Community Psychology: what it is and how it transforms societies

This aspect of psychology is oriented to achieve social changes and transformations.

Psychology is a diverse and ancient discipline that has helped us to generate many ways of understanding both our individual behavior and interpersonal relationships.

One of the branches of psychology that is especially oriented towards producing social changes and transformations from the perspective of the actors themselves is community psychology. In this article we will explain what it is, where it comes from, what are the main objectives and the field of action of this branch of psychology.

What is Community Psychology?

The community psychology, or community social psychology, is a theory and a methodology The main objective is to produce transformations in the communities, seeking the strengthening and participation of the social actors in their own environments.

Where does it come from?

It is an interdisciplinary theory because it includes an organized set of ideas and knowledge that come not only from psychology, but also from other sciences, especially human and social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology or philosophy.

It is also nourished by the political activity of transformative disciplinary movements, such as anti-psychiatry or community mental health, which emerged in Italy and the United States in the mid-twentieth century and which pointed out or denounced some of the limitations of the traditional ways of doing psychology.

In the same way important influences of revolutionary Latin American thought.The social psychology of the community, such as the militant sociology promoted by the Colombian O. Fals Borda, or the popular education model of the Brazilian Paulo Freire.

As a theory, community social psychology is concerned with the study of psychosocial factors, i.e., the psychic and social elements specifically involved in the control and power that people exercise over themselves and their environment.

For this reason, community psychology is closely related to the concepts of power, self-management and empowerment, and is part of a current of critical transformation that assumes that society is a collective construction. assumes that society is a collective construction of the people who make it up, in turn influenced by this construction, susceptible to criticism and change (Montero, 2012).

From theory to practice

In other words, community psychology is also a methodology: based on its theoretical approaches, we can develop intervention strategies that promote people as agents of change. intervention strategies that promote people to be agents of change in our own environments and active agents in detecting our needs and solving our problems. in our own environments and active agents in the detection of our needs and the solution of our problems.

This is where we can see a difference or even a distancing from traditional social and clinical psychology: it is not the interventionist, the technician, the state, religious, political or private institutions, but the social agents of the community itself who are recognized as the protagonists, the specialists and the producers of change.

Therefore, community psychology is also proposed as a psychology project for development; a development that goes beyond the individual dimension, since its objective is not only to modify the psychology of people, but also to impact the habitat and the individual-group relations. to achieve qualitative changes both in the habitat and in the relationships between individuals and groups..

Key concepts: empowerment, community...

Community social psychology considers that the space where a transforming relationship is needed and can be established is that in which people develop their daily life, that is, the community.that is, the community.

As the community is the space where social transformations can take place, it is the actors that make up that community who should manage and produce those transformations: They are the ones who experience conflicts and agreements on a daily basis..

But this often does not happen; instead, the responsibility and capacity to generate solutions is frequently delegated to people or groups that are external to the communities, generally institutions or agents that are considered experts.

What community psychology proposes is that the approach of those who are considered experts or social institutions, although necessary at first, cannot remain in the community as the sole agent of change, but rather the people of the community to strengthen self-management and promote transformation. and promote transformation. In other words, the intervenor would have to promote its own withdrawal from the community, as long as it is external.

Thus, the aim is to develop, promote and maintain the control, power, active participation and decision-making of the people who make up a community (Montero, 1982). From this approach arises the concept of strengthening or empowerment, a word that later became "empowerment" because the Anglo-Saxon concept "empowerment" was transferred.

The problem with the latter is that it literally means "endowment of power", which leads us to mistakenly think that a community psychologist is the one who "has the power", and is in charge of "distributing" that power to people who do not have it.

Empowerment or empowerment? Power and participation

In reality, the proposal of community psychology is closer to the process of empowerment, where power is not a gift or a donation, but an achievement that arises from the reflection, awareness and action of people according to their own interests, i.e., power and empowerment are collective processes.

This implies that research in community social psychology is participatoryThe development and implementation of intervention projects take into account many factors (psychosocial) that go beyond the psychology or personality of individuals.

Some examples of the elements to be taken into account are geographic location, demographics, socio-cultural characteristics, community history, community history, demographics, socio-cultural characteristics, community history, community history, community history, community history, community history.The history of the community, daily activities, education, characteristics of institutions, health and disease processes, resources, problems and needs, which are detected through participatory diagnostics.

Bibliographical references:

• Montenegro, M., Rodríguez, A. & Pujol, J. (2014). Community Social Psychology in the face of changes in contemporary society: From the reification of the common to the articulation of differences. Psicoperspectivas, 13(2): 32-43.
• Montero, M. (2012). Theory and practice of community psychology. The tension between community and society. Paidós: Buenos Aires.
• Mori, M.P. (2008). A methodological proposal for community intervention. Liberabit, 14(14): 81-90.
• Montero, M. (1984). Community psychology: origins, principles and theoretical foundations. Latin American Journal of Psychology [Online] Retrieved April 6, 2018. Available at http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=80516303 ISSN 0120-0534.