Community Psychology Essay

1623 Words7 Pages
People sometimes confuse community psychology with related fields like social work, cross-cultural psychology and social psychology. While community psychology has many similarities to related fields and often draws upon these disciplines, it is important to not some major distinctions. For example, community psychology is centered on action and solving problems much like clinical psychology. However, clinical psychology tends to have a greater focus on solving individual problems, while community psychology is devoted to understanding the underlying social issues that contribute to these problems. Community psychology also takes a holistic, systems-based approach to understanding behavior and how people fit in to society, much like related fields such as sociology and social psychology. Community psychology tends to be more centered on applying psychological and social knowledge to solving problems, creating real-world solutions and taking immediate action. Like public health and mental health counseling, community psychology is also focused on the prevention of problems and the promotion of health and well-being. It also has a very strong research-oriented component. Community psychologists often perform original research, develop theoretical frameworks and then apply this knowledge directly within public and private communities. As you can see, community psychology overlaps with a number of other disciplines. However, it has its own unique and important contributions to make. The major goals of this field are to create new ways to empower people within their communities, promote social change and diversity, promote individual and community well-being and prevent disorder Community psychology is the study of social processes and problems of groups, organizations, and neighborhoods, and the development and evaluation of progress for social change and social
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