Synergy and Healing

Summary

There is a crisis in health care resulting from the scarcity of resources and the inequitable distribution of those resources toward those most able to pay. Two paradigms for the generation and distribution of resources are discussed. The scarcity paradigm, in which individuals must compete for scarce resources, dominates Western care and expresses and supports that crisis. The synergy paradigm, in which individuals share resources which are renewable and expanding, is rare in the West but could help alleviate that crisis. Three case studies of synergy in Western health care are presented, illustrating the nature and functioning of “synergistic community.” Dilemmas remaining in the introduction and maintenance of synergy within Western care are discussed.     

Practicing What We Preach

SUMMARY

This paper describes the creation of a “Job Club” at Michigan State University to facilitate employment searches in Community Psychology. The goal of the Job Club was to provide a setting where graduating Ph.D. candidates could gain the skills necessary to be successful in both academic and non-academic job searches. The Job Club was student-driven, and emphasized principles of community psychology such as collaboration, network development, social and instrumental support, and empowerment. The importance of small group size and the ongoing commitment of a senior faculty mentor are highlighted. A curriculum for Job Club was created that included: resource allocation; network development; document development (vitae, resumes); practicing job talks, teaching demonstrations and interviews; and accepting the offer. Successes, lessons learned, and suggestions for creating Job Clubs in other settings are offered.     

Reflections on Calling and Careers in Community Psychology

SUMMARY

The current essay discusses the narratives of five community psychologists from the perspective of a career “calling.” Each of the essays highlight different components of a calling: employing deep discernment to know the right path for oneself; experiencing a calling to do one's work, an invitation to which we choose to respond; serving community; discovering your quintessential self or “genius”; and using your gifts for the common good. Moreover, the author discusses how the essays not only illustrate calling, but also the emergence of confidence and the subjective career.     

Empowerment in a Religious Setting

Abstract

This study examines the correlates and contexts of empowerment among members of a Christian, nondenominational religious setting. The research approach combines participant-observation and measurement development methodology to capture the empowering aspects of religious experience in a form which lends itself to quantitative analysis, without excessive loss of the phenomenological meaning ofthat experience. The criterion of empowerment is progress toward a salient goal of members-interpersonal behavior change in the direction of group ideals (i.e., in the direction of becoming more like Jesus). Present and retrospective past measurement of perceived interpersonal behavior yielded eight predictor variables from member peer, self-report, and interviewer sources. These variables include religious orientation, locus of control. spiritual experience, group involvement, and religious history. The relationship of the predictors to interpersonal behavior change was assessed in canonical correlation analyses. Results from multiple data sources find that those seen by themselves and by others as empowered are committed to a relationship with God and with others in the setting. They may be described, in part, as experiencing a “psychological sense of community.” In addition, they report a life crisis prior to joining the setting and a sense that God is in control of the events of their life. Follow-up data, three years later, finds a relationship between commitment and life satisfaction. Two years of participant-observation provide hypotheses, consistent with several psychological theories, for suggesting salient setting variables which provide a context for understanding the results.     

A Community Service for a Rural High School

Abstract

This case study illustrates a preventive consultation using the ecological paradigm to guide entry, assessment, problem solving, and collaborative intervention design and implementation in a rural high school which initially had serious reservations about working with urban academicians. The ecological paradigm's emphasis on the identification of resources, on collaborative work with community members, and on developing tailored solutions based on the strengths of the setting are discussed. A four year follow-up describing the long-term outcome and commentary from a key setting member are included.     

Reactions to collective stress: Correlates of active citizen participation at love canal

Abstract

Events at Love Canal, beginning in the spring of 1978, are described as an environmental crisis leading to acute collective stress. As the crisis unfolded, Love Canal residents’ perceptions of the situation, and the actions they took, were monitored through interviews with a sample of 58 families in fall, 1978. Of these, 39 were reinterviewed in spring, 1979. Among interviewed families, 24 (41%) had at least one “activist” member, someone who became personally involved in a community organization formed to help resolve the crisis. This study compares the social characteristics of “activist families” with “non‐activist families,” their Love Canal‐related problems, sources of help, and general views of the impacts on their personal lives, and on interpersonal relations. Activists relied on government and crisis‐related organizations for help, while non‐activists had more family support. Neither group utilized the mental health services provided by the community's “crisis center.” Activists felt better about themselves, and had a stronger feeling of personal efficacy in affecting government decisions. They perceived that the crisis had brought about positive personal changes, and changes in relations with others. The major implication for intervention is that several different approaches to assisting members of a community in crisis must be undertaken.     

新发展阶段城镇文化空间塑造:政策变迁、复合层次及集成路径北大核心SSCI

改革开放以来,我国的城镇文化空间经历了从“忽视”“发现”“重视”到“塑造”的政策变迁历程。基于城镇文化空间塑造,实现以城镇“文化共同体”构建城镇“生活共同体”,是新发展阶段城镇文化空间塑造的重要目标和实践进路。本质上,城镇化是特定城镇界面上关于“美好生活主体”的历史记忆重构和活动空间塑造的实践过程,城镇文化空间的想象、嵌入和塑造是城镇化的基本维度,是价值理性和技术理性的统一。目前,城镇文化空间所遭遇的“交换价值”生产优于“使用价值”生产的市场逻辑、“经济增长”先于“文化提升”的内在偏好以及“城市发展的内在张力就是空间资本化”的叠加危机,已经成为城镇文化空间塑造亟须破解的难题。通过建构城镇文化空间塑造的整体框架,重新审视城镇文化空间的属性、功能与维度,重塑城镇文化空间理念及其实践路径,必将为有效激活城镇文化资源和建设城镇“生活共同体”提供文化支撑。     

Promoting Methodological Pluralism,Theoretical Diversity and Interdisciplinarity Through a Multi-Leveled Violence Prevention Initiative in South Africa

SUMMARY

Violence prevention within low-income, under-resourced communities presents significant challenges to community development researcher-practitioners seeking to maximize partnerships, resource utilization and overall program effectiveness. This article highlights a South African research and service delivery organization's efforts to develop a violence prevention matrix, premised upon an adaptation of the public health approach and the infusion of a critical, community development praxis. It presents preliminary outcomes of a multi-level pilot application of this matrix in a low-income neighborhood in South Africa, specifically focusing on evaluating its capacity to foster methodological pluralism, theoretical diversity and interdisciplinarity, together with promoting community empowerment and coalition-building strategies.     

The inner “I”

SUMMARY

Many community psychologists have the educational and professional backgrounds which make them potentially valuable resources for the disabilities field. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) call for greater community inclusion, empowerment, and self-determination for persons with disabilities. Community psychologists with interests in these concepts, as well as in interdisciplinary training, collaboration, community-driven research, and political action are needed as leaders in the disabilities field. This paper explores the development of one community psychologist's career working with persons who have disabilities and the institutions that support them.     

Community Psychologists who Go Beyond the Profession

SUMMARY

A “calling” is typically a compelling sense of purpose that arises from a place different from the calculus that leads to a choice of profession. Yet in the case of community psychology, the five people profiled in this essay have both an impressive professional portfolio and a sense of social mission. This essay explores the two sides of their work, and more broadly the challenges facing those who work as agents of change, while at the same time advancing and achieving notable accomplishments in systems that are at once sources of social problems and resources for solving them.     

Citizen Empowerment

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, the notion of empowerment has appeared with increasing frequency in discussion of preventive social and community intervention. While the idea of empowerment is intuitively appealing both for theory and practice, its applicability has been limited by continuing conceptual ambiguity. Based on a small ?^G study of emerging citizen leaders in grassroots organizations, this article proposes a view of empowerment as a necessarily long-term process of adult learning and development. In this framework, empowerment is further described as the continuing construction of a multi-dimensional participatory competence. This conception encompasses both cognitive and behavioral change. Implications for practice are also addressed.     

浅析魏晋玄学中所体现的法律思想

魏晋玄学在发展上大体经历了"名教本自然"、"越名教而任自然"和"名教即自然"三个阶段,从这样一种发展历程上就可以看出,魏晋玄学最终极的目的乃是旨在解决"名教"和"自然"之间的矛盾,把两者予以调和。中国传统法律思想可以说始终有着一条"名教"的主线,魏晋玄学与其说是对"名教"进行批判,倒不如说是为"名教"寻找"自然"的依据,这尤其体现在玄学中的伦理道德思想、自然主义思想和人本主义思想三个方面。     

Advocacy for prevention: The role of the mental health association in Michigan

SUMMARY

This paper describes the application of such community psychology principles of empowerment and systemic interventions in a variety of applied settings, including school systems, a university campus, and a community hospital. The consistent application of such principles illustrates one way in which a viable career as community psychologist can be maintained in settings that do not have community psychology positions per se.     

The Fort McDowell Yavapai

Abstract

Faced with the loss of their homeland due to a proposed dam, a small American Indian community initially seemed powerless to prevent their relocation. This threat was associated with substantial detrimental impacts on the physical, psychological, and economic functioning of the community and its members. While the proposed dam initially was stopped in 1976, it was resurrected by local political and public pressure following two years of devastating floods affecting a nearby metropolitan area. A federally funded and highly visible study was then commissioned to investigate the impacts of and alternatives to the proposed dam. An independent investigation collected data assessing the psychological impact on the Yavapai community caused by the threat of relocation. As a result of the visibility and attention the Yavapai gained from this study, their role as a politically active pressure group, and their shrewd use of the leverage they gained, the tribal community succeeded in eliminating the proposed dam and the accompanying threat of relocation. The present case illustrates both the process of empowerment as well as the efficacy of a large and thorough scientific study of alternatives for finding a viable option for such divergent interest groups. The political and mental health ramifications of these realities are discussed.     

The Illusion of Empowerment

Abstract

This paper presents a community development experience in Puerto Rico which was guided by the goal of empowerment. It describes the socio-historical context in which the effort is embedded. its values, and its theoretical background. The intervention was carried out in a poor rural community of approximately 1,400 families. Specific strategies and tactics used to facilitate ideological and skill development among the residents are presented. The article concludes with an analysis of the achievements and limitations of the effort. Guidelines toward future conceptual and practical developments are suggested.     

政府公务人员工作生活质量与行政效能之关系研究

随着对企业人力资源管理研究的深入,学者们对公共部门人力资源管理的研究也步入了正轨。公共部门人力资源管理重要目的之一是要使公务人员有良好的绩效表现及较高的服务品质,即具有较高的行政效能。难免要涉及到公务人员的工作生活质量问题。现代公共人力资源管理已经抛弃了传统的人事管理那种重控制、重监督、重处罚的消极管理,进入了创造良好的工作生活质量,并以此激发公务人员的活力的时代。