Synopses & Reviews
Updated and expanded in this third edition,
Principles of Community Psychology: Perspectives and Applications presents the most recent literature, empirical work, issues, and events in the field and the relevant policy debates surrounding them.
The book maintains the basic architecture of the previous edition--integrating theory, research, and practice across the diverse subject matter of community mental health and community psychology--but reduces jargon and improves clarity. Applying an ecological perspective, it places problems in their current and historical contexts and employs a stress, coping, and social-support model as a key integrative device to analyze community mental health practice, prevention, self-help, and social action.
Principles of Community Psychology: Perspectives and Applications, 3/e, is ideal for upper level undergraduate and graduate courses in community psychology, social work, and mental health.
Features of the Third Edition
·PRESENTS NEW INFORMATION ON:
·behavior-environment congruence
·social and physical environmental influences on behavior and well-being
·the use of law to reduce stigma
·organizational change, development, and learning
·problems in planned change on a statewide level
·political and legal events since desegregation in public schools
·future problems surrounding race in public schools
·making community psychology more interdisciplinary
·recognizing developments in community psychology outside the United States
·OFFERS NEW RESEARCH ON:
·homelessness
·adaptation, crisis, coping, and social support
·UPDATES AND EXPANDS TREATMENTS OF:
·fundamental principles and values of community psychology
·population parameters
·the history of community psychology
·HIV/AIDS, Project Head Start, and preventing child maltreatment
·self-help/mutual assistance groups
·desegregation of the public schools as a societal-level intervention
·community development
·science, ethics, and the future of community psychology
Review
"Prior to this edition, this book was unrivaled for its scope and depth of the obvious and not-so-obvious psychological implications of what American communities are: what problems they face, how they do and do not change.This edition makes clearer than previous editions that this is more than a book about the American community. It is about America."--from the foreword by Seymour B. Sarason
Synopsis
Principles of Community Psychology, now in a new edition, is a comprehensive text integrating theory, research, and practice across the diverse subject matter of community mental health and community psychology. Emphasizing an ecological approach, this text places problems in both their current and historical perspectives, focusing on the individual in the environment and the influences that shape and change behavior and mental health. Conceptually built around the models of stressful life events, social support, and coping, it applies these concepts as a key integrative device for analyzing diverse phenomena and interventions which include self-help, prevention, and social action. Thoroughly updated, this second edition has been completely rewritten to include updated references and research, boxes on current topics, chapter outlines, expanded case studies, practical examples, and chapter discussions. The authors have made their arguments and research less abstract and more practical, offering students a more accessible text that presents concrete, detailed, up-to-date examples of programs, research, and scholarship from many different fields. The text covers the history of community mental health and shows its relationship to social welfare policies and legal and political systems. It also shows the limits inherent in the medical model of practice in dealing with such a full range of formal mental health problems, including the every day stressful life events that make up the Soap Opera life. Principles of Community Psychology ultimately challenges community psychologists as well as students of psychology, sociology, and social work to look at the impact of the new conservatism on human services and the opportunities that are presented for innovative approaches in the new political climate.
Synopsis
Principles of Community Psychology, now in a new edition, is a comprehensive text integrating theory, research, and practice across the diverse subject matter of community mental health and community psychology. Emphasizing an ecological approach, this text places problems in both their
current and historical perspectives, focusing on the individual in the environment and the influences that shape and change behavior and mental health. Conceptually built around the models of stressful life events, social support, and coping, it applies these concepts as a key integrative device
for analyzing diverse phenomena and interventions which include self-help, prevention, and social action. Thoroughly updated, this second edition has been completely rewritten to include updated references and research, boxes on current topics, chapter outlines, expanded case studies, practical
examples, and chapter discussions. The authors have made their arguments and research less abstract and more practical, offering students a more accessible text that presents concrete, detailed, up-to-date examples of programs, research, and scholarship from many different fields. The text covers
the history of community mental health and shows its relationship to social welfare policies and legal and political systems. It also shows the limits inherent in the medical model of practice in dealing with such a full range of formal mental health problems, including the every day stressful life
events that make up the Soap Opera life. Principles of Community Psychology ultimately challenges community psychologists as well as students of psychology, sociology, and social work to look at the impact of the new conservatism on human services and the opportunities that are presented for
innovative approaches in the new political climate.
About the Author
Murray Levine is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.
Douglas D. Perkins is Associate Professor of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University.
David V. Perkins is Professor of Psychology at Ball State University.
Table of Contents
All chapters end with a summary.
Foreword by Seymour B. Sarason
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: An Overview of Community Psychology
What Is Community Psychology?
What Isn't Community Psychology?
Principles of Community Psychology
Organization of Chapters
PART 1. ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY
1. Life Is a Soap Opera
The Incidence and Prevalence of Problems in Living
Institutionalized Population
Outpatient Mental Health Care
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Crime and Victims of Crime
Problems of Children and Adolescents
Medical Problems and Chronic Illnesses
Box 1-1: Psychosocial Adaptation to Health Problems: The Case of Genital Herpes
Disasters
Marriage and Parenting
Divorce
Economics and Employment
Leisure-Time and Value Changes
Aloneness in American Society
The Availability of Professional Care
Problems of the Medical Model
2. The Origins of Community Psychology
Origins of Mental Health Care in the Welfare System
Community Mental Health
Community Psychology Grows from Community Mental Health
The Influence of Applied Social Psychology and the War on Poverty
Current Issues in Community Mental Health
Deinstitutionalization
Box 2-1: Homelessness
Community Alternatives to Hospitalization
Box 2-2: Assertive Community Supports
Minorities and Other Undeserved Groups
Children and Adolescents
PART 2. PERSPECTIVES IN COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY
3. A Conceptual Road Map of Community Psychology
The Dohrenwend Model
Stressful Life Events
Person and Environment
Outcomes
Box 3-1: Poverty, Unemployment, and Social Problems
Opportunities for Intervention Based on Dohrenwend's Model
Crisis Intervention
Intervention to Enhance Psychological Mediators
Intervention to Enhance Situational Mediators
Psychological Characteristics of the Person That Increase the Likelihood of a Stressful Life Event
Situations That Increase the Risk of Stressful Events
Preventing Stressful Life Events
4. The Ecological Analogy
Ecology as a Paradigm
A Paradigm Shift
Box 4-1: Community Research from an Ecological Perspective
Implications for the Research Enterprise
Principles of Ecology
Interdependence
Cycling of Resources
Adaptation; Niche
Box 4-2: Behavior-Environment Congruence in Geel, Belgium
Succession
Box 4-3: The Boom in Hong Kong's Elderly Home Industry
Mental Health and the Law
Law as a Factor in the Ecological Analogy
Adapting to Legal Change
Box 4-4: Unforeseen Consequences of a Change in Child Protection Laws
Ecology and Values
Ecology and Practice
5. Five Psychological Conceptions of the Environment
Social Environmental Influences on Behavior and Well-Being
Perceived Social Climates
Social Roles
Social Capital: Community Cognitions, Behaviors, and Networks
Physical Environmental Influences on Behavior and Well-Being
The Socio-Physical Environment: Behavior Settings
Box 5-1: The Fairweather Lodge
Postscript: What Role Remains for Individual Differences?
6. Labeling Theory: An Alternative to the Illness Model
The Social Context for the Development of Labeling Theory
Principles of Labeling Theory
Primary and Secondary Deviance
Cultural Stereotypes and Labeling
When is Residual Rule-Breaking Labeled?
Diagnosis and Labeling Theory
Behavior is Assimilated to the Label
Stigma
The Use of Law to Reduce Stigma
Some Cautions
7. Adaptation, Crisis, Coping, and Support
Adaptation
Box 7-1: Research on Stressful Life Events
Vulnerability: An Integrative Perspective
Coping
General Characteristics of Coping
Box 7-2: Pollyanna and the Glad Game
Stages in Crisis Situations
Individual and Situational Differences in Coping
Social Support
Theory and Research Concerning Social Support
Box 7-3: Coping and Support in the Context of Culture
New Directions in Research on Social Support
Box 7-4: Support Interventions for People with Disabilities
PART 3. APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY
8. Prevention
Basic Concepts in Prevention
Indicated (Secondary) Prevention
The Primary Mental Health Project
Box 8-1: Preventing Child Maltreatment: The Problem of False Positives
Limitations of Indicated Prevention in Mental Health
Universal and Selective (Primary) Prevention
Competence Building
Box 8-2: A Successful School Change Effort
Prevention through Stepwise Risk Reduction
Box 8-3: Head Start and Early Head Start: An Experiment in Selective Prevention
Prevention of HIV/AIDS
Schools as a Locus of Prevention
Community-Based Health Promotion
9. Self-Help Groups
Growth of Self-Help Groups
Contemporary Reasons for Growth
Types of Self-Help Groups
The Nature of Self-Help Groups
Dynamics of Self-Help Groups
Self-Help and the Model of a Family
How Self-Help Groups Work
Self-Help and Ecological Concepts
Are Self-Help Groups Effective?
AA and Recovery from Alcoholism
A Controlled Experiment
Starting Self-Help Groups
Advocacy Groups
10. The Problem of Change
The Creation of New Settings
Box 10-1: The Residential Youth Center (RYC)
Change in Existing Settings
Systems Theory
First- and Second-Order Change
Organizational Change, Development, and Learning
Production and Satisfaction Goals
The Social Context of Change
Case Studies of Change in Existing Settings
Changing a State Mental Hospital
Court-Ordered Change in Caring for Persons with Mental Retardation
Planned Change on a Statewide Level: The Texas Educational Miracle
11. School Desegregation: A Societal-Level Intervention
Slavery, Segregation, and the Constitution
The NAACP and Its Litigation Strategy
Social Science Theory and Integration
Successful Desegregation of the Schools--A Case Study
After Desegregation
Future Problems
12. Community Development and Social Action in Community Psychology
The Politics of Problem Definition
Blaming the Victim
Paradox and Empowerment
Competent Communities
Community Development
Social Action
An Example of Social Action: The Love Canal Homeowners' Association
Box 12-1: Center for Health, Environment, and Justice and the Environmental Justice Movement
13. Science, Ethics, and the Future of Community Psychology
Ecology and Science
The Ethics of Community Intervention
Interdisciplinary Community Psychology
Box 13-1: Applying the Ecological-Psychopolitical Model to One Domain: The Physical Environment
Community Psychology Around the Globe
References
Names Index
Subject Index