Program Overview

Course Overview

The course PSY3150, Community Psychology, is no longer taught and is only available for examination. It is a second-degree level course with 7.5 credits, taught in Norwegian, and located in Trondheim.

Course Content

The teaching contains central concepts, issues, and work methods in community psychology. This includes:

• Change processes at the community level
• Locally based intervention methods
• Methods for evaluation of implemented actions
• Community psychology perspectives for improving mental health and mental health problems amongst adolescents at school
• Community psychology methods for working with marginalised groups
• Framework conditions important for operational planning of community psychology interventions

Relevant topics include:

• Empowerment, coping, and social support
• The relationship between power, politics, and psychology
• Sense of community
• System approaches in change processes at the community level
• Use of local community resources when working with health problems among individuals and groups
• User-directed involvement in change processes
• Contextual understanding of psychological and mental health problems
• Community level political and administrative structure and functioning
• Evaluation methodology

Learning Outcome

Knowledge

The student obtains:

• An advanced understanding of relevant concepts, issues, and work methods in community psychology
• An advanced understanding of system perspectives and of how social and environmental factors are associated with individual behaviour as well as with behaviour in groups, local communities, and organisations
• An understanding of how to examine social and institutional framework conditions influence individuals, groups, and organisations
• Knowledge about and understanding of how to structure and document effective solutions on socio-political problems
• A thorough understanding of the characteristics of a community psychology approach and how such an approach differs from the public health perspective
• Knowledge about local community practices and about how to conduct interventions at the local community level
• Knowledge about how local municipalities in Norway work as administrative and political units

Skill Attainment

The student obtains:

• Experience with community psychology approaches and relevant theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence can be applied to analyse, understand, and solve mental health difficulties
• Experience with community psychology approaches and relevant theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence can be applied to analyse, understand, and solve problems in school and amongst adolescents
• Experience with how to formulate relevant research objectives and with how to write a term paper
• Experience with searching in international research databases
• Experience with an independent written as well as an oral presentation of theory, empirical findings, and community psychology work methods

General Competence

The student obtains:

• An advanced and critical understanding of the socio-political environment and especially about the relation between psychology and political science
• An advanced and critical understanding of how to conduct innovative and alternative interventions
• Knowledge necessary to apply community psychology principles and knowledge to answer current problems

Learning Methods and Activities

The course includes lectures, workshops, and supervision.

Compulsory Assignments

• Oral presentation

Evaluation

Approved compulsory activity is valid for a new examination.

Credit Reductions

The course has academic overlap with PSY3204. If you take overlapping courses, you will receive a credit reduction in the course where you have the lowest grade. If the grades are the same, the reduction will be applied to the course completed most recently.

Subject Areas

• Psychology

Examination

The examination arrangement is an assignment with a weighting of 100/100. The grade is given in letter grades.

Academic Responsibility

The Department of Psychology has academic responsibility for the course.