Psychopolitical Validity: Working with Power to Promote Justice and Well-Being

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Psychopolitical ValidityWorking with Power to
Promote Justice and Well-Being

• Isaac Prilleltensky_at_Vanderbilt.Edu
• First International Conference on Community
  Psychology Puerto Rico
• http//people.vanderbilt.edu/isaac.prilleltensky

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• We cannot explain the development of
  individuality or subjectivity apart from its
  social context. But neither can we formulate a
  social theory to explain the dynamics of
  oppression without considering its psychic
  dimension. We need a theory that operates between
  the psyche and the social (Oliver, 2004, The
  Colonization of Psychic Space).

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Elements of a Social Theory of Justice and
Well-Being

1. Link between the political and the psychological
2. Link between values and interests
3. Link between the epistemic and the ethical
   domains
4. Power as a central component of links 1, 2, and 3
   above

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Epistemic Dialectic
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Ethical Dialectic
Ethical dialectic
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Power at the intersection of epistemic and
ethical dialectics
Ethical dialectic
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Elements of Well-Being and Justice

• Well-Being consists of the synergy of
• Personal
• Relational
• Collective domains
• Justice consists of contextual considerations of
• Needs
• Merit
• Equality

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The Synergy of Well-being

• There cannot be well-being but in the combined
  presence of personal, relational, and collective
  well-being

relational
W
personal
collective
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Complementary Principles of Justice
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The Role of Context in Justice

• The principle chosen depends on the
  circumstances
• If equality prevails, merit and effort are
  rational choices.
• If inequality prevails, needs and equality take
  precedence
• Among citizens, certain needs matter from the
  point of view of justice because if they are not
  met, the equal status of some citizens is put at
  risk (Miller, 1999, p. 32).

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Justice Out of Context

• Societies aspiring to justice must seek
  equilibrium among needs, merit, and equality.
• When context of inequality calls for need and
  equality, but culture favors merit, its because
  privileged groups benefit.
• As a result, group interests that influence the
  choice of allocation pattern often disregard the
  context-specific situation.

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Well-Being ?? Justice
Well-Being is enhanced by Justice is enhanced, and contributes to well-being, by the power, capacity, and opportunity to
Self-determination Experience voice and choice, participate in decision making
Caring and compassion Experience nurturing relationships free of abuse
Equality and freedom Benefit from fair and equitable distribution of resources and burdens
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Elements of a Theory of Power

• 1. Power refers to the capacity and opportunity
  to fulfil or obstruct personal, relational, or
  collective needs.
• 2. Power has psychological and political sources,
  manifestations and consequences.
• 3. We can distinguish among power to strive for
  wellness, power to oppress, and power to resist
  oppression and strive for liberation.
• 4. Power can be overt or covert, subtle or
  blatant, hidden or exposed.

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• 5. The exercise of power can apply to self,
  others, and collectives.
• 6. Power affords people multiple identities as
  individuals seeking wellness, engaging in
  oppression, or resisting domination.
• 7. Whereas people may be oppressed in one
  context, at a particular time and place, they may
  act as oppressors at another time and place.

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• 8. Due to structural factors such as social
  class, gender, ability, and race, people may
  enjoy differential levels of power.
• 9. Degrees of power are also affected by personal
  and social constructs such as beauty,
  intelligence, and assertiveness constructs that
  enjoy variable status within different cultures.
• 10. The exercise of power can reflect varying
  degrees of awareness with respect to the impact
  of one's actions.

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Elements of a Theory of Psychopolitical Validity

• Psychopolitical validity derives from the
  consideration of power dynamics in psychological
  and political domains of wellness.
• The main objective of psychopolitical validity is
  to infuse in community psychology an awareness of
  the role of power in wellness, oppression, and
  liberation at the personal, relational, and
  collective domains.

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Psychopolitical validity

• In order to attain psychopolitical validity,
  investigations and interventions would have to
  meet certain criteria. These criteria have to do
  with the extent to which research and action
  incorporate lessons about psychological and
  political power.

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Psychopolitical Validity I Epistemic

• This type of validity is achieved by the
  systematic account of the role of power in
  political and psychological dynamics affecting
  phenomena of interest
• Such account needs to consider the role of power
  in the psychology and politics of wellness,
  oppression and liberation, at the personal,
  relational, and collective domains.

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Table 1 Guidelines for Epistemic Psychopolitical
Validity in Community Psychology
Concerns Domains Domains Domains
Concerns Collective Relational Personal
Wellness Accounts for role of political and economic power in economic prosperity and in creation of institutions that promote equality and public health Studies the role of power in creating and sustaining egalitarian relationships, social cohesion, social support, respect for diversity and democratic participation in communities, groups, and families Studies role of psychological and political power in achieving self-determination, empowerment, health, personal growth, meaning and spirituality
Oppression Explores role of globalization, colonization and exploitation in illness and suffering of nations and communities Examines the role of political and psychological power in exclusion and discrimination based on class, gender, age, race, education and ability. Studies conditions leading to lack of support, horizontal violence and fragmentation within oppressed groups Studies role of powerlessness in learned helplessness, hopelessness, self-deprecation, internalized oppression, shame, physical and mental health problems and addictions
Liberation Deconstructs ideological norms that lead to acquiescence and studies effective psychopolitical factors in resistance to norms that cause illness Studies acts of solidarity and compassion with others who suffer from oppression and illness Examines sources of health, strength, resilience, solidarity and development of activism and leadership
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Psychopolitical Validity II Transformational

• Transformational validity derives from the
  potential of our actions to promote personal,
  relational, and collective wellness by reducing
  power inequalities and increasing political
  action

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Table 2 Guidelines for Transformational
Psychopolitical Validity
Concerns Domains Domains Domains
Concerns Collective Relational Personal
Well-being Contributes to institutions that support health, emancipation, human development, peace, protection of environment, and social justice Contributes to power equalization in relationships and communities. Enriches awareness of subjective and psychological forces preventing solidarity. Builds trust, connection and participation in groups that support social cohesion, health and social justice Supports personal empowerment, health, sociopolitical development, leadership training and solidarity. Contributes to personal and social responsibility and awareness of subjective forces preventing commitment to justice and personal depowerment when in position of privilege
Oppression Opposes economic colonialism and denial of cultural rights. Decries and resists role of own reference group or nation in oppression of others and deterioration of health in other groups Contributes to struggle against in-group and out-group domination and discrimination, sexism and norms of violence. Builds awareness of own prejudice and participation in horizontal violence Helps to prevent acting out of own oppression on others. Builds awareness of internalized oppression and role of dominant ideology in victim-blaming. Contributes to personal depowerment of people in position of privilege
Liberation Supports networks of resistance and social change movements that pursue health and wellness. Contributes to structural depowerment of privileged people Supports resistance against objectification of others. Develops processes of mutual accountability Helps to resists complacency and collusion with exploitative and illness producing system. Contributes to struggle to recover personal health and political identity
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Project I New SPECs Three-Year Action Research
Project
John Snow Foundation
Island Youth Center
Healthy City
Nazareth Center
MLK Center
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• Building on Strengths
• Focusing on Prevention
• Working to Empower
• Changing Community Conditions

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Project II Vision Implementation ProjectThree
year research and action project with large
government department of human services

• Vision
• Implementation
• Project

• Clarifying and moving the vision forward
• Implementing vision through communities of
  practice
• Building the proper systems for learning and
  growth

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How Power Operates in Health and Human Services?

• Political power and psychological power interact
  in multiple ways
• Political and psychological power influence
  values and interests of players in the health and
  human service arena
• The more power equalization within the
  organization, the higher the chances that the
  intervention will be transformative
• Some aspects, like Strengths and Prevention, are
  easier to implement and less threatening but less
  transformative than Empowerment and Changing
  community conditions
• Contradictory discourses about power abound in
  the discourse of participants in both projects

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Epistemic Dialectic
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Ethical Dialectic
Ethical dialectic
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Power at the intersection of epistemic and
ethical dialectics
Ethical dialectic
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Stokols says.

• The healthfulness of a situation and the
  well-being of its participants are assumed to be
  influenced by multiple facets of both the
  physical environment (e.g., geography,
  architecture, and technology) and the social
  environment (e.g., culture, economics, and
  politics). Moreover, the health status of
  individuals and groups is influenced not only by
  environmental factors but also by a variety of
  personal attributes, including genetic heritage,
  psychological dispositions, and behavioral
  patterns.

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Stokols continues..

• Thus, efforts to promote human well-being should
  be based on an understanding of the dynamic
  interplay among diverse environmental and
  personal factors rather than on analyses that
  focus exclusively on environmental, biological,
  or behavioral factors. (Stokols, 2000, p. 27)

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Seligman says

• Seligman tells readers that, even if you could
  alter all of the external circumstances above, it
  would not do much for you, since together they
  probably account for no more than between 8 and
  15 percent of the variance in happiness
  (Authentic Happiness, 2002, p. 61).
• Really?

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Seligman Engages in Context Minimization Error

• Tendency to ignore the impact of enduring
  neighborhood and community contexts on human
  behavior. The error has adverse consequences for
  understanding psychological processes and efforts
  at social change (Shinn and Toohey, 2003, p.
  428).

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Context Minimization Error

• Practitioners should pay more attention to the
  community contexts of human behavior. Conditions
  in neighborhoods and community settings are
  associated with residents' mental and physical
  health, opportunities, satisfactions, and
  commitments. (Shinn and Toohey, 2003, Annual
  Review of Psychology).

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Its like Venice..
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Venices Lesson

• The psychotherapist, social worker or social
  reformer, concerned only with his own clients and
  their grievance against society, perhaps takes a
  view comparable to the private citizen of Venice
  who concerns himself only with the safety of his
  own dwelling and his own ability to get about the
  city. But if the entire republic is slowly being
  submerged, individual citizens cannot afford to
  ignore their collective fate, because, in the
  end, they all drown together if nothing is done
  (Badcock, 1982)