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Introduction to Community Psychology

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3What is Community Psychology? • Humans seek communities • Relationships with others are important part of human existence • Individuals lives and community life is intertwined • Community psychology is different from other field of psychology  Offers a different way of thinking about human behavior  An expansion of the definition of what are appropriate topics for psychological study and intervention • Community psychologist want to find effective ways to prevent problems rather then treating them when they arise  Promotes healthy functioning for others o Focus research on factors at the neighborhood community and societal level that support or impede healthy development rather than internal psychology processes or biological factors Opening Exercise: Musical Chairs  Problems affecting people leading them to be homeless o Substance abuse o Mental illness o Domestic violence o Lack of affordable housing (main contributor) 

Listing these factors represents an individualistic perspective: how

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homeless people and families are different from those with housing Structural perspective: how organizations, neighborhoods,

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communities and societies are structured as systems and how the systems impact peoples lives Problem definition: shift from an individualistic to a structural/ecological perspective is related to another issue

o E.g. homelessness 

Assumptions about problems determine how we define the problem

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Everything people do takes place in social contents

Community Psychology: A Shift in Perspective  Prevention/promotion programs reduce the future likelihood of problems o E.g. strengthening protective factors and reducing risk factors  Consultation focuses on roles, decision making, communication, and 

conflict in organizations to promote job satisfaction Alternative settings arise when services don’t meet the needs of some

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populations Community organizing at low levels helps people organize to identify local

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issues and decide how to address them Participatory research involves collaborating and providing useful

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information for action on community issues Policy research and advocacy includes research on community and social issues, efforts to inform decision makers about courses for action

Persons, Contexts and Change  Context minimization error: denote ignoring or discounting the importance of contexts in a persons life o Leads to psychological theories and findings that are flawed or that 

hold true in limited circumstances Context: encapsulating environments within which a persons life

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Fundamental attribution error: the tendency of observers watching an

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actor to overestimate the importance of situational factors Examples of psychological climate of a workplace o Cultural norms o Economic necessities

o Neighborhood characteristics 

Content minimization: contexts and forces that include those beyond the immediate situation

Persons and Contexts Influence Each Other  Community psychology revolves around relationships of persons and 

contexts It seeks to improve and understand individual, community and societal quality of life

What is Community Psychology? A Definition  Community suggests the idea of people coming together  Psychology usually relates to cognition, emotion, motivation, behavior 

and development Community psychology: relationships of individuals with communities and societies. By integrating research with action, it seeks to understand

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and enhance quality of life for people, communities and societies Participant-conceptualizer: involved in community processes while also attempting to understand and explain them

Structural Perspectives and First Order and Second Order Change  First order change: alters, rearranges or replaces the individual 

member of a group Second order change: changing relationships – shared goals, roles, rules and power o Doesn’t solve community and social problems

Ecological Levels of Analysis for Community Psychology Individuals MACROSYSTEMS - Cultures - Societies - Governments - Mass Media

INDIVIDUALS

• The person chooses their relationships or environments to some extent and influences them in many ways Micro systems • Environments in which the person repeatedly engages in direct personal interaction with others • Concept of setting is important Organizations • Larger then Microsystems and have a formal structure o Title, mission, bylaws, meeting or work times, supervisory relationships • Often consist of sets of smaller Microsystems o Classes, activities, departments, staff, administrators, boards of schools • Can be part of a larger social unit Localities • One prominent meaning refers to geographic localities – rural communities, small towns, urban neighborhoods • Have governments, local economies, media, system of social, educational and health services Macro systems • Largest level of analysis • Include societies, cultures, political parties, social movements, corporations, international labor unions and social forces • Exercise influence through policies and specific decisions

• Population is an important level of analysis o Defined by a shared characteristic Levels of Intervention • The concept of mediating structures can help suggest points of intervention • Mediating structures: promotes well being for people and communities • 3 ways that we may fall short of addressing issues of levels of analysis o May be action that’s necessary but not taken o May be that action is taken where it shouldn’t be o Action is taken at the wrong level of analysis Seven Core Values in Community Psychology  Individual and family wellness o Wellness: physical and psychological health, including personal well being and attainment of personal goals o Indicators of wellness  Psychological distress    

Resilience Social emotional skills

Personal well being Life satisfaction o Strengthening families can promote individual wellness

o Individual/family wellness is the focus of clinical psychology o Collective wellness: health of communities and societies 

Sense of community o A perception of belongingness, interdependence, mutual commitment o It can involve distancing insiders form outsiders

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Respect for human diversity o Recognizes and honors the variety of communities and social identities on gender, ethnic, racial identity, nationality, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status and income, age and other characteristics o Respect for diversity doesn’t mean moral relativism- one can hold

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strong values while seeking to understand different ones Social justice o Social justice: fair, equitable allocation of resources, opportunities, obligations and power in society o Involves concern for wellness of all persons and an inclusive vision of community and recognition of human diversity o Distributive justice: the allocation of resources  The outcomes of a program or social policy o Procedural justice: whether processes of collective decision

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making include a fair representation of citizens  How it is planned and implemented Empowerment and citizen participation o Consideration of power dynamics in individual relationships, organizations and communities o Aimed towards enhancing the possibilities for people to control their own lives o It emphasizes democratic processes of making decisions that allow

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for members of a community to have meaningful involvement in decisions Collaboration and community strengths o Relationships between community psychologists and citizens and the process of their work

o Building strengths is the best pathway to overcoming problems o Collaboration is best pursued where psychologist and community 

share common values Empirical grounding o Integrating research with community action o Uses research to make community action effective and makes research more valid for understanding communities o Quantitative and qualitative research methods

Chapter Summary After reading chapter 1: introduction to community psychology, I have a better understanding of community psychology and what is involved with it. It revolves around the different relationships formed between people in communities. It emphasizes how relationships that people form with others are a vital part of human existence. Community psychology is different then other fields of psychology as it provides an alternative way of thinking about human behavior. There is a shift in perspective as its main concern isn’t just on a person, but how that person integrates in society. There are two orders of change in the structural perspective; the first is how it alters, rearranges or replaces the individual member of a group, while the second order change is about changing relationships - shared goals, roles, rules and power. The ecological level analysis consists of a microsystem, involving cultures, societies, governments, mass media, etc., that encompasses 3 different systems: localities, Microsystems and organizations - with individuals being apart of all levels. In community psychology there are 7 core values, all of which are interrelated; individual and family wellness, sense of community, respect for human diversity, social justice, empowerment and citizen participation, and collaboration and community strengths.

Understanding Individuals within Environments Conceptual Models of Ecological Context  Environmental setting o Unit of analysis  Setting of interest o Physical (school), social (team) and can be nested within levels of analysis (micro/macro) Four Ecological Principles of a Setting 1. Interdependence o Changes in a system o E.g. school  Students, teachers, administrative staff, secretaries, etc.  Actions or problems can affect everyone else o One thing can affect others o Settings and social systems change over time 2. Cycling of resources o Any system can be understood by examining how resources are used, distributed, conserved and transformed o Personal resources: individual talents, knowledge, experience, strengths and other qualities that address challenges within a relationship o Social resources: occur in relationships among members of the setting  Shared beliefs, values, rules, norms, group events and shared sense of community o Settings and social systems change over time 3. Adaptation o Transactions between person and environment o Individuals cope with constraints or demands of an environment o Environments adapt to their members o Settings and social systems change over time 4. Succession o Psychologists need to understand a systems history before planning an intervention

Understanding Community What is a Community

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Community refers to localities, community institutions, families, street gangs, friends, neighbors, religious and fraternal bodies, national professional organizations o Relationships that are multidimensional and are valued in their own

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right Gesellschaft = society o Relationship based on specific transactions o E.g. relationship with the guy at the grocery store Gemeinschaft = relationships that define communities o Community is defined by this type of relationship o E.g. relationship with family and friends

Types of Communities  Locality based community o Traditional conception of community o City blocks, neighborhoods, small towns, cities, rural regions  Relational community o Interpersonal relationships o Sense of community not limited by geography o Mutual help groups, student clubs, religious congregations Levels of Communities  Microsystems

o Classrooms 

Organizations o Workplace

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Localities o Neighborhoods

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Macrosystems o Political parties

Who Defines Communities?  Communities define themselves – external systems (government, etc) may be involved causing issues Sense of Community  Psychological sense of community: the perception of similarity to others, an interdependence with others, willingness to maintain interdependence, feeling of being apart of a larger dependable and stable structure o Wanting to fit in Elements of the Psychological Sense of Community  Membership o Boundaries  Necessity of defining what includes members and excludes nonmembers o Common symbols  Helps define boundaries, identifying members or territory

o Emotional safety  Occurs in communities with clear boundaries  Sense of safety from crime

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o Personal investment  People who feel safe make personal investments o Sense of belonging and identification with community  Deepen sense of belonging and identification in a community Influence o Mutual influence of community on people, and people on community  Power members have  Members are more attracted to a group in which they feel

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influential Integration and fulfillment of needs o Shared values o Satisfying needs o Exchanging resources Shared emotional connection o Shared dramatic moments, celebrations and rituals

Questions and Issues for Defining Sense of Community  Elements of Sense of a Community o Are the 4 elements the best way of describing basic elements of sense of community?

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Research has shown the validity and importance of the overall sense of community construct, but findings have been

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inconsistent concerning the independence and validity of them Inconsistencies may be because of problems in the existing

measures of sense of community Levels of sense of community o Is sense of community simply in the eye of the beholder – the persons perception of the wider community?  Personality variables accounted for 25% of variance in how

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much sense of community students perceived in their school or college Both personal and neighborhood factors contribute to the perceptions of sense of community

Concepts Related to the Sense of Community  Conceptualized as the effective component of our relationship with our communities o Neighboring  Informal contacts and assistance among neighbors o Place attachment  Emotional bonding to a particular physical environment and usually to the social ties one has there o Citizen participation  Involves a community decisions, not simply community service o Social support  Help provided by others to promote coping with stress o Mediating structures  Mediating structures: intermediate communities link differing ecological levels Importance of Community

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Our conscience lies in our bonds with others People benefit from strong communities Positive sense of community correlates with adolescent identity formation

Social Capital  Children of upper class didn’t just depend on their education to succeed, 

they had access through the parents A person may have significant social capital if they doesn’t personally own

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a large amount of economic capital Bonding: creating and maintaining strong social-emotional ties – usually

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in groups of similar people that provide belongingness, emotional support and mutual commitment Bridging: creating and maintaining links between groups and communities o Bridging relationships have strength of weak ties – between people who aren’t close friends but acquainted to recognize mutual interests, pass on information about the community, and act

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together when needed Social capital can result in important benefits at multiple ecological levels

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Community psychology and social capital: community psychology have began to adopt the concept of social capital o 4 elements  Sense of community, neighboring, citizen participation and sense of collective efficacy

The Complex Realities of Communities  Counties with higher levels of connected associations (members who tend to belong to more then one organization) have higher levels of generalized trust than do countries with high levels of isolated associations ( members who tend to belong to only one organization) Building Communities  We have become conscious of communities around us and how our actions can strengthen or weaken them

The Physical and Natural Environment  The ways in which we construct our physical environment can work to support or destroy community 

Understanding Stress and Coping in Context Risk and Protective Factors  Risk factors: correlated with problem outcomes o Characteristics of people and situations that increase the likelihood that a person will experience problematic outcomes such as personal distress, mental disorders, behavioral problems o Do not always lead to processes that result in problematic situations o May affect children in each family differently, depending on their

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development, access to social support and their relationship with peers Protective factors: associated with avoiding problems or promoting well being o Provide resources for coping and often represent strengths of people, families and communities o Community psychologists examine strengths of people and situations that buffer people from stressors o Includes personal qualities, interpersonal resources, macrosystem resources o Most essential protective factor for children  irrationally caring

Distal and Proximal Factors  Distal factors: distant from a problem o Are not direct triggers of a problem but involve vulnerability that are indirectly linked to the problem o Creates indirect problems o Involves risk or protection 

Proximal factors: close to the individual or problem, directly triggering or contributing to a problem or providing a resource that can be directly used for coping o Proximal stressors trigger stress and lead to coping efforts

Working Through the Ecological-Contextual Model  Distal contextual factors: ongoing environmental conditions that may interact in various life domains

o Cultural traditions, beliefs, practices and rituals o Chronic stressors that have long processes that can impact access to resources and accumulation of disadvantage over years  E.g. poverty, environmental pollution, noise, crowding, neighborhood crime, lack of healthcare o The effects of chronic environmental conditions may be cumulative 

Distal personal factors: aspects of a person that aren’t readily available o Genetic and biological factors o Shyness, optimism, extraversion

Contextual  Cultural traditions and practices  Economic conditions  Social and political factors  Environmental hazards  Neighborhood processes  

Setting social climates Social regularities

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Family dynamics

Personal  Biological and genetic factors  Personal temperaments and traits  Patterns of thinking  

Chronic illness or similar conditions Ongoing effects of prior life experiences

Family dynamics are contextual, they interact closely with a wide range of personal factors

Proximal Stressors  Stressors are events or situations that represent a threatened or actual  

loss of resources They are risk factors that vary in duration 4 types of proximal stressors o Major life events  An accumulation of stressful events will lead to the 

development of psychological problems Typically include entrances (marriage or birth of a child) and exits (death of loved one or unemployment) ...