Community psychology studies relationships within a community, between individuals and society. It aims to increase the quality of life by identifying and resolving mental health issues. It differs from public health and social psychology by focusing on mental health and problem-solving. Empowerment, social justice, and diversity are important goals for community psychologists. They quickly draw conclusions from observations to find solutions for specific communities.
Community psychology is a broad field of psychological study that examines the relationships of individuals within a community, the relationships of individuals with the community as a whole, and the relationship between a community and society as a whole. Research in community psychology often turns to several related fields, such as sociology, social psychology, public policy, and political science. The general practical goal of community-focused psychology is the overall increase in the quality of life for those living in a community. In many cases, this involves identifying and resolving issues that could lead to mental health problems in a community.
Clinical psychology and community-oriented mental health services are both similar to community psychology in that they all seek to identify and treat mental health problems. Community psychology also resembles various public health interests because it seeks to uncover problems that exist in the community as a whole rather than problems that exist in the individual. The field actually grew, to some extent, from the realization that many mental health issues could not be understood from the specific history of the individual. Community psychology differs from public health in that it focuses specifically on mental health, and it differs from fields such as social psychology and sociology in that it is strongly oriented towards finding and solving problems, not just research.
The synthesis of theoretical and practical psychology is an extremely important part of community psychology. Compared to many other fields, it is heavily focused on quickly drawing conclusions from observations and turning those conclusions into solutions for problems that exist in a specific community. It is not uncommon for community psychologists to focus on a specific community; once you’ve identified the problems and harmful trends, it simply makes sense to start fixing them. This is not always true in other fields of psychology, as many of the problems studied are very personal and cannot be applied to groups of people with any level of success.
Community psychologists tend to pursue several goals for the communities they study and help. Empowerment, for example, is extremely important; individuals need to feel empowered to be effective members of the community, and communities that have been marginalized in the past need to be empowered to take a stronger place in society. Social justice is also very important as all members of the community, as well as the community as a whole, must be respected as members of society, deserving of all the rights that come with that role. Diversity naturally follows from these; no just and rightful society should have any prejudice against different kinds of people.
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