Development Of Community Psychology Research Articles

Community psychology and urban studies: Common connections and missed opportunities

ABSTRACT Community psychology is an international subfield of psychology that focuses on encouraging well-being by examining transactions between individuals and larger social systems including organizations (e.g., schools, workplaces), local neighborhoods, and cities. Although the fields of community psychology and urban studies both address metropolitan problems, urban social change, and urban policy, it is unclear to what extent these fields inform each other. In this paper, I first trace the history and development of community psychology in three localities to urban issues such as access to community mental health services, unemployment, and urban poverty. Second, I describe how contemporary community psychologists have focused their research on a range of urban topics including urban education, homelessness and housing policy, and local politics. Third, using a network analysis of journal citations, I explore the extent to which community psychology and urban studies have informed each other over the past 10 years. Finally, I explore future directions for encouraging interdisciplinarity between community psychology and urban studies.

Community psychology in South Africa: origins, developments, and manifestations

This article represents a South African contribution to the growing international body of knowledge on histories of community psychology. We trace the early antecedents of social-community psychology interventions and describe the social forces and academic influences that provided the impetus for the emergence and development of community psychology in South Africa. We then draw on various sources, including undocumented small histories of organized groups and individuals, to present on account of the emergence, development, and focus of community psychology in South Africa. We also very briefly describe community-focused work in other selected African countries. In the penultimate section, we take a critical look at the notions of “community” embedded in community psychology practice in South Africa, and then by way of conclusion, we describe the trajectory of community psychology and speculate about its future in the country.

SEYMOUR SARASON IN MEMORIAL: PROSPECTS FOR COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Seymour Sarason passed away on January 10, 2010 at the age of 91. He was the author of more than 40 books, including The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change (1971), The Creation of Settings and the Future Societies (1972), and The Psychological Sense of Community: Prospects for a Community Psychology (1974). His groundbreaking ideas were major influences in the .elds of education, community psychology, mental retardation, and care of the aged. Seymour is a seminal figure in the development of community psychology, providing a paradigm for action research (Psychoeducational Clinic). He generated key ideas to guide the field, emphasized the importance of historical and cultural context, and developed intellectually and personally meaningful relationships with many of the field's leaders

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. …

Community psychology in South Africa: origins, developments, and manifestations

AbstractThis article represents a South African contribution to the growing international body of knowledge on histories of community psychology. We trace the early antecedents of social‐community psychology interventions and describe the social forces and academic influences that provided the impetus for the emergence and development of community psychology in South Africa. We then draw on various sources, including undocumented small histories of organized groups and individuals, to present on account of the emergence, development, and focus of community psychology in South Africa. We also very briefly describe community‐focused work in other selected African countries. In the penultimate section, we take a critical look at the notions of “community” embedded in community psychology practice in South Africa, and then by way of conclusion we describe the trajectory of community psychology and speculate about its future in the country. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Psychologie communautaire et recherche : l’exemple du projet EMILIA

The development of community psychology has also had significant implications in the area of evaluation and research methodology. The empowerment principle, that is, giving users the means to control their health and to make their own health decisions, has important implications for the choice of evaluation strategies for both individual therapeutic acts as well as for public health programmes. If the user's potential expertise in the health area is to be fully acknowledged, how is this to be done with regard to research? How can users become not only actors of their own health, but also play an active role in research and health evaluation? The article gives an overview of research strategies based on community psychology principles, with a particular emphasis on action research and participative-action research. The example of a multisite European project on empowering mental-health service users to access life-long learning and employment, currently underway in Paris, is presented to illustrate these community research methods.

Personal lineages and the development of community psychology: 1965 to 2005

AbstractThe purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to examine and document the role of personal influence in the history of community psychology, and (b) to measure the field's inclusion of traditionally marginalized populations. In addition to presenting visually the genealogy of community psychology, results suggest that people have mattered in the development of the field independently from intellectual influence. Furthermore, community psychology has become more inclusive of ethnic minorities and women in positions of authority. Yet, representation of real‐world community psychologists appears to have stalled. Implications of findings on interventions to increase representation are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Development of community psychology in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand

Although the formal history of community psychology in both Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand has clear links with its history elsewhere, particularly in the United States, the subdiscipline has developed localised foci and forms of practice reflecting the cultural, political and historical underpinnings of these two countries. The climates within which community psychology emerged in the 1970s were distinctly local, resonating with debates around decolonisation and political realignment within the Asia Pacific region. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the separate developments of community psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and identify some shared concerns and achievements. At the core of community psychology in both countries are the emphasis on contextualised understandings of human behaviour and the primacy of social justice. In the future it seems likely that community psychology will develop close links with other emerging social science disciplines that espouse similar values and world views, and that community psychologists will consolidate networks with colleagues in Africa and the Asia Pacific, enabling a wider exchange of ideas and an expansion in the shared understandings of what characterises community psychology in the southern hemisphere.

Development of Community Psychology

The growth and development of community psychology in Zambia has been necessitated by many social problems encountered by Zambians be they health, economic or psychological. The work of governmental and nongovernmental organizations at community level has contributed to the development of this sub-field of psychology. Community psychology in Zambia has many challenges to overcome, including the lack of trained manpower and availability of funds. Community psychology has great potential to contribute to the wellbeing of different communities in Zambia.

Challenging the Frontiers of Community Psychology: A South African Experience

The development of community psychology is of vital importance in South Africa because of the historical context, questions about the relevance of mainstream western psychology and the current social change in the country in the post-apartheid era. Accordingly successful community psychology practices for a South Africa in transition need greater dissemination for access and utilization in the communities. This article draws on the community work conducted at the Itsoseng Clinic to show how and why community psychology could be made more relevant to the new South Africa. The Itsoseng Clinic is a psychology clinic that is situated in the township of Mamelodi. The clinic provides several services including counselling, psychometric assessment, psycho educational workshops, and HIV/AIDS pre and post-test counselling. The clients and community that the clinic serves are of low socio-economic status and struggle with a lack of material and personnel resources. The individuals working within the Itsoseng Clinic represent a diversity that is in itself a valuable resource for supporting the core activities of the clinic. This article explores various themes that were identified within the research study such as, making community, entering the ecology of life, closing the divide and bridging the boundaries.

A History of the Development of Community Psychology

This paper addresses the social forces and factors that encouraged the development of a new discipline, community psychology. Psychologists typically treat aberrant individuals, and in a society wh...

Parallel lives: Community psychology in Latin America and the United States

AbstractComparing the history of community psychology as it developed in the U.S. during the 1960s with the community psychology that developed 10 years later in Latin America, one is reminded of the title of Plutarch's masterpice,Parallel Lives. Although there was very little contact or communication between the first community psychologists in these regions, very similar principles and orientations evolved. These similarities are particularly striking given the many ways in which the U.S. and Latin American contexts and histories differ. Since most readers are expected to be familiar with the history of community psychology as it developed in the U.S., this paper focuses primarily on the development of community psychology in Latin America in order to highlight areas of convergence as well as divergence from the U.S. experience.

Interpersonal and organizational resources for the continued development of community psychology

Interpersonal and organizational resources for the continued development of community psychology