This study disaggregates and evaluates conventional community psychology as reflected in both the Community Mental Health and Social Action Models. In so doing, it provides evidence in support of its plea for a radical paradigm shift towards ecosystemic theorising in the field of community psycho logy. It further illustrates that an ecosystemic point of departure would have significant implications for the reformulation of conventional notions of community. It concludes by teasing out some alternative praxis related community psychological formulations. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Paper 1: The process of engagement is essential in practice with young people at risk of social exclusion. The elements of success in building this relationship are explored to some extent in the therapeutic literature, but do not necessarily cross the discipline divide to provide clear guidance for youth work practice. This paper explored the elements of success in engaging with vulnerable young people from the perspectives of eleven vulnerable young people and ten practitioners using Personal Construct Psychology methods to elicit and compare perceptions of the process of engagement. Professionals’ personal theories of the causation and prevention of a commonly occurring case study were also investigated for their relationship to the personal constructs guiding their practice. It was found that young people prioritised the affective elements of the relationship, but that pragmatic considerations were also of high importance to them. In contrast, professionals prioritised a commitment to young person well-being, followed by factors supporting the well-being of the practitioner including self reflection. Implications for practice include an appreciation of the factors important to young people, such as genuine warmth and affect, and pragmatics that make a worker more accessible such as ad hoc availability and approachability. Paper 2: Vulnerable young people access services such as Youth Services and Youth Offending Services. Professionals in this sector have limited access to Educational Psychology. Educational Psychologists are increasingly working outside traditional settings in Community Educational Psychology roles, however more evidence is needed to illustrate the diverse possibilities of practice. This paper explores the role and perceived impact on practice of a Community Educational Psychologist coaching six, monthly sessions of Solution-Focused peer supervision with three professional peer groups from Youth Services, Youth Offending Services and Police Youth Intervention. Personal construct shifts regarding the elements of success in engaging with vulnerable young people were measured pre- and post-intervention along with role and impact themes identified through observation diaries and post-intervention semi-structured interviews. Findings included the importance of the non-intervention specific elements of the psychological supervision, the impact of Solution-Focused techniques as both a tool and process for professional development, and recommendations for further support for professionals working with vulnerable young people.

Background: Previous research has shown that sexual minority individuals (SM) are twice as likely to smoke, twice as likely to be overweight or obese, and less likely to be physically active than heterosexual persons; all of which place SMs at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). While information on CVD risk by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status is well documented, there is scant literature examining race, gender, and the potential CVD risk in SMs. The purpose of this study was to examine CVD risk in sexual minorities. Method: The current study used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The Framingham multiple-risk assessment, which uses a calculation of age, smoking, BMI, and blood pressure, was used to predict vascular age and the risk of experiencing CVD event in the next 10 years. 54% of the sample was male, 62% white, and 4% identified as a SM. The sample was split into three groups: 1) 100% heterosexual (N=4363); 2) mostly heterosexual (N=509); and 3) SM (N=188). Results: There was a trend towards significance, p = .056, for mean differences in vascular age/actual age, for SM participants (M=10.07), compared to 100% heterosexual (M=9.1) and mostly heterosexual (M=8.66) participants. Mostly heterosexual participants were 1.62 times more likely, and SM participants were 1.97 times more likely to be current smokers when compared to 100% heterosexual participants. SM participants endorsed having significantly more drinks (M = 4.50) when compared to both 100% heterosexual (M = 3.80) and mostly heterosexual (M = 3.38) participants. SM participants were 1.7 times more likely to endorse having 5 or more drinks on one occasion. SM participants also reported significantly higher stress levels than the other two groups Conclusion: While the data for the current study did not provide sufficient evidence to suggest sexual orientation differences in Framingham risk scores, the findings remain noteworthy. SM showed increased risk in smoking and stress levels. Additionally, the Population-based longitudinal studies and surveillance data are essential and necessary in order to minimize disparities in risk factors and to reduce the likelihood of subsequent disease in SM population.

The empirical investigation of adverse childhood events (ACEs) and their relationship with health and well-being outcomes in later life is increasing. Less is known about factors that may promote resilience for those who have survived such challenges, such as how resilience may be facilitated for those with ACEs residing in a marginalized region such as South Central Appalachia. Multidimensional spirituality, social support, stigma related to ACEs, and Appalachian acculturation may serve as both valid cultural factors and potential indicators of resilience. Cross-sectional, simultaneous multiple regression analysis was performed on data collected from 272 adult patients of a South Central Appalachian based medically assisted treatment (MAT) program utilizing PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2018). Participants were 53.8% male, 94.4% Caucasian, 44.9% aged 35-50 years old, and 63.6% employed. Endorsement of increased spirituality was helpful for those in MAT in South Central Appalachia who self-reported ACEs. However, as one endorsed an increasing number of ACEs, spirituality was no longer salient but instead was associated with worsened health outcomes and lessened hope. The three dimensions of spirituality (Ritualistic, Theistic, and Existential) moderated these relationships in similar but nuanced ways. Social support, on the other hand, improved mental health regardless of ACE score. Stigma and Appalachian acculturation were only related to other variables at the bivariate level but not within the hypothesized moderation model. Our study offers preliminary insight into culturally relevant resilience within South Central Appalachia, however additional investigation is needed to better understand the complex facets of health and well-being outcomes in this marginalized region.

O presente estudo relata uma experiência psicológica em uma comunidade indígena Guarani-Mbyá. Especificamente propõe-se a descrever uma experiência de atenção psicológica na aldeia indígena Krucutu e descrever formas de intervenção psicológica utilizadas, suas vicissitudes e a importância do setting e do campo das relações emocionais estabelecidas nessa experiência psicoterapêutica. Este trabalho se deu em aldeia Guarani de Parelheiros, na região metropolitana da cidade de São Paulo num período de quatro anos, entre 2004 até início de 2009. São descritas duas intervenções grupais, denominadas oficinas, sendo uma delas realizada com adolescentes e jovens e outra com crianças; são também descritos dois casos de atenção psicoterapêutica individual: o acompanhamento de um jovem psicótico e o de uma mulher com distúrbio de comportamento. Os resultados dessa experiência revelaram, entre outros fatores, a presença de ambigüidade, entendida como uma dificuldade na constituição da identidade pessoal. Essa ambigüidade, causadora de sofrimento psíquico foi revelada no conteúdo verbal, não verbal e nas produções gráficas. Denotou intensa angústia, gerada pelo conflito entre o desejo, quase nunca consciente, de ter aquilo que é atrativo do mundo moderno capitalista e o sentimento de lealdade às origens, à preservação de hábitos, costumes, valores, ou seja, uma devoção à vida Guarani. Quanto ao manejo técnicoclínico, houve dificuldades na manutenção do setting, porém a partir da compreensão do campo das relações emocionais foi possível a elucidação de conflitos. A própria compreensão dos entraves, de vicissitudes relacionadas com os aspectos culturais e das relações emocionais (advindos do mundo externo ou interno) foi fundamental na manutenção e desenvolvimento dos grupos e dos atendimentos individuais. Foi possível observar que a utilização das técnicas e do arcabouço teórico psicanalítico puderam ser eficazes e contribuíram para compreensão e intervenção na saúde e sofrimento psíquico dessas pessoas de etnia Guarani-Mbya, respeitando-se sua cultura e seus valores / This is a report of a psychological experience in a Guarani-Mbyá indigenous community. It specifically reports a psychological intervention in the community and describes the psychological tactics that were used and the importance of the establishment of the setting and the emotional relational field in this psychotherapeutic experience. It was a four years experience, till 2009, held in a Guarani community located at Parelheiros, in the São Paulo metropolitan region. Here, it is reported two group intervention, called oficina, one of them with children, and the other with adolescents and young adults; it too describes two individual interventions: one for a psychotic young male and the other for a woman with behavior disorder. The common aspect in these four interventions is the presence of the so-called ambiguity. The ambiguity among them, and the related psychological stress, is shown as difficulties in the construction of one\'s self identity that appeared in verbal and non verbal expressions and graphic materials. They are torn between the rarely conscious desire of maintaining their cultural expression (language, customs, kinship concepts, religious notions) and the patterns of a non- indigenous society. This ambiguity appears in the emotional relational field of the psychotherapeutic context. There are ups and downs in the process and the comprehension of them is fundamental to maintain and improve the individual and group interventions. The psychoanalytical approach used in this experience was useful for the comprehension and treatment of the Psychological Stress and Mental Health of Indigenous Guarani- Mbyá

No contexto de estruturação do Sistema Único de Assistência Social, no qual os profissionais da psicologia passam a compor obrigatoriamente as equipes de atenção a famílias e indivíduos em situação de vulnerabilidade social, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi refletir sobre as possibilidades teórico-práticas da psicologia na proteção social básica, com base na interlocução com famílias de um garimpo de cassiterita na Amazônia Ocidental. Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo de cunho etnográfico, de incursões com frequencia semanal, durante aproximadamente um ano, no qual foram realizadas observações participantes, conversas informais e entrevistas semiestruturadas com os residentes do local. Buscou-se entender o contexto histórico e social do garimpo; as histórias familiares; os aspetos do cotidiano familiar; os sentidos e as expectativas de futuro das famílias; as formas de organização coletiva e participação social; bem como, os sentidos e experiências das famílias com a psicologia. A análise foi realizada à luz da abordagem teórica da psicologia histórico-cultural, que busca articular as dimensões subjetiva e objetiva, singular e coletiva, para o entendimento dos sujeitos e dos sentidos/significados por eles atribuídos às suas vivências. Os resultados revelaram como as condições objetivas de pobreza, baixa escolarização, não efetividade das ações públicas, exploração do trabalho e criminalização da atividade garimpeira atravessam as vivências dos moradores do garimpo e incidem em contradições entre o silêncio/grito e a inação/ação dos indivíduos e sua organização coletiva. Numa dimensão subjetiva dos processos psicossociais da desigualdade social, tais condições repercutem em sentimentos de humilhação, desvalorização e necessidade de reconhecimento. Numa dimensão coletiva da participação social, correlacionaram-se: as características do contexto neoliberal contemporâneo, a falta de espaços efetivamente democráticos nas instituições públicas na localidade e a dinâmica específica da comunidade e de seus sujeitos, que impõem limites, mas também apontam possibilidades, motivadas pela criticidade da população e a vontade de mudar o existente. Resultados que demarcam a importância de conhecer e compreender intensivamente as famílias e comunidades alvo da política de assistência social, por meio de visitas domiciliares e entrevistas, para com elas construir ações efetivamente participativas diante das problemáticas a serem enfrentadas. O psicólogo, nesta política, apresenta-se como o profissional que pode criar espaços dialógicos e educacionais para a reflexão sobre as condições objetivas que incidem sobre as vivências subjetivas dos sujeitos e as relações comunitárias, que permitam tomar consciência, imaginar e construir coletivamente outras possibilidades existenciais / In the context of structuring the Unified Social Assistance System, in which psychologists obligatorily begin to compose teams of attention to families and individuals in situation of social vulnerability, the goal of this research was to reflect on the theoretical and practical possibilities of psychology on basic social protection, based on the dialogue with families from a cassiterite mining in Western Amazonia. In order to do this a ethnographic study was developed, which included incursions with weekly frequency, that have lasted for about a year, in which were conducted participant observations, informal conversations and semi-structured interviews with local residents. We sought to understand the historical and social context of the mining, the families stories, the aspects of the daily family life; meanings and expectations to the future of the families; forms of collective organization and social participation, as well as the meanings and experiences of the families with psychology. The analysis was based on the theoretical approach of cultural-historical psychology, which seeks to articulate both subjective and objective, singular and collective dimensions, for the understanding of the subjects and the meanings attributed to the experiences. Results revealed how the objective conditions of poverty, low education, not effectiveness of public actions, labor exploitation and criminalization of mining activity crosses the experiences of residents of the mining and focus on contradictions between silence/scream and inaction/action of individuals and their collective organization. In a subjective dimension of psychosocial processes of social inequality, such conditions resonate as feelings of humiliation, devaluation and need for recognition. In a collective dimension of social participation, correlated with: the characteristics of contemporary neoliberal context, the lack of effective democratic spaces in public institutions in the locality and the specific dynamics of the community and its individuals, which impose limits, but also suggest possibilities, motivated by the criticism of population and a desire to change the existing one. Results that outline the importance of knowing and understanding intensively families and communities targeted by social assistance policy, through home visits and interviews with them, to build on effectively participatory actions about the problems to be faced. The psychologist, in this policy, presents itself as a professional who can create educational and dialogic space for reflection on the objective conditions that focus on the subjective experiences of individuals and community relations that allow them to become conscious, imagine and build collectively other existential possibilities

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Santos Graciani.pdf: 10872847 bytes, checksum: cd763f608845d88a2ab33ef2404687e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-27 / The research aimed to reflect on the educational practice by analyzing the Plans Pedagogical Integration Program of Social Educators Activities AABB Community in light of the foundations of Social Pedagogy and Social Community Psychology, assuming that the theoretical aspects and methodological these can contribute to the understanding of this social project. We use this research, qualitative methodology and the technical procedure of document analysis, referring to the activities of Pedagogical Plans sent to the competition 2013. Agenda Case For the research was requested to accept the use of authority term of the Contest data and for the choice of the criterion of educational practices we chose to analyze all 105 experiments sent. The analysis was performed from the three categories of Community Social Psychology (Active Participation, Strengthening Affective and Community Impact Bonds) and the four fields of Social Pedagogy (Epistemological, sociopedagogical, sociocultural and sociopolitical). As for the results obtained, the Socio-cultural domain and Active Participation category were those most stood out, soon after, the sociopolitical domain, and finally simultaneously with the same score, the Epistemological and socio-pedagogical fields of Social Pedagogy and the categories of strengthening Affective Links and Community Impacts, prevailed in second and third place in the Community Social Psychology. We conclude that the educational practices encouraged the artistic actions, cultural, sports, environmental, social and educational complementation and citizenship, favoring the personal, family and community exercise of educational proposals with the changes in the reality experienced individually and in society, aspects that the transversalizam theoretical and practical foundations of the relationship between science Social Pedagogy and Social Community Psychology front of the educational practice / A pesquisa teve como objetivo geral refletir sobre a prática educativa por meio da análise dos Planos Pedagógicos de Atividades dos Educadores Sociais do Programa Integração AABB Comunidade, a luz dos fundamentos da Pedagogia Social e da Psicologia Social Comunitária, partindo do pressuposto que os aspectos teóricos e metodológicos destas podem contribuir para a compreensão deste projeto social. Utilizamos nesta pesquisa, a metodologia qualitativa e o procedimento técnico da análise documental, referente aos Planos Pedagógicos de Atividades enviados ao concurso Capa da Agenda de 2013. Para a realização da pesquisa foi solicitada a aceitação do termo de autorização de utilização dos dados do Concurso e para a escolha do critério das práticas educativas optamos em analisar todas as 105 experiências enviadas. A análise foi realizada a partir das três categorias da Psicologia Social Comunitária (Participação Ativa, Fortalecimento dos Vínculos Afetivos e Impacto Comunitário) e dos quatro domínios da Pedagogia Social (Epistemológico, Sociopedagógico, Sociocultural e Sociopolítico). Quanto aos resultados obtidos, o domínio Sociocultural e a categoria Participação Ativa foram as que mais se sobressaíram, logo a seguir, o domínio Sociopolítico, e por último simultaneamente com o mesmo score, os domínios Epistemológico e Sociopedagógico da Pedagogia Social e as categorias relativas ao Fortalecimento dos Vínculos Afetivos e os Impactos Comunitários, prevaleceram em segundo e terceiro lugar da Psicologia Social Comunitária. Concluímos que as práticas educativas incentivaram as ações artísticas, culturais, esportivas, ambientais, de complementação socioeducacional e de cidadania, favorecendo ao exercício pessoal, familiar e comunitário de propostas educativas que produzem transformações na realidade vivida individualmente e em sociedade, aspectos estes que transversalizam os fundamentos teóricos e práticos da articulação entre as ciências Pedagogia Social e Psicologia Social Comunitária frente à prática educativa

Approximately 44,965 people committed suicide in 2016 in the United States, and the rate has been rising for a decade and a half. Suicide has far-reaching consequences which affect not only the victim, but those close to the person as well. For every suicide, an estimated six people are futher traumatized, bringing the current loss survivor estimate to over 5 million. Additionally, suicide costs tax payers about 70 billion dollars annually. Despite outranking homicide as a leading cause of death, the long-standing stigma associated with suicide creates a barrier for open and effective communication about the issue. This paper investigates the changing attitudes about suicide across time, the impact of the interacting factors of gender, age, sexuality, and depression, current suicide myths, the trend of suicide by cop, and discusses future needs for research and effective intervention and prevention.

EverQuest is a multiplayer online role playing game that serves as a practical incarnation of life as a cyborg in a posthuman community. Using cultural materialsim, this thesis demonstrates how the words of EverQuest interactants - from message boards, interviews, and player in-game communications - construct the world of EverQuest and the roles of the interactants as its citizens. More specifically, this thesis will argue that the EverQuest world serves to reify the ideas of consumer capitalism that informs the "real" world, even as EverQuest itself promises an escape from that world.

While the differences in health between cultures co-existing in the same country have been well researched, there has been insufficient attention paid to the definition of culture used in these studies. Typically the ethnicity of an individual has been determined along biological lines or by the country of origin. However, the culture with which an individual identifies may not be so clear: an individual may identify with a number of cultures, from the social group with whom they socialise, to the religion they follow. Measuring the degree to which an individual identifies with a particular culture (their cultural identity), would allow an assessment of how membership in that culture influences health outcomes. The present study investigated the relationship between the cultural identity (CI) of Māori and their health. The main hypothesis was that a higher CI would be positively correlated with better health. The relationships between demographic factors (e.g. age, gender, & socio-economic status (SES)), CI, and a number of health indicators (self rated health, smoking behaviour, alcohol consumption, & exercise/sporting behaviours) were also examined. The sample used in the present study (767 adult Māori) was a subset of the data collected the Te Hoe Nuku Roa Māori profiles project. The development of a CI measure incorporated seven cultural indicators: Whakapapa (ancestry), Marae Participation, Whanaū associations (extended family), Whenua Tipu (ancestral land), contact with Māori people, Use of te Reo (Māori language), and kai (food preferences). A series of hierarchical linear regressions found that CI was not directly related to health indicators in the present study. There were weak interactions between CI, age, and smoking behaviour; CI, home ownership, and involvement in sport; and age, Crowding and involvement in sport. Additional findings were that more Sporting Involvement/exercise was moderately correlated with improved health, and there was a weak relationship between CI and SES. It was speculated that the lack of significant findings may be due to a difference in the quality of participants’ CI: The CI measure did not distinguish between those who learn their culture and those who live their culture (each group tending to be in differing social and economic positions). Recommendations from the study were: Further validation of the CI measure, and assessment of the distribution of CI over urban/rural areas, SES and age; additional research into the relationship between young Māori smokers and their CI; assessing how the level of Sporting Involvement varies across the social and economic realities of Māori; and the development of appropriate measures utilising the whanaū/household as the unit of analysis.