Community Psychology Perspective Research Articles

Promote Campus Mental Health From Community Psychology Perspective

Promote Campus Mental Health From Community Psychology Perspective

The Acculturation of Community Psychology: Is There a Best Way?

In this paper I describe a community psychology perspective on acculturation and adjustment of immigrants and refugees and suggest that this field of acculturation research has in turn something to offer heuristically as we consider our identity and training for future generations of community psychologists over the next 50years. I suggest that honoring our heritage, maintaining our disciplinary identity as community psychologists, and sustaining doctoral programs that offer training specific to community psychology are crucial for our survival as a field and is not antithetical to, and is indeed necessary for, interdisciplinary collaborations.

Creating Community-Inclusive Organizations: Managerial Accountability Framework

Based on a community psychology perspective, this qualitative study explores the community-inclusion effort of one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. Extending the literature on workforce diversity/inclusion, we present the community-inclusive organizational framework, which signifies the dynamics of community inclusiveness of organizations highlighting key managerial accountabilities (i.e., cultural, collective, relational, and structural accountabilities) based on the community psychology perspective. Theoretical and practical implications are presented for promoting community-inclusive organizations, along with avenues for further research.

A Review of Taiwan's Community Mental Health Policies: Current Developments and Future Prospect

Community mental health is an important area of public health. This study initially elaborates from the perspective of community psychology the concept and basis of the practice of community mental health work, including the importance of prevention over treatment, of valuing personal advantages and capabilities, and of adopting an ecological perspective, a respect for diversity, empowerment, and scientific cooperation and integration. Subsequently, this paper reviews the history of the development of community mental health work in Taiwan and of the operations, developmental issues, and difficulties currently faced by community mental health centers. Finally, this paper addresses the future prospects for community mental health work in Taiwan in hopes that the government will attach greater importance to related policies and implementation plans, optimize the service and delivery systems of community mental health organizations, reinforce community mental health education, develop effective community mental health promotion strategies, provide accessible and continuous direct services, integrate community mental health resources, and support the families of mental health patients in order to consolidate and better promote community-based mental health work.

'Country women are resilient but. …': Family planning access in rural Victoria.

This study examined barriers to accessing three types of family planning service (emergency contraception, termination of pregnancy and options counselling) within the Grampians region of Victoria. In addressing the challenges faced by geographically marginalised women, the intention was to contribute to feminist psychological research in the field of women's health. The qualitative study drew on community and health psychology frameworks. Community psychology's ecological perspective takes into account the different contexts of people's lives, while the focus on psychosocial aspects of women's reproductive health behaviour places the study in a health psychology domain. Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. Eleven professionals whose employment was connected to family planning services in Victoria. Semi-structured interviews. The study documented professionals' perceptions of facilitators and barriers to accessing family planning services in rural areas and the implications for women's psychosocial health and their ability to make timely decisions about a pregnancy. A thematic analysis confirmed that women in the Grampians region face many barriers including lack of local services, privacy, misinformation and judgmental service providers. While these issues could arise anywhere, the problem is compounded in rural areas by limited options and rural cultural pressures. This study highlights the complexity of many rural women's reproductive 'choices', and recommends plausible strategies to tackle barriers and facilitate access to family planning services. Reproductive health research can benefit from community and health psychology perspectives that consider psychosocial and cultural contexts as well as biomedical factors.

An Investigation of Hope and Context.

One of the tenets of community psychology is examining psychological phenomena in context, and our studies explored the relationship between hope and context among individuals in recovery for substance use disorders. Study 1 involved 595 participants who resided in 90 recovery homes. We found that context, as house effects, was salient in residents' perceptions of hope, suggesting that the context of recovery homes-- their configurations and dynamics-- may play a role in an individual's future perspective. Study 2 involved 102 recovering adults. Findings indicated that one's perceived context (i.e., opportunities, choices, & obstacles) was related to not only one's self-reported levels of hope, but one's perception of hope for others. Approximately 50% of an individual's hopefulness was explained by contextual factors, thus suggesting that system level effects are critical to an individual's hopefulness. The finding that context was predictive of hopefulness suggests that a community psychology perspective on feelings of hope is critical, especially for individuals in substance use recovery. Implications regarding the importance of hope and context for ecological research and contextual influences on behavior change are discussed.

A community psychology of object meanings: Identity negotiation during disaster recovery

What do material goods intended for personal consumption mean to community? We use the extreme example of natural disaster recovery in a community to explore this question. Our work describes how members make sense of material objects that transition from private to public possessions (damaged goods) and public to private possessions (donated goods). By blending consumer and community psychology perspectives with our narratives, we employ a three-dimensional framework for analyzing object meanings: (1) material objects as agents of communitas (a shared sense of “we”), (2) material objects as agents of individualism (a focus on “me”), and (3) material objects as agents of opposition (the “we” that speaks for “me” and “us” versus “them”). This theoretical frame allows us to show how different conceptions of identity lead to conflicting meanings of objects within community, and to explain how and why object meanings shift as objects move across time and space from private to public and from scarcity to abundance. We also provide implications for coping with disasters that consider collective and individual identities as well as oppositional stances in between.

Water as a Commons: An Exploratory Study on the Motives for Collective Action Among Italian Water Movement Activists

ABSTRACTIn many communities, supplying water and sanitation is a huge task, and the fact that these essential services can be carried out by the private sector is a debated issue. This article presents an exploratory study aimed to identify the range of motives for collective action shared by activists of the Italian Movement for ‘Public Water’. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 28 activists and were qualitatively analysed. Five main motivational categories emerged: defending the right to water, preserving community ties, opposing to the Government and ‘water sellers’, preserving the environment and money interests. Each motive is based on a specific representation of the issue of water and privatization process. Findings provide further support for the importance of moral convictions and sense of community in collective action development and suggest a critical reconsideration of the role played by collective efficacy. The results are discussed in the framework of the psychosocial literature on collective action and community psychology perspectives on participatory processes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Emerging Ecological Approaches to Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health in the School Context: Next Steps From a Community Psychology Perspective

In recent years, ecological perspectives have become more visible in prevention, health promotion, and public health within the school context. Individually based approaches to understanding and changing behavior have been increasingly challenged by these perspectives because of their appreciation for contextual influences on individual behavior. The ecological perspective from community psychology integrates community research and intervention and encourages intervention and analysis at multiple levels within the system. The purpose of this article is (a) to trace briefly and through examples the evolution of ecological thinking in prevention, health promotion, and public health, and (b) to illustrate how the ecological perspective from community psychology can extend ecological thinking and acting with respect to research and intervention in the school context.

Health Promotion in International Documents: Strengths and Weaknesses from the Perspective of Community Empowerment

ABSTRACTInformed by a community psychology perspective, which takes an integrated and systemic, or holistic view of health and health promotion, this study presents quali‐quantitative analysis of health documents, produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) over the last 30 years. Textual analysis facilitated the identification of the typical specificities of international WHO health promotion documents, highlighting the lexical contexts of health promotion, particularly in relation to responsibilities for health and the concept of community health. Further, this textual analysis demonstrated how these understandings of health and health promotion have evolved over the last 30 years. Drawing on theory from within the field of community psychology, the changes proposed throughout international WHO documentation in conceptualizations of health and health promotion and in defining strategies to achieve the stated goals of health promotion are discussed critically. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Community Psychology, the Church and Theological Perspectives: Introduction to the Special Issue

The indisputable focus in psychology in the past century has been the scientific study of the individual. Individualism in American culture has perforce shaped American psychology in the scope of its scholarly concern, its methodology and therapeutic goals. Alexis deTocqueville (1835/2003) was the first to comment on American individualism with a long train of interpreters there after. Rieff (1966) critiqued psychoanalysis for lacking a commitment to ethical culture that contains the autonomous individual. Bellah (1985) lamented the loss of covenant with increasing individualism in American society. It was Cushman (1995) who detailed psychology's dependence on American individualism. Community psychology emerged as a discipline in response to this social context, particularly the individual medical model of mental illness. The field officially had its beginnings at the 1965 Swampscott conference, where social scientists developed a form of psychology that emphasized prevention, multiple levels of analysis, and change at systemic levels, rather than focusing on individuals as responsible for their condition (Dalton, Elias & Wandersman, 2006; see Todd, 2011, in this issue for a more detailed account of the historical development of community psychology). This form of psychology studies the process through which an individual's context and community shape their development in positive and negative ways at the same time that it examines how individuals shape the systems around them. It should come as no surprise that Christian psychologists whose spiritual formation has been shaped by the church would be interested in community psychology. The church, as a sign of the Reign of God, is key theological fact, a historical presence, and a psychological experience (Green, 2008; Vanier, 1979). Grenz (1994) has made the case that because the Trinity is relational, being made in the image of God means that we more fully manifest this image when we are in community. Hence there are an increasing number of Christian psychologists who are trained in the field of community psychology or who have deep communal and cultural sensibilities that seek to engage in moral, theological and eccle-sial reflection on this field (Canning & Jones, in press; Moore, 1991; Rappaport, 1997, Sarason, 1974; Shwederetal., 1997; Wilson, 1995). In this issue we provide 8 essays that address integrative issues from four perspectives within community psychology: theological reflections, collaborative research, international concerns, and health care and prevention. These articles collectively both summarize and advance theological reflection and application of community psychology methods in faith-based settings, both in the U.S. and internationally. They also point to areas where both integrative reflection and research can be further developed. Theological Reflections on Community Psychology Our special issue begins with two articles that explore theological understandings of community psychology. Canning (2011) enumerates core principles and assumptions of community psychology and examines them through a theological lens. She then provides an example from her community consultation work to illustrate these core assumptions from an integrative perspective, as they are experienced in a community setting. Todd (2011) describes Latin American (e.g., Gutierrez, 1971; Cabestrero & Cardenal, 1981) and North American Black (e.g., Cone, 2003; Williams, 1995) liberation theologies and then generates a dialogue between these liberation theologies and community psychology in order to examine how each field contributes to an understanding of personal and social change through a process of liberation. Collaborative Research and Intervention Methods That Empower Participants Two articles include descriptions of research and intervention methods that empower participants through the process of collaboration and provide case studies where these methods were utilized. …

Promozione della salute e del benessere degli adolescenti nel contesto scolastico

- Health and well-being have been separated for a long time from other aspects of school life and only recently they have been considered as the main objectives of health promotion educational programmes. Even in Italy, the recommendations by international charters on human health and the stimulation coming mainly from other European countries and the United States have resulted in a flourishing of initiatives on Health Education, involving different type and level schools. This was made possible through a profound political and cultural change, which have initiated for a long time in our country. This change took the interest in the development of child and adolescent as a priority in education and considered these subjects as legitimate holders of the right and duty to health and active players in the process of personal and social growth. Approaching to health and well-being of adolescents in the perspective of Social Psychology and Community Psychology, by addressing issues crossing different realities, categories and social conditions, contributes greatly to develop a more general reflection on the challenges posed by health promotion in the structure of society. This approach has criticized a medical and sectoral vision, and has gradually become more integrated and complex, assuming a bio-psycho-social perspective which deems extremely important the interdependence between different levels of health, between the individual and social components of well-being, among different subjects, between different contexts objectively and subjectively significant in this regard. Key words: health promotion; psycho-social well-being; adolescence; school setting.

Domestic violence against women: Understanding social processes and women's experiences

AbstractThe prevalence of domestic abuse against women has been estimated as high as one in four. The risk is particularly high for women who are younger, economically dependent, unemployed and with children. Research about the factors that maintain situations of abuse has generally focused separately on the coping strategies of women, barriers to leaving the relationship and the perpetrators' means of abuse. In this study we used a community psychology perspective to seek a broader understanding of what maintains situations of abuse, in order to suggest interventions in a rural County in the North of England. Twelve women who had experienced domestic abuse and had used voluntary sector services agreed to be interviewed about their experiences and the resources and strategies available to them. Using grounded theory we generated four themes: (1) Commonalities and contradictions in the experience of abuse; (2) living with abuse; (3) the response of systems reinforced or challenged the abuse and (4) dealing with abuse beyond the relationship. These findings illustrate how situations of domestic abuse can be prolonged by limited options available to victims for support and protection, and a lack of active public acknowledgement that domestic abuse is unacceptable. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Researching Pupil Well-Being in UK Secondary Schools

This study explores the relationships between a school, its staff and its pupils and the impact of these relationships on school pupils' well-being. The authors adopted a community psychological perspective and applied critical, social constructionist epistemologies and participatory, multi-method research tools. The article discusses the importance of focusing on the complex, multilayered context of people's lives (both participants and researchers) that are impacted by social, economic, cultural and political contexts. Finally, it reflects on the contrast between the messiness of real-world social science research and the often sanitized nature of its reporting.

Sources and Expression of Resilience in Trauma Survivors

There is growing recognition among trauma researchers, clinicians, and human rights activists of the need for greater understanding of the nature, impact, and mediators of traumatic exposure among trauma survivors from diverse cultures and contexts and a growing interest in the phenomenon of resiliency and the possibility of recovery in the aftermath of traumatic exposure. This introduction briefly describes the articles that comprise this volume, emphasizing their status both as individually unique and worthwhile contributions to this literature and as a collection of works that speak powerfully to the promise of multi-cultural research and practice and to the need for a theoretical framework able to account for wide variations in individual expressions of psychological trauma, trauma recovery, and resilience. For us as co-editors of this volume, that framework resides in the ecological perspective of community psychology and in the attention to culture and context inherent in ecological theory.

Towards an Ecological Understanding of Resilience in Trauma Survivors

The ecological perspective of community psychology offers needed understanding of diverse sources and expressions of resilience among trauma survivors. Investigations by community psychologists into the nature of wellness-enhancing interventions and empowering social change can inform trauma-focused interventions at individual, community, and societal levels. Here, works by selected community psychologists are reviewed. The ecological view of trauma, recovery, and resilience guiding work at the Victims of Violence (VOV) Program, the range and reach of VOV's clinical and community interventions, and elements of its trauma recovery and resiliency research project illustrate the implications and relevance of these works. Five premises of an ecological understanding of resilience in trauma survivors are discussed.

HIV/AIDS and immigrant Cape Verdean women: Contextualized perspectives of Cape Verdean community advocates

This research explored Cape Verdean community advocates' understandings of the structural and social realities that contribute to the increased HIV/AIDS risk of Northeastern U.S.-based immigrant Cape Verdean women. A community perspective informed the analysis of the multi-layered contextual barriers that these advocates identified as limiting the effectiveness of individual-level HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention models. Qualitative content analysis of interviews with nine community advocates revealed several thematic clusters including challenges to (1) perceived institutional and community realities; (2) traditional gender relations; and, (3) traditional ways of thinking. These findings challenge universalist cognitive-behavioral change models of HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention and are critically discussed to better understand the complex realities faced by Cape Verdean immigrant women. A liberatory community psychology perspective framed the research process and contributed to reconceptualizing HIV/AIDS risk as a community problem that requires interventions not simply at the individual and relational levels, but also at the structural level.

Strengthening quality and continuity of diabetes care in rural ghana: a critical social psychological approach.

Adopting critical social psychology and community psychology perspectives, this article examines the links between shared social knowledge of diabetes, illness experience and illness action through semi-structured individual and group interviews with diabetes sufferers and lay healthy individuals in two rural Ghanaian communities. Analysis highlights that both groups make sense of diabetes and illness experience by drawing interchangeably from four shared knowledge modalities: common-sense, scientized, religious and emotional. Common-sense notions of health and illness and scientized understandings of diabetes frame illness action goals that merge with biomedical goals. These goals are compromised by structural, community/family and emotional dynamics. Findings suggest that the best immediate solutions lie in addressing availability and cost of biomedical care and quality food, with concomitant attention to community education and self-help groups as negotiators of psychosocial and economic support.

Toward a critical community psychological perspective on unemployment and mental health research.

Psychological research has established that unemployment causes widespread psychological distress and ill health in communities but, arguably, little of this research is truly community psychological. In this paper we sketch out a critical community psychological perspective and use it to contribute to understanding of the role of psychosocial aspects of income in the experience and mental health of employed and unemployed members of low-income families in a severely deprived community context; to the development of innovative participatory methodology, and to promote the interests of impoverished unemployed people through the research process as well as through the research outcome.

From Ecological Behaviorism to Response Generalization

The concept of response generalization is addressed, as it was discussed in a symposium at the 2001 meeting of the International Association for Behavior Analysis and presented in three articles in this journal issue. Relationships between behavioral ecology, social validity, and response generalization are examined from the perspective of behavioral community psychology, especially research conducted by the author and colleagues to increase safe driving practices. The challenge of moving beyond evaluating intervention side effects to planning for a beneficial spread of effect is entertained, including theory to predict whether treatment generality will be desirable or undesirable. The issue of whether intervention side effects should be termed “response generalization” is covered by pinpointing critical distinctions made in the preceding articles, one claiming the spread of effect discussed here is response generalization and the other two articles proclaiming it is not. These latter two presentations reject the response generalization label for very different and contradictory reasons.