issue 1 09 - APS Member Groups - Australian Psychological Society

Giving Psychology Away78coalitions are especially powerful because theybring all the stakeholders to the table to createa localised direction for the future. Forprofessionals, it is often easy to forget howdifficult change can be for communities andorganisations. To truly achieve second-orderchange in a setting requires a completereevaluation of the relationships, rules, andstructures which comprise those systems(Linney, 1990). Resistance to change can behigh, and long-standing patterns of behaviorare difficult to reverse (Levine & Perkins,1997). This requires time, patience, andconsensus-seeking on the part of all themembers.With this in mind, it is sometimesdifficult to employ the long-term view whenseeking community change, especially whenprogram funding and personal prestige are onthe line. For change to endure, we must thinkabout how the community will be affected 5,10, or 20 years down the road. No writing ismore influential or encouraging in thinkingabout this process of change than Karl Weick’s(1984) “Small Wins.” Weick describes smallwins as limited approaches to problems whichreduce arousal and make progress possible.These minute steps often create momentumwhich opens the door for more comprehensivechanges (Weick, 1984). In Better Together,Putnam et al. (2003) elaborate on this concept,emphasising how important it is to setreasonable goals and take small steps in orderto turn these “bite-sized” changes into lastingchange over the long term. As we sit at thetable with all the stakeholders, we are oftenreminded that there is no singular solution(Rappaport, 1981), which brings us to our nextfoundational shift in thinking: Think Plural.Think PluralLife is colourful and diverse. Thus,community psychology must practice pluralthinking to be effective. The top-down, shorttermapproach discussed above leaves no roomfor multiplicity of thought. Too often,psychological practice and efforts forcommunity betterment have been aboutdiscovering a unified theory and applying itto all individuals everywhere regardless oftheir culture, neighbourhood, or familystructure. Psychology as a whole has begunto emphasise cultural competence and theappreciation of diversity (AmericanPsychological Association, 2003).Community psychologists have beenimportant leaders in acknowledging thisneed.“Cultural competence” is a buzz wordwhich refers to the ability to work withpeople from various cultures in providingeffective services (Diller, 2004). Harrell andBond (2006) have discussed the importanceof considering all cultures as multilayeredentities, which function according to differentvalues and are affected by different forces.The embrace of diversity is always morecomplex than an either-or proposition, andthe bridging of different cultures is often atrying process (Brodsky & Faryal, 2006). Forcommunity psychologists, the pursuit ofcultural competence is a journey whichrequires humility, patience, and commitment.Kim, Kim, and Kelly (2006) described thisprocess from their work with Koreanimmigrants. They remind us of theimportance of long-term thinking, givingattention to the sometimes subtlecontextualities of a particular culture orsubculture. This commitment requires theability to think upside down, think long-term,and turning to our final foundational thought,to think eco.Think EcoNearly 40 years ago, James Kelly wrotebeautifully about the foundational shift ofecological thinking which would definecommunity psychology:The spirit of the communitypsychologist is the spirit of a naturalist, whodotes on his environment, of the journalistwho bird-dogs his story, of theconservationalist, who glows when he finds anew way to describe man’s interdependencewith his environment. (Kelly, 1970)The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 21 No 1 June 2009