Community Involvement
Module 7
Module 3
Module 4
Module 6
Module 2
Module 5
Module 1
Prevention:Creating preventative measures by identifying key factors that need work.
Instilling change and how to enact change within the community beyond prevention.
Second Order Change: actions that occur on an environmental or structural level.
GETS TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.
First Order Change: minor changes that lead to small improvements for a short term by focusing on individuals.
ROOT OF PROBLEM NOT STRUCTURALLY DIFFERENT.
Benefits:provides long-term change within the community to benefits many.
Limitations: positive influence for those directly affected but does not address source of the issue.
Social Justice: fair, equitable allocation of resources, opportunities, and power in society
Social Change: rather than simply recognizing inequalities within addressing them with the goal for social justice
Research Methods and Actions to promote Social Justice
Equal distribution of resources
Reduction of barriers to resources
Fair and Equal Treatment
Promotion of self-determination
Perspective
Ecological Perspective: going beyond traditional methods to allow opportunity for individuals and environment to become interconnected
Principles of Theory
Adaptation: focusing on why certain behaviors work better in different environments through observation of interactions in a setting.
Cycling of Resources: developing materials that benefit community growth and development.
Succession: communities are constantly changing which affects adaptation.
Levels of Theory
Individual Level
Community Level
Societal Level
Interdependence: all levels are connected and the impact on one another.
Key Principles
Active Citizen Participation: community members are seen as resources
Interdisciplinary Efforts: inclusion of multiple academic disciplines
Respect for Diversity: inclusion of all within a community
Sense of Community: strength in numbers, a bond of people with similar values
Promotion of Wellness: personal wellbeing and attainment of goals
Empowerment and Policy: community has active power over decisions that directly impact them
History
Where?
Why?
When?
How?
Swampscott Conference
The 1960's
The field was solidified in response to social and political movements.
A group of psychologist met to discuss societal issues and limitations within traditional approaches.
The Civil Rights Movement
Feminist Movement
Gay Rights Movement
Environmental Movement
Protest against Vietnam
Community Mental Health Movement
Decades
Third Decade: 1985-1995
Fourth Decade: 1995-2005
Second Decade: 1975-1985
Fifth Decade: 2005-present day
First Decade: 1965-1975
Training programs in mental health and community psychology designed and implemented.
By 1975, 141 programs training in community psychology or mental health psychology.
Considered "heyday" of community psychology.
Significant growth outside of United States and Canada.
Incorporation of values and perspective.
1988 major conference was held to discuss theories, methods, and actualizing values of community psychology in research methods.
Emphasis on participation of community members and implementing research methods.
SCRA gained secure financial control by taking control of the American Journal of Community Psychology.
Focus on increasing participation in the field.
Attention focused on mixed methods to capture contextual factors.
Continued efforts to find best methods for incorporating values, theories, and action.
Understanding who Community Psychologist are
Job Roles
Goals
Researchers
Policy Developers
Educators
Program Evaluators
Program Coordinators
Academic Setting
Government Setting
Non-Profit Setting
Improve community well-being through a cycle of collaborative planning, action, and research in partnership with local members of a community.
Exploring issues with a focus on prevention and community behavior
Licensure
no formal licensure needed for community psychologist
Community Psychology: refers to applied practical work such as community organizing, program development, policy, advocacy, data collection, and analysis
Fields with Similar Values
public service management
social work
public health
applied anthropology
applied social psychology
sociology
disability studies
Settings within Community Psychology
Academic Settings: collegiate environments where teaching and research activities take place
often includes faculty appointments and teach at the collegiate level and engage in community-based participatory research and or evaluation work
typically receive formal graduate training
Practice Settings: environments that allow for the application of Community Psychology practice principles in an applied environments
International Perspectives
International Community Psychology: occurs when Community Psychology practitioners from country work in a country other than their own
Importance of International Community Psychology
To address injustice and develop ways to avoid it at home.
To learn and enhance skills and values of Community Psychology.
Types of International Community Psychology
Invitation from abroad to lecture or provide expertise
training opportunities
self-initiated to discover something unique to the culture or population
imposed by outside authorities as a form of colonialism
Culture: includes everything such as food, language, customs, symbols, artifacts, history, roles, beliefs, and arts
concepts vary by each country and "community" can vary in definition as well
ethnocentrism: believing that one's culture is superior to others
Theories
What are theories in Community Psychology
Social Context
Social Change
Social Settings
Support human development to participate in changing social settings to serve the community better
Ecological Theory: refer to resources in Module 1 for further details
Sense of Community Theory: captures the feeling a person experiences when they perceive themselves having an interdependent connection with a broader community outside themselves
4 main components
Influence- refers to the ability one feels they have to influence the broader community and the individual-level norms that guide the practices of the community
Integration of Fulfillment Needs- refers to feeling connected to a network that holds shared values, that exchanges resources, and meets needs
Membership- involves clear boundaries regarding who is in and who is out of the community
Shared Emotional Changes- refers to participating in the celebration of others, and participation in specified rituals or ceremonies
Liberation Psychology Theory: a more critical perspective that acknowledges the role of power and assumes power needs to be addressed through an ongoing battle for resources
developed in 1970's in Latin America as a critique to traditional psychology
Core Components
Praxis: a tool for acquiring knowledge and transforming oppressive realities involving a conscious integration of theory and practice to make theory more grounded in reality
Dialectics: a philosophy of praxis emphasizing that knowledge is not created unless acquired through a method of mediated social discourse
Respecting Diversity
Understanding different aspects of diversity
Race:defined using observable physical or biological criteria, such as skin color, hair color or texture, facial features, etc.
biological assumptions can be hurtful and inaccurate
genetic variation exist within groups rather than between them
Gender: socially constructed perception of what it means to be male or female in our society and how those genders may be reflected and interpreted by society
Gender differs from sex
Age: the developmental changes and transitions that comes with being a child, adolescent, or adult
Social Class: this can include a person's income or material wealth, educational status, and/or occupational status
Ethnicity: one's social identity based on culture origin, ancestry, or affiliation with a cultural group
Sexual Orientation: refers to a person's emotional, romantic, erotic, and spiritual attractions toward another in relation to their own sex or gender
Disabilities: refer to visible or hidden and temporary or permanent conditions that provide barriers or challenges, and impact individuals of every age and social group
most experience physical or mental disability at one point in their life
Religion: shared systems of beliefs and values, symbols, feelings, actions, and experiences that often focus on relationships with the divine
Spirituality: focuses on an individual's relationship with a higher power and a quest for meaning
often correlates with culture along with religion
Intersectionality: the interaction of social identities and resulting impact of multiple privileges or inequities
Privilege: the unearned advantages that individuals have based on membership in a dominant group, contribute to the systems of oppression for non-privileged individuals and groups
Oppression and Power
Oppression: unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power especially by the imposition of burdens
The feeling of being constrained by social restriction.
Oppression advances power because it maintains intersecting systems of power in the hands of the powerful.
Psychological Implications of Oppression
Emotional implications include exclusion, exploitation, control, and violence.
Oppression is not a static concept.
Power
Power over: the ability to compel or dominate others, control resources, and enforce commands
Power to: the ability of people to pursue personal and/or collective goals and to develop own capacities
Power from: the ability to resist coercion and unwanted commands/demands
Action Strategies to dismantle power and oppression
Liberation: deconstruction and reclaiming of power
Decoloniality: process of undoing, disrupting and de-linking knowledge that ignores or devalues the local knowledge, experiences, and expertise
Dismantling power and oppression is a difficult task that requires a community systems approach
Guest Speaker- Elizabeth Bartley
Invest in Neighborhoods
Community Councils- represent neighborhood by taking information to residents and provide information to cities
enhance quality of neighborhood
zoning
liquor license
city budget request
neighborhood development
Guest Speaker
Understanding how our identity impacts our identity
Understanding where I am in life
what drives the values of those around me
how does understanding my environment alter my abilities when working in a community
engaging with others
integrating what I learn about others
building a community
Guest Speaker
using communitypsychology.com as a resource
contributing to this website in a positive way during undergrad and recognizing my abilities to do so
Guest Speakers
Understanding that not everyone is helpful or puts in the same effort
Recognizing the difficulties that those that are not privileged are dealt with
Those with disabilities are defined by their disability and not by who they are.
Who will be there?
Understanding the experience of marginalized populations.