The fact that 1,147 droppings were within this area suggested that dog litter was a serious and prevalent problem within this community. Jason’s team first counted all fresh dog feces within an eight by five block area surrounding DePaul University. When informed that it was uncollected dog feces, Jason’s mouth fell open in disbelief, but he pledged to work on this issue. Leonard Jason invited his Alderman in Chicago to his community psychology class, and Jason said to himself that he would tackle whatever the Alderman mentioned as the most pressing community issue. The behavioral community psychology Case Study 16.1 was carried out at a time when there were no formal laws that required dog owners to pick up after their dogs. But as you will see, by collecting data and showing that there was a possible solution, change did occur for not only Chicago but also other urban areas in the US. There was a time when nobody knew how to even approach this problem, let alone study or solve it. If you can believe it, this problem involved uncollected dog droppings in Chicago. Ok, let’s give an example of a problem that seemed very difficult to solve. We can change the world through being extremely strategic and focused by breaking down large problems into smaller ones that are solvable. We will show in this chapter how these types of practical and easy-to-implement interventions can lead to what are called small wins, which can be reinforcing and sustain the work of community psychologists over time. By specifying and measuring specific behaviors, such as littering or tobacco use, behavioral community psychologists can chart those behaviors over time to determine whether or not a particular intervention is effective. In a sense, this approach breaks down large and complex problems into smaller ones that are much more manageable to solve. Photo by OpenClipart-Vectors is licensed under the Pixabay LicenseĪs we will see in this chapter, the Behavioral Community Psychology approach allows for a more focused and targeted method to define and change a range of community and social problems. When behavioral-type work is conducted in community settings and has the values from the field of Community Psychology (as reviewed in Chapter 1, Jason et al., 2019), it has been referred to as Behavioral Community Psychology. Most behavioral studies have been conducted in hospitals in inpatient settings or other types of institutions, with much less behavioral research occurring in community settings such as homes or neighborhoods (Hanley et al., 2003). The old Freudian perspective has been replaced by a variety of behavioral-type therapies, used to help patients with a wide variety of common problems such as anxiety and depressive disorders. This behavioral revolution has had a tremendous effect on psychology in terms of how therapy is now practiced in countries throughout the world. Skinner, who pioneered the use of behavioral approaches to show how rewards and punishments can change the behaviors of animals and people. Photo by geralt is licensed under the Pixabay License Understand how behavioral approaches have been used in Community Psychology.Identify the importance of studying and bringing about change in observable behaviors.Explain how large, complicated problems can be broken down into smaller solvable ones.By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
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