key terms PART ONE Flashcards
community psychology
- The relationships of individuals with communities and societies
- By integrating research with action, it seeks to understand and enhance quality of life for individuals, communities, and societies
individualistic vs structural
ex: homelessness/poverty
Individualistic beliefs attribute poverty to the poor people themselves (personal problems) like lack of ability, effort, and morals.
Structuralist beliefs locate the causes in the social and economic systems (social problems) like lack of opportunities, discrimination, and exploitation of poor people.
first order change
Alters, rearranges, or replaces the individual members of a group
- Ex: Volunteering at a local homeless shelter
- only individual attempts to make a change
- can be reversed or stopped
second order change
Changing those relationships, especially changing shared goals, roles, rules, and power relationships
ex: making sure there is more affordable housing available in a community
- irreversible
- changing the social systems that contribute to problems
- larger scale
ecological levels
levels of analysis
- microsystems
- localities
- organizations
- macrosystems
microsystems
environments in which the person repeatedly engages in direct personal interaction with others; families, classrooms, friendship, athletic teams, etc → individuals form interpersonal relationships, assume social roles, and share activities
localities
have governments, local economies, media, systems of social, educational and health services, and other institutions that influence individual quality of life; neighborhood or town
organizations
larger than microsystems and have formal structure: title, mission, policies, work times
macrosystems
largest level of analysis; exercise influence through policies and specific decisions; societies, cultures, political parties, social movements, corporations, labor unions, government, etc
linking science
when community psychology looks for relationships among factors across micro to macro levels of analysis to construct a more comprehensive understanding of what can influence an individual’s health and well- being
linking practice
when community psychology brings together multiple stakeholders, some of whom are often overlooked, to address community issues
blaming the victim
by William Ryan → 1971 book
- Questioned whether researchers, policymakers or others who have never directly experienced a social problem have the best viewpoint for analyzing it
fair play
Seeks to assure rules of fairness in competition for economici, educational, or social advancement
fair shares
Focuses on fairness of procedure but is also concerned with minimizing extreme inequalities of outcome
top-down approaches
Reflect the life experiences, worldviews, and interests of the powerful and usually preserve the existing power structure
Overlook the strengths of a community
bottom-up approaches
Reflect attempts by ordinary people to assert control over their everyday lives
Reflect the experiences and ideas of people most affected by a community or social problem
participant observation
The method of choice for a researcher seeking maximum insider knowledge and depth of experience in a community
Ex: walking dog and interacting with dog walkers because you want to study dog walkers
Ex: interested in studying gangs so you join one
strengths and limitations to participant observation
Strengths
- Uses the research-community relationship and affords thick description of many aspects of community life
Limitations
- The focus on one setting necessarily means that generalizability to other settings is a problem
- Concerns for whether the researcher’s experiences and records are representative of the setting and its dynamics
qualitative interviewing
Interviewing a sample of individuals; interview is often open-ended ro minimally structured to prompt participants’ describing their experiences in their words
strengths and limitations to qualitative interviewing
Strengths
Allows flexible exploration of the phenomenon of interest and discovery of aspects not anticipated by the researcher
Based in a strong relationship
Limitations
Insights developed from interviews are less direct than those from participant observation
focus groups
An interview with a group
Generates thick description and qualitative information in response to questions or discussion topics possessed by a moderator
strengths and limitations to focus groups
Strengths
- Researchers can structure discussion and learn about topics of interest and personal experiences of others more easily than with participant observation
- Allow greater access to shared knowledge and mutual discussion
Limitations
- Focus group moderator has less flexibility to ask for elaboration, control changes of topic, or learn about individuals in depth than an interview of individuals
case studies
Usually conducted on individuals in clinical psychology
Can study an individual in relation to the settings in that person’s life
strengths and limitations to case studies
Strengths
Excellent for understanding the nuances of control, social, or community contexts
Limitations
Generalizability of findings to other settings is uncertain
randomized experiments
participants are randomly assigned to experimental or control groups
strengths and limitations of randomized experiments
Strengths
With greater control over confounding factors, researchers can make more confident interpretations of its effects
Limitations
Experiments require substantial prior knowledge of the context to propose social innovations
nonequivalent comparison group designs
Used whenever assignment to experimental or comparison condition is something other than random
strengths and limitations of nonequivalent comparison group designs
Strengths
Practical and less intrusive than randomized experiments
Limitations
Control of confounding factors is much weaker
interrupted time-series design
involves repeated measurement over time of a single case
strengths and limitations of interrupted time-series design
Strengths
Practical; afford understanding of change over time in a specific context
Limitations
Number and timing of measurements in the baseline and experimental periods
kelly’s ecological principles
focuses on a particular setting and then examining the facets and things occurring within that setting
interdependence
cycling of resources
adaption
succession
interdependence
Any social system has multiple related parts and multiple relationships with other systems; changes in one part of the system can after the others
cycling of resources
Specifies that any system can be understood by examining how resources are used, distributed, conserved, and transformed
adaption
Concerns the transactions between person and environment; two way process
Individuals cope with the constraints or demands of an environment, and environments adapt to their members
succession
Settings and social systems change over time
Applies to families, organization, and communities
moo’s social climate approach
- Made to assess shared perceptions of a setting among its members and have created several scales to measure social climate in settings
- Three primary dimensions to understanding environments and how to characterize settings
- How they organize relationships
- How they encourage personal development
- Focus on maintenance or change in the setting
relationships
This dimension of settings concerns mutual supportiveness, involvement, and cohesion of its members
personal development
Concerns whether individual autonomy, growth, and skill development is fostered in the settings
system maintenance and change
Concerns settings’ emphasis on order, clarity of rules and expectations, and control of behavior
barker’s behavioral setting
Unit of analysis → used behavior settings as this for ecological psychology
Purpose of ecological psychology is to identify behavior settings and to understand the physical features and social circuits that maintain them
Persons in a behavior setting are largely interchangeable; the same patterns of behavior occur irrespective of the specific individuals
behavior setting
Having a place, time, and standing pattern of behavior
limitations to barker’s behavioral setting
Focused on behavior; largely overlooked cultural meanings and other subjective processes
Focuses on how behavior settings perpetuate themselves and mold the behavior of the individuals
o’donnell’s activity settings
Not simply a physical setting and not just the behavior of persons who meet there but also the subjective meanings that develop there among setting participants, especially intersubjectivity: beliefs, assumptions, values, and emotional experiences that are shared by setting participants
limitations to O’Donnell’s activity settings
requires time and resources to gather the necessary data
Tseng & Seidman’s systems framework
idea of social regularities
goal: search for patterns of behavior that revel roles and power relationships among setting members
Intervening in setting → setting outcomes → individual changes
Intervening at different level so you can see individual changes
- ex: intervening in a classroom environment to see changes among students’ own growth
social regularities
The routine patterns of social relations among the elements within a setting
community
Refers to relationships that are multidimensional and are valued in their own right, not just as a means to an end
types of community
locality based
relational
locality-based community
Traditional conception of community
Includes city blocks, neighborhoods, small towns, cities, and rural regions
Interpersonal ties exist among community members
They are based on geographic proximity; not necessarily choice
relational community
Defined by interpersonal relationships and a sense of community but are not limited by geography
Internet discussion groups are communities completely without geographic limits
Mutual help groups, student clubs, and religious congregations are defined by relational bonds
psychological sense of community
Sarason (1974) coined this term and defined it
The perception of similarity to others, an acknowledged interdependence with others, a willingness to maintain this interdependence by giving to or doing for others what one expects from them, the feeling that one is part of a larger dependable and stable structure
levels of sense of community
four
membership
influence
integration and fulfillment of needs
shared emotional connection
membership
Boundaries, common symbols, emotional safety, personal investment, sense of belonging, identification with community
influence
Mutual influence of community on individuals–and individuals on community
integration and fulfillment of needs
Shared values, satisfying needs, exchanging resources
shared emotional connection
Shared dramatic moments, celebrations, rituals
social capital
Social capital theory contends that social relationships are resources that can lead to the development and accumulation of human capital
The positive interactions that result from social interactions
empowerment
Involves actually gaining power in some way, not simply the feeling of being in control of one’s life decisions
citizen participation
Having a voice and influence in community decision making
instruments of social power collective
- how power operates in a community and social life
- 3 instruments of social power (Gaventa)
–> controlling resources that can be used to bargain, reward, and punish
–> controlling channels for participation in community decisions
–> shaping the definition of a public issue or conflict
personal self-efficacy
This is the individual’s belief that he or she personally has the capacity to engage effectively in citizen participation and influence community decisions. At its strongest, this includes confidence that one can be an effective leader in citizen action.
