PSYU/PSYX2222 Week 12: Community Psychology and Social Justice

Week 12: Community Psychology and Social Justice

Lecture Outline

• This lecture covers:
  • Introduction to Community Psychology
    • Research methodologies
    • Belonging
  • Social justice in community psychology
    • Power and privilege
    • Ethical stance vs. Neutrality
    • Justice-doing
  • Intersectionality Theory
    • Systems of oppression
    • Application: Trauma-informed care

Lecture Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this lecture, you will be able to:
  • Critically analyze the principles of community psychology.
  • Evaluate the role of social justice in psychological practice.
  • Apply the theory of intersectionality to community-based issues.
  • Integrate concepts of justice-doing and collective ethics into community work.

Introduction to Community Psychology

• Community Psychology:
  • A branch of psychology that focuses on understanding people within their social, cultural, economic, and environmental contexts.
  • Looks at how communities and systems affect well-being and how to create change at those levels, rather than just treating individuals.
  • Underpinned by Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System’s Model.

Brief History of Community Psychology

• 1965: Swampscott Conference
  • Marked the formal recognition of Community Psychology.
  • Psychologists gathered to discuss the need for a new role focused on social and systemic factors.
• 1970: James G. Kelly
  • Introduced ecological principles to Community Psychology.
  • Emphasized the importance of understanding individuals within broader contexts.
• 1974: Seymour Sarason
  • Highlighted the concept of community belonging and support in mental health.
• 1981: Julian Rappaport
  • Introduced empowerment theory, advocating for active participation of marginalized communities in addressing social issues.
• 2000’s: Intersectionality and social justice
  • Emphasized the importance of addressing overlapping identities and systemic oppression.
• 2020’s: Global expansion
  • Community psychology continues to expand globally, incorporating diverse perspectives and practices to address social issues.

Core Values

• Community Psychology is grounded in a set of core values that guide its theory, research, and practice.
• These values distinguish it from other branches of psychology by emphasizing social context, equity, and collective well-being.

1. Ecological Perspective:

• People are best understood within the multiple systems they interact with (e.g., family, school, community, society).
• Inspired by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.

2. Empowerment:

• Focuses on increasing individuals’ and communities’ control over their lives.
• Encourages participation, voice, and agency—especially for marginalized groups.

3. Social Justice:

• Aims to challenge and change systems of oppression and inequality.
• Promotes fair access to resources, rights, and opportunities.

4. Prevention and Promotion:

• Emphasizes preventing problems before they occur and promoting strengths and well-being.
• Shifts focus from treatment to proactive community support.

5. Collaboration and Community Strengths:

• Values working with communities, not on them.
• Builds on existing assets, knowledge, and resilience within communities.

6. Respect for Diversity:

• Recognizes and values cultural, racial, gender, and other forms of diversity.
• Encourages culturally responsive and inclusive practices.

7. Sense of Community:

• Emphasizes belonging, mutual support, and shared emotional connection.
• Based on Seymour Sarason’s foundational work.

8. Citizen Participation:

• Encourages democratic involvement in decision-making processes.
• Supports grassroots organizing and civic engagement.

Research Methodologies

• Community Psychology uses a range of participatory, qualitative, and quantitative research methodologies that align with its values of empowerment, collaboration, and social justice.
• These methods are designed to be inclusive, context-sensitive, and action-oriented – research is for social change.

Research Examples

• Identified indicators of success in CBPR as:
  1. Shared decision making
  2. Mutual trust and respect
  3. Community capacity building
  4. Tangible health outcomes
• Participatory Action Research (PAR) project:
  • Worked with an advocacy organization supporting people with high support needs.
  • Aimed to develop a strategic plan for the organization while simultaneously evaluating the empowerment potential of PAR.
  • Involved collaborative agenda-setting, data collection, and shared decision-making between researchers and community members.
• Community Impact (CI) Evaluation Model:
  • Developed and tested across three European case studies.
  • Emphasizes stakeholder involvement at every stage of the evaluation process—from planning to interpreting results.
  • Integrates empowerment evaluation, systemic approaches, and human rights frameworks.

Community = Belonging

• In community psychology, the concept of belonging is a foundational element of individual and collective wellbeing.
• It refers to the emotional experience of being accepted, valued, and connected within a group or community.

Psychological Sense of Community (PSC)

• Developed by McMillan and Chavis (1986), PSC includes four key elements:
  1. Membership – Feeling of being part of a group with clear boundaries.
  2. Influence – Belief that one matters to the group and can make a difference.
  3. Integration and Fulfillment of Needs – The group meets individual and collective needs.
  4. Shared Emotional Connection – A sense of history, shared experiences, and emotional ties.

Belonging as a Protective Factor

• Belonging is linked to:
  • Lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression
  • Higher self-esteem and life satisfaction
  • Greater resilience and coping capacity
• Especially for marginalized groups, a strong sense of belonging can buffer against discrimination and exclusion.

Community Contexts That Foster Belonging

• Community psychology emphasizes creating environments that:
  • Are inclusive and culturally safe
  • Encourage participation and voice
  • Recognize and celebrate diversity
  • Promote shared goals and mutual support

Belonging and Social Justice

• Belonging is not just emotional—it’s political.

• Community psychologists argue that:

  • Systemic barriers (like racism, ableism, or colonialism) can undermine belonging.
  • True belonging requires equity, access, and recognition.
  • Creating belonging involves redistributing power and centering marginalized voices.

• Research Example

  • Synthesizes qualitative evidence on community-based mental health care.
  • Highlights how collaborative, community-rooted approaches foster a sense of belonging, trust, and engagement for people with serious mental illness.
  • Emphasizes the importance of relational care, cultural safety, and local knowledge in promoting mental health.

Barriers to a Community-Based Approach

• Adopting a community-based approach to mental health in Western societies faces several systemic, cultural, and institutional barriers.
  • Medical Model Dominance
    • Western mental health systems are heavily influenced by the biomedical model, which focuses on diagnosing and treating individuals.
    • This often sidelines social, cultural, and community factors that contribute to mental health.
  • Funding and Policy Structures
    • Mental health funding is often directed toward clinical services, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals.
    • Community programs may be underfunded, short-term, or not prioritized in policy.
  • Institutional Inertia
    • Health systems and professional training are structured around individual treatment models.
    • There may be resistance to change from institutions, professionals, and insurers.
  • Individualism and Stigma
    • Western cultures often emphasize individual responsibility and self-reliance.
    • Mental health struggles may be seen as personal failings, leading to stigma and isolation.
  • Lack of Cultural Competence
    • Many Western mental health systems are not equipped to recognize or integrate diverse cultural understandings of wellbeing.
    • Indigenous, migrant, and refugee communities may find services alienating or unsafe.
  • Fragmentation of Services
    • Services are often siloed—mental health, housing, employment, and social services may not coordinate.
    • Community-based care requires holistic, integrated systems.

What can we do?

• Shift the Paradigm in Practice
  • Integrate ecological and community psychology principles into clinical work.
  • Frame mental health within social, cultural, and environmental contexts.
  • Use strengths-based, trauma-informed, and culturally safe approaches.
• Reform Education and Training
  • Advocate for psychology programs to include community psychology, cultural humility, and social justice.
  • Train future psychologists in participatory methods, systems thinking, and collaborative care.
• Challenge Stigma and Promote Belonging
  • Normalize help-seeking and challenge individualistic narratives.
  • Promote inclusive language and represent diverse experiences in mental health discourse.
• Advocate for Policy and Funding Reform
  • Join or support efforts to redirect funding toward community-based, culturally grounded services.
  • Push for integrated care models that link mental health with housing, education, and employment
• Build Cross-Sector Partnerships
  • Work with educators, social workers, Indigenous leaders, and community organizers.
  • Co-design programs that reflect local knowledge and lived experience.
• Practice Reflexivity and Accountability
  • Reflect on your own positionality, privilege, and power.
  • Be accountable to the communities you serve—listen, learn, and adapt.

Social Justice in Community Psychology

• Community Psychology is not just about understanding communities—it’s about transforming them.
• Social justice provides the moral and political foundation for addressing inequality, oppression, and systemic barriers to well-being.
• “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr)

The Role of Social Justice

• Empowerment and Voice
  • Social justice means amplifying the voices of those who are often silenced or excluded.
  • It promotes participatory methods where communities co-create solutions.
• Equity Over Equality
  • Social justice in this context means equity—recognizing that different groups need different supports to thrive.
  • It challenges “one-size-fits-all” approaches and centers cultural relevance and historical context.
• Ethical Practice
  • Community psychologists are called to be ethically engaged—not neutral.
  • As Reynolds (2019) puts it, they practice “justice-doing” rather than charity or saviorism.

Community Empowerment

• Community empowerment helps achieve social justice by shifting power from institutions or elites to the people most affected by injustice.
• The focus is on fairness and equity in society, especially for marginalized groups.
  • Example: Empowering Indigenous communities to manage their own health services supports self-determination and addresses systemic inequalities.
• Empowerment equips communities with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to challenge injustice and advocate for their rights—core goals of social justice.
  • Example: Training youth in advocacy and leadership helps them address issues like climate justice or racial inequality.

The Role of Power

• Power is the ability to influence or control people, resources, and systems.
• It can be:
  • Structural (e.g., laws, institutions)
  • Cultural (e.g., norms, media)
  • Personal (e.g., confidence, knowledge)
• Social injustice often stems from imbalances of power—where dominant groups maintain control at the expense of marginalized communities.
• Social justice involves redistributing power to create equity. This means:
  • Dismantling oppressive systems (e.g., colonialism, patriarchy)
  • Amplifying marginalized voices
  • Creating participatory structures where all people can influence decisions
• Empowerment as a Justice Strategy
  • Empowering individuals and communities is a way to reclaim power and resist injustice.
  • This includes:
    • Access to education and healthcare
    • Legal rights and protections
    • Economic opportunities
    • Representation in leadership
• Reflexivity and Ethical Use of Power
  • Even well-intentioned advocates must reflect on their own power. Ethical social justice work involves:
    • Listening rather than imposing
    • Sharing power in decision-making
    • Being accountable to the communities served

The Wheel of Power

• A visual tool used to help people understand how different aspects of identity can grant or limit access to power and privilege in society.
• It was originally developed by Sylvia Duckworth (2020) based on ideas from social justice education.
• Each "slice" of the wheel represents a different social identity category, such as:
  • Race (e.g., white vs. people of color)
  • Gender (e.g., cisgender male vs. transgender or non-binary)
  • Sexual orientation (e.g., heterosexual vs. LGBTQIA+)
  • The wheel is typically divided into concentric circles:
    • Center of the Wheel: Represents identities that are most privileged or dominant in a given society.
    • Outer Rings: Represent identities that are marginalized, oppressed, or have less access to power.

Professional Neutrality

• According to Reynolds (2019) neutrality can reinforce the status quo, which often benefits the privileged and harms the marginalized. As such, she challenges the idea of professional neutrality, arguing that taking a stand against injustice is an ethical necessity.
• She encourages practitioners to be reflexive—to examine their own positions of power and privilege—and to act as allies where they are privileged. This includes structuring safety in ways that honor collaboration and resist domination.
• Reynolds’ outlines six guiding principles—which she calls Guiding Intentions—for justice-doing in community work, therapy, and research. These principles are designed to help practitioners stay ethically grounded, resist burnout, and work in solidarity with marginalized communities.

Justice Doing – Guiding Intentions

1. Centering Ethics
   • Places shared ethics at the heart of practice.
   • Rejects neutrality in the face of injustice.
   • Encourages acting in alignment with justice and compassion.
2. Doing Solidarity
   • Emphasizes collective action and interconnectedness.
   • Encourages practitioners to stand with communities, not just work for them.
   • Frames justice-doing as shared responsibility.
3. Naming Power
   • Calls for explicit recognition of power dynamics and privilege.
   • Involves witnessing resistance to oppression.
   • Promotes accountability and ethical use of power.
4. Fostering Collective Sustainability
   • Counters burnout by promoting mutual support and community care.
   • Rejects individualism in favor of shared responsibility for justice.
   • Encourages practices that nourish workers and communities.
5. Critically Engaging with Language
   • Recognizes the power of language to liberate or oppress.
   • Encourages using language that honors lived experience and resists domination.
   • Welcomes non-verbal forms of expression and meaning-making.
6. Structuring Safety
   • Creates intentional practices that invite safety and collaboration.
   • Encourages acting as allies where we hold privilege.
   • Honors relational and cultural safety, especially for marginalized people.

Decolonisation

• These guiding principles align closely with the goals of decolonisation, especially in community work, research, and education.

Decolonizing Framework

• Equality: Everyone is given the same resources or opportunities.
• Equity: Recognizing that each person has different circumstances and allocating the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome
• Justice: Removing the systemic barriers that create inequity, so that everyone has access to the same resources and opportunities
• Liberation:

Decolonisation in practice

• Uluru–Kata Tjuta Land Handover (1985)
  • In 1985, the Australian government formally returned ownership of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) to the Anangu people, the Traditional Owners of the land. This was a landmark moment in the decolonisation process because:
    • It recognized Indigenous sovereignty and spiritual connection to the land.
    • The Anangu people leased the land back to the government under a joint management agreement, allowing them to co-manage the national park.
    • It set a precedent for respecting Indigenous law, culture, and custodianship.
• A strong example of decolonization in psychology in Australia is the development and practice of Indigenous-led healing frameworks, such as the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) model.
  • This model challenges Western psychological paradigms and centers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews.
  • The SEWB model was developed by and for Indigenous communities. It decolonizes psychology by:
    • Rejecting deficit-based models that pathologize Indigenous people.
    • Emphasizing holistic health—including connection to land, culture, spirituality, ancestry, family, and community.
    • Recognizing the impact of colonization, intergenerational trauma, and systemic racism on mental health.
    • Promoting cultural identity and community strength as protective factors.

Intersectionality

• Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how multiple social identities—such as race, gender, class, sexuality, ability, and others—interact and overlap to influence an individual's psychological experiences and social outcomes.
• It emphasizes that these identities do not exist independently of each other but are interwoven and can create unique modes of discrimination or privilege.

Intersectionality Wheel

• Various Identities: Parental Status, Creed, Background, Work, Communication Style/Skills, Appearance, Political Ideology, Education, Physical Abilities/Age Qualities, Marital Status, Sexual Orientation/ Identity, Functional Specialty, Race Ethnicity, Military Experience, Job Geographic Location, Thinking Styles, Gender Socio-Econominic Status, Religious Beliefs, Classification Non-Native Native Born/

Why does it matter?

• Holistic understanding: It helps psychologists avoid oversimplifying people’s experiences by considering only one aspect of identity (e.g., just gender or just race).
• Clinical relevance: In therapy or counseling, understanding a client’s intersecting identities can lead to more empathetic and effective care.
• Research implications: It encourages more inclusive and representative research designs that reflect real-world diversity.

Example: Amina – A Refugee Single Mother

• Amina is a 32-year-old woman who fled conflict in Syria and resettled in Australia with her two young children. She is a single mother, speaks limited English, and is seeking employment while navigating the asylum process.
• Intersecting Identities:
  • Refugee: She faces trauma from displacement, uncertainty about her legal status, and cultural adjustment challenges.
  • Single mother: She bears full responsibility for childcare, which limits her ability to work or study.
  • Woman: She may face gender-based discrimination in both her home culture and host society.
  • Non-native English speaker: Language barriers affect her access to healthcare, education, and employment.
  • Low socioeconomic status: Limited financial resources restrict her housing, nutrition, and opportunities for her children.

Intersectionality Theory

• Intersectionality theory is a framework developed to understand how different aspects of a person's identity combine to create unique experiences of discrimination and privilege. It was first coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.
  • Multiple identities: People don’t experience life through just one identity (e.g., not just “woman” or “immigrant”)—they experience the intersections of these identities.
  • Power and oppression: Systems like racism, sexism, classism, and ableism don’t act independently—they interact and compound.
  • Context matters: The impact of intersecting identities can vary depending on time, place, and social context.

Theory in Practice

• Applying intersectionality theory in practice means recognizing and responding to the complex, overlapping identities and experiences of individuals.
  • Psychology & Mental Health
    • Culturally responsive therapy: Therapists consider how race, gender, class, sexuality, and other identities affect a client’s mental health.
    • Case formulation: Practitioners use intersectionality to understand how systemic oppression (e.g., racism, ableism) contributes to distress.
    • Therapist self-reflection: Clinicians examine their own social positions and biases to avoid reinforcing power imbalances.

Trauma-informed practice and intersectionality

• Trauma-informed practice and intersectionality are deeply interconnected, especially in psychology, mental health, and social services. Together, they help practitioners provide more compassionate, effective, and equitable care.

How they relate:

1. Understanding the Whole Person
   • Trauma-informed practice recognizes that trauma can affect anyone, but it manifests differently depending on a person’s background.
   • Intersectionality helps explain why trauma affects people differently— because of the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, disability, and more.
2. Recognizing Systemic Trauma
   • Trauma-informed care looks beyond individual experiences to include systemic and collective trauma (e.g., racism, colonization, poverty).
   • Intersectionality provides the framework to analyze these systems and how they disproportionately impact marginalized groups.
3. Avoiding Re-traumatization
   • Trauma-informed practice emphasizes safety, choice, and empowerment.
   • Intersectionality ensures that these principles are applied equitably, recognizing that what feels safe or empowering for one person may not for another, depending on their identities and experiences.
4. Culturally Responsive Care
   • Trauma-informed care must be culturally sensitive to be effective.
   • Intersectionality ensures that practitioners don’t treat culture as a single factor, but as something that interacts with other identities (e.g., being a queer refugee woman vs. a white middle-class woman).

Summary and Key Takeaway’s

• Empowerment and Participation
  • Community psychology values giving voice to marginalized groups.
  • Encourages active participation in decision-making and problem-solving.
• Cultural Competence
  • Understanding and respecting cultural differences is essential.
  • Interventions must be tailored to the cultural context of the community.
• Prevention Over Treatment
  • Focus on addressing root causes of social and psychological issues.
  • Emphasizes early intervention and systemic change rather than reactive solutions.
• Collaboration and Partnerships
  • Psychologists work with communities, not for them.
  • Builds trust and ensures solutions are sustainable and relevant.
• Critical Reflection
  • Practitioners must examine their own biases and positionality.
  • Self-awareness is key to ethical and effective community work.