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Academic and nonacademic community psychologists: An analysis of divergence in settings, roles, and values
Author(s) -
Elias Maurice J.,
Dalton James H.,
Franco Robert,
Howe George W.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00896749
Subject(s) - health psychology , constructive , cohesion (chemistry) , community psychology , divergence (linguistics) , psychology , diversity (politics) , sociology , epistemology , social psychology , public health , computer science , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , nursing , chemistry , organic chemistry , process (computing) , anthropology , operating system
Conclusions Differences between academic and nonacademic psychologists may be viewed as immutable, worthy of encouragement, or as a situation which the latter group must remedy by becoming “more scientific.” We contend that for community psychology, which perceives theory, application, and action as valid aspects of its broad paradigm, it would be most adaptive to explicitly address the challenge of managing a balance between diversity and cohesion. There are signs that the present leadership of Division 27 recognizes aspects of this problem and is reconsidering the role and purpose of the Division as an organizing framework for the discipline (Trickett, Note 3). It is our view that engendering a commitment from various subgroups within the membership to addressing the disparities revealed by our respondents is required for resolving what we see as major obstacles to future development of the discipline. The conceptual and empirical approach presented in this study can be an important tool in forging constructive solutions to the challenges we have presented.