Terms of empowerment/exemplars of prevention: Toward a theory for community psychology

TLDR

Community psychology distinguishes phenomena of interest from exemplars, treating prevention as an exemplar and proposing empowerment as a primary phenomenon of interest. The study aims to develop a theory by establishing consensus among scientists on what constitutes community psychology’s phenomena of interest. The authors describe empowerment theory’s ecological framework, explicate its key terms, and outline eleven assumptions, presuppositions, and hypotheses to guide theory development and empirical research.

Abstract

In order to develop theory any community of scientists must agree as to what constitutes its phenomena of interest. A distinction is made between phenomena of interest and exemplars. The concept "prevention" is viewed as an exemplar, whereas the concept "empowerment" is suggested as a leading candidate for the title "phenomena of interest" to Community Psychology. The ecological nature of empowerment theory is described, and some of the terms of empowerment (definitions, conditions, and periods of time) are explicated. Eleven assumptions, presuppositions, and hypotheses are offered as guidelines for theory development and empirical study.