Ecological Theory 437of individuals and a value in keeping communities healthy as
a means of improving the human condition. Representing the
current consensus on the importance of ecological context is
this quote from Kenneth Maton’s 1999 Society for Commu-
nity Research and Action Presidential Address: “Change in
individuals alone, transient changes in setting environments,
and interventions that do not ultimately impact community
and societal environments cannot in and of themselves make
much of a difference” (Maton, 2000, p. 26). This section will
review the 35-year evolution of theory and methods that
articulate the relationship between the individual and her or
his surrounding environment within the field.
Examining individual behavior embedded in various so-
cial contexts has been a defining feature of community psy-
chology even before the field’s “official conception” in 1965
(Bennett et al., 1966). During the 1950s, environmental fac-
tors became widely acknowledged as substantial forces that
had impacted individual behavior and adjustment during
World War II as mental health professionals began to under-
stand the impact of war experiences on veterans’ mental
health (see this chapter’s opening section; Duffy & Wong,
1996; Ridenour, 1961; Sarason, 1978; Strother, 1987). Also
during this period, Kurt Lewin (1951), a social psychologist,
asserted his theory of human behavior that made the role of
environmental influence on individual behavior explicit (see
Swartz & Martin, 1997). In the field of ecological psychol-
ogy, Roger Barker (1963), a student of Lewin’s, also opposed
traditional psychological research that allowed “us to be
content with a psychology of people to the neglect of a psy-
chology of the environment of people” (p. 13). His research
program sparked discussions among psychologists on the ex-
tent to which immediate settings were the primary determi-
nants of behavior patterns (Holahan, Wilcox, Spearly, &
Campbell, 1979). Influential in Barker’s thinking about the
continuum along which the varying fields of psychology fall
in their approach to studying behavior was the work of Egon
Brunswick (Barker, 1963). The empirical work of Lewin
and Barker, in addition to the rarely acknowledged writings
of Brunswick, influenced the future direction of community
psychology theory and set the tone for extra-individually
oriented psychological study. It is important to note that
another parallel contribution to contextual thinking was the
emergence of the field of environmental psychology at about
the same time as community psychology (see Stokols, 1992;
Stokols & Altman, 1987).
Another influence on the “trend” to think contextually was
the series of Milbank Conferences held between 1952 and
- For example, the 1952 Milbank conference, “Interrela-
tions between the Social Environment and Psychiatric Disor-
ders,” was very influential as it provided the historical basis
for discussions about the person-in-context phenomenon
at the 1965 Swampscott Conference (Klein, 1987). This
Milbank conference surveyed nine research projects that ex-
amined the epidemiology of mental disorders and advocated
the use of community resources to address mental health
issues. One project discussed was Erich Lindemann’s Human
Relations Service of Wellesley. From his work on this
project, Klein explicitly described some of the functions of
the community and how these functions, such as providing
and distributing living space and shelter, distributing neces-
sary goods and services, maintaining safety and order, and
educating and acculturating newcomers, could impact com-
munity members. In this way, Lindemann and Klein took
great steps toward establishing how the community could be
seen and explored as a resource or strength in the develop-
ment of individuals.
In the early 1960s, Seymour Sarason, a clinical psy-
chologist by training, was showing psychologists how to do
community-based work (Levine, Reppucci, & Weinstein,
1990; Reppucci, 1990; Sarason, 1995). The Yale Psycho-
Educational Clinic that he directed illustrated an approach to
intervention that targeted settings rather than individuals
alone (Sarason, 1972, 1976; Sarason, Levine, Goldenberg,
Cherlin, & Bennett, 1966). Sarason contributed greatly to the
field’s emphasis on contextual factors and made explicit the
relationship between individual behavior and community set-
tings. The innovative work of Sarason and Lindemann set the
stage for ideas expressed at the Swampscott Conference
more than 10 years later and fostered the work of future eco-
logically minded community psychologists.Ecological Inquiry as a Defining Focus
for Community PsychologyAt the 1965 Swampscott Conference, community psychol-
ogy was launched, and the goal to understand the context in
which human behavior occurs was hailed as one of the field’s
primary focuses. As noted in the Swampscott report, the new
field of community psychology was defined as “the study of
general psychological processes that link social systems with
individual behavior in complex interaction” (Bennett et al.,
1966, p. 7). The topic of the social environment was om-
nipresent at the conference because of prior scholarly and
professional activities such as the convening of the prior
Milbank Conferences, the creation of the NIMH, and the re-
cruitment of psychologists dedicated to these new initiatives
within the NIMH. Despite the seemingly unanimous consen-
sus on the valuing of contextual analysis, issues of training
and practice for community psychologists prompted discus-
sions around such questions as “Through what frameworks