Chapter Three

Models of Community Psychology

1. Mental Health Model
Mental health model is a model that assumes mental health problem can be approached, understood and
treated in a way that other physical health problems can be treated. The development of mental health
model can be traced back to the work of Phillipe Pinel, who proposed the medical model to provide
humane treatment to the individuals who suffer from mental health problems. It has also been supported
by several psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, who introduced psychotherapy to mental health service.
 Mental health model is established based on the following basic assumptions.
o Mental health problem can be approached, diagnosed and treated in a way that other physical health
problems can be approached by qualified professionals
o Any mental dysfunction of an individual can be considered as mental illness/disorder that could
result from neurotic and/or psychotic forces within the individual
o Mental health of a community can be achieved by keeping mental health of individual members
o Mental health problems can be controlled by expanding treatment facilities to community settings
rather than limiting the service in remote hospitals
o Because of the natural tendency and shared values that human beings have towards health and
competence (i.e.it is better to be well than to be ill), people usually take care of their mental health
and seek treatment as soon as they notice the signs or symptoms of an illness.
This medical model approach has also been criticized for it forgets people who have no access to medical
care because of lack of awareness in the one hand and financial capacity on the other hand.
There are some terms that are borrowed from the field public health (physical health) to be used by
community mental health model.
➢ Coverage refers to the extent to which the services address large number of people.
➢ Impact refers to the influence/change that service exerts on the problem.
➢ Incidence refers to the number of new cases in a given year in a specific area.
➢ Prevalence refers to number of existing cases (both the new and old) in a given year in a specific
area.
Both community mental health and public health services delineate the application of preventive measure
that has three levels (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary) to promote health in the one hand and arrest the
illness on the other hand on the continuum of the intervention.

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Mental health model can be illustrated by the following diagram.
Continuum of Intervention in Mental Health Model

Primary Level Secondary Level Tertiary Level

(Prevention) (Treatment) (Rehabilitation)

Policy Formulation Consultation Service

(Rehabilitative Centers)
Specialized

Community Settings
Community Settings
(Outpatient clinics)

Public Awareness Mental Follow Up Service

Campaign Hospitals

Early Diagnosis and Referral Rehabilitative Measures

Intensive
Treatment
Health Education Advocacy Service

Reduces new cases Prevents

Prevents
complications
complications Reduces
Reduces
impairment/relapse
impairment/relapse
of treated
of treated
illness
Reduces new cases Prevents complications Reduces impairment/relapse of treated illness

Mental Health Model

Intervention Strategies in Mental Health Model

 Intervention can be viewed as any attempt or effort intended to alter problematic situations
 Intervention strategies that are proposed to be used in mental health model can be categorized into
prevention and promotion.
a) Prevention
 Prevention refers to proactive efforts that can be done to prohibit a problem before it occurs.
 It is recommended by the national joint commission for mental health and illness to tackle mental
health problems American communities.
 Caplan (1964) has outlined three levels of prevention; Primary, Secondary and Tertiary level.
i. Primary level refers to an intervention strategy intended to reduce new cases (incidences) through
expanding the service to the larger population (coverage).
 It has three approaches; population wide, milestone and selective

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• Population wide approach: is an approach that targets the whole population regardless of a
particular time and place
Example: Launching health education program to address the problem of mental illness in
the community
• Milestone Approach: is an approach that targets the whole population at a given point of time
following devastating events such as war, flooding or earthquake
Example: Awareness creation campaign on world mental health day
• Selective approach: is an approach that targets some members of a population who are assumed
to be vulnerable to mental health problem
Example: Launching a program designed to a special population such as children, women and
adolescents
ii. Secondary Level refers to a strategy intended to reduce the complexity, severity and duration of mental
health problem through intensive treatment
 It involves provision of therapeutic care or service to the needy people who are diagnosed or
screened for mental health problem
Example: administering psychotropic medicine such as antipsychotic, antidepressant, antiepileptic,
anxiolytic and mood stabilizer
Or implementing psychotherapeutic techniques to help the clients understand and solve
their problem
iii. Tertiary Level refers to a strategy intended to reduce the effect of mental health problem on the
individuals diagnosed for mentally illness
 It involves rehabilitative and follow up measures
Example: Support the individuals to restore their mental functioning to lead their livelihood Follow
up service to prevent the relapse of the treated problem

Note: 1. Primary level prevention is universal intervention whereas secondary and tertiary levels are
selective interventions
2. All forms of preventions target to reduce the prevalence rate of mental dysfunctions and associated
problems in a community

Mental Health Promotion

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Health promotion refers to any effort to enhance the wellbeing of the individuals in a community. This
can be done through various intervention strategies such as development of copying skills, crisis
intervention, mental health consultation and enrichment of social relation.

i. Development of Copying Skills

People usually have cognitive, emotional and behavioral reactions to stressful life events based on their
coping skill. Those individuals who have better copying skills are assumed to overcome their social,
psychological and economical dysfunctions. Thus, developing coping skills enables people to cope up any
social, psychological, political and economic burden they might face.
Copying in general can be categorized into problem based, emotional based and meaning based copying.
✓ Problem based copying: helps to address problematic situations directly through alternatives
✓ Emotional based copying: helps to address the arousal accompanying the stressful life events
✓ Meaning based copying: helps to find meaning to the stressor by considering all possible lessons
from it
ii. Crisis Intervention
Any life crisis is assumed to leave negative social, psychological and economical consequence on the lives
of people who faced it. Thus, to help individuals to restore their healthy state of livelihood or reduce the
traumatic effects , crisis intervention programs are required to be operated. Crisis intervention programs
such as social support, self help groups and empowerment help people to rehabilitate or recover from the
trauma or psychological dysfunction they experienced
iii. Mental Health Consultation
Proper mental health consultation helps people to maintain their positive psychological state (health) and
improve their negative psychological state (illness). Thus, free access to continuous consultation service
should be created in community settings to people who are in need of it to promote their mental health.

iv. Enhancing Social Relation

Individuals who are assumed as mentally, socially or economically incompetent are likely to suffer from
isolation, discrimination or stigma which could have profound effect on their mental health Thus,
enhancing social relation of the individuals help people to promote their mental health/functioning
Note: Both prevention and promotion are not mutually exclusive viewpoints of intervention
Strengths
• It is supported by many therapeutic theories and methods such as psychoanalysis
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• It involves highly qualified professionals clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, or counselors
• It uses the existing structure of health service

Limitations
• Most of the time, it concentrates on mental health
• It focuses on the development of the individual than the development of the community
• It doesn’t consider the dynamic nature of both the community and individuals
• Its assumption that community mental health can be achieved by keeping the health of the individual is
not always possible

2. Social Action Model

Social action model is a model that places a problem within the context it occurs. It is very much concerned
with those groups of people who are systematically discriminated, stigmatized or otherwise abused based
on their socioeconomic status such as gender, age, ethnicity, religion and education.
Example: Women, children, minority, illiterate, poor people etc may be considered as disadvantaged
or victims of a social system
Thus, the power structure or the social system is viewed as an oppressor to those who are marginalized.
This model emphasizes a redistribution of power, resources and relationship and changes in basic
institution (community competence). It is evolved out of a program known as “war on poverty” initiated
and implemented by J.F. Kennedy and his collaborators in the 1960s. This model uses change tactic of
conflict or contrast, such as confrontation and direct action or negotiation. The practitioner/activist plays
an advocacy role and organizes and manipulates groups, organizations or movements to influence the
political process.
It has been established based on the following assumptions.
➢ Mental health problem might be a response to stressful life events such as poverty
➢ Social problems may be created by unbalanced power structure of a community which may
not be aware of the needs of the poor
➢ Poors are poor for the are systematically discriminated/excluded from the opportunity to
participate in community systems
➢ Community intervention that involves victims or consumers of the service is important to
tackle community problems
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➢ Analysis of social, political, economical and cultural contexts of an individual helps to
understand his/her problem than focusing on past history of the individual
➢ Community participation and collaboration of people from diverse fields such as public health,
social work and psychology are very important to tackle community problems
➢ Para professionals who are provided short term training can play a very important role to
tackle community problems
It can be better illustrated with the help of the following figure

Social Actions
Social,
Social, economic,
economic,
political
political influence
influence
Situational mediators
Situational mediators
•• Social
Social support
support Community
Community
Community Psychological
Psychological
Environmental •• Values Development
Development
Environmental situations
situations Values Development Growth
Growth
•

Reaction
Reaction
Reactionofof
ofa aaperson
person
person Temporary
Temporary
Stressful
Stressful life
life events
events No change
to
to Anxiety/depressio
Anxiety/depressio
to stressful lifeevents
stressful
stressfullife
life events
events
n
n

Personal characteristics Psychological

Psychological mediators Individual
Individuallifelife
skill
skilltraining
training problems
• Copying skill
• Motivation

General education
• Socialization or adaptation

Social Action Model

Intervention Strategies
Intervention strategies of social action model focuses on the improvement of the conditions of the poor/
disadvantaged people that are created by unbalanced power structure of the society.
Some of intervention strategies are the following.
• Mobilization of the poor through poverty reduction campaign
• Improving job opportunity to the poor through intensification of investment programs
• Improving employability of the poor through affirmative actions and capacity building
programs such as training
• Development of small business enterprise through loan programs
• Mobilization of the community to stand against poverty
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• Establishment of consumer association to monitor and control the services provided to them
• Creating alliance with those who have the resources important for the intervention
• Utilizing the resources available in the community
• Using professionals who confront the unbalanced power structure
• Mobilizing resources from the community
• Providing Advocacy service for the disadvantages
Strengths
✓ It helps to realize/visualize how the contemporary social system operates
✓ It recognizes the role of paraprofessionals in tackling community problem
✓ It provides framework for integrated relationship within the community
Weak points
✓ It doesn’t consider the possibility of conflict among the members of the same groups
✓ It exaggerates the role of non professionals or overlooks the limitation of paraprofessionals
✓ It views mobilization of community and resources as revolutionary than evolutionary

3. Organizational Model
Organizational model is a model that explains a behavior in terms of the relationship between community
settings such as organization and its members. It tries to bridge organizational development and
community psychology both of which are concerned with the wellbeing of members of a group in their
settings i.e. family, work place, neighborhood, community, etc. This model applies community
psychology principles to organizational change for community well-being. It is concerned with group
processes and teambuilding among members of organizational setup.
Organizational model has been evolved from the work of Kurt Lewine and his colleagues who have
developed “basic skill training techniques (later known as T-group or sensitivity group technique) in his
research center for group dynamics. The T-groups are designed to encourage group discussion,
participation, belongingness and decision-making thereby social relations of the participants (staff) which
is a foundation for social wellbeing could be enhanced. The skills with which the participants are
acquainted are intended to facilitate individual functioning in the role of “change agent” who plans,
implements and evaluates change in an organization.

 T-group training involves four elements such as feedback, unfreezing, participant observation and
cognitive aids.

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✓ Feedback: information about results or effects of a process or event which is highly useful
to take early adjustment or amendment measures.
✓ Unfreezing: a process in which former values and beliefs system of a person could be
challenged to generate “motivation for change”.
✓ Participant observation: a process in which members can participate in group process and
observe themselves and other group members objectively.
✓ Cognitive aids: supports that could help individuals generate, organize and utilize ideals or
thoughts through provision of models or materials.
 It has also taken some assumptions from the work of McGregor who has developed theory “X” and
theory “Y”.
 Theory “X” is based on the assumption that workers are extrinsically motivated, resistant to the goals
of the organization, and unwilling to work by their own (want to be led by others). Thus, the management
of the organization should set goals and give orders.

 Theory “Y” is based on the assumption that workers are intrinsically motivated, committed to the goals
of the organization and willing to work by their own (manage themselves). Thus, the management of
the organization should act in a warm/supportive manner and show concern for the employees
 Therefore, theory “X” is known as management-oriented whereas theory “Y” is known as person-
oriented.
 According to McGregor, both theories can be applied based on the nature of the workers which can
be seen into dimensions i.e. ability and willingness.
Dimensions Willingness
When Workers are: Willing to perform the task Unwilling to perform the task
Able to perform the task Need Delegation Need Support
Ability

(Theory “Y”) (combination of the two)

Unable to perform the task Need Coaching Need Direction

(combination of the two) (Theory “X”)

 Organizational model has the following basic assumptions.

• The way an organization operates has significant impact on the individuals who are involved as a
recipient or provider of the service offered by it.
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✓ Organizations with oppressive work environment, long bureaucratic or hierarchical
structure, organizational culture or management style are more likely to create distress
among the workers
• Human beings have a tendency to spend most of their lives in one or another type of organization
(formal or informal) in which they receive/provide the service they need i.e. health, education,
social support or justice.
• Wellbeing emanates from the confluence of balanced value systems such as social justice,
meaningful participation, respect for diversity and accountability in organizational processes such
as recruitment, promotion, compensation, and job security.
• Without workers and customers no organization and without organization no workers
and customers
• Communities depend upon organizations while organizations justify their existence by
serving communities.
• To bring any kind of change (ameliorative or transformative) to a community, it is important first
to persuade organizations to contribute in the change process (to be change agent).
• Dysfunction of any organization could create devastating life situations in people who are involved
in it as provider or recipient of the service which had to be offered by the organization.
• Organizational variables such as organizational design, information system, motivation of the
workers, transparency of decisions and leadership style may facilitate or hinder the function of
both the workers and the organization.
• Adequate number of communication channel facilitates satisfaction, performance and commitment
of the workers.
• Relationship among the organization, the management and the employees has effect on its
effectiveness
• Satisfaction and effectiveness of both workers and organizations can be maintained when there is
a direct match or fit between the needs of the employees and the demands of the organizations
• Wellbeing can be maintained in organizations which emphasizes:
✓ Decisions made after discussion by members
✓ Ownership by workers /members
✓ Participation of workers / members
✓ Power sharing or distribution
✓ Personal rather than formal relationships among members
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✓ No winners or losers in decision making
✓ Workers Job security
✓ Leadership based on election or rotations
✓ Opportunity for advancement based on training and experience

Balanced Values
• Social justice, psychological contract, respect for diversity, participation, sense of community, collaboration, etc.

Rational for Inputs Transformation Outputs

Establishment of Org. • Organizational structure • Group composition • Effectiveness
•Human service • Skilled Employees • Task performance • Satisfaction
• Assigned Jobs • Social relation • Wellness
• Organizational values/norms

Levels of Analysis
Micro Meso Exo Macro

Figure 3. Organizational Model

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Intervention Strategies of Organizational Model

Intervention strategies should be concerned to ameliorative and transformative change in both the
organization and the community.
The strategies that can be used in organizational model may include.
✓ Providing training to improve social relation and change attitude of the workers through T
group or sensitivity group training techniques that involves people with homogeneous
characters
✓ Changing organizational structure, policy or information systems if they are not
appropriate
✓ Mediating conflicts between and among different groups/members through negotiation or
discussion
✓ Dealing with the relationship between families of the employees and the organization
✓ Establishing good communication channel
 For units A, B, C and D, we can have = 6 channels i.e. AB,

AC, AD, BC, BD, and CD

o Downward (vertical) channel ……………… introduce policy, assign jobs and
give/get feedback
o Upward (vertical) channel ………………….. submit/receive report
o Side (horizontal) channel ……………………give/get Support
✓ Creating opportunity for the members of the organization to participate in making decisions
✓ Building team sprit among members of the organization via get together, field trip or social
committee
✓ Establishing workers association which can play advocacy role on behalf of the workers
✓ Developing sense of community or belongingness and organizational trust in workers
✓ Provide support to the employees to deal with their dilemma on livelihood, job security or
promotion
✓ Respect values such as social justice, psychological contract, respect for diversity,
participation, sense of community, and collaboration.
✓ Respect organizational principles such as accountability, responsibility, transparency,
loyalty, and honesty

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✓ Maintain the match between the interest of the workers and the demands of the organization
through:
• selection of new employees who best fit the requirements of the organization
• training to change the attitude of employees towards the organization
• training to enhance the competence of the employees in social, technical and
managerial skills

Strong points
➢ It emphasizes the relationship of workers with their organization and each other
➢ It focuses on participatory decision making which has important effect on the participant
Weak points
➢ Its application in larger community may be difficult for it is developed inline with the
structure of formal organization
➢ It may not always be possible to get people with homogeneity for its training techniques
such as T-group technique

2.4. Behavioral Model

Behavioral model is a model that tries to explain behavior in terms of the transactional process
between person and environment. It has been influenced by Field theory of Kurt Lewin which
postulates that behavior is the function of the interaction of person and environment (B= f(E, P))
It has been evolved out of early school of behavioral psychology founded by J. B. Watson. It tries
to bridge some concepts of behavioral psychology and community psychology.
Learning theories such as classical conditioning of I. Pavlov, operant conditioning of B. F. Skinner
and social learning theory of A. Bandura have contributed a lot to the development of this model.
This model aims at understanding, describing, predicting, and influencing the behavior of an
individual in an environment via scientific methods that are concerned with overt (observable)
behavior.
It has the following assumptions.
• Behavior is the result of the transactional process between the person and the environment.
• Abnormal behavior is as learnt as the normal ones. Thus, it can be treated through the
process of unlearning.

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• Environment may block or promote personal growth, health, wellbeing, and competence
of its inhabitants.
• Change in an environment may lead to change in the individuals who live in it.
• Human beings usually react to their social systems based on the opportunity and the
constraints provided to them by systems.
• The consequent efforts made to alleviate social problems necessarily entail modification in
both environmental events and behavior of inhabitants.
• People with negative attitude (expectations) for their ability to impact their environment
are more likely to suffer from psychological problems.
• Psychological health can be maintained by maintaining the fit/congruence between the
person and the environment.
• Para professionals who are provided with short term training can play an important role in
tackling community problems.
The model can be illustrated by the following figure

Person-Environment Psychological Health

Personal Qualities
Fitness

Transactional Process

Environmental Qualities Person-Environment Psychological Problem

Conflict

Behavioral Model

Intervention Strategies

According to behavioral model, intervention strategies should be direct, rapid, teachable,

measurable and inexpensive. The strategies should also be based on empirical evidence
The strategies may include the following.

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• Fostering changes in both the individual and the environment (contexts or social systems)
• Altering environmental conditions or situations assumed to be oppressive to their
inhabitants
• Training individuals to deal with the situation (cause) than the behavior alone
(consequence)
• Training individuals help them to cope with stress (adapt the situation) and other stressful
life events
• Studying or analyzing the function of the existing system and the behavior pattern of
individuals
• Training paraprofessionals to deal with social problems
Strength
• It uses scientific methods of data collection and analysis
• It focuses on overt behavior which can be seen objectively
• It recognizes the role of paraprofessionals
Weakness
• It doesn’t recognize the role of psychological processes such as cognition or sensation
• It doesn’t allow other disciplines which focus on covert behavior to contribute to its
development for it believes they are subjective

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