�©L.b � l

. �\...-- l6tqC),

Members of the Board of Community Psychologists 1989 - 1990

Chair: Anhur Veno (051) 220347 Deputy Chair: Robyn Robinson (03) 3478700 Secretary: Heather Gridley (03) 7432022 Treasurer: Tony Love (03) 4792150 Editor Network: Des Hatchard (054) 403542 Executive Members: Judith Cougle (03) 6076123

John Farhall (03) 3892468 Bet Roffey (03) 3652108 Ross Williams (03) 3652108

State Representatives: Ross Williams (03) 3652108 (Vic)

Andrew Ellerman (076) 312381 (S. Qld)

Glen Ross (070) 311237 (N. Qld)

John Carroll (09) 370611 Chris Williams (002) 202742

(fas) Meg Smith (02) 7729200

(NSW)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial

Repons on the Pakatoa Island Conference

1. Community Psychology and the Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand and Australia

2. Social Action Tactics 3. Self Help Groups 4. The Teaching of Community Psychology 5. Global Issues 6. Language, Gender and Power

Securing Futures in the Face of Global Crises: Editor's summary of Professor M. Cnmer repon on

the topic. Towards a Sustainable Critical View of

Psychological Practice by Professor Ian John Language, Gender and Power by Judith Cougle and

Heather Gridley Why Self Help Groups Work by Meg Smith Pearls of Wisdom by Donald C. Klein The Economics of Poverty and Marginality: Some

reflections by June F. Chisholm Traginology by Phillip J. Runkel

.. ·.·· .· . ·· . . . . Vol. 6 ·, No. 1

. . . · .· .· _::· A� _·J�

f ·,._ : · .. . . · . . ·. · .:._: ·:::·· . · . ::·:···.: .. =·:. · ...

(i)

Page

1

5-17

6 8 9

10 12 13

18

23

26 32 39

44 47

EDITORIAL

Thank you for your feedback concerning the new-look NETWORK. The cover design has received many accolades which I have passed on to Ms Anne Cooper, graphic artist in the Media Services at Bendigo CAE. You indicated how much you appreciated the Peace Psychology theme of the last issue. The Boud has been so emboldened by your strong, positive responses that it has decided to devote the December issue to the theme of Evaluation under the guest editorship of Dr Robyn Robinson.

As a typical academic I willingly accept all the congratulations and the like for the last issue (although most credit goes to Ann Sanson, the guest editor) and smoothly pass the blame for the errata to the printers at Gippsland. Connie Peck's article was botched and Jenni Rice• s contribution also caught the printers• virus. An amended copy of Connie. s paper will be published in the March edition of nm AUSTRALIAN PSYCHOLOOIST while the text accompanying the Figures 3 & 4 in Jenni's articles has been corrected and appears on a cut-out section of this edition (see page 43). Simply remove the amendments and paste them over the eJTata. I apologise to both Connie and Jenni for "the printers' errors'?".

In his book 1HE COMING CRISIS OF WESTERN SOCIOLOGY, . Alvin Gouldner ( 1970) made some salient points about sociologists which I think may apply equally well to psychologists, so for 'sociologists' read 'psychologists' in the following quote:

Sociologists are not more ready than other men to cast a cold eye on their own doings. No more than others are they ready, willing, or able to tell us what they are really doing and to distinguish this firmly from what they should be doing. Professional courtesy stifles intellectual curiosity; guild interests frown upon the

1

2

washing of dirty linen in public; the teeth of piety bite the tongue of truth (p. 488-9).

The Pakatoa Island Conference held in Auckland, New 7.ealand in August, 1989 may be viewed as an attempt by Community Psychologists from Australia and New Zealand to "cast a cold eye on their own doings", to examine the gap between the "is" and the "ought" and to admit that problems exist in the discipline.

This issue, then, reports on the free-ranging discussions which were engendered by summaries of the work.shops presented at a Plenary session· on the second day of the Conference.

Some papers/repons which impinge upon some of the major issues raised at the Conference are presented in ·order to widen the knowledge base gleamed from the repons. Professor Ian John's paper is a summary of the paper which he presented at the Board of Community Psychology Education Evening in July, 1990. Professor Manfred Cramer has reported upon a Conference held in Munich last year concerned with global issues and future strategies to manage them. NE1WORK has summarised Manfred's repon for its readers. Meg Smith from Sydney has reduced the points she made at the Pakatoa Island Conference to a readable repon while Heather Gridley has performed the same function for the language gender and power issues. June Chisholm from Pace University in America, emphasises the need for Community Psychologists to receive some training in economics especially as it impacts upon poverty and marginality.

This issue introduces a Pearls of Wisdom section derived from The Community Psychologist, the official publication of Division 27 of the American Psychological Association. Each edition of NE1WORK will now contain a 'pearl' from one of the more influential community psychologists in the profession. David Klein presents the first in this new series.

The next issue will provide abstracts of the papers to be presented at Osaka, Japan during the International Congress of Applied Psychology in July of this year. The same issue will continue the debate about the science of Traginology which while not winning many adherents in the scientific branch of the APS has its supponers among the professional sector, especially training professionals.

3

REPORT OF THE PAKATOA ISLAND CONFERENCE .

ON COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

18-20 AUGUST 1989

The symposium was attended by 37 delegates representing Community Psychologists from Australia, New Zealand, West Germany, Philippines, America (Hawaii) and India (see list of participants at the end of the repons).

On Saturday morning, six key-note addresses were presented:

1. Psychology and Indigenous peoples - David Thomas/Linda Walmarie Nikora (Hamilton, New Zealand).

2. Social action tactics for peace psychologists -Di Brethenon (Melbourne) and Pam Oliver (Auckland).

3. Self-help groups - Meg Smith (Sydney) 4. Teaching Community Psychology - Des Hatchard (Bendigo) 5. Global crises and preventative strategies - Manfred Cramer

(W. Germany). 6. Language, Power and Women - Helen Gridley (Melbourne)

The afternoon was devoted to workshop sessions related to the above issues.

On Sunday, each workshop convenor reported upon the deliberations made the previous day. Discussion then ensued.

The repons presented below are based upon notes written publicly, by the indefatigable An Veno, during the course of the discussions which followed the summaries of the workshop sessions. Thus, participants could ensure that the main features of their workshops were encapsulated in the notes being written before their eyes. In compiling these reports, some of the strategies recommended by

5

6

Miles and Huberman (1984) for generating meaning from sets of data were used. Obviously, other participants may have reported the data in a manner different from the one given here.

Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1984) Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods. Beverley Hills, California: Sage

· Publications.

COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY AND THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA Session chaired coltjointly by

David ThomaslUnda Waimarie Nikora

While Australia is basically a multi-cultural society and New Zealand is largely a bi-cultural one, the indigenous people of both nations seem to experience much the same range of problems. The same kind of sociaVeconomic/political structures exist in both countries and the delivery mode of health, education, welfare and other services are vinually identical. These features are perceived as instrumental in the dominant (White/Paketa) culture's oppression of indigenous peoples. How accurate is such a perception? Should psychologists look at bi-culturalism as. a product of oppression or as an expression of cultural differences? There was agreement that more basic demographic and comparative data should be collected on the Maori people and Aboriginal A ustralians. The importance of the Treaty of Waitangi (1890) for bi-culturalism in New Zealand was emphasised and the hope expressed that Australia would implement a treaty with the Aboriginal people in the near future. An examination of the role of language in the ruling elites dealing with indigenous people was seen as a key to change strategies. An instance of the use of language was seen in the respective histories of Australia and New ZCaland (History is written by the winning side). History now needs to be re-written to include certain incidents which have up to now been omitted or conveniently "white-washed". The view was expressed that bi-culruralism, unlike apartheid, was about choice, and conceived of in this way may be an antidote to oppression.

Indigenous peoples seek self-determination. which, for the Maoris at least, is as much about the well-being of their people as it is about empowermenL S�lf-determination entails separate development of the two cultures, a parallel development in which funding should be on an equal or fair basis. The problem is that before the dominant culture will permit the self-development of indigenous peoples, it must see that it has something to gain from the process (unless, of course, it is convinced of the justice of the approach). Because the ruling elites already control most of the economic, commercial· and industrial sources of the nation, it might agree to self-determination only to increase it's dominance, by retaining the reinforcement schedules of empowermenL

Community psychologists can help indigenous people's struggle for empowerment through self-development in a number of ways:

1. By encouraging the dominant culture to re-evaluate its structure, functions, values and like as they relate to indigenous people and to act as change agents in this review.

2. By exposing the contradictions of the so-called "New Right" tactics, for example between free market forces and restriction of choice.

3. By developing a strong definition of the Community as a corporate body.

7

· 8

SOCIAL ACTION TACTICS chaired by

Di Bretherton/Pam Oliver

This workshop is correlative to the one on Global Issues. The same · dictum "think globally, act locally" applies, but the emphasis is upon

action at the local level. Social activists are encouraged to be eclectic in their choice of methodologies, to use the method best suited to bring the issue to the attention of the community.

The focus for social activists is upon the small things people can do in their lives ["small wins" as Karl Welch calls them]. Di Bretherton's campaign-for the removal of war toys and "victim" toys is an instance of this focus. Another instance, reported by Seidman and Rappapon (1986), was to get the Library of Congress to reclassify books on the Gay Liberation Movement, moving them from the section on abnormal sexual relations, sex crimes and sexual perversions into more appropriate areas.

The major need perceived by this group was the establishment of a data base of the activities of members. The need to know what colleagues were doing in this area, and to what effect, could be accomplished with profit by setting up such a data base.

It was agreed that social activities should develop new tactics to enable them to have a broader educational impact than is the case at present. A workshop format was one suggestion.

EdiJor's Note: Dr John Smith from Waikato sent me some copies of Behavioural Journal and Social Action. If your library does not subscribe to this publication then maybe you can order it.

SELF HELP GROUPS chaired by Meg Smith

Self-help groups of various types are proliferating in both Australia and New Z.Caland One of the functions of such groups is to be a critic of existing services which can lead to conflict with the professionals involved. Some professionals, for instance, tell self­helpers what they ought to feel and do not listen when the self­helpers tell them "but this is what we feel". Professionals often worry about how the group can handle the emotions generated by group participation. There is no need to worry as coping with emotions is a pan of the self-help group process itself.

A closed group structure is perceived by self-helpers as an acceptable fonnat.

The key to any self-help group is, of course, empowermenL This is seen especially in defining (redefining the problem, redefining the solutions) and the prognosis involved. Home meetings are also seen as more empowering than holding them in some institution/service or agency. A resource data bank on self-help groups is required as are other resources necessary for developing a strong network of such groups.

Editors Note: The Secretary has a copy of Dr Jim Young's address on this topic delivered on the Community Psychologists' education night 18th May, 1989. Copies of this tape are available upon request.

9

10

THE TEACHING OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY chaired by

Des Hatchard

The issues which must cUI1Cntly be confronted by those charged with the teaching/training of Community Psychologists are:

1) The search for an alternJJtive paradigm (that is, alternative to the logical-empiricist method). The theoretical work of Habermaus, Godamer, Foucault, Gouldner and Rappapon must be critically evaluated in this search.

2) The Invisibility factor in Community Psychology. Surveys and research efforts have revealed that the discipline is not widely taught, that colleagues in Psychology are generally indifferent to the teaching of the discipline and that where it is taught, students are not encouraged to adopt a community orientation.

3) The impact of the 'deep' versus 'surface' approach to learning. This debate, based upon a wealth of research finding in England and Australia could have wide-ranging implications for the teaching of Community Psychology (and Psychology in general). One major implication is that problem-based learning seems a more efficacious method of achieving the 'Deep• approach than is the traditional teaching method.

4) The resolution of a number of paradoxes and contraries in Community Psychology. One (of many) instances of this approach may be called "the problem of the one and the many". Given that Community Psychology should develop a distinctive local psychology rooted deeply in the local community, how can the discipline be promoted as a distinctly intemati�>nal one?

The discussion group produced a number of suggestions/recommen­dations to improve teaching/training in Community Psychology.

1. A regular workshop session to be held every two years on teaching, research and related aspects of C.P. This is to begin in Melbourne in 1990 and New Zealand in 1992 as pan of the Annual Conferences of the two Societies. If the meetings clash with vacation tim�s. it is the responsibility of the host Boanl to organise the workshop and determine its agenda.

2. The "paradigm debate" generated a "free and frank" exchange of views. Some participants perceived that aspects of the debate (e.g. the discrediting of "logical positivism" as a basis for psychological theory and practice) were an attack upon their basic perspective in teaching C.P. It was pointed out that the value systems of others were not at risk here as C.P. takes a wide-ranging eclectic approach in its training/teaching programs.

3. A "loosely-coupled" network of those teaching C.P., and other colleagues using the comm.unity/ecological perspective in their work was established to exchange ideas, materials and the like. Teachers of C.P. were to exchange course teaching outlines as a first step in this networking.

1 1

GWBAL ISSUES chaired by

Profesmr Manfred

. With the human race facing possible extinction from a number of global crises - as the population explosion, devastation of forests, erosion of the topsoil and the burning of fossil fuels - scientists across the world have united in their concern for the future. Behavioural and social scientists have participated in various Conferences directed towards devising strategies to tackle the global crises and, hopefully, ensme safe futures for later generations. One such Conference at the University of Munich, Germany, is reponed later in the issue. The key to the approach is encapsulated in the proposition "Think globally, act locally". Some of the suggestions/ questions proposed by the discussion group were:

1 2

1. The need to identify the psychological changes which urge towards an integrated approach to research.

2. The changing nature of protest - is social change changing'? This must also be investigated.

3. If peace rallies now fail to generate the huge crowds of a few years ago, is this the sign that the peace movement is dying, or rather that there has been a shift in the perceived appropriate action to take to achieve peace?

4. What effects has the new technologies upon the management of global crises?

5. Are protest factors specific to particular causes, or is there a concatenation of basic strategies which may be applied in every or most contexts?

6. The management of Global Issues is seen as the correlative of the Social Action Tactics workshop. They form the two sides of the same behavioural coin.

LANGUAGE, GENDER AND POWER chaired by

Ms H. Gridley

This particular topic had much in common with the teaehing of Community Psychology session in that it calls for ways to challenge the existing paradigm in the discipline. Language and discourse are seen as shaping and perpetuating the oppression and disempowerment of women in society. The elaborated speech variant is seen as privileged, intrinsically powerful and characteristic of males and the constricted variant as excluded, powerless and the characteristic of females. Spender (1980), Lloyd (1984) and especially Gilligan (1982) have discussed the language/discourse factor in psychology.

Some of the ideas for future discussion which emerged from the discussion were:

1. The behavioural approach is still an appropriate vehicle to help overcome women's oppression and powerlessness.

2. Humour should be accepted as an approach to the problem.

3. Sympathetic males (and there are many in the ranks of Community Psychologists) should be sought out Collaboration with these and using them as lobbyists ought to be considered.

4. Single gender groups are not the only way to tackle the topic, mixed groups also have a role to play.

5. Gender awareness exercises to facilitate equality of 'air waves' among women should be considered as well.

Heather Gridley's article in this issue is a eloquent comment upon this report

13

14

New Zealand Psychological Society . Community and Social Psychology Division

Participants: Pakatoa Island Symposium 18-20 August 1989

Joyce Adkins 302B Signer Boulevard

· Honolulu Hawaii 96818 U.S.A.

Jack Austin Box 351 Postal Centre Wellington NEW ZEALAND

Jennifer Bradshaw 58 Ponsonby Road Karori WellingtOn 5 NEW ZEALAND

Dianne Bretherton 341 High Street Prahran Victoria 3181 AUSTRALIA

Dianne Clark Assoc. of Relatives

and Friends of the Mentally lli

P.O. Box 302 North Ryde 2560 N.S.W. AUSTRALIA

John Farhall 5 Madden Grove Kew Victoria. 3101 AUSTRALIA

Libby Gawith 24 O'Neill Street Hamilton NEW ZEALAND

Delwyn Goodrick Cherry Lane Tamahere R.D.3 NEW ZEALAND

Heather Gridley Western Institute P.O. Box 315 St Albans Victoria 3021 AUSTRALIA

Des Hatchard Bendigo College of Advanced Education

P.O. Box 199 Bendigo. 3550 Victoria AUSTRALIA

continued. •...

Belinda Coun. Macanhur Institute P.O. Box 155 Campbelltown N.S.W. 2560 AUST.

Manfred Cramer Hagenbacherstrasse 22 8000 Munchen 60 WEST GERMANY

Mary-Anne Debar Alcohol Research Unit University of Auckland Private Bag Auckland NEW ZEALAND

Paul Duignan Alcohol Research Unit University of Auckland Private Bag Auckland NEW ZEALAND

Rolf Marschner Cl- Manfred Cramer Hagenbacherstrasse 22 8000 Munchen 60 WEST GERMANY

Peter Jackson 8 Y orlc A venue Manor Park Lower Hutt NEW ZEALAND

George Kolath Sta. Cruz Church G.P.O. Box 1664 Manila 1099 PHllJPPINES

Jan McOelland 1/306 Goodwood Road Oarence Park South Australia. 5034 AUSTRALIA

Helen McOrath Victoria College 336 Glenfeni.e Road Malvern Victoria 3144 AUSTRALIA

Heather Scott 25 Halston Road Auckland 4 NEW ZEALAND

15

16

Continued. ...

John F. Smith Kimi Mathews Cl- 103 Aurora Terrace Hamilton

· NEW ZEALAND

Kathryn Nemec 37 Nixon Street Hamilton NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA

Linda Waimarie Nikora Psychology Department University of Waikato Private Bag Hamilton NEW ZEALAND

Pam Oliver Psychology Department University of Auckland Auckland NEW ZEALAND

Craig Osmond Macanhur Institute P.O. Box SSS Campbell town New South Wales 2560 AUSTRALIA

Psychology Department University of Waikato Private Bag Hamilton NEW ZEALAND

Meg Smith Macarthur Institute P.O. Box SSS Campbelltown NSW 2S60

Karla Stones-Havas lOA Wallace Street Heme Bay Auckland NEW ZEALAND

Saskia Schuitemaker 37 Nixon Street Hamilton NEW ZEALAND

David Thomas Psychology Department University of Waikato Private Bag Hamilton NEW ZEALAND

Continued. .. �

Karen Paterson 15 Senio Grove . Trentham NEW ZEALAND

Gail Ratcliffe 32 Ariki Street Grey Lynn Auckland NEW ZEALAND

Neville Robenson Psychology Department University of Waikato Private Bag Hamilton NEW ZEALAND

Susan Rouse 20 Sairleigh Avenue Mt. Alben Auckland 3 NEW ZEALAND

An Veno School of Social Science Gippsland Institute Churchill Victoria 3842 AUSTRALIA

Ross Williams Western Institute P.O. Box 315 St.Albans Victoria 3021 AUSTRALIA

Judy Voyle Hannon Road R.D. 1 Cambridge NEW ZEALAND

1 7

18

SECURING FUTURES IN mE FACE OF GLOBAL CRISES

Professor Manfred Cramer of the University of Munich, who attended the Pakatoa Island Conference on Community Psychology bas been in Australia for the past few months. His main interest is in Global Issues. In February 1989 the Department of Psychology at the

· University of Munich hosted a conference on Global issues where the theme was how Social Science research could contribute to securing the future of the world. Manfred has reponed on this conference elsewhere. NE1WORK'S summary of that repon has tried to preserve the flavour of Manfred's abstract style while redacting his idiosyncratic use of English.

Introduction The Conference focussed upon two questions:

a) What activities are currently being pursued to manage the global crises which face the world?

b) What future projects ought social scientists engage in to reduce global crises?

The main problem is the different approach to global crises taken by natural scientists and social scientists. This different perspective is seen to impede co-operation between the two groups. Problems of det1nition and methodology are at the base of the conflict.

The Relationship Between the Natural and Social Sdences

Because of the "arrogant separation of scientific disciplines", the research projects of natural and social scientists investigating a common global crisis, could easily be perceived to be addressing different crises, not one and the same. The separation of the sciences reduces the range of knowledge generated about the crisis and is antithetical to any integrative action-based programs designed to tackle the crisis. The problem is exacerbated by a "deplorable

(non) culture prevailing in the field of the social sciences illustrated by rivalries, competitive behaviour and narcissism as well as a maverick mentality which does not make wmk easier at all."

Specialisation in the sciences also generates problems. Researchers of small local issues often, it is said, feel stunned by the universal consequences of threatening global crises. Specialised research is frequently undertaken within a strict time restraint, which, it is argued, leads the researchers to ignore or not treat in any depth, the moral, ethical and humanitarian issues of their projects. A solution which may minimise these difficulties is to employ the rules of system analyses which are useful for focussing knowledge and which can articulate the advantages of small, local research projects.

The Functions of the Social Sciences

Social Sciences have the reputation for cogrunve incompetence. They often exaggerate the importance of communication and neglect the effects of intention both of which lessens their ability to come to terms with global crises. The report implies that international teams of researchers will be the best way the perceived intellectual incompetence of the social science could be countered. Funhermore, the social scientists are urged to avoid incorporating popularistic catchwords into the titles of their projects as this practice is seen to create emotive reactions in the general public when they read them. Another problem is that the nature of the global. crises demand immediate action or reaction whereas scientific research takes time to accomplish. The outcomes of time stress were mentioned earlier.

The Promotion of Action in the Social Sciences

Above all else Social Science "has a dire need for phenomenological knowledge as well as for practical conceptions and access to analytical knowledge which is made available by nature science like the knowledge about the morphology and degree of biochemical threat". Social Scientists are generally so enamoured by social

19

20

theory that . they find it difficult to perceive the conflict between themselves .and private persons. After all, it is one of the functions of social scientists to motivate people to do something about the global problems which all individuals face. The best way to accomplish this is encapsulated in the dictum: Think globally, act locally. In brief, social scientists must engage in a range of small, local projects.

Improving the Communication Between Scientists and the Public

Cramer cites a metaphor which he attributes to DURR, which sums up how social scientists ought to view their research ideas, namely u . "viruses that are powerful enough to infect society as a wlu!le". The

implication is that if scientists are sufficiently convinced of the importance of their work, they would seek ways to communicate their results to the general public. Social scientists with journalistic background, and those who write clearly should be in the forefront of this move to improve communication.

Organisational Outcomes of the Conference

The Conference suggested a number of organisational networks and other support systems to enhance information exchange between interested delegates. These include:

1) Use of computer technology as the basis of communication. 2) The establishment or maintenance of international working

parties, interest groups and networks of social scientists. 3) The setting up of "clearing committees" for the dissemination

of relevant literature. An international library for future concerns to be centred in Salsburg, Austria, was mentioned.

4) The suggestion that an International Advisory Board for projects and/or fieldwork supervision by an international body of scientists be established to aid researchers in the field

Typology of Projects

There are two main models which social scientists are urged to follow in researching future concerns of a global nature:

(1) The reductionist model

Global issues are reduced into small, concrete, manageable projects and the issues tackled in piecemeal fashion.

(2) The holistic model

Global issues are concentrations of complex, inteirelated and on­going factors; they are perhaps best researched in the same way. Research should consist of a methodology able to tackle constellations of problems simultaneously. Two instances of such an approach were mentioned:

. environmental stress models that embrace both regional and personal fmms of strain.

. personal adaptation studies such as the phenomenon of the "ecological refugees" and their associated problems - a billion of such refugees can be expected over the next few years.

A Suggested Manifesto

It was suggested that the Conference ought to draft a manifesto to which delegates could sign their names if they wished. The essential parts to be incorporated into such a document were as follows:

Science must be used in improving society Which problems should be investigated and in what order. What is the best method to investigate the identified problems.

2 2

The problems should be investigated at the local, regional and global levels. The interdependence of all aspects of the environment should be accepted. Social Scientists should cease working in research programs and/or practical projects which have a destabilising effect upon people.

·

The 22nd Congress of Applied Psychology, Osaka Unlveralty Japan July 1990

Professor Murray Levine of the University at Buffalo, New York ls co-ordmatlng the Community Psychology Symposium at the Conference. The participants in the session are:

Dr D.B. Hatchard, BencUgo College of Advanced Education, Australia: Teaching Community Psychology: A Cross-cultural Perspective.

Professor ClJfford O'Donnell, University of Hawall, Honolulu, Hawall, USA: Community Psychology in a Multi-Cultural Context.

Donato Francescato, University of Rome, and Guido Ghlrelll, Private practice, Rome, Italy: Applications of the Concepts of Community Psychology in Latin Culture: The Case of Itafy'.

Carlo Volpi, Project ISCO-SCNl'S, Dakar, Senegal: Community Psychology In an African Environment.

S. Omprakash, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Kanpur India: Applications of Community Psychology in Community Development In India.

TOW ARDS A SUSTAINABLE CRITICAL VIEW OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICE

by LO. John

The psychological enterprise is concerned with the production, dissemination and application of psychological knowledge. A critical appreciation of epistemological issues is therefore central to the self­understanding of psychologists.

Psychologists are called upon to mediate between individuals whose au;:tions are problematic and the wider community. In their performance of this task they draw on psychological knowledge which is claimed to be scientific and hence indubitable, and to permit the rigorous deduction of value free prescriptions for action. A critical examination of the epistemic status of psychological knowledge claims does not suppon this view of psychological practice.

Psychological research typically provides evidence of historically and context-bound weak effects of limited application; the psychological significance and scientific warrant of these findings is routinely exaggerated. Much putative scientific psychological knowledge retlects and codifies existing social beliefs and is difficult to distinguish qualitatively from knowledge claims mived at by less prestigious means. Other psychological knowledge claims seem to be necessarily true, non-empirical propositions which reflect the implicative structure of language.

Published accounts of psychological practice which represent it as a form of technical rationality are difficult to reconcile with evidence concerning practising psychologists' disregard of theoretical information sources, their accounts of theory utilisation and the limited consensus of their clinical judgements.

·23

24

It is difficult to specify the nature of psychological practice and to identify anything in common in the wmk of all psychologists, but speech and discourse is the medium in which they function. The ways in which it is acceptable to talk about our world are the outcome of complex processes of negotiation, or a politics of reality and they dic�te appropriate courses of action. The style of discourse

· employed in this process is an important way of exercising power.

Psychologists, together with certain other occupational groups constitute a new class who as a consequence of their education have acquired and share a distinctive discursive style and a common set of discursive norms and values. These authorise and valorise an elaborated style of discourse as the standard of all serious and rational speech. The restricted speech variant which has an important expressive and social relational function is correspondingly devalued. The imponance of the male sex-typed, elaborated discursive style as a means of exercising power has been discussed by feminist theorists.

The exercise of power is intrinsic to psychological practice but in contemporary society it must be masked to comply with egalitarian values. The use of the elaborated speech variant or critical discursive style is an important and relatively acceptable means by which psychologists may exercise power. Such power is made difficult to resist by the cultural privileging of the critical discursive style. Although practitioners prefer this style in formally carrying out their role this preference is diminished in their discourse with each other about practice matters.

The centrality of the exercise of power requires acknowledgment of the intrinsically moral nature of psychological practice and understanding of the way in which power is exercised and the interests which it serves. The resolution of these matters is a difficult and continuing task for practitioners.

This analysis prompts reeonsideration of education and ttaining for. psychological practice. The acquisition of a body of knowledge from which practice decisions may be unambiguously derived is a declared major aim of such education but is misguided since there is no body of knowledge which fits this description. The effective criterion for the success of practice education is facility in the use of the critical discursive style as demonstrated in mal and written examinations and reports.

An important but unacknowledged outcome of education for psychological practice is the inculcation of the values and attitudes of the culture of critical discourse. These are not explicitly taught but are assimilated from the unexamined presuppositional framework within which the teaching proceeds. This form of education is cognitively incapacitating rather than emancipatory since it fails to provide practitioners with the conceptual means of advancing their self-understanding.

25

26

LANGUAGE, GENDER & POWER by Judith Cougle

and Heather Gridley

The marginalisation of women as 'other' in social and linguistic terms and hence in power-sharing has been amply demonstrated. A feminist analysis of the key role of language in both shaping and reflecting the social structures in which we are aµ embedded has been undenak:en by Spender ( 1985), Cameron (1985) and others. Such analyses tend to focus on (i) the quantitative representation of women's voices in mixed gender groups and organisations (ii) gender preferential tendencies used about men and women (iii) gender differences in language use and (iv) the relative merits of attempts to change language-as-medium, or to tackle underlying structural inequalities themselves. . .

This paper documents, briefly, the operation of sex.ism in language in each of these areas. The paper asks questions such as: When and how did such sexism evolve? How does it work? How can it be transformed'?

The contention is that transformation must begin 'in our own backyard' •. along the guidelines offered by Ingrid Huygens ( 1988) for "empowering our natural communities" - that is, within the profession of psychology itself, and in our own workplaces.

Constant mention is made in the literature of a woman's need for a voice, of silence, of not being heard, of needing to name her experience. Argyle et al. (1968), Strodtbeck et al. (1957) and Wood (1966), all cited by Spender (1985), designed studies to measure the amount of talk and consistently found that males talked more than females in mixed-gender groups. Spender interprets the commonly­held myth of women as more talkative thus: "It is possible ... to suggest that . when women are supposed to be quiet, a talkative women is one who talks at all!"

Collectively, women's voices are under-represented in the public sphere, and the psychology profession is not an exception. While women in 1989 contributed 48% of the profession, only fifteen of the Australian Psychological Society's ninety-three fellows were female. Similar observations have been made of the Family Therapy profession in Australia (Cross, 1984), wherein it was noted that more men publish than women, while more women subscribe; more men present papers at conferences; while more women attend; and more men lecture in training courses while more women are tutors or students.

Gender-preferential tendencies in language used about women and men reflect the differential evaluation of experiences and actions themselves. Thus Gloria Steinem (1981) observed pithily: "To be considered ruthless, a man has to commit genocide. All a woman has to do is to be put on hold for a while". The greatest insult in the Anglo Saxon repertoire is the word for the female vagina, and the challenge facing women is the same as that faced by all oppressed groups - whether to dispense with the negatively - infused term altogether ('negro', 'mentally retarded', 'new Australian') or to reclaim it positively ('black is beautiful', 'wogs rule ships'). Attempts to promote and institutionalise non-sexist language have gained momentum in recent years, culminating in Australia in the launching of the fourth edition of the Commonwealth Style Manual for Authors. Editors and Printers in 1988. Legislation on such issues is difficult to enforce, but its existence at least provides a yardstick whereby the sexist usage gradually comes to be seen as the deviation ·rather than the norm. But while structural inequalities remain, attempts to equalise the non-dominant subculture are easily sabotaged - note the debasement of the female term in the following 'equally powerful' pairs: sir/madam (a brothel-keeper), king/queen (in drag?), master/mistress (kept woman). Media reports find ways of citing gender where the official term has been neutralised - a male nurse, female police officer. woman pilot - all provide cues for

27

28

differential responses on the pan of the reader in situations where gender should not be a factor at all.

Linguistic analysis of male and female speech can shed light on whether differences exist in fact as much as in myth - do women apologise more, defer more, co-operate more than men in mixed­gender groups? Do different rules (of tum-taking,. subject introduction, competition and power) apply in single-sex interactions? Is women's language 'the language of the powerless', or does it offer varieties of strategies untapped in their potential value at management and organisation levels? Is it risky to emphasise and premature to celebrate difference in climate which is likely to seize on evidence of difference as evidence of inferiority and justification for exclusion? These are questions which we (as authors) are still debating. Thus Loewenstein (1983) quotes Hubbard and Loewe (1979) - "Inevitably, where a difference is established between groups that have different positions on the social hienuchy, the attributes of the dominant group are the 'right ones' to have".

The examination of language in relation to gender necessarily brings to consciousness the role of language as both perpetrator and perpetuator of social structure and in shaping as well as reflecting human experience. If there is such a thing as a 'woman's way of knowing' as proposed by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule ( 1986), the time may be ripe for a cautious re-evaluation of its assumed inferiority, particularly in scientific circles. Adelaide's Professor Ian John (1984) challenged traditional paradigms thus: "Psychology seeks to justify its claims to a privileged status as a social institution largely on the basis of its scientific knowledge claims. These knowledge claims tend to be based on and to reflect a particular view about the nature of science which is under increasing challenge". In a series of talks in Melbomne recently, John appeared to have discovered the feminist contribution to this paradigm shift, and quoted Spender and Gilligan, as well as systems theorist {Maturang Bateson) regarding the interactional nature of discourse and the imponance of context, and the 'new Physics'

challc�nge to Cartesian linear views of scientific knowledge. The discussion session which followed the presentation of this paper raised a number of practical strategies for challenging sexist language and supporting women feeling disadvantaged by traditional patterns of interaction, especially in the workplace. Such strategies include discourse analysis, otherwise known as 'hunt the ideology', behaviour modification of sexism in the media via a public 'response-cost' challenge, teaching women to stop massaging male egos (and to deal with the ensuing silences) in conversation, addressing more of one's own remarks to quieter (female) participants in groups, monitoring and disputing one's own anxiety level when women are talking and men are listening (Gloria Steinem calls this 'checking the talk politics concealed in your own behaviour' ... ).

Above all, women must maintain the awareness that culture is so far embedded in language that, like the fish in water, no one is likely to be fully cognisant of its operations in all situations. Thus all women need to guard against the tendency to lampoon/expose others who are funher behind. It is better to shine the torch ahead to light the way.

References

Belenk.y, M.F., Clinchy, B. McV., Goldberger, N.R. and Tarule, J.M. Women's Ways of Knowing - The Development of Self. Voice and Mind. Basic Books, N. Y ., 1986.

Cameron, D. Feminism and Linguistic Theory. 1985

Cross, J. The Status of Women in Australian Family Therapy Australian Journal of Family Therapy. 1984, 5, 2, pp. 101-9.

Huygens, I. Emoowering Our Natural Communities. Paper presented at International Congress in Psychology, Sydney, 1988.

29

3 0

John, I.D. Science as a Justification for Psychology as a Social Institution. Australian Psychologist, 19, 1, pp. 29-37, March 1984.

Loewenstein, S.F. A Feminist Perspective in Rosenblatt, A. & Waldfogel, D. (Eds.). Handbook of Clinical Social Work, S.F. 1983.

Spender, D. Man-made Language (2nd ed.) 1985.

Steinem, G. Outrageous Acts & Everyday Rebellions, 1981.

The cost. of each issue of NE1WORK,

which is published three times a year,

is $5.00.

Cheques payable please to the

Australian Psychological Association.

Please send all correspondence to:

Dr D.B. Hatchard Bendigo College of Advanced Education PO Box 199 BENDIGO VIC 3550

31

WHY SELF HELP GROUPS WORK . .

by Meg Smith .

Self help groups for people ·who have had a serious episode of mental illness share a number of characteristics. Some of the following points were raised by a number of participants in groups organised by the Depressive and Manic Depressive Association of NSW, the Consumers Health Forum of Austtalia and the Mental Health Coordinating Council of NSW; other points came out of a resean:h study of how people cope with bipolar affective disorder .

. preventing hospitalisflti!Jn Good self help groups can keep people out of acute care in a number of ways; th�se include provi�g education about prodromal symptoms of an episode of illness, encouraging people to seek out appropriate community care, providing emergency counselling and suppon and raising awareness of what steps can be taken to prevent future episodes of illness.

. role modelling Self help groups provide role models for people coming to terms with living and coping with a serious mental illness e.g. meeting people who are back at work, getting on with life. Most people who are admitted to hospital with a major psychotic episode do not see other patients who have recovered and retmned to their usual activities. Shon hospital stays for people with psychotic disorders generally mean that people are discharged as soon as they have recovered from the worst symptoms of their.illness. Hence the only way most people can meet others who have successfully recovered from a mental illness is through a self help group.

. covering gaps in service provision Many psychiatric services provide minimal follow up. Medication for both schizophrenia and manic depressive disorder is often complicated and takes first priority in follow up interviews with

3 2

community mental health services. Many people found community mental health services inadequate:

"I want something � than an hour with my doctor every month. The time is too precious and there is is such a lot usually to discuss about the medication. My family and friends don't really understand and in any case its unfair to keep burdening them with

. my anxieties. I want to talk with other people to find out how they cope and what problems they had they had going back to work" (quote from woman ringing Sydney MD Group)

. isolation of people Acute mental illness has a devastating effect on people's social lives." Long periods in hospital mean a breakdown of social relationships, loss of friends, loss of employment and loss of accommodation. Many people mentioned that they received few if any visitors during hospitalisation in a psychiatric facility. Changes in mood and affect following an episode of serious mental illness can be confusing and alienating to even the closest friends and :relatives.

. independence Suppon groups can enable people to live more independently of professional treatment especially expensive medical treatmenL Contact with other people who understand the effects of serious mental illness can be more normalising than relationships with professional staff.

"my doctor is my closest personal friend - yet I know nothing about him apart from his professional life and he knows absolutely everything about me. But he is the only one who I can talk to about my moodswings - it's a funny :relationship. I would like to be closer but you can't get close to a professional I suppose".

3 3

34

(Comment by participant at Consumers Health Forum workshop 1989.)

People continuing in treatment and in con�t. with a support group need less 1:1me . th1µ1 pC<:Jple not in contact �th a suppon group .

. safety net Support networks can provide quick help and advice if a person's condition begins to deteriorate - particularly. in areas where 24 hour crisis teams are not available or where the main contact is a private doctor. Many people commented that private psychiatrists had been unavailable in a crisis and that they had resorted to ringing self help groups to get emergency help .

. complementarity and otMr Malth care services Referrals of people to apPn>priate health care services, reinforce treatment regimens, give information about benefits of medication and help with side effects. Busy p,ofessionals aren't always able to answer phone calls by clients concerned about side effects that appear some days after the consultation .

. People are more willing to explain; problems can be referred more appropriately:

"I wasn't going to tell the nurse that I was hearing voices again. She'd just get me put back in the hospital. I just want to know if I should take more tablets. I haven't been sleeping the last two nights. Should I take something to get me to sleep?"

. Widespread recognition of the value of self help groups: 50% of people attending Sydney MD groups are referred by professionals; 30% attending other groups are referred by professionals .

• family support . Relatives and friends need suppon too - often not provided by health

carers because they are not the identified patient. Professional staff o�n do not have the time to talk to families on an ongoing basis -particularly after the patient is out of hospital .

. overcoming stigma Both patients and families suffer from the stigma of mental illness. Support groups provide friendship networks of people who understand and share common concerns.

. need for plurality Mental illness is such a large problem that there is a need for many services so that people have a choice and can find something that works for them.

. social skill training There are few places where people can go who are recovering from a severe mental illness. Side effects of medication often make one conspicuous. Meeting new people who don't understand can be difficult. Suppon groups provide a transition for people to return to employment and normal social functioning.

. disability of mental illness Severe illness and medical side effects plus cost of mental illness mean people often don't have cars and can't navel long distances. There is a need for local groups, e.g. a woman rang Sydney MD group. She is Arabic, lives at Lakemba and her husband is very cruel about her illness. She wants to meet other women who have similar experiences. There is no group in her area, no Arabic group specialising in mental illness.

. taking back control of one's life Hospitalisation can be disabling - many people become very passive, take no responsibility for their own health care. Support groups provide impetus to understand the illness, find out about medication and take responsibility for caring for oneself.

3 5

3 6

. multiple disabilities Drug addiction and mental illness ·suppon groups pi:ovide services for people who don't _fit into regular programs, -e.g. Louisa Lawson house has provided support for women who have been rejected by main_stream treatment as not fitting into their program . .

Education

. Support groups have had an impact on community awareness of mental illness e.g. personal development program in schools now includes mental illness as a topic; . People with personal knowledge of mental illness are more aware of gaps in services and treatmenL Health department publications Schizophrenia and Living with Moodswings: Manic Depressive Illness both produced by support groups: (note economy - both written and supplied free to the government at no charge!) . Support groups are fn:e to raise issues in the media - e.g. Chelmsford, · keep a watchdog eye on issues in mental health services; . Support groups keep up with current trends in treatment, not bound by professional conservatism;

. educating government Support groups provide much data which the Government could not obtain e.g. personal accounts, data on incidence of mental illness .

. Education support groups help people with mental disorders to take on responsible and caring role in society e.g. GROW program encourages social responsibility and self managemenL

. social skills With severe mental illness normal processes of socialisation are cut off with the first episode of illness - typically late teens, early twenties. Support groups provide continuity of friendship in small groups.

. educating professionals Non-government organisations perform a valuable role in providing placements and resources to trainee nurse, social welfare, medical and paramedical trainees .

. Timing of entry into self help groups Experience with the Sydney Manic Depressive Groups is that people don't join groups immediately after hospitalisation for a severe manic or depressive episode. Many people were given the phone number and a contact in hospital but some did not make contact until up to two years after the episode.

Typical reasons for making contact were

- recurrence of symptoms after some period of being well; a realisation that the episodes weren't "one off' and that they would recur - wanting to talk about their experience of the disorder with people who would understand and not be ashamed - dissatisfaction with existing information about prognosis and medication - wanting to meet others who had survived episodes of illness - wanting to pass on information they had found out - wanting a forum to conceptualise the disorder; model of illness proposed by doctor often didn't fit with people's own experience - wanting suppon for relatives and friends; either getting some framework to be able to explain it to others or wanting someone for close relatives to talk to.

How prof�ionals can help

- linking: - resources:

referring people on to the self help group providing communication resources such as postage, telephone, photocopier etc. to facilitate suppon groups forming

3 7

3 8

- facilitating:

- being a contact:

References

helping groups form by enabling �pie to get to meetings,. organising venues, suggesting ways · people might get together. . helping people to preserve anonymity initially by being a front contact.

LeVeck, P. Unpublished doctoral dissertation.

Le Veck, P. Personal communication. - .

Manic and Depressive Support Group Newsletter IS Charles Street, l lH New York, New York. .

Y alom, LD. The theory and practice of group psychotheraov. New York, Basic Books, 1975. (p. 393).

Shakir, S.A., Volkmar, F.R., Bacon, S., Pfefferbaum, A. Group psychotherapy as an adjunct to lithium maintenance. American Journal of Psychiatry 136:4A April, 1979.

Ablon, S. Davenport, Y.B., Gershon, E.S. et al. The Mmied manic. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 47:854-856, 1977.

Davenport, Y.B., Ebem, M.H., Adland, M.L. et al. Couple group therapy as an adjunct to lithium maintenance of the manic patient. American Journal of Orthoesychiatry. 47, 495-502, 1977.

Lieberman, M.A. Borman, L.D. and Associates Self Help Groups for cooing with crisis: origins. members. processes and impact. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1979.

Lieberman, M.A. and Borman, L.D. (eds) Self Help Groups -Special Issue. Journal of APPiied Behavioural Science. 1976, 12(3)261-463.

PEARLS OF WISDOM Donald C. Klein

Union Graduate School

When my colleagues at Boston University and I established our training program in Community Psychology in 1964 or 65, we didn't envision a separate subspecialty within psychology. We conceived of CP as an area of inquiry and practice that warranted the attention of any psychologists who might be interested in exploring community phenomena. That included experimentalists, social psychologists, developmentalists, counselling and clinical psychologists, phenomenologists (though at the time we hanlly knew they existed), and educational psychologists. We wanted them to rub elbows with one another and with people from other disciplines - sociology, political science, the law, economics, social ethics, and the like - in a way that would produce a maximum of light and a minimum of heaL

Though in the short run it was an exciting undertaking, in the long run, it proved to be founded on an unrealistic dream. Ultimately, even Boston University closed its academic ranks and abandoned the multidisciplinary ideal in favour of disciplinary compartments. Similarly, our loose and yeasty network of community psychologists became Division 27 and a definable subspecialty emerged at universities throughout the country.

As a change agent, I learned from this to be more modest in my goals, recognising that usually the best one can do is nudge a complex set of social forces in one of the directions it's already going. I also gained a far greater appreciation of the power of enclosing systems to shape the de:velopment of the systems they enclose. Some years later, when the Gestalt therapists admonished us not to push the river, I agreed. It's hanl enough to keep one's head above water even when one is going with the flow.

3 9

4 0

Despite the aggregated efforts of community psychologists, the dynamics of community remain almost as much of a mystery as they were when the enterprise began · in Swampscott. Who can explain how even a geographically defmed municipality works? Jack Glidewell once asked a group of us to consider the magic whereby every day in every city, town, and hamlet in this country food gets distributed to almost everyone at least three times a day, that most people get at least enough food to survive, and we all don't find ourselves buried in the resulting garbage. All of this happens as a result of millions of individual decisions without anyone being in charge. Does anyone truly understand how this happens'? I still fmd this a remarkable feat, especially when I consider how fragile the ecology of food distribution is and what would happen if, for instance, truckers refused to distribute produce to a community's wholesale markets, grocery stores, and restaurants even for a few days.

So we continue the Herculean task of trying to grasp the essential shape and feel of community. Every now and then we seem to be making progress. Sarason's work on "sense of community", the examination of spontaneous social networks that we've borrowed from anthropology, Kelly's ecologic:al orientation, Rappaport's work on empowerment, Wandenman 's work on neighbourhoods all seem to be getting us closer to that essence. And outside of psychology are the students of politics and the applied economists who understand how, in a capitalist system at least, monetary values, the ownership of property, and the land use game all transform the community's landscape.

·

One of CP's greatest challenges is to subordinate its methods of inquiry to the nature and scope of its questions. Unfortunately, our parent discipline of psychology has a well-established, though increasingly contradicted, tradition of doing just the opposite. As David Bakan ( 1967) pointed out twenty years ago, generating what we call knowledge is a matter of being empirical, not experimental. Occasionally and under certain circumstances being empirical

includes being experimental but it's by no means limited to thaL Our so-called observables must include, at the very least, our experience of reality and the meanings we give to that experience, as well as our behaviours.

A journalistic study . has as much possibility of adding to our knowledge of community as does a stratified sample survey; so do an ancestor's diary or the proceedings of a court of law. Sometimes we can manipulate the variables but most often we do well simpiy to be able to observe adequately. Sometimes we must rely on someone else's account of what happened· and sometimes we're able to devise an ingenious simulation that approximates the realities in which we're interested.

One of our greatest burdens as psychologists is our heritage of relying on measuremenL In the community we can measure many behaviours and there's no lack of people who will respond to questions about almost any subjecL There's something satisfying about numbers. In our haste to premature measurement, however, we miss the richness and the texture of community phenomena and, worse, address trivial questions. Doing so, we again and again fail to understand the special magic of community life. Before rushing to set up frequency distributions and T-tests, I hope we'll be increasingly willing to emulate the anthropologists who are content to stay awhile in the cultures they're studying, to hunker down with the locals in order to find out how life looks to them, even to discover from personal experience what it� s like to fill a role in that culture. I suspect that to the extent we do so, we 'II begin to know the magic and, as a result, will be less inclined to get out our psychological tape measures.

Finally, I realise that our self-concepts as individuals are closely tied up with an invesnnent in our various community identifications. Perhaps that's one reason why we stick to superficial measurements and avoid more qualitative and phenomenological approaches that might enable us to penetrate the magic. We may hesitate to confront

4 1

4 2

the full implications of community for our personhood. Like everyone else in the world. we live in the self-created reality of our own experiences, which perforce includes our experience of community. Each of us continues to create, maintain, and enhance that which we call "me" or "self', using as raw materials the temperaments with which we came equipped and the many cues and clues provided by our families and other significant socialising agents in our society. Though we make thousands of tiny daily decisions that determine who we are and how we think about ourselves, we are very inadvertent creators because, with few exceptions, we forget that we created ourselves in the first place and fail to see that we continue that process of self-creation to the day we die. And, speaking of death, lest what I say about the importance of our created selves seems trivial or irrelevant, remember that eveiy day in this world people are killing and dying in order to defend that sense of self-importance, which, in effect, they invented in the first place.

I believe the nature and quality of community life is profoundly influenced by this process of self-creation and the importance that most people attach to defending their self-importance. Imagine a community in which maintaining one's self-importance was no longer such an imperative. How then would political and social concerns be addressed? I believe that there would be a profound difference in the dynamics compared with communities as we know them today. I know from my own experience that giving up self­imponance has meant that I can appieciate the vast ingenuity we human creatures demonstrate as we go about playing what some people call "the game of life". I realise that it's the only game in town and that, like other games, the deepest enjoyment comes from playing the game wi� one's complete attention and devotion. The secret, it there is one, is never to take it seriously. I suspect that some of the most successful political figures and social activists, such as Saul Alinslcy, have understood this -secreL Even as they played to win, they've appreciated those opponents who have given them a good run for their money.

So I invite you and other inheritors of the community psychology mantle to play the game to the utmost without ever taking it seriously. I guarantee you '11 enjoy it, whether or not you succeed in penetrating the mysteries of community.

Reference

Bakan, David (1967) On Merhod: Toward a Reconsrruclion of Psychological I nvesligarion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Corrections to Jenni Rice's artide in NETWORK Vol S (2) December' 1989. Please paste the tables given below over Figure 3 (p. 31) and Figure 4 (p. 35) of the above edition.

Figure 3 USSR USSR correction (P. 31) disarms anns

USA disarms 1,2 4,1

USA disarms 2.4 3,3

Figure 4 USSR USSR ...vAl�tion (P. 35) disarms anns

USA disarms 1,1 4,2

USA disarms 2.4 3,3

4 J

The Economics of Poverty and Marginality: Some Reftections

June F. Chisholm · Pace University

The economics of pov� and marginality was never directly addressed in my training to become a psychologist with a community orientation. In the late sixties and early seventies� poverty and marginality seemed more clearly and immediately unders�ood in the struggle for civil rights by Afro-Americans - whose group status was and is still considered marginal - and also in the fight by . the women's movement to end discrimination based on gender.

Other interest groups then also emerged to redress policies and practices they deemed as unjusL Practitioners of the community mental health model and the social action model within the community psychology perspective sought competency-based training programs, social advocacy, and grassroots community developments as viable solutions to remedy social injustice. In retrospect, the conditions of the poor, ethnic minorities, women and other groups did provide ample opponunity for community psychology to explore the relationship of economics to poverty and marginality; but this was not adequately done.

Explanations for the continued poverty status of many Afro­Americans living in impoverished neighbourhoods have stressed the pervasive effects of racism and discriminatory practices which create external as well as internalised obstacles to equal opportunity. The bleak economic situation for many Afro-Americans and our communities is commonly viewed as an outcome of multiple deleterious condition (e.g., crime, unemployment, drugs). These conditions � have impact. However, focusing exclusively on these social conditions precludes exploration into ·the dynamic economic principles which perpetuate poverty and marginality in the first place.

4 4

For example, having worked in a municipal hospital located in a predominantly Afro-American and Hispanic community, I have observed a gradual, insidious decline in the quality of patient care. Similar observations have been made by the Society of Urban Physicians, a group of 60 senior physicians including municipal hospital department heads and chiefs of service. According to The New York Timl!s (December 6, 1988), this group asserts that New York City's municipal hospital system, which services mainly the poor, is in danger of collapse because of lack of financial support from the city administration. Here, the economics of poverty and marginality have negatively affected hospital operations and health care. The weakest in a society are the first to suffer, and suffer most deeply, when the political climate generates economic policies based on the profit motive, benefiting a select few.

Consider also the city-owned abandoned brownstones across the street from the hospital where I work. They were just recently sandblasted clean; now they are crack houses, fully operational and seemingly thriving. Economic principles are clearly at work here again. What is missing is a heuristic promoting the application of these principles for the well being of the people. The lesson to be learned from the struggle of Afro-Americans, and from the poverty conditions many endure, is that undeveloped human potential leads to internal spiritual decay, to an eventual retreat from highly valued standards of living and to a morally corrupt social order.

Finally, the past eight years of Reaganomics, characterised by laissez faire government and non-interference with corporate industries, offers yet another opportunity to appreciate how economics impacts on poverty and marginality. It appears paradoxical that what is purportedly good for the economy and corporate America seems bad for so many people most of the time. The average American has lost faith upon witnessing the financial antics of corporate leaders, some of whom unscrupulously take advantage of loopholes in rules and regulations, reaping prosperity for an already wealthy fe�. What is worse is that the prosperity obtained by those few is ultimately at

� 5·

4 6

other people's expense. Billion-dollar buyouts are profitable largely because of tax benefits-derived from borrowing huge sums of money. The average American, through tax dollars, foots the bill.

What the civil rights struggle, the women's movement, and other collective efforts from the late sixties on have taught us is that poverty and marginality as ways of life have spread to other segments of society because we fail to see that an economical system based solely on the profit motive will in time, devalue the society's most prized resource - all of its people. As Saul Alinsky said, "People living . under a selfish system become adjusted to it in order to survive. They therefore naturally acquire a personal selfishness and just as naturally assume the same selfishness exists in all others .... " (Alinsky, 1969, p. 92).

'·

In sum, poverty and marginality as ways of life are spreading in our soc.iety because they are by-products of a dynamic, albeit entopic process in which economic principles � misapplied, resting upon the human foibles of greed and self-interest, without regard for the well-being of others. Accordingly, psychologists providing services in mental health and to the community need to recognise the inseparability of economics from the conditions of poverty and marginality. Insofar as they are inseparable, this relationship needs to be addressed in the training of clinical community psychologists who will have to be in the vanguard of community reorganisation, especially at the neighbourhood and local community levels.

Reference

Alinsky, S. (1969). Reveille for radicals, New York: Vintage.

Abstract

TRAGINOLOGY Phillip J. Runkel

Univenily of Oregon

This chapter from a larger worlc recounts the promising but all-too­brief development of the science of Traginology. After reaching a pinnacle with the research of the "stoppers", the science succumbed to commen:ial interest.

Traginology

Toward the end of the pre-modern period, the scientific field known as Traginology* emerged. The traginologists studied the behaviour of trains, especially their motivation. What made trains go? That was their passionate question.

Trains ran, stopped, stood still a while and started off again. What caused action on the part of trains? The traginologists examined multitudes of events in the environments of trains, hunting for the answer. In the early period of the science, many absurd hypotheses were seriously considered such as time of day, weather, and point of the compass toward which the train was facing. Gradually, however, more and more traginologists became persuaded that people must be important causal events in the lives of trains.

It was J.J. Whistleblurt, now known as the "father of traginology," who first demonstrated the very high correlation between the entrance of �pie into trains and the trains' subsequent surge into motion. Following a carefully random time-sampling, Whistleblurt spent years studying the behaviour of trains in the marshalling yards at Hackensack, New Jersey. Poring over his data, Whistleblurt

* From the Vulgar Latin traginare, a variant of the Latin Trahere, +ology.

4 7

discovered a pattern that was far too regular to have occwred by chance. In almost every instance that people entered into a train, it would start moving within a very few minutes, sometimes even within seconds. There were a few exceptions, as one would expect in a new science, but the overall pattern was undeniable. Furthermore, he found not a single instance in which a train started off without at least ·one person having entered it shonly before.

Whistleblun also thought he discerned a pattern in his data concerning the number of people entering a train and its subsequent behaviour. His thorough notes revealed that in most instances when only a single person entered a train, the train would move· off, but then stop again within the yards at Hackensack. As· is clear from his journals, Whisdeblwt was excited by the possibility that the number of people entering a train determined the distance it would travel Unfortunately, his data were incomplete; after a train with only one person in it would go out of his sight behind a cluster of other trains or a rise in the terrain, and Whistleblun was unable to ascertain whether it stopped before leaving the yards. He ran valiantly after the first few, but soon discovered that he was then missing observ­ations of the start-ups of other trains. As all researchers must, Whistleblun had to make a choice between following one hypothesis or another. Wisely, he left the question of the effect of number of people to other researchers.

So was inaugurated the golden age of Traginology.

There were, of course, some who resisted the new theory, despite the persuasiveness of the data. Immediately upon publication of Whistleblun's ground-breaking book, several traginologists were quick to point out that although his time-sampling at Hackensack was carried out with admirable rigor, it was badly biased geographically. ''How do we know," they asked, "whether trains behave that way in Peoria or Laramie'?" As everyone now knows, Whistleblmt's students quickly dispensed of that criticism by replicating his study, with impressively similar results, in a variety of cities throughout the country.

4 8

There were some, too, who went on insisting that it was something about the trains themselves that made them go, not something outside them. One of the earliest abenant theories of this son was advanced by A.M. Coupling, who claimed that traginologists should study the structure of trains. In a soon forgotten paper, he pointed out that trains were made up of units, and that the units were connected in a way that enabled one to pull another. One unit moved, he claimed, because the unit ahead of it was pulling it, and if that logic broke down at the forward end of the train, where there was no unit ahead of the f�ard-most unit to pull iL

One of Coupling's students, P. S. Towager, went so far as to claim that the outward appearance of parts of a train might be associated with· its motion. He asserted that most trains contained units that could be distinguished from one another with the naked eye. · He claimed that many trains included a specially distinctive unit that he dubbed the "puller." In a study noteworthy for its use of unobtrusive data-collection, Towager conducted a study from a front window of his house, which faced upon a busy railway line. He ·reported that not a single train passed by without a puller, and that the puller was always the forward-most uniL

Most traginologists, devoted to a basic science that sought underlying causes and not a catalogue of appearances, ignored Towager's article. A couple of brief commentaries were published, however, pointing out that observations in other places showed that specially distinctive units were not always found at the forward ends of trains, that some trains with such units spent long periods completely motionless, and - the clinching point - that Towager had mentioned nothing about such units that could be correlated with starting, stopping, running or standing inen.

For a while, too, the offshoot "inside school" of traginologists flourished. They claimed that it was something inside trains that made them go, not something outside such as people. These traginologists spent a great deal of time clambering about in tniins,

4 9

50

opening doors, lifting lids and caps, �ing knobs, and so· on. They assumed, apparently, that they could reconstruct the behaviour of the whole train by amassing data on the motions of all its myriad parts, large and small ..

While following up Whistleblurt's attempt to explain the distances trains travelled once they got going, one member of the inside school, P.T. Olefin, noted that sometimes people would pour oil into the forward units of trains. He carried out a study of trains in St Louis and found a moderate correlation between the level of oil in the tank and the distance the train was scheduled to go. He also reponed that trains were never scheduled to leave the marshalling yards if the amount of oil in the tank was less than a certain number of gallons.

Critics were quick, however to point out the flaws in Olefin's study. First, almost all the trains he studied were those on or near the main lines in and out of town, not those farther off in the marshalling yard. Second, he did not actually observe how far the trains went, but merely took their scheduled trips as a surrogate measure. Thin1, his argument about a minimum level of oil was faulty. Since he had never observed a train to leave the station on the main line with a level of oil below the minimum he had postulated, he had no data on how far a train might go if it did go off with a level of oil below his postulated minimum. Fourth, a correlation does not prove causality. Finally and crucially, he failed to report whether people entered the trains before they started off, and therefore his research had no bearing on Whistleblurt's theory.

Though many competing theories fell by the waysi�, it was nevertheless clear, perhaps especially to Whistleblurt's followers, that his theory needed further work. The question of numbers of people continued to attract researchers. Was the entry of one person sufficient to set off a train to any distance whatever? That question was never settled to· everyone's satisfaction, and now unfortunately, it never will be.

Perhaps still somewhat influenced by the inside school, . some traginologists asked whether the entry, itself, of people into the train was sufficient to cause the train to move, or whether the cause was something the people did after they got on the train. Some early studies reported high correlations between sitting behaviour and the start-up of the train, but the hypothesis was discarded when several later studies showed little or no correlation on commuter trips, where the trains started up while many people were standing and continued running even though some people remained standing during the whole trip.

Perhaps the most promising line of work was that pursued by the "stoppers". They pointed out that Whistleblurt had investigated what made trains stan but had not gone on to investigate what made them stop. If people entering trains made them start, the stoppers reasoned, then people leaving trains ought to make them stop. That hypothesis attracted many followers when the first studies showed that large proportions of people, sometimes all of them, left trains within a very few minutes after the trains stopped. The hypothesis was greatly strengthened when it was discovered that very few people, often none at all, left trains while they were in motion.

The enthusiasm of the stoppers was temporarily dampened by R.B. Firstling, who argued that causes should come before effects. We could claim that people leaving trains caused them to stop, Firstling said, only if we were to observe people leaving trains just before they stopped. For a time, the entire structure of Whistleblurt's theory came under a cloud. So great was the dismay in some places, that a few universities precipitously abolished their departments of Traginology.

In tradition of true scientists, however, some traginologists doggedly continued their research. Within only a couple of years, two lines of investigation brought renewed vigour to the field. First, very careful and detailed observation of the behaviour of trains revealed that in almost every instance of trains stopping, one or a few persons

51

5 2

swung to the ground, indeed just before the actual stopping behaviour brought most, if not all ttaginologists, back into active resean:h.

Second, the philosophical point was made that the logic of ttains need not mirror the logic of humans. That point of view weakened considerably Firstling's methodological objection. Several traginologists turned to the philosophers of science for further help in their perplexities. The= is no telling where that line of work would have led had not the final tragedy befallen our science only a few years later.

The breakthrough came when W. W. Slackening exposed the false assumption being lwboured by the critics of the stopping studies. Slackening followed fifty randomly-chosen trains and measun:d their velocity every five minutes. We reported that 93 percent of the trains exhibited one or IDOm periods of slowing that were not followed by stopping, but by increased velocity. It was clear from Slackening's student that slowing was not necessarily a pan of the process of stopping; it could be serving some other function. With that development, the science of Traginology looked towud a bright future.

.

Then, as we all know to our sorrow, the availability of subjects for research dropped. over a very few years, to a tiny fraction of the earlier plenitude. Automobiles, buses, and aeroplanes diverted people from trains in vast numbers. Passenger trains became so few that traginologists could not fill the cells of their analyses with enough cases to justify statistical inference. Some traginologists advocated an organised series of case studies of the remaining trains, but most bent reluctantly to the realisa•ion that there was no hope of building a true science on case studies, no matter how thoroughly articulated they might be, and left traginology for more fruitful fields of work. Today, a few lonely but devoted traginologists can be found pouring over old data, but in a few years, they too, will be gone.

So ends our chronicle of a bittersweet chapter in the history of science - the rise of ttaginology to vigour and promise and its sudden sad demise - demise, we cannot refrain from pointing out, at the heedless hand of automobile manufacturers, bus companies and airlines.

• • • • •

SJ

Advenisements are available for this Newsletter. Contact should be made with the Editor prior to placing an advenisement, so that required details are noted. The advenisement should be typed and accompanied by a cheque payable to the Board of Community Psychologists.

Current rates are as follows:

Full page Half page Quarter page Per line for Classified Advertisement

$40.00 $20.00 $10.00 $1.00

The publications of an advertisement by NETWORK is not an endorsement of the advertiser nor of the products, services and the like advertised. NE1WORK. reserves the right to cancel or reject advertising which it judges is not in keeping with the scientific and/or professional aims of A.P.S. in general and the Board of Community Psychologists in particular.

Network is published quarterly (April, August and December). Contributors should submit their manuscripts to the Editor no later than one month prior to the publication date. Manuscripts should be typed or submitted on a computer disk using WordPerfect (5.0) or Macwrite. The format to be used is the general style described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (3rd ed., 1983), except that spelling should conform to the Shorter Oxford Dictionarv. Please send all correspondence to:

Dr D.B. Hatchard Bendigo College of Advanced F.ducation PO Box 199 BENDIGO VIC 3550