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Induced change and stability in psychological and social systems
Author(s) -
Glidewell John C.
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/bf00919801
Subject(s) - health psychology , psychology , social psychology , explication , action (physics) , social change , developmental psychology , epistemology , political science , public health , quantum mechanics , law , medicine , philosophy , physics , nursing
Summary This research showed important new cyclical causal connections derived from prior knoweldge and extending it. The cyclical causal connections appeared between a paricular kind of training, negotiation skills (psychological), influence (social), self‐esteem (psychological), and risk taking (social), and back to negotiaion skills (psychological) in a particular community action group, and perhaps in most community action groups in similar conditions. The theory explicates a theory of community empowerment, a cyclical series of pyschological and social forces that move in revolution and respond to shock with both change and restabilization. The findings provide an explication of the paradox of social change and stability in a community: Both the change (developmental or decremental) and the stability (sustaining or stifling) lie in the relationships between social and psychological variables, the very relationships that both propel and limit change in the levels of the variables, once the change is initiated.