American journal of community psychology
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Am J Community Psychol · Sep 2006
Integrating social science and design inquiry through interdisciplinary design charrettes: an approach to participatory community problem solving.
Interdisciplinary collaborations that aim to facilitate meaningful community outcomes require both the right mix of disciplinary knowledge and effective community participation, which together can deepen collective knowledge and the capacity to take action. This article explores three interdisciplinary design charrettes, intensive participatory workshops that addressed specific community problems and provided a context for integrating design and social science inquiry with local community knowledge. ⋯ Key advantages to this interdisciplinary, community-based collaboration included expanded knowledge derived from the use of multiple modes of inquiry, particularly the resulting visualization tools that helped community members understand local issues and envision novel solutions. Key drawbacks included difficulties in balancing the two disciplines, the tendency for social scientists to feel out of place on designers' turf, and the increased disciplinary and interpersonal conflicts arising from a more diverse pool of participants.
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Am J Community Psychol · Sep 2005
The influence of community violence on the functioning of women experiencing domestic violence.
The relationships among women's experiences of domestic violence, community violence, and their mental health functioning were explored (N = 94). Social contagion theory was used to argue for the link between community violence and family violence. ⋯ Furthermore, women's mental health functioning was solely associated with their experiences of domestic violence, not with community violence. Results are discussed in terms of an ecological model of domestic violence and future directions for exploring linkages between neighborhood characteristics and individual experiences.
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Following a developmental analogy, community psychology may be experiencing a "mid-life crisis" as it enters "middle age." The field needs to determine where to go from here. This paper argues that the field should attempt to expand. Expansion can best be accomplished by celebrating the diversity of orientations within the field (e.g., those emphasizing prevention, empowerment, and the ecological perspective) and the wide range of human problems of interest to community psychologists. To promote expansion of the field, community psychologists need to seek out relationships with diverse groups, such as the international community, those working in applied settings, ethnic minorities, and students and early-career professionals.
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Am J Community Psychol · Sep 2003
Unemployment, underemployment, and mental health: conceptualizing employment status as a continuum.
The economy is one of the most important social environments that affect well-being, and community psychologists have long studied the social costs of one key economic stressor--job loss. But economically inadequate employment has received much less research attention than unemployment in regard to mental health effects. ⋯ Implications of a paradigm shift from a dichotomous perspective (employment vs. unemployment) to a continuum perspective with variations of both unemployment and employment are discussed for research and prevention. Another implication is the need to expand standard labor force statistics to reflect better the degree of underemployment.
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Am J Community Psychol · Feb 2002
Evaluating attributions for an illness based upon the name: chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalopathy and Florence Nightingale disease.
In recent years, considerable discussion has occurred about stigma surrounding the name given to an illness currently known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Although patients and medical personnel have expressed varying opinions on this issue, no studies have evaluated how beliefs about the illness change based upon the type of name used for diagnostic purposes. Proposals have been put forth to rename the illness with an eponym (a famous patient's or researcher's name) or with a less trivial sounding, more medically based type of name. ⋯ Results suggested that, across name conditions, most trainees appeared to consider the symptom complex of CFS a serious illness resulting in poor quality of life. In addition, findings indicated that the name, chronic fatigue syndrome, may be regarded less seriously than the Myalgic Encephalopathy name with respect to some important aspects of the illness. In this study, specialty of medical trainee also played a role in how the illness was perceived.