Forty years after the founding of community psychology, we have yet to deliver on the full promissory note of our birth, where we were poised to address social problems, social settings, and social change. Despite some success, we are at risk for selling ourselves short, for dying out in the discipline of psychology, and for failing to improve the common good. Given changes in demographics and in the safety net, the problem of entrenched disparities is even more urgent—in perception of the other, in the provision of opportunities for development, and in outcomes. Envisioning and enabling will be critical as we work with unified purpose toward a cumulative science where failure will not be predictable.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Albee, G. (1959). Mental health manpower trends. New York: Basic Books.
American Psychological Association (2000). Resolution on poverty and socioeconomic status. Retrieved on November 16, 2005, from http://www.apa.org/pi/urban/povres.html.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities for the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Burawoy, M. (2005). For a public sociology. American Sociological Review, 70, 4–28.
Cowen, E. L. (1977). Baby-steps toward primary prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 5, 1–22.
Edelman, M. W. (1981). Who is for children? American Psychologist, 36, 109–116.
Gonzales, N. A., Cauce, A. M., Friedman, R. J., & Mason, C. A. (1996). Family, peer, and neighborhood influences on academic achievement among African-American adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 365–387.
Hazel, K. L., Pilaczynski, T., Meissen, G., O’Donnell, C., & Sasao, T. (2005). Graduate training in community psychology: Are we ready for the 21st century? Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Community Action and Research, Champaign, IL.
Humphreys, & Rappaport, J. (1993). From the community mental health movement to the war on drugs. American Psychologist, 1993, 48, 892–901.
Kao, G., & Thompson, J. S. (2003). Racial and ethnic stratification in educational achievement and attainment. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 417–442.
Kelly, J. G. (1968). Toward an ecological conception of preventive intervention. In J. W. Carter, Jr. (Ed.): Research contributions from psychology to community mental health. New York: Behavioral Publications.
Kirp, D. L. (2003). Shakespeare, Einstein, and the bottom line: The marketing of higher education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kloos, B. (2004). Community science: Creating an alternative place to stand. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 259–267.
Lakoff, G. (2004). Don't think of an elephant: Know your values and frame your debate. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Levin, H., & Holmes, N. (2005). America's learning deficit. New York Times, pp. A25.
Levine, M., & Levine, A. (1970). A social history of helping services: Clinic, court, school, and community. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.
Levenson, R. W. (2005). Basic research funding: An exercise in NIH-ilism. APS Observer, 18, 5, 38–39.
Linney, J. A. (2004). The making of a community psychologist: Naïve idealism, supportive contexts, and good fortune. In J. G. Kelly & A. V. Song (Eds.) Six community psychologists tell their stories: History, contexts, and narrative. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press.
Marsella, A. J., Wandersman, A., & Cantor, D. W. (Eds.) (1998). Psychology and urban initiatives: Professional and scientific opportunities and challenges (Special Issue). American Psychologist, 53, 621–656.
Martin, P. P., Lounsbury, D. W., & Davidson, W. S. (2004). AJCP as a vehicle for improving community life: An historic-analytic review of the journal's contents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 34, 163–173.
Mason, M. A., & Goulden, M. (2004). Marriage and baby blues: Redefining gender equity in the academy. ANNALS, AAPSS, 596, 86–103.
Maton, K. I., & Hrabowski, F. A. (2004). Increasing the number of African American PhDs in the Sciences and Engineering. American Psychologist, 59, 547–556.
McCall, R. B., & Green, B. L. (2004). Beyond the methodological gold standards of behavioral research: Considerations for practice and policy. Social Policy Report, 18(3–4), 6–12.
McKown, C. (2005). Applying ecological theory to advance the science and practice of school-based prejudice reduction interventions. Educational Psychologist, 40, 177–189.
Miller, R. L., & Shinn, M. (2005). Learning from communities: Overcoming difficulties in the dissemination of prevention and promotion efforts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 169–183.
Mischel, W. (2005). Alternative futures for our science. APS Observer, 18, 15–19.
Namir, S., & Weinstein, R. S. (1982). Children: Facing new directions. In L. Snowden (Ed.), Reaching the underserved: mental health needs of neglected populations (pp. 43–73). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Nelson, G., & Prilleltensky, I. (2005). Community psychology: In pursuit of liberation and well-being. New York: Pallgrave Macmillan.
Rappaport, J. (1981). In praise of paradox: A social policy of empowerment over prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 1–25.
Rappaport, J., & Seidman, E. (Eds.) (2000). Handbook of community psychology. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Reppucci, N. D. (2005). No matter how loud I shout: Two tales of terror. Paper presented at the festschrift for Julian Rappaport, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL.
Sandler, I., Ostrom, A., Bitner, M. J., Ayers, T. S., Wolchik, S., & Daniels, V.-S. (2005). Developing effective prevention services for the real world: A prevention service development model. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 127–142.
Sarason, S. B. (1981). An asocial psychology and a misdirected clinical psychology. American Psychologist, 36, 827–836.
Sarason, S. B. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Seidman, E. (2004). Social settings: The proximal contexts of interest. Annual Report of the W. T. Grant Foundation. New York.
Shinn, M., & Toohey, S. (2003). Community contexts of human welfare. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 427–459.
Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. A. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Snowden, L. R. (1987). The peculiar success of community psychology: Service delivery to ethnic minorities and the poor. American Journal of Community Psychology, 15, 575–586.
Snowden, L. R. (2005). Racial, cultural, and ethnic disparities in health and mental health: Toward theory and research at the community level. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 1–8.
The Physician's Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance (2003). Proposal of the Physician's working group for single-payer national health insurance. JAMA, 290, 798–805.
Turkheimer, E., Haley, A., Waldron, M., D’Onofrio, B., & Gottesman, I. I. (2003). Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of IQ in young children. Psychological Science, 14, 623–628.
UNICEF (2005). The state of the world's children 2005. Retrieved November 16, 2005, from http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_24433.html.
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity—A supplement to Mental Health: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General.
Weinstein, R. S. (1981). Teaching community intervention in a clinical program: Reflections in the themes of supervision. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 421–431.
Weinstein, R. S. (2002). Overcoming inequality in schooling: A call to action for community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 30, 21–42.
Weinstein, R. S. (2002/2004). Reaching higher: The power of expectations in schooling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Weinstein, R. S., Gregory, A., & Strambler, M. (2004). Intractable self-fulfilling prophecies: Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education. American Psychologist, 59, 511–520.
Wingenfeld, S., & Newbrough, J. R. (2000). Community psychology in international perspective. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.). Handbook of community psychology (pp. 779–810). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I thank Harvey Weinstein for his unwavering support always.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the mid-west ECO Conference in Community Psychology held in Saugatuck, Michigan, October 2004.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weinstein, R.S. Reaching Higher in Community Psychology: Social Problems, Social Settings, and Social Change. Am J Community Psychol 37, 9–20 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-005-9008-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-005-9008-1