Description
This course provides an introduction to the field of community psychology. Community psychology is concerned with how individuals and groups interact within their environments and how issues of health and the well-being of community members are addressed in response to shifting social and historical conditions, including crisis situations. Community psychologists seek to systematically understand people within their larger social worlds and as an applied discipline, work towards optimizing both individual and collective aspects of mental health. We will examine how community psychologists emphasize prevention of psychological distress, work towards empowering persons and communities often having few resources, and develop strategies to deal with a wide variety of social and environmental issues that impact individual lives.