Empirically Grounded Constructs
Part I presented many of the key theoretical orienting assumptions and conceptual issues of concern to community psychologists. Its aim was to orient the reader to the community psy- chology story and to broadly map that part of the psychological universe with which commu- nity psychology discourse is concerned. Part II moves us from the large-scale theoretical and conceptual maps of Part I to some of the more focused area maps also used by many commu- nity psychologists. This section provides background empirical information that orients the community psychologist to key issues in public health and epidemiology, mental health and well-being, stress and social support, and neighborhood and organizational development.
The chapters in this section are particularly concerned with what is known about connec- tions between individual psychological well-being and important social contexts. The contexts invoked here range from the private experience of stress to public engagement with neighbor- hood, work, and life. Each of these contexts is of concern to many other sub fields within the psychological sciences, but here they are approached from the perspectives of community psychology-looking both to and beyond the individual, and through a lens that takes for granted the desire to prevent problems before they occur, to work as collaborators with the people of concern, and to seek a more equitable distribution of social and psychological resources. The chapters here should all be read with these aims in mind. The authors each refer to quite specific empirical literature, some presented in detail, some summarized, and some being the inferential basis for raising a set of new questions and research directions considered to be important for further development of the larger community psychology agenda.
The maps of Part IT are designed to help the community psychologist locate a set of particular problem areas and associated empirical work that links the concerns of individual people to social and organizational contexts. While the particular contexts and empirical foundations are necessarily selective, they are historically among the most basic concerns of the field. Work reported here touches on the transitions from childhood to adult life, and points to problem areas where considerable empirical research has already been conducted. Indeed, the problem for the mapmaker is less one of locating empirical research and more one of focusing us on particular empirical foundations that point to those directions likely to be fruitful for future research and intervention with respect to the field's agenda for preventively oriented, empowering relationships between the research, service, and local communities.
The section opens with Zautra and Bachrach's introduction of key concepts from public
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health and psychiatric epidemiology as they apply to issues of both dysfunction and well- being. In their view, in order to evaluate and design better community interventions, informa- tion is needed about both well-being and distress, a combination that is often overlooked in traditional research with the identified mentally ill. All people, even the most distressed, experience positive aspects of life, while even the most well-functioning community residents also experience problems in living. These authors call attention to maps that detail both sides of this complicated reality. They point to both commonly used assessment procedures and designs for the conduct of epidemiological research. They draw on two research traditions: the application of public health methods to the study of mental disorders (detection of psycho- pathology), and social-indicator research designed to index the quality of life in particular geographical areas. Psychiatric epidemiology, complicated by the problem of defining dis- ease, is supplemented here by considerations of wellness. With their emphasis on subjective well-being and wellness (see also Cowen in Part I) the community psychologist's concern with proactive, as well as reparative, functions is emphasized.
Sandler, Gensheimer, and Braver link developments in our understanding of stress with the community psychologist's concerns about intervention. At the individual level of analysis they draw on the work of a cognitively oriented basic psychology that emphasizes the appraisal of life experiences. However, they also make clear (in ways that are central to a community psychology viewpoint) that prevention of environmental stressors includes politi- cal action, and here the link between individual skills and the ability to cope with, change, and control life circumstances becomes apparent.
The stress research literature is reviewed with respect to three identifiable themes, each of which has implications for programs of action: stress as a study of transactional processes, measurement of the parameters of life experiences that are stressful, and locating sources of protection and resilience. These authors suggest interventions at multiple levels of analysis, including with individuals, settings, and systems. Interventions may range from enhancing the availability of environmental resources, to the teaching of skills, to the development of strategies for crisis intervention. Interestingly, Sandler and his colleagues seem to propose exactly the type of targeted intervention that FeIner questions in Chapter 2, and it may be useful to look for points of both tension and agreement in these two different versions of prevention.
For many psychologists the word "stress" immediately conjures up images of "social support" (as a resource for stress reduction). Ignored for many years as the helping professions became increasingly preoccupied with individual (and especially individualistic) therapeutic approaches that deemphasized reliance on social ties, community psychologists were among the most active in reviving the notion that social support may be an important factor in mediating, moderating, or otherwise influencing the quality of one's life experiences. Social support might be understood as a genuine resource enhancing the material, psychological, and emotional well-being of individuals; and also perhaps as a linkpin set of processes that connect individuals (for better or worse) with collectivities such as family, friends, organizations, and communities. Barrera provides a broad review of the empirical literature in this important domain. He also makes it clear that conflicted support and negative consequences are a part of the picture.
For those interested in social policy (see Phillips, Chapter 17), some of this work may have implications beyond the interpersonal. Ways to think about how to interpret psychologi- cal data so that we can better connect social policy to individual experience are sorely needed, since most policymakers know very little about the impact of a social policy on individual lives, and most psychologists ignore the implications of their work for public policy. This is
properly an important domain for the community psychologist. For example, following Barrera's analysis of the negative consequences of support, one might ask if there are important differences between institutionalized forms of support that convey negative mes- sages of stigmatized status (subsidies based on economic need as defined by "poverty" or
"disability"), as opposed to those that are associated with more universal entitlements defined by mutuality (such as Medicare or Social Security for those who have worked, or GI-Bill-type educational entitlements for those who have served their country). Some economists and sociologists have argued this point from logic and archival data (Wilson, 1987; Remnick, 1996), but little psychological information is available with respect to how such programs are actually perceived by the public and interpreted and experienced by the recipients themselves.
This is but one example of issues addressed in the empirical literature of psychological and interpersonal processes that may be profitably applied to broader social issues, a variety of which are addressed throughout this volume.
Wandersman and Florin shift our attention from general considerations of social support to a specific social context-the neighborhood. They emphasize the personal benefits of citizen participation in the life of one's most local geographical community. They review what is known about the impact of participation with respect to personal, interpersonal, physical, and social outcomes. This chapter points us to a large empirical literature on the correlates of citizen participation with respect to individual, group, and organizational characteristics. It can also serve as a starting point for many of the issues of collaboration that are of more general interest to community psychologists. Wandersman and Florin suggest that much of what can be learned from empirical research on local neighborhood participation is applicable to issues of participation in other contexts. Some of these same issues, for example, are addressed through a different empirical literature reviewed by Klein, Ralls, and Douglas (in the context of work settings) in their Chapter.
Klein and her colleagues draw connections between empowerment theory and organiza- tional theory (see also Shinn and Perkins, Part IV). Issues of worker participation and both satisfaction and effectiveness (productivity) are addressed. Empirical studies based on models of organizational power lead these authors to focus on increasing worker expertise. Sim- ilarities and differences between this viewpoint and the conceptions of empowerment sug- gested by both Zimmerman and van U chelen in Part I point to the importance of understanding empowerment in terms of contextualized goals and values, and of asking exactly how it is to be defined in particular contexts by particular researchers.
This section provides a sample of the field's empirical foundations. The sort of empirical maps suitable for a handbook in a field as broad as community psychology can, at best, locate certain main roads to be followed and anticipate the variety of paths to be encountered. Those who pursue the main roads highlighted here will undoubtedly encounter both alternative pathways and uncharted courses as they set out on their own journey in conjunction with community residents and research participants.
REFERENCES
Remnick, D. (1996). Dr. Wilson's neighborhood. The New Yorker, April 29 & May 6, pp. 96-107.
Wilson, W. 1. (1987). The truly disadvantaged (pp. 3-19, 109-164). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.