Psy442 Community Blueprint Final

Community Blueprint

Sean M Galt

August 19, 2018

Psy- 442

     I am a student who is nearing the end of my undergraduate program, I feel that at this point in my education it is important to know my professional goals and career interests and what part that plays in my future educational goals.  I began my journey towards a bachelor’s in psychology with a focus in Mental Health back in 2009, and when I first started I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with it, I just knew that I had a knack for helping people and this was one field I knew I could do that in.  Since then I have narrowed my focus to clinical psychology and adolescent psychology, I want to work with children who come from bad situations as I have, to help them see there is hope for a better life.  I feel the next step is to get my MS in Adolescent Psychology.  The most important factor in correlating my career interests and professional goals is to do what makes me happy and incorporate life fulfillment for myself, to do this I must choose a career path in either social work or adolescent psychology.  I feel that to be successful my professional career goals must align with my core beliefs and personality, this will allow me to be genuine in my work and provide a high- level of engagement with my fellow community members.

     For my immediate career goal, as it relates to community psychology, is to get my license and become an adolescent psychologist or social worker so that I may work within the field of community psychology.  I feel that with this goal in mind I will be able to work in community psychology and set in motion programs that will help children in the community attain social justice.  I would like to develop a program that integrates abused children into a community that will support them and give them a sense of belonging.  It would be very fulfilling for me to help abused and suffering children integrate into a community which will help lift them up and help them to succeed.  

     Community psychology uses analytical research to study communities, analyze the results, and help to set up community programs that supports social justice for people in the community.  The most important thing to understand about community psychology is that it allows us the opportunity to see how individuals affect the community, and how our communities affect us as individuals.  In research, community psychology can be used to determine the patterns of people within the community.  When patterns are uncovered a community, psychologist is then able to use the positive attributes to empower the community members by promoting well- being (Capone, & Petrillo, 2013).  Finding the patterns is essential to implementing community- oriented programs promoting a supportive community with an active social structure building resilience in the community.

     Community- oriented programs can help divided communities come together to work towards a common goal for the greater good of the community as a whole.  Implementing fundamental principles will allow the social concerns of the community to be addressed.  Community psychology can be traced back to the early 1800’s, but many believe that community psychology grew mostly out of the mental health movement in the mid 1960’s.  An individual’s mental health is necessary for early intervention and to help with this it is helpful to understand the relationship of individuals and their community.  Many believe community psychology was colonized during the 1965 Swampscott conference.  The APA helped to further community psychology by encouraging community residents to get more involved in the decision- making process.  In the 1970’s it became apparent that community psychology was indeed an important part of one’s mental health.  Communities now had access to help with social issues while addressing social injustices and creating support systems such as stress management and resilience building for individuals and the community.

     Conditions today are the same as they were when community psychology came to be.  Community psychology came to be because there was a need for preventative measures to address mental health issues.  Today’s society, more than ever, shows a need for community psychology to help address social issues through community- oriented programs that promote well- being and individual empowerment through community support.  Building a more cohesive community is attainable through helping others understand how to implement change by addressing social issues that affect the community, this will help make social structures better and improving overall mental health.

     The conditions I feel stand out most in my professional goals and interests within adolescent psychology and community psychology, are the different characteristics of abuse that are plaguing children in the community and the stigma it creates with people in the community.  These issues can make the victims of abuse feel isolated and divided in the community.  My goal would be to address such issues and try to dispel the conditions that often leads to the marginalization of individuals.  I feel that community awareness is key to getting such issues out into the open, then getting community organizations involved in helping these individuals realize there are people who care, and they are not alone.  Helping these victims of abuse will bring the community together and make them stronger and more unified.  The goal being to make the victims feel empowered against the people who put them in the position they are in.  

     I feel these issues are most important to address my professional goals because as an adolescent psychologist working in the community, I feel it is important to give those without a voice a place in the community that they can feel safe.  Most often those who experience abuse often have a feeling of dismissal which makes them forgotten members of the community.  Using community psychology, I hope to research the issues, analyze the data, and come up with a solid plan that will lead to change that will hit the community at its core.  I feel that helping these individuals will not only help them, but it will benefit the community as well.  Whenever we can promote social justice and empower the marginalized individuals we are fighting for human rights and helping individuals find value in every person within the community (Kimhi, and Shamai, 2014).  

     Using community psychology will help to strengthen my professional goals and career path by allowing me to help those in need become an integral part of their community.  I grew up in abusive households, so I know what it is like to feel helpless, so for me helping those in similar situations enrich their own lives, would help me to fulfill mine.  Helping these little people find a voice in the community is the best way I can think community psychology would help me fight conditions of stigma and marginalization and help these victims find value in life.  By considering the context in relation to the environment I would then be able to create an environment of empowerment.  As we help to empower individuals in the community we also help to break barriers for those in need.  Focusing on the positive parts of the community we can then work as a community to come up with programs that will help to intertwine children and their families to be one with the community.

     Community psychology is all about the well- being of people and their families through having an integral part in their community.  Solving diverse issues in the community can be difficult but through forces within the society impacting the functionality of families within the community I will be able to adequately respond to these issues and handle them accordingly.  Fighting for social justice is key to addressing social issues within the community, which is the basis of community psychology.  It is my hope to be able to help children in the community and their families before they fall victim to abuse, I feel that with the right programs in place to educate the family these incidences can be avoided, and people can get them help they need to prevent such actions from occurring.  Unfortunately, I do not feel this will always be the case, so it is important to get started by implementing community programs that utilize the fundamental principles of community psychology.  By implementing these programs, I will have the opportunity to empower these individuals and their families within the community while fostering an environment that respects human rights.  

     When I think of the future I think what the future be like without community psychology.  Society continues to progress at an alarming rate, the people who are part of that society are constantly interacting with their environments and the community around them, community psychology plays an integral part in that progression and will continue to be if people are to continue to prosper.  People in general accomplish more and do better in life when they are productive and active members of their community.  As people become more involved in their community and the two become interdependent upon one another, community psychology will most likely ensure that social justice becomes part of the fabric that holds the community together.

     As we progress further into the future the field of community psychology must progress as well, so that community psychology changes with the rest of the world.  As psychologists we must remember to stay fluid in technique and application because what we do often changes the world in which we are a part of.  To clarify, as research is performed one must look at all aspects of data and determine what is most efficient and beneficial for the subjects being worked with.  As individuals and community members we all face adversity because of increasingly derogatory affairs happening all around us, going forward community psychologists will need to help to guide others toward social justice and well- being within the community.  Society today is becoming more and more tumultuous and because of this people are being marginalized at a higher rate.  “A factor analysis revealed two superordinate factors, self‐esteem and activism and community and power, with a satisfactory internal consistency. These two factors showed a good construct validity with expected associations to validation measures” (Hansson, L., & Bjorkman, T. 2005).  As we move toward the future it is important to realize that community psychology will play a vital part of maintaining equality, empowerment, and social justice within the community as a whole.  One of the key roles of community psychologists is to adapt a more significant role in social change and well- being in their own communities.  To develop more effective programs the community members involved must take into careful consideration the context of the people in their community.  The future of community psychology does not lie in continuous involvement by community psychologists, but rather empowering the community members to stand together and facilitate a community which aims at improving the lives of everyone within the community.