Community Psychology: a contribution to the history of the present

A strong case can be, and has been, made that Marienthal (1933), a protracted collaborative investigation of a community blighted by mass unemployment, was the first major community psychological investigation. Marie Jahoda was a prime mover of the investigation and author of the original text of Marienthal and was later responsible for the still dominant, and arguably critically problematic, explanation, which owed much to the work of Freud and Marx, of what it is about unemployment which is responsible for its widely reported psychologically destructive consequences. But what was the dispositive, in Foucault’s sense (“the various institutional, physical and administrative mechanisms and knowledge structures, which enhance and maintain the exercise of power within the social body”) which constituted the ‘community psychology’ approach associated with Marienthal in the early 1930s in Austria and what were the specific structures for which Marie Jahoda was a discursive ‘conduit’? This proposed Ignite presentation will introduce the audience to critical historical research underway for a monograph intended to excavate the diverse origins of Marienthal and the wider contributions of Marie Jahoda. It is based on systematic review and a 20-year unpublished correspondence with Marie Jahoda, unpublished papers by Marie Jahoda herself, archival and historical research.

Illness Matrix: mutual deconstruction of community health reality

Community health profile solely based on healthcare data fails to provide a true picture of the health reality of the community. There exists the need of a more qualitative engagement with the community to identify its own perception of health and the social determinants effecting it; both of which help to make the profile more valid.
Illness Matrix (IM) is a tool developed by Community Engagement Centre (CEC) at Global Health Directorate (GHD) that helps to reveal community’s perceptions of its health dynamics. The tool helps the community health workers to conduct discussions on the community’s commonly found illnesses and their perceived distribution within adults, elderly and children. The tool further uncovers the perceived causes of the named illnesses which help identify the social determinants of those ailments and health literacy levels. IM also reveals the treatment seeking behaviour of the community which assists the CEC in understanding the beliefs regarding the illness, home-remedies and preference for different treatment options in case of different ailments.
IM has thus allowed CEC to maintain a database of first-hand community health information that can assist GHD in devising more inclusive public health interventions and address the gaps in access to resources and services.

The role culture plays in contributing to sporting team success.

Culture within sports team is a factor of interest within both psychology and human development due to the influence of culture upon individual behaviour performance. The way sportspeople interact and work together to achieve a specific outcome has been associated to the culture of a team’s environment. The research in this area highlights the importance of developing collective values and beliefs, which shape and or influence each member’s behaviours. This becomes significant within an organisational context as the attitudes of the team can encourage positive behaviours leading to greater productivity or performance. This presentation will reflect upon some preliminary findings from my Honours Dissertation which explored the role of culture within sporting team success. My research is qualitative based, drawing upon a kaupapa Maori research paradigm, and employed narrative interviews with coaches of sporting teams. Anticipated benefits of my research for psychology includes how culture contributes to behaviour, and sporting team success. Applications of this research in a real world context could provide organisations with a framework for building a team culture that allows players and teams to flourish.

Inclusivity and neurodiversity: What role can researchers play?

I share my experience researching how Australian adults change their identity when they consider questions like ‘Am I Autistic?’ or ‘Am I on the autism spectrum?’ In particular, I explore how we as researchers can challenge marginalisation within the context of neurodiversity. I examine how the research design choices we make can either challenge or perpetuate marginalisation. Choices such as the topics we choose to research, the way we define our research population, the language we use in recruitment, and the interview formats we choose can all have an impact. I discuss how, as a researcher, being conscious of my choices and being open to ambiguity throughout the research process has been a challenging but important process.

Yoga reduces stress in people with depression and anxiety symptoms

Introduction/Background
Stress related disorders such as depression and anxiety are leading sources of disability worldwide, and current treatment methods such as conventional antidepressant medications are not beneficial for all individuals. There is evidence that yoga has mood-enhancing properties possibly related to its inhibitory effects on physiological stress and inflammation, which are frequently associated with affective disorders. However, the biological mechanisms via which yoga exerts its therapeutic mood-modulating effects are largely unknown.
Methods/Materials
This systematic review investigates the effects of yoga on sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis regulation measures. It focuses on studies collecting physiological parameters such as blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol, peripheral cytokine expression and/ or structural and functional brain measures in regions involved in stress and mood regulation.
Discussion
Overall, the 25 randomised control studies discussed provide evidence to suggest that yoga practice leads to better regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system, as well as a decrease in depressive and anxious symptoms in a range of populations.
Conclusion
Yoga is an effective lifestyle intervention that can support mental health in community and clinical practice and in the social context of everyday life.

Use sandplay-narrative therapy help the community correction personnel

In the past, the government pays more attention to focuses on helping them materially, but often ignores the psychological assistance to them.
The staff lack of professional skills to help them deal with the emotional disturbance such as the anxiety, depression, fear and so on, let alone guide them to adapt and return to the society. Recently, the government introduces third parties to provide professional community services through purchasing services. It provides an opportunity for the correction personnel to re-establish themselves and start a new life by the professional counselors.

Through the use of sandplay-narrative therapy, help the community correction personnel achieve the breakthrough ,reconnect with themselves and start a new life.

Choose 10(male 4,female 6) correction personnel ages between 18-35, through combine sandplay with narrative therapy ,participant observation,se-mi interviews and questionnaire(GWB,CSQ) , collect and analysis the data and sandplay works.

Sandplgy-narrative therapy has a positive effect on correction personnel.It not only eliminate their resistance and defense,changed the correction personnel’s coping styles from immature to mature,but also improved their subjective happiness,regardless of their age and gender, they are able to transfer the beauty from the sandbox to the real life.

The data indicate a lasting positive impact on the correction personnel’s inner world through sandplgy-narrative therapy.All the cases confirmed that sandplgy-narrative therapy can reconstruct their inner world and sense of self,to modify their recognitions, help them face up to and accept their past,enjoy the moment and start again.

Keywords:
sandplay-narrative therapy, community correction personnel,positive impact

The role of neighborhood policing in race-based differences in juvenile recidivism

Youth of color are disproportionately represented at every stage of the juvenile justice system in the United States (Piquero, 2008). Data collected over a 13-year period from a mid-sized Midwestern city indicates that correctionally-involved Black and Multiracial youth are more likely to recidivate relative to White youth, even when controlling for proximal criminogenic characteristics. Evidence indicates that over-policing in neighborhoods of color is partially responsible for this pattern (Kahn & Martin, 2016). The present study evaluates the extent that neighborhood policing contributes to race-based differences in recidivism rates among youth in the justice system. Using multilevel modeling, analyses draw upon recidivism data from a sample of 1,395 youth after their first arrest who are nested within the boundaries of their neighborhood. Neighborhood policing is captured by arrests per square mile within designated policing zones. We hypothesize: (1) Given racial discrimination in policing, correctionally-involved youth of color will reside in neighborhoods with higher density of arrests; and (2) Youth who reside in neighborhoods with higher density of arrests will be more likely to recidivate, due to greater police surveillance. Results have practical implications towards localizing patterns of race-based discrimination within the juvenile justice system.