COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY

CONCEPTS OF COMMUNITY
PSYCHOLOGY IN INDIAN CONTEXT
 COMMUNITY & MENTAL HEALTH
 B=f (P, E): It states that an individual's behaviour (B) is a
function (f) of the the person (P), including their history,
personality and motivation, and their environment (E),
which includes both their physical and social
surroundings.

 Effectiveness of community based interventions over

traditional medical model.
 SOCIAL CHANGE & DEVELOPMENT

 Economic perspective of development ; top down

approach
 Need to focus on human factors in social change;

 Involving psychologist; use of bottom up approach

 SOCIAL ENERGY
 Collective behaviour and social action is driven by social
energy
 It encompasses:
i. Extreme social deficit
ii. Outcome efficacy/belief that problems could be
solved
iii. Social efficacy/ social group to take initiative
 In Indian context, social action is more oriented
towards traditional actions. It needs to be redirected in
certain issues.
 SOCIAL SYSTEM
 Need to understand various institutions that stabilizes
the society.

 The social system affects the values and motivation of

individuals living in it.

 It provides the reinforcing mechanism and expected

patterns for individual’s behaviour.
USE OF SMALL GROUPS IN SOCIAL
ACTION
 Generation of social energy: identification of problems
& solutions; collective action & expectancy for change
 Advantages of group decision making: decisions are
taken by group members; individual responsibility for
implementation of decisions
 Role of group norms: change norms to bring social
action; norms then can spread to larger groups/society
 Increase in extension motivation: cooperation (not
dependency) towards fulfillment of common goals
GROUP DECISION MAKING
 Individuals collectively make a choice from the
alternatives before them; Collaborative decision making
 Group polarization: group tend to make decisions that
are more extreme than those of its individual members
 Groupthink: desire for conformity in group results in
dysfunctional decision making
 Social Identity Approach: collective decision making is
a part of rational psychological processes grounded in
social reality experienced by group members & have
positive impact on society
DECISION MAKING IN SOCIAL
SETTINGS
 Participation: Gathering & involvement
 Influence: 4 styles- Autocratic; Peacemaker; Laissez
Faire; Democratic

 Social influence: Psychological manipulation; Power &

control; Compliance; Identification; Internalization
 Group Feelings & Atmosphere

 Group Membership: Degree of acceptance and inclusion

LEADERSHIP FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
 Ability to influence others to reach towards the common
identified goals
 They help to identify the social energy

 Generate the collective action for social change

 Gives direction to social energy towards social change

 Use of influences: Compliance; Identification;

Internalization, Psychological manipulation; Power &
control
TYPES OF LEADERS AFFECTING
COMMUNITY:
 Officials/Bureaucrats: appointed by authority; use
compliance; use top-down approach
 Traditional leaders: respected by tradition; use
compliance & internalization; part of community; use
bottom-up approach
 Charismatic leaders: personality & interpersonal skills;
influence by identification & internalization; mobilizes
masses for social change
 Nurturant task leaders: set definite tasks & focus on
relationships
EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL
CHANGE
 Channeling of social energy: collective actions needs direction
 Role of leaders

 Changing the motivational pattern: increasing the extension

motivation (cooperation) than dependency in social system
 Use of small groups

 Institutional support: funding; policy making &

implementation; try for bottom up approach
 Role of women

 Role of education: sensitization & awareness

 Role of mass media: tool for communicating important

information
 Innovative methods of awareness generation: social media use;
campaigns; street plays, etc.