Empowerment in mainstream psychology: Legitimacy, obstacles, and possibilities.

Argues that if the concept of empowerment is to expand beyond the field of community psychology into more traditional areas of psychology (e.g., social, personality, clinical, and school psychology), its moral and psychological foundations should be more clearly articulated. To advance this proposition, an integrative conceptual model of empowerment is presented. Within this framework, ethical and therapeutic legitimacy of empowering practices, obstacles for their inclusion in mainstream psychology, and possibilities for their future development are explored. Some of the benefits to be derived from the adoption of the concept of empowerment in academic and applied psychology are outlined. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Values, assumptions, and practices: Assessing the moral implications of psychological discourse and action.

Despite an increased awareness concerning the role of values in psychology, psychologists lack clear guidelines to appraise the moral implications of their work. To address this discrepancy, the author proposes a framework for examining the moral dimensions of psychological discourse and practice. The framework contains 3 central elements: values, assumptions, and practices. These components may be used to articulate and to challenge the ethical, social, and political implications of theories and practices. To illustrate its applicability, the framework is used to evaluate the moral propositions of traditional, empowering, postmodern, and emancipatory communitarian approaches. The author concludes with a vision for addressing the shortcomings of predominant models by proposing for psychology an emancipatory communitarian approach that promotes the emancipation of vulnerable individuals and that fosters a balance among the values of self-determination, caring and compassion, collaboration and democratic participation, human diversity, and distributive justice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhancing the social ethics of psychology: Toward a psychology at the service of social change.

Presents a proposal for furthering the social ethics of psychology under the general term conscientization (P. Freire, 1971), which entails carrying out 2 tasks, denunciation and annunciation. It is argued that in contrast to its considerable efforts to insure proper ethical behavior toward individual clients, psychology has virtually neglected its moral obligations to society. Psychology can contribute to the advent of social change toward a "good" society by making explicit the process by which people come to accept the current social order as the best possible one, and by proposing strategies to counteract this pervasive phenomenon. This article illustrates how psychological research and psychologists can significantly transform social structures incapable of promoting human welfare. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The prevention of mental health problems in Canada: A survey of provincial policies, structures, and programs.

The purpose of this research was to obtain a profile of the state of prevention in mental health in Canada. In all the provinces and territories, we obtained information from the departments of children's mental health, adult mental health, and health promotion regarding administrative supports, personnel, policies, budgets, inter-ministerial collaboration, training, and programs allocated for prevention. The findings indicate that the rhetoric of prevention is present in many government policy documents and there are many interesting prevention projects that have been implemented. However, there has not been a reallocation of funding in the health field from treatment and rehabilitation services to prevention programs, and funding for prevention remains at a very low level. Recommendations to improve the state of prevention are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Values and assumptions about values and assumptions.

Responds to comments by I. A. M. Nicholson, E. H. McWhirter, D. R. Ramm, and R. N. Sollod (see records 1998-00122-009, 1998-00122-010, 1998-00122-011, and 1998-00122-012) regarding I. Prilleltensky's (see record 1997-04451-002) article on the moral implications of psychological discourse and action. It is stated that these 4 authors, by commenting in a respectful fashion, show that they share the value of mutual understanding and the assumption that the best way to make progress in a discussion is through dialogue rather than moral exclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the moral imperative.

Examines the moral obligations of psychology. An inquiry into the main priorities of academic and professional psychology suggests that contributions to human welfare, its preeminent moral obligation, comes in third after guild issues and professional self-interest, and the pursuit of knowledge. In an effort to reassign moral philosophy a place of prominence and to broaden the ethical discourse of psychology, the authors use the term "moral imperative" (MI). The promotion of the MI entails the exploration of 3 fundamental questions. These concern the extent that the present social order promotes human welfare for everyone, the extent that psychology supports or challenges the present social order, and the contributions that psychology can make to the advent of the "good" society. The MI advances 4 human agency values: self-determination, distributive justice, collaborative and democratic participation, and relationality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the status quo.

There is little doubt that psychology has left its imprint on 20th century society. There should also be little doubt that socioeconomic, cultural, and political trends have shaped the methods and content of the discipline to a large extent. However, an alleged immunity to ideological influences within the profession has obstructed an in-depth examination of the interaction between social forces and psychology. The penetration of the prevalent ideology in the realm of psychological knowledge often results not only in an uncritical acceptance of the status quo but also in an active endorsement of it. Desiderata for a psychology at the service of social change are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)