Community Psychology : Chapter 3 week 2

Running Head : Community Psychology (Chapter 3 Week 2

Community Psychology (Chapter 3 Week 2

Name

Institution

Instructor

Subject

In your own words , define the following from a Community Psychology perspective

Values - Values are principles or qualities which a given society deems to be inherently desirable or valuable . Community psychologists seek to understand social problems in the context of collective values (Freedheim , 2003 . This is mainly because social phenomena are often the projections of what a community considers to be right or wrong . The dynamics of important social institutions

are likewise based on societal values (Stout , 2002

Religion /Religiosity - In the context of community psychology religion /religiosity serves the following functions

An instrument of meeting the primary human needs for meaning , belonging and community

A rationale and structure for working towards the common good and

A special access to marginalized , disenfranchised and minority groups (Rappaport and Seidman , 2000

Spirituality - A more personal , subjective , psychological and less formalized type of religious orientation . Spirituality may also refer to a belief in a divine power that does not follow the directives of an organization such as a church , synagogue or mosque . Unlike religion which focuses more on corporate and sociological expression spirituality focuses more on individual and psychological expression (Bongar , Brown , Beutler and Zimbardo , 2007

Descriptive Values - The values of other groups that eventually became the criteria and standards of a particular community (Vedung , 2000

Prescriptive Values - The values that are advocated by a given society regardless of whether or not these were adopted...