Not only are some of the definitions of disability and interventions in disability disempowering, but also the caregivers of disabled people are disempowered.
As noted above, the majority of caregivers are women, particularly in the South African context. In the past, politically, socially and economically in South Africa, as elsewhere, women have been oppressed and disempowered. The theory of empowerment will beused to draw a number of the principles that form the ideological basis of the purpose, design and implementation of the training course.
It has been suggested that empowerment theory is easy to define in its absence, but can be difficult to define positively due to its changing nature according to context. "Empowerment theory is an enigma" (Zimmerman, 1990, p169). In the absence of empowerment, one is left with alienation, hopelessness, and
powerlessness, yet it "takes on a different form in different people and contexts"
(Rappaport, 1984, p2). The process of empowerment can be located at various levels within the context of individual attributes, amongst a group of individuals, within an organizational setting, in an entire community or built into social policy.
It is context based, culturally based, individually based and also differs across levels of analysis (Zimmerman, 1990).
At an individual level, the concept of empowerment has been equated with a set of attitudes, abilities, behaviours and even a kind of passion. Emener (in
Sprague and Hayes, 2000) says, "to a greater extent, empowerment is a mind set" (p679). Vash (in Sprague and Hayes, 2000) explains it as "being cantered in one's self and excited about one's purpose and meaning" (p679). In the same article, Beck (1994) describes it as having the courage to act despite the
possibility that the consequences may be negative. As an individual attribute, empowerment includes participatory behaviours, motivations to exert control and feelings of efficacy.
At an organisational level, empowerment includes shared leadership,
opportunities to develop skills, and effective community influence. The definition of empowerment used in the majority of literature studied, is the one offered by Rappaport (1987) who says "empowerment is a process, a mechanism by which people, organisations and communities gain mastery over their affairs" (p122).
Empowerment can have different intensities that change over time, "it is not an absolute threshold that once reached can be labeled as empowered"
(Zimmerman, 1990, p170). Furthermore, Chavis and Wandersman (in
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Zimmerman, 1990) found that the nature of empowerment is one that can result in individuals developing a sense of control, even if they do not perceive the group they belong to as having powers which change over time. As such, the authors distinguish between empowering organisations and empowered organisations. Empowering organisations, those that contribute to the
development of empowerment of individuals, may not necessarily be empowered organisations, those that can influence policies.
Terms closely associated with the theory of community psychology are those of rehabilitation, prevention and empowerment. Within community psychology, Rappaport distinguishes between a 'phenomena of interest' and an 'exemplar' in the field. The phenomena of interest is the focus of the theory of community psychology, "it is what we try to define, understand, explain, predict, and create or facilitate by our interventions and policies" (Rappaport, 1987, p127).
Rappaport feels that empowerment is the overarching goal of community psychologists, it is the focus of community psychology. According to him, an exemplar is the community's shared example of a problem solution; it is a strategy of intervention. As such, prevention would be an exemplar, it is an intervention used in community psychology.
Rappaport (1987) elaborates further that the nature of the theory of community psychology is ecological. The ecological approach provides a much "broader range of contextual understanding than is typically the case in a person- centered approach" (p134). Ecological theory is interested in the role of relationships, interactions and influences between people, programs, policies, professionals and their contexts. The concept of relationships is also intrinsic to the term of empowerment. One needs to understand what or who one has power over. Rappaport provides eleven guidelines, assumptions or hypotheses that he feels should beincluded into the Ecological theory of empowerment. These are briefly outlined in the table below.
TABLE 2.1:Guidelines for an Ecological theory of empowerment 1. Empowerment is a multi level construct.
2. The size of the programme and the attention to the individual is not as important as the radiating impact of the one level of analysis on another.
3. The historical context in which a person, programme or policy is operating, has an important influence on the outcome.
4. There is awareness of the cultural context.
5. The longitudinal study of people, organisations and policies is seen as desirable, if not necessary.
6. "Empowerment theory is self-consciously a world view theory" (Rappaport, 1987, p140).
7. The conditions and degree to which members of a setting participate, has an impact on the empowerment of those members.
8. "Other things being equal, an organisation that holds an empowerment ideology will be better at finding and developing resources, than one with a helper-helpee ideology....where resources are seen as dependent on professionals" (Rappport, 1987, p141).
9. Prepackaged interventions and single solutions applied in a general way are less empowering than locally developed solutions.
10. Settings that are small enough to provide meaningful roles for all members, but large enough to obtain resources, are more likely to create the conditions that lead to empowerment.
11. Empowerment is not a finite resource that gets used up, but rather, once it is adopted as an ideology, it tends to expand resources.
According to these eleven statements, it becomes evident that understanding the process of empowerment is directly linked to the study of relationships within and between various levels of analysis from individuals, groups, organisations, communities and social policies. Rappaport feels that to focus purely on individual empowerment and to ignore the 'radiating impact' or unintended
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consequences that empowerment can have, may be the largest damage that psychologists can do. He emphasises the importance of understanding the impact that an empowerment programme may have, prior to and subsequently to, its presence in a community. Thus research over a period of time is .
necessary in order to understand it. In addition, different individuals and contexts will bring a variety of cultural assumptions and diversity which need to be
recognised.
According to Rappaport's point 6 in the table above, people who support this Ecological theory of empowerment acknowledge that they have certain presuppositions that are derived from their values, attitudes, beliefs and intentions. Furthermore, they need to acknowledge that there is mutual influence between the researcher and the participants. This implies that the people in the programme "are to be treated as collaborators; and at the same time, the researcher may be thought of as a participant" (Rappaport, 1987, p140).
In addition, Rappaport emphasises the importance of being aware of the language that we use, the connotative and denotative meanings that are
communicated to the people with whom we work. "The choice of our language is seen to be very important as to what it communicates, and metacommunicates, not only to other researchers and policy makers, but also to the pe9ple being studied" (Rappaport, 1987, p141). Often the language between helper and helpee can lead to the trivialising of any positive observations that occur outside the control of the professional - any positive change that was not directly
controlled is seen as 'the placebo effect' or 'spontaneous remission'. This language Ultimately deprives participants of the opportunity to acknowledge and claim their own ability of self and mutual help. It leaves people with the sense that they are powerless rather than powerful, weak rather than strong. In using a
language of empo'lNerment, changes and resources are seen as genuinely important in their own right and should not be explained away.
Point seven of Rappaport's hypotheses has direct implications for this research.
He describes the results of three studies which examine the relationship bet'lNeen empo'lNerment and participation. The results support the hypothesis that greater participation in community activities and organisations are
associated with psychological empo'lNerment (Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988).
Those who participate in decisions and activities that are meaningful to them are more likely to be empo'lNered, and settings that have more opportunities for participation are expected to be more empo'lNering.
Within the context of disability in South Africa, those from disadvantaged communities who are disabled, and those who care for them are in need of empowerment.