What is Community Psychology?

Community psychology emerged in Brazil in the mid-1960s, seeking to de-elite the profession, on the one hand, and on the other, seeking to improve the living conditions of the working population, through the use of psychology theories and methods in low-income communities. income.

Community psychology works start from a survey of the needs and shortcomings experienced by the client group, especially with regard to health conditions, education and basic sanitation.

To this end, efforts are made to work with popular groups so that they progressively assume their role as subjects of their own history, aware of the political and social determinants of their situation and active in the search for solutions to the problems faced. The main objective, therefore, is the transformation of the individual into a subject.

The psychologist acts in this sense as an analyst-facilitatorwho as a professional who takes the initiative to solve community problems.

According to Nisbet (1974), “community encompasses all forms of relationship characterized by a degree of personal intimacy, emotional depth, moral engagement and continued over time”.

It finds its foundation in man seen in his totality and not in this or that role he may play in the social order. Its psychological strength derives from a deep motivation and is realized in the fusion of individual wills, which would be impossible in a union based on mere coexistence or elements of rationality.

Community is the fusion of feeling and thought, tradition and intentional connection, participation and volition. And Sawaia adds: “The element that gives it life and movement is the dialectic of individuality and collectivity.

The perspective of community psychology emphasizes that, in theoretical terms, knowledge is produced in the interaction between the professional and the research subjects, and in terms of methodology, mainly participant-research, action-research and institutional analysis are used. .

According to William César Castilho, “the methodology of community work is valid as it promotes the construction of knowledge on the part of organically committed intellectuals, in which the proposal of community work intends to promote self-management procedures to individuals, developing a sense of citizenship in this process . This planning plays a fundamental role in raising awareness that helps groups and individuals to identify the historical and social characteristics of their problems and to create strategies for a collective solution.”

In this way, this type of work goes beyond academic and scientific knowledge, popular knowledge gains strength and becomes a fundamental piece for the elaboration of a theory of everyday experiences.

Action research, according to Nasciutti, “is essentially defined by the link between knowing and doing. It starts from an interdisciplinary epistemological perspective, which therefore includes different academic knowledge, in addition to the relationship between scientific knowledge and popular knowledge (…) implying, as a consequence, the collective re-elaboration of aspirations and psychosocial values, community participation and organized action.”

Action research aims at gaining knowledge through research and transformation through action.🇧🇷 The researcher implicated by his technical-professional position plans, elaborates hypotheses, researches psychosocial objects and analyzes results from a social position that cannot be indifferent to him.

There is no definitive delimitation of the research techniques, since the real situations will be decisive for the choices of these techniques. Even so, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, free and/or systematic observation, ethnomethodology, documentary and historical content analysis, discourse analysis, operative groups and group dynamics can be mentioned.

The methodology of “life stories”, derived from the social sciences, has also proved to be very important in community social psychology researchsince it allows the apprehension of the interaction between individual life and social living.

Institutional analysis is a method of community psychology, as well as action research, which proposes to elucidate the legal, psychosocial, political and desiring relationships that are maintained with the instituted norms, and the way in which individuals agree or disagree. with these standards.

Therefore, there is a fundamental distinction between the field of analysis and the field of intervention. The first, broader, consists of the conceptual, theoretical space about a particular study, aiming to understand or understand it.

The field of intervention, on the other hand, presupposes a space for analysis, which leads to the understanding of data on a given group, so that technical action can be taken.

Some fundamental steps can be cited in an institutional intervention:

– Analysis of the production of the demand or referral: It aims to elucidate the reasons that motivated the formulation of the request by the leaders or those responsible for the community.

– Analysis of implicit demand: There is great diversity and contradictions between the demands of a population, as each individual has individual demands. Therefore, it is essential to listen to the group of leaders.

– Analysis of the implication: It consists of the analysis of the commitment by the analyst himself, it is the ethical and political commitment of the professional in this operation.

– Survey of Analyzers: It is the survey of the material elements that can be analyzed to facilitate the explanation of conflicts and their resolution.

– Provisional diagnosis: These are the first hypothetical understandings, a preliminary configuration of the institution.

– Provisional Diagnosis Policy, Strategy, Tactics and Technique: Consists of planning, based on the provisional diagnosis, these elements to start the intervention.

– Definitive Diagnosis- Intervention Planning: It requires the analyst, having already made a definitive diagnosis, to be clear about the main points of the institution to trigger the process of self-analysis and self-management of the collective.

– Execution of the intervention: The collective at this moment becomes a permanent assembly of self-analysis with the objective of exercising self-management.

– Prognosis- Evaluation and periodic intervention proposals: A prognosis is drawn up by the analyst Segundo Nasciutti, and a possible periodic or permanent intervention will be outlined by the collective itself.

Bibliographic references

AFONSO, L. Workshops in group dynamics: a psychosocial intervention method. (org.) Belo Horizonte: Edições do Campo Social. 2000.

CAMPOS, R. (org.) Community social psychology: from solidarity to autonomy. Petrópolis: Editora Vozes, 1996.

CROCHIK, J. Prejudice: individual and culture. São Paulo: Robe Editorial, 1995.

PICHON-RIVIÈRE, E. The group process. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1988.

THIOLLENT, M. Action research methodology. São Paulo: Cortez, 1988.

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