Community psychology: Accomplishments and challenges: Comment on the special section.

Abstract

The papers in this special section review contributions of Canadian community psychologists and they also look forward, suggesting ways in which the field might evolve in this country. This discussion paper comments on the papers and puts them in the broader context of psychology and public policy. Keywords: community psychology, social action, public policy The role of psychology in public policy has had its ups and downs. On the up side, psychologists have planned interventions and have done research with positive social policy consequences. For instance, their works helped end school segregation in the United States and they were important players in the development of programs such as Head Start (Zigler & Muenchow, 1992). On the down side, psychologists have used their data to support principles of eugenics and theories of accomplishment based on race and gender; they often have contributed to what Ryan (1971) called blaming the victim, treating social problems as if they were the fault of those they affect. And, in a recent controversy, some have participated in the enhanced interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and various Central Intelligence Agency black sites. Somewhere in the midst of these highs and lows, two important events occurred at 1967 annual convention of the American Psychological Convention - events that highlighted the possibilities of the discipline having a positive impact on policy and taking their research and interventions out into the community. The keynote speaker at that convention was the young civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner who challenged psychologists to expand their scope beyond their traditional work settings - to get out into the community where social problems were having an impact on people's lives (King, 1968). He urged psychologists to study and support structural changes to reduce class, race, and gender disparities - disparities in earnings, health, and education. Commenting on the good deeds done and possible, King (1968) specifically praised Kenneth and Mamie Clark whose research was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as a social science basis for integrating public schools. Kenneth Clark was the first African American President of American Psychological Association. Sadly, King did not live to see the outcome of his exhortation; he fell to an assassin's bullet within a year. The second major event at that 1 967 convention was the founding of a community psychology division by a group of psychologists whose work was in tune with King's ideas. The emphasis on moving from traditional work sites and into the community was developed at the Swampscott conference in 1965. Aubry, Sylvestre, and Ecker (2010) give an account of the importance of the Swampscott conference, and how it fits into the history of community psychology in Canada; as they point out similar work was underway in Canada well before that conference. Most of those involved in the early days had a clinical background, and their starting point was often the increase in community mental health centers and the opportunities for psychology, social workers, and others to take their practice into those settings. However there was also opposition to simply doing the same things in a different setting. Reiff (1968) in the first presidential address to community psychologists in 1967, warned that they would have to develop a body of theory as well as practice, or the subdiscipline would degenerate into nothing more than an opportunities movement. A decade later, Sarason (1976) referred to community mental health as conceptually bankrupt. The Swampscott Conference focused on prevention as its theoretical underpinning, noting that treatment has never eliminated any disease. Later other theoretical frameworks were placed alongside prevention including empowerment (Prilleltensky, 1994; Rappaport, 1981) and cognitive community psychology (O'Neill, 1981). In addition to the clinicians, others also came on board, most significantly those who worked in education and were dissatisfied with the limited role given to psychologists in school settings (see especially Sarason, 1971). …