Theories in Community Psychology: Do They Matter and Why?

Jason, Stevens, Ram, Miller, Beasley, and Gleason’s (2016) Theories in the field of community psychology challenges community psychology to reflect on its scientific maturation. It is noteworthy that the title of their analysis refers to the field rather than the discipline of community psychology. Typically, a field designates a line of inquiry or area of study within a recognized scientific and professional base of substantive expertise, i.e., a discipline. I would posit that a sine qua non of a science-based community psychology discipline would be foundational knowledge built upon accepted theoretical explanations of how the physical, psychosocial, political, economic, cultural, and related salient setting characteristics shape human behavior and well-being. Jason et al. (2016) correctly question whether, after nearly a half century, the scientific community in general recognizes community psychology and the social scientific community specifically as a theory-based discipline. Therein lies their question! To that the current discussion add my question i.e., do they matter and why

Theories in Community Psychology: Do They Matter and Why?

Jason, Stevens, Ram, Miller, Beasley, and Gleason’s (2016) Theories in the field of community psychology challenges community psychology to reflect on its scientific maturation. It is noteworthy that the title of their analysis refers to the field rather than the discipline of community psychology. Typically, a field designates a line of inquiry or area of study within a recognized scientific and professional base of substantive expertise, i.e., a discipline. I would posit that a sine qua non of a science-based community psychology discipline would be foundational knowledge built upon accepted theoretical explanations of how the physical, psychosocial, political, economic, cultural, and related salient setting characteristics shape human behavior and well-being. Jason et al. (2016) correctly question whether, after nearly a half century, the scientific community in general recognizes community psychology and the social scientific community specifically as a theory-based discipline. Therein lies their question! To that the current discussion add my question i.e., do they matter and why

Helping Contacts between Nonprofessional Child-Aides and Young Children Experiencing School Adjustment Problems

The present studies examine several within-session measures of helping interactions involving nonprofessional child aides and young maladapting school children referred to a preventively oriented school mental health program. The studies\u27 three main criterion measures were: (1) estimates of children\u27s predominant mood state at the beginning, during, and end of a session; (2) judgments about a child\u27s predominant within-session moded of expression; and (3) aides\u27 ratings of session satisfaction. Both predominant mood and mode of expression differed for children with different initial referral problems. Both also related to differential aide judgements about session satisfaction. Aide satisfaction related to structural aspects of the session, including its length and whether it was thought to deal with significant problems