James G. Kelly

Context and process: An ecological view of the interdependence of practice and research

ConclusionThe future for the field of community psychology is promising as we visualize that our key resources are citizens, colleagues in pyschology, and those persons in the social sciences who share a commitment to collaborative research.An antidote for coping with the regal quality of our scientific heritage and the discomfort about not being able to reduce the barriers between research and practice is to develop an investigative style that makes inquiry not just a right or privilege but makes community research a genuinely collaborative process. Without such collaboration our ideas run the risk of being sterile and our impact puny and shallow. With such collaboration researchers and citizens have the opportunity to generate a style of work that will contribute to our own personal development and to the evolution of our social setings.As a distinct bonus we can construct a philosophy for our work that is truly democratic — where research and practice are integrated by a process of conjoint ownership. In this sense, the interdependence of research and practice can be realized: for the science, for the profession, and for the citizens of community psychology.

Changing contexts and the field of community psychology

ConclusionThe legacy of the Swampscott conference 25 years ago is palpable. The scientific accomplishments have been substantial. The four agendas I have presented for the future development of the field depend upon psychologists as individuals and psychologists as participants in our departments, colleges, universities, professional societies, and peer review panels to reduce the constraints that limit the definition and study of psychological phenomena in community settings (Schneider, 1990). As these constraints are addressed, new social norms can be established to expand and diversify the research process. There are some explicit positive side effects that can occur. A new working social structure can be created for how universities and communities can be resources for each other.The four topics I have presented are agendas for keeping at the task of generating active and expanding scientific traditions. These topics when addressed in the context of collaboration with other disciplines and citizens can develop an empirical base of shared wisdom about how to carry out community psychology research. In these ways the benefits of community psychology research can become more empowering for the public and more and more systemic for the scholar.

Science and community psychology: social norms for pluralistic inquiry.

The concept of “science” linked to the concept of “community psychology” requires adaptation. In the case of community psychology, science is public to citizens as well as to the scientist. The community psychologist, as scientist, works from the expectation that choices of topics, methods, and interpretation of findings are done in concert with representatives of the community. The following remarks offer 7 ways to keep vital the research of the community psychologist while contributing to robust and useful knowledge.

Constructing a Tree for Community Leaders: Contexts and Processes in Collaborative Inquiry

This paper presents collaborative research between a university-based team and a grass roots community organization on the south side of Chicago. The purpose of the work is to document the nature of community leadership as expressed by members of the host organization. Using a semistructured interview, 77 community members nominated by the host organization were asked about various aspects of their community work. Qualitative analyses of interview text generated a set of 56 codes concerning different aspects of community leadership as reported by grassroots leaders. These codes were subsequently grouped together into five conceptually linked dimensions of community leadership. A“ leadership tree” that simultaneously analyzes and visually displays each of these five dimensions of community leadership was created. Implications of the methodology used to create the leadership tree are discussed for the salience of qualitative methods in community research.

2001 SEYMOUR B. SARASON AWARD ADDRESS: The Spirit of Community Psychology

Community psychology as a field may have lost some of its original spirit; a spirit dominant at the founding of the field. Spirit is a difficult concept to discuss since it is a concept beyond usual discourse in psychology as a denotative, measurable and verifiable concept. Taking the lead from William James, Spirit, however elusive, is most essential to a sense of self. I offer three suggestions to enhance and to make our individual and collective spirit more vital: (1) Continuing education in the history of community psychology; (2) Creating time to share stories about our work; (3) Creating safe settings to enlarge our spirit. These ideas are offered as pragmatic suggestions to enable us to create more coherence between our personal and professional selves.

Clustering Methods with Qualitative Data: a Mixed-Methods Approach for Prevention Research with Small Samples

Qualitative methods potentially add depth to prevention research but can produce large amounts of complex data even with small samples. Studies conducted with culturally distinct samples often produce voluminous qualitative data but may lack sufficient sample sizes for sophisticated quantitative analysis. Currently lacking in mixed-methods research are methods allowing for more fully integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques. Cluster analysis can be applied to coded qualitative data to clarify the findings of prevention studies by aiding efforts to reveal such things as the motives of participants for their actions and the reasons behind counterintuitive findings. By clustering groups of participants with similar profiles of codes in a quantitative analysis, cluster analysis can serve as a key component in mixed-methods research. This article reports two studies. In the first study, we conduct simulations to test the accuracy of cluster assignment using three different clustering methods with binary data as produced when coding qualitative interviews. Results indicated that hierarchical clustering, K-means clustering, and latent class analysis produced similar levels of accuracy with binary data and that the accuracy of these methods did not decrease with samples as small as 50. Whereas the first study explores the feasibility of using common clustering methods with binary data, the second study provides a “real-world” example using data from a qualitative study of community leadership connected with a drug abuse prevention project. We discuss the implications of this approach for conducting prevention research, especially with small samples and culturally distinct communities.

Natural Development of Community Leadership

Our goal in this chapter is to provide some insights about the development of community leadership as it evolves in natural settings. The chapter presents comparisons between the ideas of established community leaders and those of research investigators. The leaders we quote spoke from firsthand experience; the investigators we cite wrote from their knowledge of the current data relevant to community leadership. First, we set out the conceptual framework that guided this communitybased inquiry.

More Thoughts: On the Spirit of Community Psychology

‘‘When I’m working with students, I ask them: putting a ‘great voice’ at the bottom of the list, what do you think makes a great singer?’’ It’s obvious with her, and with Aretha, that ‘‘it’s your spirit’’ (Reeves 2008, p. 125). I believe there is value in thinking about how to create emotional and intellectual resources to anchor, enhance and evolve our spirit when doing the work of community psychology. Back in 2001, I offered some ideas about creating settings in our own work places to stimulate a collective spirit (Kelly 2002). In a later brief autobiographical statement I presented some examples of people, places, situations and coincidences that helped my personal spirit and élan during some stressful and fortunately some more happy times (Kelly 2006). In the 2002 publication, I focused on three topics: the history of community psychology, sharing stories about our work, as well as creating settings to celebrate our spirit. In the 2006 publication, I gave examples of research topics of my own that were influenced by people, places and coincidences that in turn influenced what I studied and how I carried out the work. On this occasion, I will Illustrate how five persons, as examples, influenced my values and aspirations to continue the expeditions in our field. These five persons contributed to my intellectual spirit AND my views on four research agendas. If we all can benefit from such resources we can enhance our collective spirit. The very activity of reflecting on how past personal life experiences influence career interests has been an energizing experience. I hope it can be for you. By spirit, I mean our passion, our zeal, our emotional energy to engage with our field, and as my mother might have said, our ‘‘pluck’’. When beginning our careers, our families, social networks, mentors and senior colleagues are sources of strength, support and feedback that are fundamental for us to keep our spirit. When we begin our newly created professional roles, to make our way, it is largely up to us to create our own support systems to sustain our spirit. Our family and social networks, colleagues and students may be at our side, but it is ourselves who are challenged to personally cope. I have been influenced by the work and writings of the civil rights organizer Ella Baker. She believed that: