints and welcoming new perspectives. 

Group dynamics

The study of how groups form, how people interact with each other in  groups, and how groups can impact their members' attitudes and behaviors. 

Bottom-up approach

Grassroots strategies for creating social change that come from citizens instead of professionals and powerful stakeholders. They are grounded in the experiences and ideas of the people who are affected the most by community or social issues. 

Feminism

A social and intellectual movement focused on addressing gender inequality and systems of oppression.Feminist ideas influenced community psychology by emphasizing:

• Power

• Inequality

• Social structures

• People's lived experiences

• Participation

• Empowerment

• Challenging traditional power relationships

Which theories and fields allowed community psychology to develop?

Community psychology developed from multiple fields, such as public health, sociology, law, anthropology, social psychology, and environmental psychology. Movements, such as the Mental Health reform, Civil Rights movement, and the Feminist movement impacted and influenced psychology.

Lightner Witmer

Witmer opened the Psycho-Educational Clinic in Philadelphia in 1896, the first psychological clinic in the United States. Witmer asserted that every child can learn and sought to change teaching methods to fit the needs of each child, collaborating with public schools

Kurt Lewin

• Lewin was from Germany, but moved to the U.S during Nazi regime. He faced discrimination for being Jewish.

• Lewin was a founder of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), long an important voice in U.S. psychology

• He argued that prejudice and discrimination have a negative impact on development

• He emphasized that behavior is influenced by the interaction between the person and their environment. B= f (p,e)

• He was a pioneer of action research and group dynamics

John Dewey

Otto Klineberg

Kenneth and Mamie Phillips Clark

Emory Cowen

• In 1958, Emory Cowen and colleagues began the Primary Mental Health Project in the elementary schools of Rochester, New York, seeking to detect early indicators of school maladjustment in students and intervene before full-blown problems appeared

• Emory Cowen's (1973) Annual Review of Psychology article "Social and Community Interventions" (the first devoted to this new field) found that less than 3% of community mental health research articles had a prevention focus.

• He called for more emphasis on prevention. He identified a number of interventions, principally dealing with child or youth development, and often focused on disadvantaged populations and collaboration with local citizen

Seymour Sarason

John Glidewell

Julian Rappaport

Marie Jahoda

W.E.B Du Bois

How has the “spirit of the times” influenced the way we understand problems like substance use disorders?

The "spirit of the times" refers to the cultural, political, social, and historical conditions of a particular period. At one point, substance abuse wa seen as a personal failure. However, perspectives began to change to recognize that substance abuse is influenced other social and economic factors, such as poverty, stress, social policies, community conditions, family and more. The "spirit of the times" acts as a filter determining how substance was understood and which interventions were put in place.

How did mental health reforms influence community psychology?