COMMUNITY AND HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY | ASSIGNMENT 1 | | |

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Outline of community psychology and public health approaches. 2 2. Similarities and strengths of (CP) and (PH) 3 3. Differences and weaknesses of (CP) and (PH) 4 4. Conclusions 4

Critically compare and contrast the Community Psychology and Public Health approaches to social problems.

OUTLINE OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH

The identification of the limitations of mainstream, curative individual therapy (Seedat, Cloete & Shochet, 2002: p. 221) and recognising the need for further community development, social policy and planning; many South African psychologists just as the Americans did in 1960 turned to Community Psychology (CP) during the eighties, to help relieve the sense of powerlessness and anxiety experienced during the political upheaval (Tutorial Letter 102, 2009: p. 5). CP was acknowledged as a separate discipline in 1965 in Swampscott Massachusetts, with its initial focus on social and cultural influences on mental health. It has since then expanded to explore ecological issues that go beyond the individual level. CP investigates the importance of diversity, questions one-dimensional measures of health and validates psychologists as instruments for social change (http://www.answers.com/topic/community-psychology). CP has four models, of which only two, namely Mental Health and Social Action will be of concern in this essay as they to represent the opposing views of CP (Seedat et al, 2002: p. 219).

The Public Health (PH) approach developed out of a need in the rapid growing field as an alternative to the Western Bio-Medical Model used in Clinical Medicine, which focus is on illness, treatment and recovery (http://www.answers.com/topic/community-psychology). The Bio-Medical Model was found to be inadequate as