Using the Science of Positive Psychology in the Formative Evaluation of Social Justice Interventions: A Case Example

2021 ◽  
pp. 102017
Author(s):  
Meg A. Warren ◽  
Stewart I. Donaldson ◽  
Nicole Galport
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Formative Evaluation

Using the science of positive psychology in the formative evaluation of social justice interventions: A case example

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meg Aum Warren ◽  
Stewart Donaldson ◽  
Nicole Galport
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Halfway House ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Evaluation Community ◽  
Strengths Approach

The pursuit of culturally responsive approaches for designing and evaluating programs to promote social justice has become of the utmost importance to the evaluation community in the past decade. A strengths-focused evaluation approach has great promise for empowering individuals, groups, communities, and organizations, and identifying program strengths to build upon in addition to illuminating program deficits. However, there is a dearth of literature on using a strengths approach to evaluate interventions and programs to promote social justice. Drawing from the two disciplines of positive psychology and evaluation, this article illustrates a strengths-focused approach to formative evaluation using a case example of a halfway house for previously incarcerated women. The findings exemplify the positive psychological phenomena that emerge as a result of focusing the evaluation on program strengths. The case demonstrates that the application of a strengths-focused approach to evaluating social justice interventions can be empowering for institutions and the communities they serve.

Understanding Empathy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changming Duan ◽  
Kristen Sager
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Societal Health

Empathy, one of the most studied and most multidisciplinary theoretical constructs, has garnered the attention of scholars from psychology as well as the social and biological sciences. The scholarship of empathy has developed significantly in the past century, with the most notable knowledge emerging in the areas of the neuroscience of empathy and the interplay between race/culture and empathy in recent decades. The positive psychology of empathy also continues to occupy researchers, as the links between empathy and individual and societal health abound. Future empathy research by socially and scholastically responsible scientists must overcome a long history of Euro-ethnocentric biases and integrate social justice into the understanding of this important construct. The scholarship and application of empathy will continue to be an important source of positivity for humans and for society as a whole.

Counseling Psychology's Commitment to Strengths: Rhetoric or Reality?

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Gerstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Program Development ◽  
Prevention Program ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
Human Functioning

A positive psychology framework is consistent with counseling psychology's historic claim of focusing on strengths and optimal human functioning. The major articles in this issue of The Counseling Psychologist introduced many innovative, provocative, pragmatic, and useful ideas, strategies, and models related to this framework. For the most part, these articles failed, however, to integrate cultural factors, developmental concepts and interventions, and other strategies (e.g., social justice, psycho-education, prevention, program development, consultation) in their discussion of paradigms grounded in positive psychology. The current author discusses this omission and critiques the positive psychology framework described in these articles. The author presents a few steps to overcome the obstacles hindering the genuine implementation of a strength-based, developmental paradigm of counseling as well.

Positive Psychology for Social Justice Interventions: A Case Example of Strengths-Driven Evaluation

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 12806
Author(s):  
Meghana Rao ◽  
Stewart I. Donaldson ◽  
Nicole Porter
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Positive Psychology

scholarly journals A Social-­‐Justice Informed Evaluation of a Mentorship-Based Program Pairing At-Risk Youth and Holocaust Survivors

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-69
Author(s):  
Melissa L Morgan-Consoli ◽  
Brian J Stevenson ◽  
Erika Noriega Pigg ◽  
Wendy Eichler Morrison ◽  
Kelley Hershman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Program Planning ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Holocaust Survivor ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Personal Impact

This paper describes a social justice informed, formative evaluation of a community-based intervention program in our community that paired marginalized Latinx youth and Holocaust survivor mentors. This program is a unique effort to address the issues facing this youth population through difficult dialogues and mentorship from a group who has clearly suffered oppression. Using a qualitative, community-based approach, eight program participants were interviewed to explore the aspects of the program that were helpful or challenging among youth mentees and survivor mentors. We reflect on the success of mentorship interventions in promoting bridges of understanding between populations with different combinations of power and privilege. Emergent themes from the evaluation suggest that this community-based mentorship program led to several positive outcomes, including increased openness to diversity, increased empathy, and increased potential meaning-making for mentor survivors, as well as some challenges such as clearer program expectations and program planning issues. Using a lens of Positive Youth Development and social justice, we detail the lessons learned from this mentoring program for future counselors and psychologists interested in program development and evaluation. We also provide reflections on the formative program evaluation process for future community-based researchers and the personal impact of the experience on the students in training. Finally, we reflect on impact validity and the systems level transformative change that can be promoted through community-based programs such as this one.

Restructuring Educational Systems and Promoting Social Justice for Young People Involved in Drug Trafficking in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 227 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Sandro Gomes Pessoa ◽  
Linda Liebenberg ◽  
Dorothy Bottrell ◽  
Silvia Helena Koller
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Development Goals

Abstract. Economic changes in the context of globalization have left adolescents from Latin American contexts with few opportunities to make satisfactory transitions into adulthood. Recent studies indicate that there is a protracted period between the end of schooling and entering into formal working activities. While in this “limbo,” illicit activities, such as drug trafficking may emerge as an alternative for young people to ensure their social participation. This article aims to deepen the understanding of Brazilian youth’s involvement in drug trafficking and its intersection with their schooling, work, and aspirations, connecting with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 and 16 as proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015 .

The need for a principle-based positive psychology.

2001 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology

Tests, Minorities, and Social Justice

1977 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 934-935
Author(s):  
JACK D. FORBES
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice
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