1. Aims of Community Research
Chapter 3
Fall 2010
The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

2. Why else is the relationship important?
Under what conditions do you tell the truth?
Under what conditions do you tell the whole truth?
Why do community psychologists care?
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

3. Community Psychology Challenge
How to develop…
Research problems
Research designs
Research instruments (Culture/Environments)
Research relationships
…that reflect the values of prevention, empowerment, & diversity in communities.
Fall 2010
The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

4. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
Underlying Questions
What phenomena?
What value stances?
How shall we promote community participation & collaboration?
How shall we understand the cultural & social contexts?
At what ecological levels of analysis?
Fall 2010
The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

5. (1) What phenomena? Research Agenda
What are communities like?
How do neighborhoods affect children?
What are stressors of urban life?
How do citizens cope with stress?
How do cultural norms affect ability of women to negotiate safe sex?
How do schools affect life chances of teens?
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

6. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
(2) Value Stances?
Attending to ___________________
Seeking out perspective of powerless within social systems
_____________________________
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

7. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
(2) Value Stances?
Researcher Values
Getting to know community
Learning how to be helpful
Engaging community diversity
Supporting underdog
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

8. (3) Promoting community participation & collaboration?
Why focus on collaboration?
What’s at stake for community?
Tests of commitment/trust
Institutional history
Governmental history
Tuskegee Syphilis Studies
( )
- Penacillin in 1943
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

9. (3) Promoting community participation & collaboration?
Relationship affects ability to get research sample
Hard-to-reach populations
Sampling strategies
Letters vs. social networks
Relationship affects data collected
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

10. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
Limitations
Time consuming
May raise unrealistic community expectations for future
Works against current norms of professional advancement
Funding requirements complicate extent & duration of collaboration
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

11. Methods to Participate & Collaborate
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
– Woody Allen
_____________________________
Watercooler
Project
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

12. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
Underlying Questions
What phenomena?
What value stances?
How shall we promote community participation & collaboration?
How shall we understand the cultural & social contexts?
At what ecological levels of analysis?
Fall 2010
The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

13. (4) How shall we understand the cultural & social contexts?
What is culture?
Rules of the game in a particular society as expressed in:
_____________________________
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

14. How do we learn about culture?
Personal history
Participant observation
Archival search (e.g., _____________)
Ethnography
Key informants
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

15. Studying Culture: Diversity
Diversity within cultural group
_____________________________
____________________________
Diversity between groups
Individualism/collectivism
Rites of passage
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

16. 56 Ethnic Groups in China

17. Studying Culture: Research Issues
How do cultural groups differ in concepts & measures?
Does concept mean same thing in different communities?
____________________________
Are measures developed in one cultural context relevant to other cultural contexts?
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

18. Studying Culture: Research Issues
Does culture/background of researcher affect relationship with community?
Experiential competence
Language competence
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

19. (5) What Ecological Levels of Analysis?
Nested designs
Kids nested in families/schools/ neighborhoods
Data gathered at each ecological level
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

20. Ecological Analysis Example
_______________________between needs of adolescents & environments
What happens when kids make transition out of elementary school?
Lower grades
Decline in school-related motivation
WHY?
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

21. Ecological Analysis Example
Greater classroom control & discipline
Fewer opportunities for student self-management
more structured
Less personal student-teacher relationships / more kids per teacher
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

22. Ecological Analysis Example
Increased tracking or ability-grouping & public evaluation of work increases self-consciousness of comparison to others
Teachers feel less effective, particularly with low ability students
Teachers use higher grading standards (____________________________)
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

23. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
Underlying Questions
What phenomena?
What value stances?
How shall we promote community participation & collaboration?
How shall we understand the cultural & social contexts?
At what ecological levels of analysis?
Fall 2010
The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)

24. The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)
Project Proposals
Write-Up
First, your group should come up with a Community Research Group name. Make sure the write-up clearly and correctly names each group member.
1. Why does that topic interest you as a group?
2. What types of constructs comprise the issue?
3. Who are possible key stake holders?
4. What groups have possibly been unheard in regards to this issue?
5. What are some of the assumptions that your group currently hold regarding your issue?
Due Thursday, September 16th
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The Aims of Community Research (Chapter 3)