Community psychology

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Community psychology is concerned with the community as the unit of study. This contrasts with most psychology, which focuses on the individual. Community psychology also studies the community as a context for the individuals within it,^[1] and the relationships of the individual to communities and society. Community psychologists seek to understand the functioning of the community, including the quality of life of persons within groups, organizations and institutions, communities, and society. They aim to enhance the quality of life through collaborative research and action.^[2]

Community psychology employs various perspectives within and outside psychology to address issues of communities, the relationships within them, and related people's attitudes and behaviour.

Rappaport (1977)^[who?] discusses the perspective of community psychology as an ecological perspective on the person-environment fit (this is often related to work environments) being the focus of study and action instead of attempting to change the personality of an individual or the environment when an individual is seen as having a problem.^[3]

Closely related disciplines include community practice, ecological psychology, environmental psychology, critical psychology, cross-cultural psychology, social psychology, political science, public health, sociology, social work, applied anthropology, and community development.^[4]

In the United States, community psychology grew out of the community mental health movement, but evolved dramatically as early practitioners incorporated their understandings of political structures and other community contexts into perspectives on client services.^[5] However, in other regions, it has had different origins. In much of Latin America, for example, it developed from social psychology as a response to the "crisis of social psychology" and the search for psychological theory and practice relevant to the social problems of the region.^[6]