Strengths of Persons and Communities 435psychology (Korchin, 1976; Maher, 1988); psychotherapy
was viewed as too narrow a professional role by an increas-
ing number of community-oriented clinical psychologists.
The Chicago Conference on the Professional Preparation of
Clinical Psychologists (August 27 to September 1, 1965) af-
firmed the research role for the clinical psychologist, encour-
aged more training in child-clinical psychology, and noted
community psychology as one of the “new developments
in clinical psychology” (Hoch, Ross, & Winder, 1966). The
discontent with clinical psychology was a major contributing
issue that broadened the professional boundaries of clinical
psychology to consider community approaches to mental
health. Public Law 88-164 was the capstone for the commu-
nity mental health movement (Levine, 1981; Wagenfield,
Lemkau, & Justice, 1982). The law authorized federal match-
ing funds of $150 million over a three-year period for use by
states in constructing comprehensive community mental
health centers. These events created the primary context that
led to the convening of the Swampscott Conference in 1965,
which was aimed at increasing training opportunities for psy-
chologists to do community mental health work.
The Swampscott Conference
The Swampscott Conference, as mentioned, occurred at a
time when ordinary citizens were actively addressing various
forms of discrimination, racism, sexism, and classism in their
communities. There was increasing interest among some psy-
chologists and NIMH staff for all mental health professions
to become community oriented. Among mental health pro-
fessionals, it was apparent that the community mental health
movement had the potential to connect to these other social
movements and to promote social change.
At the conference, a growing consensus emerged among
the 39 invited participants that there was value, if not neces-
sity, for psychologists to move beyond the worldview of the
medical field, particularly from psychiatry. In contrast to a
medical emphasis, conference participants hoped that psy-
chologists would be doing research and designing prevention
programs in the community, following a public health or
community development orientation. They hoped to enable
citizens to be active participants in improving the strengths of
their communities. Many of the participants were excited that
a community perspective, which many had already adopted
individually, was now being proposed as a valid role for psy-
chologists (Klein, 1987). The conference affirmed the desire
for psychologists to be in the community as “participant con-
ceptualizers” (Bennett et al., 1966). Following the confer-
ence, organizers sent a report to chairs of all departments
of psychology across the country detailing aspects of the
conference and recommendations for training psychologists
to do community mental health work. In 1967, the Division
of Community Psychology (Division 27) was established
within the American Psychological Association (APA), and
Robert Reiff was appointed the first president (Meritt et al.,
1997). The division evolved into its current structure as the
Society for Community Research and Action as well as con-
tinuing to be affiliated with the APA. These developments,
along with creating biennial meetings and establishing com-
munication methods to members, are discussed in Meritt
et al. (1997).
Soon after the circulation of the Swampscott report,
M. Brewster Smith and Nicholas Hobbs (1966) prepared a
very important statement on the role of psychology and
the community mental health center. They wrote, “The more
closely the proposed [community mental health] centers
become integrated with the life and institutions of their com-
munities, the less the community can afford to turn over to
mental health professionals its responsibility for guiding the
center’s policies” (M. Smith & Hobbs, 1966, p. 501). This
statement, endorsed by the Council of Representatives of the
American Psychological Association in March 1966, inde-
pendently affirmed the values of the Swampscott participants.
In sum, this section described the establishment of the
field of community psychology. We propose that earlier cul-
tural and historical events and circumstances are important
contexts to help understand the field’s beginning at the 1965
Swampscott Conference. Furthermore, these same cultural
and historical events have provided a context for the emer-
gence of three major domains of the field, whose histories are
presented below. The first, working with the strengths of per-
sons and communities,has served as a guiding value for the
field’s development. Second, ecological theoryhas provided
a theoretical framework for the work that community psy-
chologists do. Finally, designing and conducting preventive
interventionshas become the primary way in which commu-
nity psychology research has been translated into action.
Each of these three will be explored below.STRENGTHS OF PERSONS AND COMMUNITIESThroughout the course of the history of health and social
sciences, there has been a trend of moving from a deficits
perspective toward an emphasis on positive development
of people and their communities. More specifically, the
strengths perspective, and how it should be both defined and
addressed, has been discussed among community psycholo-
gists over the past 35 years since Swampscott (Bennett et al.,
1966; Chavis, 1993; Cowen, 1997, 2000b; Glidewell, 1977;