Pushing the frontiers of multicultural training in community psychology

Suarez-Balcazar, Durlak, and Smith (1994) have provided the field with important baseline information regarding multicultural training practices in community psychology. This report can serve as a catalyst in our quest to place an understanding of human diversity, in particular, ethnic-cultural diversity, at the heart of community psychology. To do so, we need to move beyond the teaching of culturally sensitive research and practice to a reconceptualization of the knowledge base and methods of community psychology, to an examination of the conflicts engendered by the inclusion of multiple voices, and to the implementation of institutional arrangements that can support such a challenging task in constructive ways.     

Connecting adverse childhood experiences and community health to promote health equity

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have negative effects on health outcomes across the lifespan. Furthermore, the effects of ACEs are often compounded by social determinants of health and historical and contemporary trauma that can affect entire communities. The socio‐ecological model is a valuable framework for understanding the complex systems in which efforts to promote health equity are situated. Using a trauma‐informed lens, community health becomes a powerful focal point for viable prevention and treatment options to address ACEs and promote health equity. Self‐healing on a community level involves collective engagement; people most affected by ACEs and trauma come together around activities that have the potential to lift up the entire community and foster individual and community resilience. The use of community health research and evaluation methods that are consistent with trauma‐informed, empowerment approaches can contribute to community healing. This paper is intended to establish a common language for how community healing can address ACEs and foster health equity.     

Capturing Dynamic Processes of Change in GROW Mutual Help Groups for Mental Health

The need for a model that can portray dynamic processes of change in mutual help groups for mental health (MHGMHs) is emphasized. A dynamic process model has the potential to capture a more comprehensive understanding of how MHGMHs may assist their members. An investigation into GROW, a mutual help organization for mental health, employed ethnographic, phenomenological and collaborative research methods. The study examined how GROW impacts on psychological well being. Study outcomes aligned with the social ecological paradigm (Maton in Understanding the self-help organization: frameworks and findings. Sage, Thousand Oaks 1994) indicating multifactorial processes of change at and across three levels of analysis: group level, GROW program/community level and individual level. Outcome themes related to life skills acquisition and a change in self-perception in terms of belonging within community and an increased sense of personal value. The GROW findings are used to assist development of a dynamic multi-dimensional process model to explain how MHGMHs may promote positive change.     

Psychologie communautaire et psychologie de la santé : l’implication de la recherche psychosociale dans la promotion de la santé

This paper presents the issues and main principles of community psychology and community research as well as associated relationships and viewpoints in terms of health psychology and social psychology. In this perspective, the paper presents the context in which community psychology has emerged and its fundamental principles such as empowerment, community involvement and the ecological model. Using two examples of research in prevention of HIV infection, the paper leads to a greater comprehension of how a particular community-based approach to involve affected populations may be particularly relevant, not only to better understand their beliefs and behaviors but also to try to encourage them to change current behaviors or generate new ones. Research with adolescents involved in promoting condom use illustrates the use of psychosocial models of behavior change through a community approach. A second research focus on medical and psychosocial innovation through the use of non-routine, rapid screening tests for HIV - which are neither carried out nor supervised by medical personnel - aims to highlight the impact of the development of preventive action by directly concerned communities. The article aims to present the innovative methodological and epistemological issues which underpin community research.     

The resident researcher: An alternative career model centered on community

Considers the potential benefits and costs of an alternative career model for community researchers, one in which professionals specialize in the community where they live. By virtue of their local familiarity, resident researchers can make more informed judgments about research problems and methods. They can employ longitudinal designs to assess change and be available to assist in interpretation and implementation of research. Potential costs include the possibility of provincialism, unintended researcher effects, ethical dilemmas, the need to cultivate community relations, and role conflicts. Interdisciplinary training programs and research field stations can contribute to the development of the resident researcher role. Researchers in the community can help generate grass roots support for social science research. We acknowledge Louise Shedd Barker's helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.     

Self-Efficacy in Service-Learning Community Action Research: Theory, Research, and Practice

The purpose of this article is threefold: In the first section, an overview of research and theory on the self-efficacy construct is provided, and the central role of self-efficacy in service-learning community action research is demonstrated. The second section reviews over 10 years of research validating the Community Service Self-Efficacy Scale (CSSES), which measures the individual’s confidence in his or her own ability to make clinically (meaningfully) significant contributions to the community through service. Within the context of this review, recent (previously unpublished) validation research is also reviewed. Alternate versions of the CSSES, each of which was developed for a specific purpose, are presented. The third section provides recommendations for further research focused on (a) validating the CSSES and (b) examining self-efficacy as an outcome, moderator, and mediating variable in service-learning community action research.     

Community Science: Creating an Alternative Place to Stand?

This article comments on two emerging views of community psychologys approaches to the use of research for responding to social problems in contemporary community contexts – (a) the formation of a new field of community science, or (b) the updating of community psychology research traditions. If community science is to become established as a field related to community psychology, its proponents will need to agree upon conventions of epistemology, foci of interest, methods, and standards by which its work can be judged so that it can be distinguished from other human sciences. These articles provide early sketches for what community science might be. However, as noted in this commentary, we need to heed signs of concern about community psychologys continued relevance in public discourse regarding the analysis of and responses to social problems. While this special issue offers some promising responses to the concern of what the field can contribute, the field would be well served if we broaden our dialogue about a renewal of community psychologys commitment to social justice and the need for its perspectives in the practice of research that seeks to address community-based issues in the early 21st century.     

Self-Disclosure and Spiritual Well-Being in Pastors Seeking Professional Psychological Help

Pastoral mental health is a topic that has only rarely been researched empirically in the psychological literature, yet a pastor’s mental health can have a significant impact on churches, communities, and even nations (Royal and Thompson, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 31(3), 195–204, 2012). One of the thoughts prompting this research is that evangelical pastors might be expected to resist the findings of psychological research and lack understanding of specific mental illnesses they are potentially facing. Combined with historical and cultural dynamics that could influence resistance to professional psychological help, evangelical pastors have personal, internal factors that could also strengthen resistance, including the researched issues of self-disclosure flexibility and spiritual well-being. A correlational research design with multivariate regression was used to determine potentially significant or predictive relationships between the relevant factors. Among evangelical seminary students (N = 251) preparing for parish-based pastoral ministry, this research determined that no significant relationship, predictive or otherwise, existed between self-disclosure flexibility, spiritual well-being, and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Implications include a shift in focus toward external factors influencing pastors’ help-seeking attitudes, such as the need for the mental health community to develop connections with evangelical pastors and the development of more support for Christian mental health professionals in the larger evangelical community.     

Logistic regression for risk factor modelling in stuttering research

ObjectivesTo outline the uses of logistic regression and other statistical methods for risk factor analysis in the context of research on stuttering.DesignThe principles underlying the application of a logistic regression are illustrated, and the types of questions to which such a technique has been applied in the stuttering field are outlined. The assumptions and limitations of the technique are discussed with respect to existing stuttering research, and with respect to formulating appropriate research strategies to accommodate these considerations. Finally, some alternatives to the approach are briefly discussed.ResultsThe way the statistical procedures are employed are demonstrated with some hypothetical data.ConclusionResearch into several practical issues concerning stuttering could benefit if risk factor modelling were used. Important examples are early diagnosis, prognosis (whether a child will recover or persist) and assessment of treatment outcome.Educational objectives: After reading this article you will: (a) Summarize the situations in which logistic regression can be applied to a range of issues about stuttering; (b) Follow the steps in performing a logistic regression analysis; (c) Describe the assumptions of the logistic regression technique and the precautions that need to be checked when it is employed; (d) Be able to summarize its advantages over other techniques like estimation of group differences and simple regression.     

Towards an Ecological Understanding of Resilience in Trauma Survivors

Abstract

The ecological perspective of community psychology offers needed understanding of diverse sources and expressions of resilience among trauma survivors. Investigations by community psychologists into the nature of wellness-enhancing interventions and empowering social change can inform trauma-focused interventions at individual, community, and societal levels. Here, works by selected community psychologists are reviewed. The ecological view of trauma, recovery, and resilience guiding work at the Victims of Violence (VOV) Program, the range and reach of VOV's clinical and community interventions, and elements of its trauma recovery and resiliency research project illustrate the implications and relevance of these works. Five premises of an ecological understanding of resilience in trauma survivors are discussed.     

Commanding good and prohibiting evil in contemporary Islam: cases from Britain, Nigeria, and Southeast Asia

This paper examines the concept of (public) sin as well as efforts to counteract sin from the perspective of Islam. The understanding that hisba, the prohibition of vice and enjoining of virtues, are a responsibility of both the state and the community is common in historical and contemporary Muslim societies. Where the state cannot or does not provide means for countering (public) sin, the perception for some Muslims is that the responsibility on the community and individuals to do so increases. Based on ethnographic research in Britain, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, the paper highlights examples of how sin has been defined amongst Muslim communities as well as the methods and rationales given to justify the forbidding of sin as a collective and communal public obligation. As the world becomes more integrated, there is growing concern amongst Muslim communities that sin is becoming the norm, leading society to degeneracy, that people who would not have otherwise sinned are influenced to do so. Common features in forbidding sin across Muslim communities have appeared, often focusing on what are seen as moral issues such as dress codes, music, gambling, alcohol, smoking, and the mixing of men and women in public. The forbidding of sin has resulted in attempts to introduce “Shari’a Zones” in some predominantly Muslim areas of London, whilst in Indonesia, this has given rise to the Islamic Defenders Front and in some Northern Nigerian states to the reintroduction of the criminal codes of the Shari’a.     

Developmental issues in indigenous psychologies: Sustainability and local knowledge

The present paper endeavours to discuss some of the potential issues inherent in the developmental work for indigenous psychologies, especially in the Western context. The discussion is made around two topical issues, sustainability and local knowledge. The developmental processes in indigenous psychologies are influenced by the inter- and intracommunity environment. It is important to trace the development of local knowledge in a sustained community environment. The cross-fertilization of ecological perspectives with indigenous psychological knowledge can enlighten our understandings of global issues in psychology as well as the applications of psychological knowledge to a local context. A theoretical model is proposed to highlight major social psychological processes in a participatory community environment − the model is expected to address essential contentious issues to the future of a globalized psychology, especially the way integrated local knowledge can lay the foundations of a globalized indigenous psychology.     

Framing social information and generalized social phobia

Patients with generalized social phobia (GSP, N=33) and matched community controls (N=31) engaged in a social interaction that was constructed to go well, and then received feedback that framed social cues reflecting either the absence of negative outcomes or the presence of positive outcomes. Following feedback that framed positive social cues, the GSP group predicted they would experience more anxiety in a subsequent interaction than did non-phobic controls. In contrast, following feedback framing the absence of negative outcomes, the GSP group did not differ from controls in their anxiety predictions. The results demonstrated that framing paradigms and methods can be usefully applied to the study of cognitive processes in social phobia and indicated that research to examine how GSP patients process specific types of social information is needed.     

Toward a comprehensive model of physical activity

Background and purpose. Despite the widely acknowledged public health burden and years of individually based intervention approaches, physical inactivity remains a growing concern among industrialized nations. Interventions aimed at changing individual dispositions that increase physical activity generally result in small changes in behavior that dissipate within weeks. Correlational research testing theories and models focusing on these same individual dispositions explain, at best, 20–40% of the variance in physical activity. As a result, recent calls have been made for consideration of broader, multilevel, ecological approaches to physical activity promotion. The purpose of this article is to define a comprehensive model for understanding physical activity and consider future directions for research.Methods. Relevant literature is reviewed within each of the areas being discussed.Results and conclusions. Ecological models incorporate both intra- and extra-individual influences that may impact on individual physical activity. However, the role of extra-individual factors has not been clearly defined in current ecological models of physical activity. We present the theoretical background of ecological models of health behavior, and define an ecological model for physical activity promotion. This model portrays physical activity behavior as being influenced by interplay between environmental settings and biological and psychological factors. Further testing of this and existing ecological models of physical activity is recommended.     

The SIMCLAS Model: Simultaneous Analysis of Coupled Binary Data Matrices with Noise Heterogeneity Between and Within Data Blocks

In many research domains different pieces of information are collected regarding the same set of objects. Each piece of information constitutes a data block, and all these (coupled) blocks have the object mode in common. When analyzing such data, an important aim is to obtain an overall picture of the structure underlying the whole set of coupled data blocks. A further challenge consists of accounting for the differences in information value that exist between and within (i.e., between the objects of a single block) data blocks. To tackle these issues, analysis techniques may be useful in which all available pieces of information are integrated and in which at the same time noise heterogeneity is taken into account. For the case of binary coupled data, however, only methods exist that go for a simultaneous analysis of all data blocks but that do not account for noise heterogeneity. Therefore, in this paper, the SIMCLAS model, being a Hierarchical Classes model for the simultaneous analysis of coupled binary two-way matrices, is presented. In this model, noise heterogeneity between and within the data blocks is accounted for by downweighting entries from noisy blocks/objects within a block. In a simulation study it is shown that (1) the SIMCLAS technique recovers the underlying structure of coupled data to a very large extent, and (2) the SIMCLAS technique outperforms a Hierarchical Classes technique in which all entries contribute equally to the analysis (i.e., noise homogeneity within and between blocks). The latter is also demonstrated in an application of both techniques to empirical data on categorization of semantic concepts.     

Prolegomena to any future mereology of the body

Many bioethical arguments rely implicitly on the assumption that the concept of “human part” is one on which everyone must agree, because it is unambiguous. But various parties interpret this “unambiguous” term in incompatible ways, leading to contention. This article is an informal presentation of a topomereological system on whose preferred interpretation several distinct but related meanings of “human part” can be isolated: part of a human body, part of the completion of a human body, and part of a human being. A case is analyzed (the first total artificial heart (TAH) implantation), demonstrating in the process much of the apparatus of the system. By means of a casuistic methodology, the analysis is translated into recommendations for the ethical conduct of future TAH research. The more general conclusion, however, is that formal methods may provide useful tools for clarifying thought processes and organizing arguments in debates over bioethical issues.     

Activity settings as the unit of analysis: A theoretical basis for community intervention and development

Theory, methods, and action develop within context, one of which is the intellectual climate of an era. Community psychology is directly and indirectly interactive with many intellectual currents, such as postmodernism, semiotics, hermeneutics, and dialogism. These ideas are discussed as they impact on community psychology, with an emphasis on the reemergence of meaning as a central condition of psychology and community. Meaning is of key importance to the unifying concept in the transactional theoretical model which is presented. How this model might serve as a conceptual framework for an asset approach to community intervention and development is discussed. Increasingly, it is recognized that the development of theory to guide community research and action is necessary to advance intervention and to realize the potential of community psychology. It is argued that community psychology is positioned by concepts and practice squarely at the point of emerging thought, and can make fuondational contributions to general social science. The next article in this special section illustrates concepts of this model in an early education program and the remaining article illustrates the influence of ecocultural factors.