444 Community Psychology
1950s and 1960s suggests bases for the interests of citizens,
including psychologists, to create such a distinct enterprise as
community psychology.
Embedded in the spirit of the times, the founding of com-
munity psychology at the Swampscott Conference was sup-
ported by at least two decades of exploration into community
approaches to mental health service provision. The 20 years
of scholarly and professional achievements illuminated the
connections among social structure, health, and the delivery
of community and preventive services. The founding and de-
velopment of the field both reflected and fostered a paradigm
shift in the practice of psychology. Community psychology
represented new ways to conceptualize mental illness and
mental health and news ways to approach individual, sys-
tems, and social changes. Specifically, shifts in conceptual
orientation demanded that efforts to develop theories and
preventive interventions be viewed through a nondeficits
model—a model of promoting strengths of communities and
individual community members.
We have framed the field’s development of theory and action
in terms of enhancing individual and community strengths.
Community psychologists like Cowen and Weissberg have
made promoting wellness through preventive interventions
with an ecological orientation. Ecological theorists have also
suggested specific connections to a strengths perspective, most
recently in the ideas of Kelly (2000). Preventive intervention-
ists are increasingly advocating for the inherent connection
between this strengths perspective and their work (Seidman
et al., 1999; Zimmerman, Ramirez-Valles, & Maton, 1999).
The thesis of this chapter lies in the multiple ways that traces of
the principle of the interdependence of a strengths perspective
with ecological concepts and preventive interventions have
defined a major core of the work implemented throughout the
field’s history.
The importance of the strengths perspective in community
psychology is illustrated by the number of community psy-
chologists who have commented on the challenge of deve-
loping a competence approach in community research and
practice. At the symposium celebrating the 20th anniversary
of the field, Kelly (1987) echoed the Swampscott Conference
participants’ articulation of a need for a broader definition of
health and well-being. Strother (1987) discussed how the tone
at the time of Swampscott had allowed for an emphasis on the
maintenance of health rather than a sole focus on illness.
Klein (1987) repeated some of Lindemann’s thoughts by em-
phasizing that prevention or mental health promotion, the
most cost-effective early treatments, would result from fo-
cused efforts to enhance individuals’ natural support systems.
Also during this time, several chapters in theAnnual Review
of Psychologyfocused attention on the issue of bringing a
strengths perspective into preventive interventions (Gesten &
Jason, 1987; Iscoe & Harris, 1984; Kelly, Snowden, & Munoz,
1977; Levine, Toro, & Perkins, 1993).
Considering the ecological perspective as described by
Kelly, Trickett, and colleagues and actualized by other noted
community psychologists, we see an inherent connection
between a strengths perspective and viewing the person in
context. As the strengths orientation prescribes that we attend
to the functional roles played by individuals and community
structures, so does ecologically valid work that explicitly
acknowledges the interdependent relationship between com-
munity citizens and the multiple levels of their environments.
Furthermore, the link between a strengths perspective and
ecological thinking is evident in the field’s translation of
research into action via preventive interventions and action
research. Community psychologists have illustrated such a
connection through interventions that focus on building com-
munity capacity or promoting individual strengths as strate-
gies to prevent social problems or disease.
We hope that by highlighting some of the social events
and movements that framed the emergence of the field, future
scholars can build from this enterprise. The future of com-
munity psychology is bound not only by its social, political,
and professional contexts but also by its past. Understanding
the confluence of historical events and processes that con-
tributed to the evolution of community psychology can
provide us with the insight and knowledge to continue col-
laborative research with communities that ecologically
assesses problems and competencies in efforts to prevent
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