Community Psychology

Foundations for Practice

Victoria C. Scott, Susan M. Wolfe, Victoria Chien Scott, Susan M. Wolfe

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781452278681
• eBook ISBN: 9781483324241
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Clinical Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Drawing upon the wisdom of experts in the field, this reader-friendly volume explores both foundational competencies and the technical how-to skills needed for engaging in community psychology practice. Each chapter explores a core competency and its application in preventing or amending community problems and issues. With case examples throughout, this text offers a practical introduction to community outreach and intervention in community psychology.

C H A P T E R 1

The History of Community Psychology Practice in the United States

Tom Wolff, Carolyn Swift, and Sharon Johnson-Hakim

Introduction

What Is Community Psychology Practice?

The Early Years (1960–1990)

Milestones of the Era: Where Did We Start?

The Sixties

The Seventies and Eighties

Milestones in the World of Community Psychology

Relationship Between Academic and Practice Community Psychologists

The Dominant Settings, Forms of Practice, and Exemplars in the Era

Community Mental Health Centers

Self-Help

Government

Organizational Development and Systems Change

Prevention

The Later Years: 1990–Present (2013): The Further Development and Shaping of Community Psychology Practice

Milestones of the Era

Milestones in the World of Community Psychology

Events

Relationship Between Academic and Practice Community Psychologists

The Dominant Settings, Forms of Practice, and Exemplars of the Era

Challenges During These Years

Health Care

Nonprofits

Government

Foundations

Comprehensive Community Initiatives

Consulting and Evaluation Practices

The Internet

Neighborhoods

Global Climate Change, Sustainability, and Activism

Future of Community Psychology Practice

Resources

References

INTRODUCTION

Community psychology practice encompasses all of the activities that bring the field’s vision for a better world to life. Thus, we start this history of community psychology practice with a definition and vision of the field:

The sub discipline of psychology that is concerned with understanding people in context of their communities, the prevention of the problems of living, the celebration of human diversity and the pursuit of social justice through social action. (Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2010, p. 23)

The vision for the field of community psychology as adopted by the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), the American professional association, is “to have a strong, global impact on enhancing well-being and promoting social justice for all people by fostering collaboration where there is division and empowerment where there is oppression.” This wonderful, transformative definition and vision for community psychology demand not only the capacity to study issues but also to act to make the world a better place. From the earliest meetings giving birth to the field of community psychology at Swampscott, Massachusetts, the founders understood that community psychology would be a field encompassing academic theory, research, and field practice. This is how community psychology “walks the talk.” Within the field, the role of practice has been to translate research, values, and principles into meaningful action; it is the means through which the field impacts communities and organizations around the world.

What Is Community Psychology Practice?

Although the field of community psychology was established in the 1960s, and community psychologists were involved in practice from the start, the first official definition of what it means to “practice” community psychology was not articulated until 2006, and was a result of work done by the Community Psychology Practice Council of SCRA to promote and support practitioners. The definition states that community psychology practice aims “to strengthen the capacity of communities to meet the needs of constituents and help them to realize their dreams in order to promote well-being, social justice, economic equity and self-determination through systems, organizational and/or individual change” (Julian, 2006, p. 68). Thus, community psychology practitioners are those who do community work as noted in the definition above and who have been trained as community psychologists.

In this chapter we will undertake to recount and understand the history of the development of community psychology practice. We do this by addressing four issues across two eras of the development of community psychology practice.

The first issue we address concerns the intersection of world events with the development of our field, called “Milestones of the Era.” Community psychology grounds itself in the ecological approach, understanding individual behavior as connected to the context in which it occurs, therefore it is no surprise to look at the history of community psychology practice in any given era and see that it is deeply influenced by the events occurring in the world around it. In part this happens because the practitioners are tuned in to current issues and adapt their practice to emerging community and national issues. In part it happens because world and national events influence available funding for national, state, and local grants and practitioners are then engaged to address those issues. As we explore each time period we summarize the milestones of the era in the world: what was happening in the world, such as civil rights movements, wars, influential presidents, and policies or events, and how these external events and movements influenced the development of the field.

Second, we address community psychology practice as part of the developing field of community psychology, not only as a field of study, but also a field of application as well. The overriding questions being how to develop a community psychology practice that is clearly defined; skillful and based on established and accepted competencies; effective; acknowledged as a legitimate practice; visible to the public and to those in the field; and supported by peers and institutions. We address such questions as: What do community psychology practitioners do and what competencies are required to do the work at a professional level? This section is best thought of as the milestones of community psychology practice as it developed a life of its own within the field of community psychology.

The third issue discussed focuses on the dynamics of the relationships of the practitioners of community psychology and their academic colleagues. Throughout the history of community psychology there have been two parallel worlds of community psychologists: those who work in universities and those who work in applied settings. Historically, there has been tension between academic and applied community psychologists. Early on, the vital survival focus of the academic community psychologists was to gain acceptance within their psychology departments regarding the legitimacy of their research agendas. As a result, academic community psychologists were not always aligned in the pursuit of developing a practice. Over the last 30 years this rift has lessened through efforts on both sides. Although the split still exists, a focus on developing competencies for practice has helped the two groups work together and appreciate each other’s role. The value of community psychology practice wherever it occurs, whether in a university setting or in a community setting, is that the practice allows for the manifestation of the community psychology vision. It enables community psychology to have an impact on the world, to reach out into communities, and it illustrates the capacity of community psychology to change the world.

The fourth and final issue we address is the relationship of community psychology practice to the work sites where people practice. What opportunities were created where community psychologists could actually practice community psychology? At the start of the field in the 1960s, as people were trained as community psychologists and went for their first job, if they were going into academia they had to go to a university psychology department and create a community psychology focus; similarly, practitioners had to go into the community and create community psychology positions. In the Handbook of Community Psychology in the chapter on “Practitioners’ Perspectives” (Wolff, 1999), almost all the practitioners writing indicated that they had to create their own position and that indeed their organization did not know them as community psychologists. Over time this has evolved and we trace some of those changes. In exploring the dominant settings and forms of practice in the era we ask: Who are the people who identify as community psychology practitioners? What were they doing at this time? Where were they employed and what kind of skills did they bring to the jobs?

These critical issues will be supplemented with first person stories from prominent community psychology practitioners representing the dominant forms of practice. We hope that these Spotlights can help bring the history of community psychology practice to life and give readers a first person account of what it was like to work as a community psychology practitioner during different stages of the field’s development by highlighting their work in a wide variety of applied settings.

The history of community psychology practice is presented as occurring in two separate eras in this chapter, chronologically from the 1960s to the 1990s and from the 1990s to the present. While community psychology is an international field, the history presented in this chapter focuses mainly on community psychology practice as it developed in the United States.

THE EARLY YEARS (1960–1990)

Milestones of the Era: Where Did We Start?

The Sixties

Community psychology practice emerged from the major events of the turbulent decade of the Sixties. Reviewing the events leading up to the Sixties paints a picture of social, political, and economic dissatisfaction building among key groups. Looking back on those events it is clear that the rumblings of discontent had been rising in various segments of American society for many decades. Here we note major events that led to the volatility and power of the Sixties and report some of the changes that resulted. Among these is the creation of the field of community psychology that began to establish itself in university psychology departments and community mental health centers (CMHCs) across the country.

The birth and development of community psychology practice was heavily influenced by what was happening in the broader world. The United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War outraged the millions of American youth and their families whose lives were most directly affected. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 broadcast to the world that our ideals did not match our actions. The civil rights struggles in the South that had simmered beneath the surface since the Civil War burst forth and spread across the nation. Televised images of police beating and turning heavy hoses on peaceful Black and White protest marchers spilled from our television sets into our living rooms. Hundreds of college students from northern states rode buses south to join the campaign supporting African American citizens demonstrating for their right to vote. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington and his assassination in 1968 brought civil rights to the forefront of national attention.

A number of other major social issues emerged in the Sixties. For example, a drug culture flourished among the young. Women became more vocal in protesting the gender inequalities built into our system. The gay community in New York City, long persecuted by law enforcement, exploded when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a long-standing gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, forcing many of the patrons into patrol wagons and arresting them.

Community psychology was “born” of this conflicted culture, one that thirsted for greater justice, strove to be empowered, and valued diversity in thought and ways of life. As a field, community psychology distinguished itself from clinical psychology (the dominant form of psychological practice at the time) in a number of ways. First, the field treated problems and issues, both psychological and not, as having multiple layers of causation. This framework, the ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), encouraged community psychologists not to look at individual behavior without looking at the context in which it is occurring. Second, noting both the critical shortage of mental health professionals (Albee, 1959) and the differential care and access to care that mental health patients received based on ethnicity and income (Hollingshead & Redlich, 1958), community psychology focused on prevention; how to strengthen communities, social networks, families, and organizations to help individuals adapt and deal with the stresses of life in a healthy way. Third, rather than view individuals as passive recipients of treatment, community psychologists collaborate with those they are trying to help, and attempt to empower those individuals to realize the personal outcomes that they desire. By simply looking at these values, perspectives, and approaches, it is clear to see how the developing field drew on the social movements that were occurring around it.

The Seventies and Eighties

One early manifestation of community psychology principles was in the idea of community mental health, which was born in the era of President John F. Kennedy but came of age in the 1970s with CMHCs proliferating in every state in the nation. In part these CMHCs were created to provide the comprehensive services for the new emphasis on deinstitutionalizing the mentally ill. CMHCs also focused on early intervention, prevention, consultation, and community engagement, all of which are key community psychology principles. One of the required CMHC services was “consultation education and prevention” (CEP). Thus CMHCs hired directors and staff to carry out CEP activities and numerous community psychologists moved into those roles. One example of a community psychologist in a CMHC is John Morgan, whose career is discussed in the following Spotlight. These services included consultation to community institutions such as schools and social service agencies, training of personnel in these systems, and systematic programming for targeted populations such as young children, the elderly, victims of sexual abuse, and others.

John Morgan

Trained as a clinical and child psychologist, John Morgan prides himself on taking a prevention-based approach to his work. The majority of his professional activities fall into two categories: ensuring that individuals have the coping skills and social support necessary to allow them to deal with “normal” stressors such as child rearing or divorce, and closely examining settings to make sure they are set up in a way that encourages health and well-being.

Fresh out of graduate school, John was hired as a staff psychologist by the community mental health center (CMHC) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, in 1976. At the time, CMHCs had been around for 7 or 8 years, and the CMHC in Chesterfield County was one of 40 centers in Virginia. John was immediately drawn to the orientation of the Chesterfield CMHC; it was embedded in the community not only with the intention of providing access to mental health services for underserved populations, but also to allow staff to actively partner with community organizations and residents to develop programs that strengthened the community-at-large.

As John reflects, for many community psychologists CMHCs...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Brief Contents
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• 1 The History of Community Psychology Practice in the United States
• 2 Guiding Principles and Competencies for Community Psychology Practice
• 3 Understanding Ecological Systems
• 4 Effecting Social Change in Diverse Contexts: The Role of Cross-Cultural Competency
• 5 Professional Judgment and Ethics
• 6 Participatory Approaches for Conducting Community Needs and Resources Assessments
• 7 Organizational and Community Capacity Building
• 8 Community Organizing
• 9 Building and Strengthening Collaborative Community Partnerships
• 10 Advocacy and Social Justice
• 11 Planning, Implementing, and Developing Evidence-Based Interventions in the Context of Federally Funded Programs
• 12 Empowerment Evaluation and Community Psychology: An Alignment of Values and Principles Designed to Improve the Human Condition
• 13 Dissemination and Sustainability: Changing the World and Making It Stick
• 14 Community Psychology Education and Practice Careers in the 21st Century
• 15 A Vision for Community Psychology Practice
• Author Index
• Subject Index
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