Chapter 1 continued

Presentation Transcript

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

How Did Community Psychology Develop? (Chapter 2)

Context influences behavior

What is Community Psychology? (Chapter 1)

Context -

Context Minimization Error –
Fundamental Attribution Error –

Context-Free / Single Context Assessment

Example: What is competent behavior?

Between people/groups

e.g., ______________________________

Within people across settings/life spheres

Assessment of a personal characteristic in a single setting (e.g., _____________)

Context-Based Assessment

Competence as mastery of culturally defined, familiar activities in everyday life
Examples:

_________________________________________
_________________________________________

Ecology:

Ecological questions for any construct:

Who is it good for?
Under what circumstances is it good?
With respect to what outcomes is it good?

Context-Dependent vs. Context-Free Questions

Is self-esteem good?

Who is it good for?

Practice: Is social support good?

Who is it good for?

Values & Community Psychology

What are values?

“A value is a conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influences the selection from available modes, means, and ends of action” – Clyde Kluckhohn (1951)

How Values Influence Psychology

Problem definition determines problem solution (Caplan & Nelson)
Values determine what we think is important to study & not study
Values shape how we interpret what we find (heredity/environment I.Q. debate)
Addressing values draws attention to when our values & actions do not match

Ex: Stereotype Threat Studies

Why Community Psychology Requires Discourse in Values

Role of “value-free” science in oppression

_____________________________________
_____________________________________

Values & social change— values embodied in social arrangements

______________________________________
______________________________________

How did Community Psychology Develop?

Chapter 2

Think about your past. Think about a pivotal incident that has changed the way you are today.

Community Psychology “Begins”: Swampscott Conference - 1965

Started as conference about training professionals for community mental health
Ended up creating new field that went beyond community mental health

Psychology After World War II

Lab-based
No clinical psychology
No national institutes
Many veterans
Boulder Conference (1949)

Psychology After World War II: Implications of Boulder

Who goes to VA hospitals?
Who does not?
Who were psychologists then?

Critical Paradigm Decisions of Boulder Conference

Focus on Remedial Helping Roles

Therapist
Psychological Tester (Assessment)

Internship setting of VA Hospitals

Delineated populations
Subservient to medicine

Crisis of Therapy: 1950s

Is psychological treatment better than no treatment? (Hans Eysenck)

State hospital patients vs. those not in hospitals
Who got better?

Crisis of Resources: 1950s

Epidemiological/Prevalence studies:

Midtown Manhattan
Nova Scotia

Conclusion

Too many persons with problems
Not enough resources IF psychotherapy & testing are all we have available

Bottom Line: ____________________________________

_________________________________________________

3 Important Developments:Late 1950s-1960s

Deinstitutionalization: Reform in mental health system from hospitalization to community care

Psychotropic drugs allowed individuals in hospitals to return to communities
Inadequate community resources to maintain ex-patients
Realization that community supports needed

3 Important Developments: Late 1950s-1960s

2. Mental health consultation

Radiating Change
3 party system:

_________________
_________________
_________________

3. Paraprofessional Movement

______________________________________
Helping roles previously reserved for Ph.D.s

Emergence of Prevention as Alternative to Treatment

“No mass disorder afflicting humankind has ever been eliminated or brought under control by attempts to treat the affected individual”
WHY?

First-order change:

Second-order change:

First-order vs. Second-order change

“Musical Chairs” homelessness analogy

First-order change:
Second-order change:

Early Examples of Preventive Services

Human Relations Service (1948; Wellesley, MA )

Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston
1st mental health service center to emphasize prevention
consultation to schools/police
Support groups for parents

Federal Government Steps In:

Community Mental Health Centers Act (1963)

Localizes Services
Creates community boards
Involves paraprofessionals in service delivery
Mandates consultation and education-outreach to the community

Swampscott Conference - 1965

Conference on training professionals for community mental health
Ended up creating community psychology

Community Psychology

New field would concern “psychological processes that link social systems with individual behavior in complex interaction” (Bennett et al., 1966)

Swampscott Vision

2 new ways of affecting change

Advocacy for those without adequate social resources

Identification of at-risk groups

Policy advocacy / analysis

Head Start
War on Poverty / Community-based Orgs

Swampscott Vision

Community intervention / collaboration
Prevention in key social systems (e.g., schools, juvenile justice)
Importance of social environment as influence on behavior

Swampscott Commitments

Human diversity
Empowerment

Citizen as expert

Theory

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