Community Psychology

Code:

P604

Acronym:

PC

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Psychology

Instance: 2009/2010 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master Psychology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIPSI	119	Official Curricular Structure 2007/2008	3	-	4	36	108

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

It is its main goal to promote the construction of conceptual frameworks in the field of preventive, social and community psychological intervention, analyzing and questioning, in a critical and criterious manner, current strategies of intervention in personal and contextual systems, as well as methodologies of intervention in this area.
Specifically this subject aims promoting in students:

- A conception of psychological intervention as psychological professional practice involving a diversity of goals, targets and strategies, as well as the construction of a wider and more differentiated professional identity, capable of recognizing the multiplicity of intervention modalities available to one’s occupational performance;

- The mastering of the processes of elaboration, implementation and assessment of community psychological intervention projects, recognizing their importance for the design, legitimacy and efficacy of those projects;

- The ability to thoroughly characterize and examine current strategies of intervention in personal and contextual systems, while taking into consideration its goals, processes of change and differential effectiveness;

- The ability to put into perspective the usefulness and applicability of such strategies in relation to a variety of problems, populations and intervention contexts, typical of the professional exercise of Psychology, namely the ones included in the various optional areas of the 2nd Cycle of the Integrated Masters in Psychology;

- The ability of reading, presenting and debating research on psychological intervention.

Program

PART I: Introduction
1st Chapter: Developmental, constructivist and ecological model of community, social and preventive psychological counselling and historical contextualization of the foundings of community psychology.

2nd Chapter: General aspects referring to the elaboration, implementation and assessment of psychological developmental interventions.

PART II: Psychological intervention focusing on personal system’s development.
3rd Chapter: Skills development aiming to deal with life, transitions and developmental tasks.
4th Chapter: Cognitive structures of human action development: the discussion of moral dilemmas and the deliberate psychological education.

PART III: Psychological intervention for the development of life contexts
5th Chapter: Consultancy- Human development professional training: consultancy types and process.
6th Chapter: Promotion and development of Social Support Networks. Intervention modalities in social support networks: network therapy, “buddy” therapy, supporting and self-help groups.
7th Chapter: Involvement in change projects of institutional life contexts: (a) Just community; (b) Research-action (d) communities’ empowering.

REFERENCES:
•Campos, B. P. (1997, 2ªed). Educação e desenvolvimento pessoal e social. Porto: Afrontamento.
•Gracia Fuster, E. (1997). El apoyo social en la intervención comunitaria. Barcelona: Paidós.
•Menezes, I (2007). Intervenção comunitária. Uma perspectiva psicológica. Porto: Livpsic.
•Menezes, I. (1999). Desenvolvimento psicológico na formação pessoal e social. Porto: Ed.Asa
•Montero, Maritza (2004). Introducción a la Psicología Comunitaria. Desarrollo, conceptos y procesos. Barcelona: Paidós.
•Orford, J. (1992). Community psychology. Theory and practice. Chichester: Wiley.
•Rappaport, J. & Seidman, E. (2000). Handbook of community psychology. NY: Kluwer/Plenum.

Mandatory literature

Gracia Fuster, E. ; El apoyo social en la intervención comunitaria, Barcelona: Paidós, 1997
Menezes, I.; Intervenção comunitária. Uma perspectiva psicológica, Porto: Livpsic, 2007
Montero, Maritza ; Introducción a la Psicología Comunitaria. Desarrollo, conceptos y procesos, Barcelona: Paidós, 2004
Ornelas, J.; Psicologia Comunitária, Lisboa: Fim de Século, 2008
Rappaport, J. & Seidman, E. ; Handbook of community psychology, NY: Kluwer/Plenum, 2000

Teaching methods and learning activities

The methodology of teaching/learning is student-focused, being these responsible for carrying out the activities, previously supervised by the teacher. Such activities will be developed in small groups (limit of 25 students), where attendance is required; tutorial moments of individual support; and moments of independent work.
1. Moments of attendance in small groups (25 students): 2 hours per week. Involving moments (i) focusing the study, presentation and critical analysis of research on projects of preventive, social and community intervention, based on articles published in journals of the speciality; (ii) focusing the conceptualization integration and the process of construction, implementation and assessment of interventions in personal and contextual systems.
2. Independent work: individual and class-attendance
Each student should elaborate, while attending classes, in writing, a critical analysis of an intervention project and a design of an alternative intervention for that same situation. This work will be carried out during the last week of the school year. Alternatively, each student will be able to elaborate a systematic, criterious and critical analysis of an article published in a 2006-2008 journal of the speciality, with a maximum of 5 pages, including the description and assessment of an intervention project referring to problems, populations and intervention contexts within pre-specialization areas of the 2nd cycle of the Integrated Master of Psychology, which is due in the last day of classes.

3. Individual tutorial support
The teacher will be available to support students either at the Faculty or by email, in order to prepare the activity to be carried out in point 1 (i): presentation and analysis of intervention projects in groups of 2 or 3 students, as well as for clarifying any doubts about the work being developed independently, individually and while attending classes.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	32,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

This kind of assessment is continuous and requires no final exam (article 7th of the Assessment rules of the Faculty and has, as its prerequisite, assiduity in class attendance (nr. 4 of art.8th). Each student must attend 75% of the weekly foreseen presential moments (nr.2 of art. 8th).

Calculation formula of final grade

Continuous assessment without final exam includes the following two components, to which applies nr.6 of art.9th of the Assessment Rules (a minimum classification of 8 values in each component to be approved):

a) Participation in the weekly classes where attendance is required (50%)
(i) Presentation and analysis of the design, implementation and assessment of developmental counselling intervention projects shall be assessed, taking into account:

- In the presentation: the ability to promote the participation of the colleagues and to systematize the relevant information included in articles, namely in what concerns the theoretical reasoning, the procedures of necessities’ evaluation, the intervention process and the results.

- In the analysis: (i) theoretical framing of the intervention and the discussion of its limitations and potentialities, suggesting alternatives and defying their colleagues to critically reflect on it.

(ii) the formulation of a critical synthesis (2 pages), in which the student should systematize the main limitations and potentialities of the intervention, as well as suggest possible changes to it. This activity will account for 35% of the final classification.

(iii) The participation of each student in classes will be evaluated and will account for 15%.

b) Individual work: when attending classes (50%)

This part of evaluation can have two modalities:
(i) An individual work to be developed while attending classes and in writing, in the last day of classes, similar to the one students might have to deal with in future job selection processes, that is, based on a critical analysis of an intervention in a hypothetical situation and on the design of an alternative project using a different strategy.
(ii) An individual work of systematic, criterious and critical analysis of an article published in an 2006/2008 speciality journal, with a maximum of 5 pages, including the description and assessment of an intervention project referring to problems, populations and intervention contexts within the pre-specialization areas of the 2nd cycle of the Integrated Master of Psychology, which is due in the last day of classes.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Specific situations:

a) Students exempted, by law, from attending classes:

The teacher is not responsible for defining how to attribute all the ECTS credits to these students. However, in this unit it is not necessary a special test or work as referred in nº 4 of article 9 of the Assessment Rules, since to complete, while attending, all the assessment components, students can appeal to work licences legally foreseen.

b) Missing the assessment tests (article 12º of assessment Rules)
To each assessment component that students miss, a classification of zero will be given. Under such circumstances, the possibility to benefit from an appeal or extraordinary review of the grade will only be possible under express authorization of the Pedagogical Committee.

Classification improvement

Improvement of the final/continuous classification (Article 11º of the Assessment Rules):
In this subject there won’t be a process of classification improvement, since it only concerns to continuous assessment with no final exam. Therefore it’s not foreseen any written test in the normal or extraordinary period of exams. However, an opportunity to improve classification in component b) can be authorized in the appeal or extraordinary period of assessment.

Observations

Appeal or extraordinary exam in continuous assessment (paragraph b), nr. 1 of art.7º of Assessment Rules):

- If students don’t present the necessary criteria for assiduity they cannot be considered for an extraordinary exam.
In what concerns components b) of continuous assessment there will be an opportunity for an appeal in the following circumstances:
a) the student didn’t miss the regular opportunity;
b) the student, having took part of the regular opportunity, didn’t had zero, because he/she delivered the test paper in blank, or with no relevant content.
c) For component a) of assessment it is not foreseen any opportunity of an appeal.