Week 1-6 Flashcards
What is community psychology concerned with?
The interaction between the individual and their environment. Promote social justice, for the vulnerable, marginalized or oppressed.
The beginning: Kurt Lewin- What did he discover?
The effect of environment on behaviour
Chicago School
Interactionist sociology and field research
Palo Alto School
Origin of systemic therapy. Family can explain mental disorders
Francfort School
In response to WW11, social fragmentation
Anti-Psychiatry
Questioning the patient/caregiver relationships. Mental illness as a social construct
Deinstitutionalization
Stop to abusive treatments on psychiatric patients, arrival of anti-psychotics, destigmatizing mental disorders
The Swampscott conference
- Clinicians dissatisfied with traditional approaches to psychology
- emphasis on community
- defending the rights of minority groups
- lead to the creation of community psychology in US
What is a community psychologist?
A psychologist who tries to understand, analyze and act on the living conditions of individuals, communities and, more broadly, society through research and collaborative action
Community psychologist: Considering individuals in their environments
Analyzing the fit between the individual, their needs and abilities and the resources available
Community Psychologist: Social ecology
Understand the mental health of individuals must be understood from eco-systemic perspective
Community Psychologist: Promoting a positive conception of mental health
Focus on strengths, skills, and abilities, well-being rather than pathology
Community Psychologist: Guided by the 3 fundamental values
- well-being
- social justice
- respect for diversity
Community Psychologist: encourage collaboration and participation
- inclusion of marginalized individuals
- citizen participation
- collaboration with organization
Community Psychologist: generating empirical data
Current issues, group needs, daily reality
Bio-psycho-social-model
George Engel
Integrating psychological and social components into understanding pathologies
BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL strengths and limitations
S: Holistic and integrated approach
S: understand the complex links between physical and mental health
L: difficult to implement on clinical level
Ecological Model
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Multiple environments and systems that inter-influence independently of the individual
Onto: Individual characteristics
Micro: immediate environment
Meso: Proximal environment
Exo: distal environment
Macro: societal environment
Chrono: evolution of structures and systems
Ecological Model Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
complete and complex
empowerment of individuals in their environments
Weakness
Complexity
difficult to integrate macro and Chrono
James Kelly- Ecological Principles
- Interdependence
- Circular distribution of resources
- Adaptation
- Succession
Interdependence
All systems are interconnected and influence each other
example
- child becomes more assertive: this changes family dynamics
Circular Distribution Of Resources
Each level has different resources and potential
Example
Intervention with difficult child should focus on their strengths and his parents as well as his school to circulate between resources and levels
Adaptation
Seeking equilibrium in the face of change
examples
when a new baby is born, the whole family readjusts
Succession
Communities go through phases of transition and transformation
example
setting up a homeless center. must ensure the needs of community is met as well as future needs
Recovery Approach
Recovery has been defined as a personal and unique process of changing one’s attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills and or roles in a way of living a satisfying, hopeful life
sense of control over ones life
People with lived experiences of mental distress need to feel visible as people
Social Determinants of Health
structural determinants and conditions of daily life responsible for a major part of health inequalities between and within countries
Commission’s 3 main recommendations
- improve daily living conditions
- Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources
- measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action
Cumulative risk model
the more risk factors you encounter, the greater risk of developing a health problem
Critical period model
periods during which risk factors have decisive effect
Pathway Model
Exposure to a number of factors that lead to trajectories
What is communtiy?
A group of people who have a shared sense of identity bound together by common interests and interact in a way that promotes a sense of belonging and interdependence
5 characteristics of community
- Territory by borders
- shared values
- public space allowing social interaction
- support system
- shared destiny
Four types of communities
- Geographic
- Psychological
- Social
- Communities of interest
Existential Community
meaning for and from members (black community)
Instrumental community
Function: resistance, opposition, affirmation (BIPOC community)
5 types of support
- Esteem
- Informational
- Emotional
- Network
- Tangible
EMPOWERMENT
EM- Developing generating
Power- power, control, capacity to act
MENT- Process and outcomes
individual empowerment
Community empowerment
Organizational empowerment
Top-down approach
Institutional, unidirectional and procedural
Focused on instruction, goals and specific indicators
Bottom-up Approach
Collective approach, community, concerted approach
focus on needs, assets, capabilities and processes
Albert Memmi
The struggle for decolonization must come from the colonized peoples and not from the colonizers
Franz Fanon
Black skin, white mask. Internalization of white superiority
Paulo Friere
Latin America is no longer colonized but a context of political and economic imperialism
Ignacio Martin-Baro
Criticizes social psychology for being disconnected for social contexts
3 foundations
- mobilization of mass knowledge
- practice of psychology that transforms people
- decentering psychology around science
Ignacio Martin-Baro
Mechanisms
1. recovering historical memory
2. taking an interest in people;s subjective experience
3. building on peoples capabilities
Psychologist role in liberation psychology
support desalination process
free individuals from oppression
help people understand their reality through critical reflection
Liberation psychology is rooted in what?
Social, economic, historical and political contexts
Actors in liberation psychology
Do not take transformative active and watch the changes
Allies in liberation psychology
Take action in solidarity and challenge status quo
Accomplices in liberation psychology
Actively coordinate initiatives to disrupt and challenge status quo
Why care about social change?
Inequalities
Oppression
Repression
How can we generate social change?
- through theory/reflection (Hegel)
- Through social and political action (Marx)
- Through Violence (Fanon)
- Through Education (Freire)
Oppression
there are no oppressed without oppressors, the downtrodden are perceived as objected. Oppressed people have the power to transform the structure of oppression
Conscientization
The continuous process of developing critical consciousness. The ability to decode and problematize oppressive realities. feel hope and denounce conditions of opression
Praxis
The process of transforming oppressive social structures
Who is Bell Hooks?
Inspired by Paulo Freire
Engaged pedagogy
knowledge
learning community
love and spirituality
Bell Hooks Ideas
Theory enables us to think and thus understand
Theory is used to describe social reality but also provides tools for modifying that reality
Knowledge is not neutral…it reflects privilege and is partial
Examples of university oppression
Pro-Palestinian protests
Black History Month
Land acknowledgements
How does the university act as a system of oppression?
Difficult to observe
Economic barriers to access
Direct violence by people in authority
Epistemic violence: certain knowledge is silenced
Requests for university
Transparency on the use of tuition fees
Mandatory course on the history of colonization
Support awareness of collective rights
Support student clubs and association
Ameliorative interventions
Promote well-being and reduce the adverse consequences of social inequalities. Pragmatic approach to strengthen protective factors
Transformative interventions
Change power relationships and oppressive structures. structural approach. Values social justice and emphasizes reducing systemic risk factors
Why are values important in community psychology
to be able to define the objectives, questions and issues. Define what is acceptable and what can be studied
Success factors for community development
Collaboration, clear mission and common objectives involve all the community, promote democracy, support empowerment, time and patience
Community Psychology Roles
Program developer
program evaluator
capacity builder with organizations
policy developer
community organizer
social action promoter
Community psychologists should always remember
to focus on the interactions between individuals and environments
aim to generate social change
Guided by core values (social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion)
Aim at supporting community development
Mental health statistics in Canada youth
20% have mental health disorder and 75% do not have access to care
Two main approaches to target mental health
Access of mental health care and factors that influence mental health
Health promotion- targets
Strengthen well-being, and increasing collective well-being, don’t target specific problem, beyond and upstream
Ottawa Charter
- build healthy public policy
- create supportive environments
- Strengthen community action
- develop personal skills
- reorient health services
Prevention definition from community psychology
emphasis on mental health, exceptional attention to excluded populations, analysis of risk and protective factors at different levels
Risk factors
any attribute, characteristic or exposure that increases likelihood of developing disease or trauma
Protective factors
protective factors neutralize
specific risk factors or protect
individuals from a number of
different risk factors
Prevention spectrum
- Promotion
- primary prevention
- secondary prevention
- Tertiary Prevention
- Curative intervention
What is a program?
1.Responds to a social need/problem
2.Aimed at a specific population
3. According to an approach (universal, targeted,
proportionate)
4.Offers services
5. Has objectives
6. Is supported by an organization
Universal approach
The program is intended for the entire population
Targeted approach
The program is intended for a specific sub-population
Universal risks
Access for people with resources
Targeted risks
stigmatization
Proportionate universalism
The program is adjusted according to the
social gradient: not everyone has the same access to the program
Implementation Characteristics
Acceptability, fidelity and reach
Barriers to implementation
Acceptability, fidelity, reach, contextual feasibility, sustainability
Formative evaluation
- Intervention is in progress
- Continuous learning
-Evaluation of a cycle of intervention - Improvement of practices,
readjustments
summative evaluation
The intervention is completed
(or is in the process of being
completed)
Evaluate the outcomes
(effects, impacts)
Accountability to donors and/
or partner
Why do we evaluate?
- Instrumental use
- persuasive use
- conceptual use
