My name is Richard Clark and I’ll be your professor for Psy 357 AKA Community Psychology. This website will serve as a central hub for course related materials.  Most of the course information including access to the readings (required and optional), slides and more will be housed here. However, we will still be using Blackboard for turning in  assignments and grading. Feel free to take a look around the site and email me (r.connorclark@gmail.com) if you have any questions!

Course Overview

This is an OER-based Zero-cost course designed to introduce students to the field of community psychology. Community psychology is primarily concerned with individuals in their social context. Community psychology seeks to support and understand communities and conduct research that helps these communities thrive.  Sometimes community psychology engages more broadly doing work focused on the large connected and diverse communities such as the Black community and sometimes it more focused such as a community of students at a single university. As a critical community psychologist myself my focus has always been on social justice, change, and activism. As such this course will engage with critical theories, concepts, and methods within the field of community psychology. In doing so it is my hope that students will gain a deeper understanding of community psychology. The course will move away from and challenge the traditional community deficit models and instead emphasize community psychology that focuses on community issues, engagement, empowerment, activism, and work.

Course Objectives

• Students will know and understand the basic principles of community psychology.
• Students will gain a critical understanding of different theories, concepts, and methodologies of community psychology.
• Students will learn to identify important social issues within their own lives and communities.
• Students will gain practice writing and speaking to these issues utilizing community psychology methods.
• Students will outline and develop a community research project that addresses an issue of their choosing.

General Education Objectives

 As part of the College’s General Education Curriculum, Students successfully completing this course will develop the following proficiencies:

• Oral and written communication skills – Students will produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
• Critical thinking skills – Students will evaluate evidence and arguments critically or analytically.
• Information literacy – Students will gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and points of view.
• Artistic/Creative expression proficiency – Students will identify and apply the fundamental concepts and methods of architectural history to explore creative expression.