Reaching Higher in Community Psychology: Social Problems, Social Settings, and Social Change

Abstract

Forty years after the founding of community psychology, we have yet to deliver on the full promissory note of our birth, where we were poised to address social problems, social settings, and social change. Despite some success, we are at risk for selling ourselves short, for dying out in the discipline of psychology, and for failing to improve the common good. Given changes in demographics and in the safety net, the problem of entrenched disparities is even more urgent-in perception of the other, in the provision of opportunities for development, and in outcomes. Envisioning and enabling will be critical as we work with unified purpose toward a cumulative science where failure will not be predictable.

Behavioral Health Services “Don't Work for Us”: Cultural Incongruities in Human Service Systems for Alaska Native Communities

“…Clearly, social and health service systems are likely to be more effective when they are built upon the basic social organization and values of a cultural group. Weinstein (2006) states that in order to do this in service of the social good, community psychology must ''draw from a strong research base, a deep knowledge of social setting and respect for local conditions and local people, a trusting community partnership, and a commitment to both envisioning and enabling' ' (p. 18). Attending to these criteria through a long-term relationship with the participating community, I offer ethnographic examples to describe how Euro-American approaches to service provision (and the assumptions upon which they are built) can be misaligned with local understandings and practices in Northwest Alaska.…”

“…cultural creations or products situated within a unique time and place) whose mechanisms and meanings emerge from and depend upon the cultural intelligibility of their operations to both therapist and client' ' (p. 15). This standpoint acknowledges that culture not only exists in the realm of the ''other,'' minority group, but also in the human service regimes intended for them (Weinstein 2006). It is therefore important to examine the ways programs and service models themselves are culturally-situated and to assess the fit between this and the culture of the service recipients (Bar-On 1999; Brislin and Yoshida 1994;Lynn 2001;McCabe 2007).…”

“…Services-conceptualized and implemented based on an Euro-American ontology and associated notions of relatedness, personal autonomy, and authority-can be antithetical to indigenous ideas, values and practices. Community psychology has a role to play in understanding how this misalignment might contribute to the failure of many programs in minority communities (Weinstein 2006). In addition, the discipline, with its focus on context and collective, meaning-making structures, can offer alternative ways to conceptualize and collaboratively develop more culturally-responsive approaches to the provision of community services.…”

Reflections on the Future of Community Psychology from the Generations after Swampscott: A Commentary and Introduction to the Special Issue

“…But this new group of community psychologists wanted to go further. They wanted to intervene in social problems that were not explicitly mental health in nature, and that's why they talked about becoming “social change agents” – a vision that was a sea change for American psychology (Shinn, ; Tebes et al., ; Weinstein, ).…”

The importance of audience and agency for representation: A case study of an urban youth media community

“…These mainstream media images can operate as self-fulfilling prophecies. Weinstein (2006) believes that the social influence of self-fulfilling prophecies “operates through reinforcement, the availability or lack thereof of opportunities, and messages about capability, worth, or inclusion that impact individual self-view, engagement, and survival” (p. 14). This marginalized representation signals the absence of social power and teaches children about their relative importance in society (Greenberg & Brand, 1994).…”