Community Psychology: Past and Present

1. Community Psychology: Past and Present Marybeth Shinn Vanderbilt University Presentation at National Institute on Teaching of Psychology (NITOP), January, 2012

2. Audiences • Teachers who want to incorporate a class session on community psychology into their courses • Advisors of students who want to make a difference, and aren’t sure how to prepare themselves

3. Outline • Overview of community psychology • Origins • Current themes • For teachers • Community psychology in relationship to your fields • Current research examples • For advisors • Overview of graduate training • Council of Education Programs powerpoint oneducational options and careers

4. Origins • Clinical psychology: focus on welfare, but not just one individual at a time • Public health: focus on prevention, populations • Social psychology (Lewin): action research; reversing the fundamental attribution error • Developmental psychology (Bronfenbrenner): levels of context from microsystem to macrosystem

5. Initial Themes • Contexts of human welfare • Synergy of research and action • Social justice

6. Additional Current Themes • Positive change, health, and empowerment at individual and systemic levels • Collaborative relationships with communities, groups, organizations in directing change • Multidisciplinary approach

7. Teaching community psychology • Introductory exercise (for any class) • Research exemplars relevant to • Social psychology • Developmental psychology • Clinical/abnormal psychology • Materials in packet include teaching resources and a lecture outline by Jean Hill (particularly suitable for intro or health psychology) • Resources for service learning courses are at: http://www.scra27.org/resources/educationc/teachingcp/communitys

8. Introductory Teaching Exercise: Origins of Homelessness Why do some people become homeless? Why do so many people become homeless? • Alcohol, drugs • Mental illness • Job loss • Underwater on mortgage • Laziness • Bad luck • Poverty, inequality • Recession • Foreclosure crisis • Unemployment rates

10. Social psychology: Achievement Gap • Social Psychologists study stereotype threat, implicit theories of intelligence, etc. • Community psychologist Kenneth Maton in collaboration with university president Freeman Hrabowski closed the gap in STEM disciplines at UMBC • African American students have GPAs comparable to Caucasian and Asian students • A third of African American graduates are in STEM majors • University is major contributor of African American students to science Ph.D. programs

11. UMBC Meyerhoff Program (Maton) Transformation of Culture Theory of Empowering Settings • Financial Aid • Summer bridge program • Study groups • Program values • Program community • Personal advising, counseling • Tutoring • Multiple research experiences • Faculty, administrative, family involvement • Mentors • Community service • Group-based belief system • Core activities • Relational environment • Opportunity role structure • Leadership • Setting maintenance and change

12. Developmental Psychology: Positive Youth Development • Developmental psychologists study settings that foster positive youth development • In his book, Immigrants raising citizens, community psychologist Hirokazu Yoshikawa followed a birth cohort of 380 infants of African American, Chinese, Dominican, and Mexican families through age 3: • Surveys of parents • Direct assessment of children • Ethnographic interviews with a subset of families

13. Immigrants Raising Citizens (Yoshikawa) • Children of undocumented parents showed delayed: • Early language development • Motor development • Perceptual skills • Mediators • 24 months: Economic hardship, parental distress • 36 months: Parental work conditions, low use of center-based child care

14. Abnormal/Clinical: Functional Impairment • Clinical psychologists study functional impairment and how to overcome it. • Community psychologist Sam Tsemberis created a Housing First program for individuals with serious mental illnesses and long histories of homelessness: • Individuals on the street are given apartments with private landlords, without preconditions • Wrap-around services are available but under tenant control

15. Pathways Housing First (Tsemberis) • In randomized trial (Tsemberis, Gulcur, Shinn, others) comparing housing first to the “staircase model” housing first participants: • Had 99 fewer days homeless in first year • Did not differ in substance abuse • Data were consistent with control programs sorting rather than changing people • Cost less, due to lower levels of hospitalization • Got housed faster and stayed indoors longer

18. Summary for Teaching • Community psychologists use research and theory to empower individuals and create positive social change • Community psychologists focus on social contexts, including policy contexts, that promote (or inhibit) positive outcomes for individuals • Many more resources at http://www.scra27.org/education

19. Advising Students: Education Programs at http://www.scra27.org/education • 44 Ph.D. Programs • 17 Community Psychology • 15 Clinical/Community Psychology • 12 Interdisciplinary programs • 27 Masters programs • 19 Community Psychology • 3 Community-counseling/clinical • 5 Interdisciplinary/prevention

20. Advising Students • www.SCRA27.org website has many more resources, including: • Idealist.org article by Sharon Hakim, which is in your meeting materials • Power point by Council of Education Programs (also shown at NITOP meeting) • See also the Community Tool Box: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/default.aspx • Marvelous free resource with over 7,000 pages of practical guidance in creating community change

21. References • For age structure of homelessness (citation for calculation, no graph): • Shinn, M. (2010). Homelessness, poverty, and social exclusion in the United States and Europe. European Journal of Homelessness, 4, 19-44.http://eohw.horus.be/files/freshstart/European%20Journal%20of%20Homelessness/Volume%20Four/article-1.pdf • For Maton empowerment and UMBC story • Maton, K. I. (2008). Empowering community settings: Agents of individual development, community betterment, and positive social change. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41, 4-21. • Maton, K. L., Hrabowski, F.A., Özdemir, M., & Wimms, H. (2008). Enhancing representation, retention, and achievement of minority students in higher education: A social transformation theory of change. In M. Shinn & H. Yoshikawa (Eds.). Toward positive youth development: Transforming schools and community programs (pp. 115-132). New York: Oxford University Press. • For Yoshikawa study of immigrant groups: • Yoshikawa, H. (2012) Immigrants raising citizens: Undocumented parents and their young children. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. • For Housing First study results • Gulcur, L., Stefancic, A., Shinn, M., Tsemberis, S., & Fischer, S.N. (2003). Housing, hospitalization and cost outcomes for homeless individuals with psychiatric disabilities participating in Continuum of Care and Housing First programmes. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 13,171-186. • Tsemberis, S., Gulcur, L. & Nakae, M. (2004). Housing first, consumer choice, and harm reduction for homeless individuals with a dual diagnosis. American Journal of Public Health, 94 (4), 651-656. • Tsemberis, S., Moran, L.L., Shinn, M., Asmussen, S. M., & Shern, D. L. (2003). Consumer preference programs for homeless individuals with psychiatric disabilities: A drop-in center and a supported housing program. American Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 305-317.