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Terms of empowerment/exemplars of prevention: Toward a theory for community psychology
Author(s) -
Rappaport Julian
Publication year - 1987
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/bf00919275
Subject(s) - health psychology , empowerment , community psychology , presupposition , epistemology , psychology , order (exchange) , social psychology , empirical research , sociology , public health , political science , medicine , philosophy , nursing , finance , law , economics
In order to develop theory any community of scientists must agree as to what constitutes its phenomena of interest. A distinction is made between phenomena of interest and exemplars. The concept "prevention" is viewed as an exemplar, whereas the concept "empowerment" is suggested as a leading candidate for the title "phenomena of interest" to Community Psychology. The ecological nature of empowerment theory is described, and some of the terms of empowerment (definitions, conditions, and periods of time) are explicated. Eleven assumptions, presuppositions, and hypotheses are offered as guidelines for theory development and empirical study.