Talk:Community psychology

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Contents 1 Commentary to make reader aware of cultural limitations of present definition 1.1 Moved from article page 2 Stub class 3 Community and Sociology Project templates and "Community" NAV box 4 Commentary on the definition in the article (see also above)

[edit] Commentary to make reader aware of cultural limitations of present definition

The definition below should be read as particular to a US-American reading of community psychology. More specifically, it is probably a US-American reading of community psychology from a clinical psychological perspective. There are a number of other ways of defining community psychology which, as more community psychologists access this page, will hopefully be offered in the future. Presently, there are networks of community psychologists in Africa, Asia, Australasia, North and South America, for example. Each network, in each continent, and in each country in each of those continents have particular historical, political and cultural interpretations of where community psychology originated, how it has developed, how it is presently constituted and how it might develop in the future. Indeed versions of what constitutes the course and content of community psychology are contested between as well as within countries, reflecting differing professional and political perspectives, socio-political histories and personal biographies. -User 195.92.168.170 posted to main page at 20:28, 4 January 2006

I moved the long discussion above from the beginning of the article page (where it didn't belong). Editors are most welcome to enrich the definition to include global perspectives wherever those endeavors actually use the phrase "Community Psychology," even if it has no direct connection to the research and work of American Community Psychologists. Those affirmative additions might take the form of separate sections in the latter case. Someone who actually knows what Community Psychology is in other countries needs to address this issue; I don't really think it's appropriate to critique the present definition (especially at such length, and undeniably before the definition) on the main page without such an affirmative approach. -DoctorW 00:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I re-inserted the 'long discussion' because the wikipedia entry is for 'community psychology' not 'American [sic] Community Psychology' If Dr W. would like to have his/her entry for American Community Psychology (more accurately United States of American Community Psychology) then I feel s/he should have his/her definition as a separate section. Would Dr W. like to work with me and others to provide a less culturally mypoic entry for community psychology for the opening page and invite cross-cultural contributions to that definition? Or, would Dr W prefer to have the USA definition hold the hegemony? At the very least, I would hope Dr W. redefines the entry as specific to American Community Psychogy as to suggest this is a generic definition of Community Psychology is highly misleading and deeply flawed. From a Community Psychologist in the UK

I'm very happy to see someone highly qualified to make quality edits here. While there are quite a few experts on Wikipedia, there are also a lot of college students and others who may not have much expertise in specific content areas. Unfortunately, some of those who would be excellent editors are not sufficiently bold, while others should be more restrained and recognize when an expert might know better. I'm just going to assume you (the Community Psychologist in the UK above) are relatively new to Wikipedia, so forgive me if I say anything that sounds condescending. Please go ahead and edit the definition! Normally the title of the article appears in the first few words of the first sentence, and there seems to be a preference for it being the very first word(s). You may want to find some common ground between the "American" (U.S.) definition and that of other places with which you're familiar, followed by aspects which are unique to each locale. Editors don't normally place dissenting commentary above this introduction; they either just change the introduction, or if it seems to them that discussion is needed, they use the talk page. BTW, I'm not a clinical psychologist, and didn't write any part of the definition. My moving your comments had more to do with conforming to the way things are normally done at Wikipedia, which in this case makes sense because most visitors are just looking for information, not for a protracted debate by insiders. I'm a developmental psychologist who wrote his dissertation on "Sense of Community" (which has international interest among researchers in Community Psychology), and I was familiar with all the published psychology material related directly to Sense of Community a decade ago (and more generally with the main Community Psychology journals), but in recent years I haven't kept current. At no time was I familiar with what "Community Psychology" meant in other countries (except as regards Sense of Community in schools in Australia and Canada), so I'm not qualified to revise the definition to make it more generic. Please go right ahead and edit it yourself; there is nothing sacrosanct about what is there. If you still feel after doing so that the "American" definition needs a critique, please place it afterward, possibly in a section near the bottom of the page. And please feel free also to add as much content as you think is appropriate to the page beyond the definition! -DoctorW 05:52, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I've recently been accepted to a Community psych master's program here in Canada, so in theory I should have some idea what the field is about. Then again, many professors in the area who I've met for interviews are hard-pressed to give a solid definition of the area themselves! In any case, I hope to have some time in the next week to take a crack at editing this article. HighApostle 15:10, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

The beauty of Wikipedia is how articles form and change from disorganized fragments of truth from various perspectives (stubs) toward quality articles that readers from all walks of life can derive benefit from (Featured articles). The irony of the whole topic of "community" is that the very concepts presented in the texts are at play during the processes that produce the articles themselves.General readers (myself included) depend upon expert opinions from those (such as the ones conversing above) who are well-versed in the academic languages of specialized fields. Please take a look at the page history of the main article in this set, Community to see how the collaboration process works. • CQ 21:12, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moved from article page

I've moved the following (again) from the article page. It is highly inappropriate and unprofessional for an encyclopedia article to present a definition and then critique itself. The problems should be worked out here, and content added to the article or modified in the article in the process. I have attempted to provide some neutral introductory remarks for the article in the meantime. Anyone is encouraged to change those comments to reflect a worldwide perspective more accurately, or to critique it here on the talk page. But lets keep our arguments out of the article itself. Add something constructive to the article or change something in the article that needs it; don't complain about the article within the article. The inset below is what was moved:

Community Psychology lies at the intersection of Social Psychology, Political Science, and Community development. It is the study of how to use the principles of psychology to create communities of all sizes that promote mental health of their members.

The basic tenets of Community Psychology are:

1. Any non-biological mental illness can either be caused by or aggravated by a mismatch between a person's personality and the community environment in which he or she exists.
2. It is often cheaper and more effective to change the environment than to treat multiple patients within it.
3. Primary interventions (those aimed at preventing problems before they start) are much more effective than secondary or tertiary interventions (those that treat patients or incipient patients).

The above definition can be read as particular to an American reading of community psychology. More specifically, it is probably an American reading of community psychology from a clinical psychological perspective. There are a number of other ways of defining community psychology. Presently, there are networks of community psychologists in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North and South America, for example. Each network, in each continent, and in each country in each of those continents have particular historical, political and cultural interpretations of community psychology, how it has developed, how it is presently constituted and how it might develop in the future. Versions of what constitutes the course and content of community psychology are contested between as well as within countries, reflecting differing professional and political perspectives, socio-political histories and personal biographies.

-DoctorW 14:18, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stub class

I've reduced the status of this article to "Stub" class per the discussion above, however I'm leaving its importance as "High". The Community WikiProject has compiled a List of community topics and is using it to organize sets of articles like this one into a logically arraged list. This list will be used to build an infobox, Community topics. Aticles will be sorted and assessed by both importance and quality. Please see WikiProject_Community/Organization for more information. All are welcome to participate in the effort. • CQ 21:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Community and Sociology Project templates and "Community" NAV box

I cannot fathom the reason for putting these two templates at the top of this page and the {{Community}} navigation box in the article. The templates do not seem to belong on this page. The navigation box seems totally out of place in the article. I will remove the latter and would like to hear others' views about this. Sunray 20:45, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

That's deep. Think tractor beam. Maybe delving into WikiPedia:List of WikiProjects and into the history of the redirect, Wikipedia:WikiProjectCentral can put some lights on your submarine. Wikipedia:WikiProject Elvis should cover both Costello and Presley, eh Moonbeam? • CQ • 01:38, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps I was too hasty in my remarks about this. Community psychology is all about community, so perhaps the {{Community}} tag does apply here. I'm not so sure that the WikiProject Sociology templeate does, though. Community psychology seems to me the lens through which psychologists view community, not sociologists. Hence the name. Anyone else care to comment? Sunray 16:57, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

I think that there are a couple of ways that the relation between Community psychology and mainstream psych (on one hand) and sociology can be viewed. From a historical perspective, Community psych as a discipline arose as an offshoot from clinical psychology, while some of its current topics of study and research methods may share more in common with sociology or even social work (I'll be starting a Masters' program in Community Psych this fall, and one of my classmates is coming in with a Masters degree in Social Work). Like other disciplines that stand at the intersection of two or more fields, there is no easy classification. I don't see anything wrong with including it under sociology, as long as its also included under any psychology project. HighApostle 20:55, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

I've added the Psychology template. -DoctorW 14:43, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Commentary on the definition in the article (see also above)

Commentary about the contents of the article belongs on this page, not in the article. If anyone is unhappy with the contents of the article, he or she should edit the article. Anyone can do so. Please have at it. -DoctorW 09:11, 16 November 2006 (UTC)