A Critical Review of Hays’ Community activists’ perceptions of citizenship roles in an urban community Hays, R. A. (2007). Community activists’ perceptions of citizenship roles in an urban community: A case study of attitudes that affect community engagement. Journal of Urban Affairs, 29(4), 401-424 Introduction Allen Hays (Hays, 2007) looks at the connections and barriers between community activism (community-based organizations) and political participation in a small urban community to… Read More
Reflections on Qualitative Research Methods, the Qualitative Case Study and Reactions to Hays’ Community activists’ perceptions of citizenship roles in an urban community I am grateful for many experiences and environments in my life, including the ethnic influence of my father, that allowed me to experience different cultures and be open with others that were different from my bicultural identity. This influence, in many ways, brought me here to a place where I am curious about everything, with… Read More
Reflections on Rappaport’s The art of social change – Community narratives as resources for individual and collective identity Rappaport (1998) reinforces a previous written critique I had in another course. Researchers in community psychology as well as humanistic psychology are not there for themselves or to dictate a narrative, whether it is finding a means to evolve through a series of community problems or not. Rappaport explains it as being, “useful to people… Read More
Reflections on Hoffman’s Toward a deep diversity in humanistic psychology, Hoffman’s Multiculturalism, epistemological diversity, language, and Johnson’s Cultural competency and humanistic psychology Hoffman (2012) waxes about as nostalgic as I did when I left the sociology department at the University of West GA for the humanistic psychology department that eventually guided my light to Saybrook. Finding humanist psychology and intersectional feminist inclusiveness felt like home. Multiculturalism is a powerful manifestation of that and a subject that may… Read More
The Neighborhood Windshield Tour and the Community Power Structure of Columbus, GA Introduction I have lived in Georgia twice, once from 1994 in South Georgia in and around Savannah and again from 2010 to the present, in Atlanta, the capitol, and Columbus, a primarily industrial city of over 200,000 (United States Census Bureau, 2016). In that time, I have had an opportunity to contrast and compare the… Read More
Reflections on Qualitative Approaches, Especially Grounded Theory and Crawford, et al’s Women’s understanding of the effects of domestic abuse Having studied qualitative methods in a previous course, grounded theory as Locke, et al (2010) describe it is familiar territory for me. Before discovering asset-based community development (ABCD) and participatory action research (PAR), grounded theory was particularly intriguing because the research determined the theory, rather than the theory determining the research. My familiarity with it… Read More
Reflections on Roe, et al’s Community building through empowering evaluation – A case study of HIV prevention community planning Roe et al (2006) offer an intriguing commentary on community in this country and a unique counterpoint on how it should function. The United States is seen as stereotypically individualistic, which is, unfortunately, a reality in a majority of this country, while AIDS is seen as an area where “effective prevention must be community-based, ecologically… Read More
Reflections on Comas-Dias’ Humanism and multiculturalism, Quinn’s A person-centered approach to multicultural counseling competence, Taylor and Nanney’s An existential gaze at multiracial self-concept, Hanks’ The Ubuntu paradigm, and Hoffman’s Creating a home for diversity in humanistic psychology While humanism is admirable and multiculturalism is admirable and ideal, Comas-Dias (2012) does not operationalize either term, relying instead on a commonly accepted definition without defining it. Additionally, examples of what the author believes other cultures view as humanistic and multicultural are cited, but all without an operationalized definition. This is obviously dangerous because anyone… Read More
Reflections on Histories of Theories of Memory, Neath’s Learning and Memory: In Humans, and Molbak’s Meaning and memory: A Heideggerian analysis of children’s first memories Intelligence, defined strictly, is qualified as educational intelligence, but this is a definition I don’t necessarily accept. From my father and a shelterless man named Uriel, whom I met decades ago, I learned clearly that education is not a sign of intelligence. My father is an immigrant whose original language is not English and Uriel… Read More
Qualitative Research Reflections on Dowson and McInerney’s Psychological parameters of students’ social and work avoidance goals and Applications to My Own Qualitative Research For reasons of in depth analysis and to allow study participants their full voice, qualitative research and inquiry is where my heart, mind, and soul are, because, to me, people are more than mere numbers and statistics, though, in a very limited capacity, I can see where quantitative research may be useful when a certain… Read More