Community and Social Psychology Divisions' Contribution to the PsySSA Annual Report

Community and Social Psychology Division

2013

·         Structure Composition:      

Chair:                                     Prof Eduard Fourie

Executive members:            Dr Puleng Segalo, Mr Wiehann Rademan & Mr Sydney Butler

·         What were your structure’s priorities for the year?

The Community and Social Psychology (CaSP) division’s aim was to continue the process of establishing and maintaining an online communication space to share ideas and information about upcoming events and conferences, new publications, to track the history of local publications and conference presentations, to hear how different universities define community psychology and approach the teaching of community and social psychology. The division’s blog address is http://psyssacns.blogspot.com/. The blog is intended to serve as a bulletin board and general community nexus for both members of the division and practitioners in both of these interrelated fields. To submit material to the blog, send your submission to Eduard Fourie (fourime@unisa.ac.za) or Puleng Segalo (segalpj@unisa.ac.za).

  

·         What are your structure’s priorities for next few years?

We will continue to explore ways to highlight the work of South African Community and Social Psychology Practitioners and grow the division. ICP2012 as well as other national and international conferences provided us with the opportunity to network within the division, but also with the broader psychology community. The online space will continue to develop and to provide an interactive and engaging space.

·         Meetings of your Executive

Executive members of the division continue to engage electronically.

·         Meetings of Members

Members of the division as well as other interested parties were invited to let us know whether they wish to receive email notifications of new posting on the blog, and the response was very positive.

·         Other Meetings

·         Workshop/Seminars/Symposia/Panel Discussions/Lectures/Presentations

Members of the division team attended and presented at the IVth International Community Psychology Conference in Barcelona in June 2012, at the Third Southern African Students’ Psychology Conference as well as various other Congresses.

·         Other Activities (including outreach and community interventions)

Members of the Division played a central role on hosting and presenting at the Third Southern African Students’ Psychology Conference in June 2013. Together with the PsySSA Student Division, a series of round table discussions on scholarly Development is included in the 19^th PsySSA Congress to be hosted in September 2013.

·         Recommendations to the PsySSA Executive

Let’s continue to make online communications and interactions more vibrant and active. In doing so, more people can participate and engage in activities, projects, and decision making processes.

 Complied by Eduard Fourie and the Division Executive Members

July 2013

PsyTalk Issue 3- 2013

The link to PsyTalk Issue 3- 2013:

 Please click here to download the latest PsyTalk Issue 3 – 2013 

PsyTalk is a newsletter of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA). Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of PsySSA. Inclusion of any material (whether editorial or advertisement) does not imply PsySSA endorsement.

Inside out outside in - South African prisons interest group

Inside-out outside-in is a loose, inter-disciplinary grouping of South Africans interested in issues relating to prisons. The group is not involved in any projects, but exists to share knowledge and experiences about projects, organisations, research, and theories.

This interest group seeks to apply community psychology approaches and perspectives to the diverse communities that exist in and around correctional systems. We are particularly focused on initiatives that cross the boundaries between the inside and outside of prisons and deals with the connections and inter-dependencies between inside and out. Examples are the development of tertiary education opportunities for prisoners, issues of social reintegration and recidivism after release, issues relating to the families and relatives of prisoners, and the collaborative generation and dissemination of knowledge about prison experiences and circumstances.

Currently we have a whatsapp group, an email list, a website - http://insideoutoutsidein.co.za/ - and we host periodic presentations.

For more information write to Carien du Plessis at admin@insideoutoutsidein.co.za.

Launch of a new publication: Some communities imagined - Edited by Melusi Mbatha and Yaseen Ally

About the book

“This book arose from a sense of frustration. As academics in the Psychology Department at the University of South Africa (Unisa) we felt privileged to have access to community psychology related research projects submitted by our Honours students. However, we also felt endlessly frustrated by the closed nature of the process. Many of our students produce interesting work, worthy of a wider audience, but the university system of tuition and examination dictates that this work should be ‘for our eyes only’. We conceived of this book as a small attempt to make students’ work more widely available for public scrutiny – because we are proud of what our students are capable of, yes, but also because we know that their efforts, and ours, have many, many shortcomings and can only benefit from outsiders’ comments and critiques.”

CONTENTS

Preface (Eduard Fourie, Martin Terre Blanche, Yaseen Ally & Melusi Mbatha)

1 Resources, needs and alcohol use among white female students at a South African university (Grethe Goosen)

2 HIV and AIDS in the Mbare community, Zimbabwe (Blessing Chirisa)

3 Resources, needs and the negative effects of overcrowding in Tembisa (Emma Modimola)

4 Resources, needs and juvenile delinquency in Eldorado Park (Jessuina James)

5 Understanding the risk factors associated with teenage pregnancy in Gugulethu, Western Cape (Courtney Reece)

6 Hillbrow, a home to many, a community of diversity (Charlotte Ndlovu)

7 From the outside looking in: Resources, needs and gang violence in and around a South African prison (Catherine Boucher)

8 Resources, needs and privacy issues in the Facebook community (Eliza Charalambous)

For a free copy of the book or to purchase a print copy from amazon.com, visit the website at http://somecommunities.co.za

A reminder of the 2013 Southern African Students' Psychology Conference

The 2013 Students' Psychology Conference will take place at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg from 24 to 28 June 2013.

Ten pre-conference workshops are scheduled for 24 and 25 June. For more information on these workshops and the conference, visit http://www.studentsconference.co.za/.

Hope to see you there.
Eduard

AT THIS YEAR'S PSYSSA CONGRESS: SCHOLARLY DEVELOPMENT - A SERIES OF ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS

The PsySSA Student Division and Community and Social Psychology Division will be hosting a series of round table discussions with a focus on scholarly development at the 19th PsySSA Congress in September 2013. The ethos underpinning these round tables is one of critical, honest and pragmatic conversations on studying and entering the field of psychology in South Africa. The hope is to facilitate open discussions between training institutions, between students and training institutions, organised psychology and the professional board. These discussions aim to illuminate the journey that students take on their way toward professional practice. We welcome all scholars and practitioners to participate in these discussions.
Coordinators: Eduard Fourie (chair of the Community and Social Psychology Division), Angelo Fynn (chair of the Student Division), Puleng Segalo and Catherine Govender.

The series of round table discussions includes the following:

1) TRAINING AND PRACTISING PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN AFRICA TODAY: A REFLECTION
Authors:
Angelo Fynn (fynna@unisa.ac.za), Eduard Fourie (fourime@unisa.ac.za), Catherine Govender (govenco@unisa.ac.za), Kevin Whitehead (Kevin.Whitehead@wits.ac.za) and Jennifer Graham (grahaja@unisa.ac.za)
Research in psychology is the centre of much contestation in the discipline. The fragmentation of the discipline into discrete categories further obfuscates the role of research in the discipline. The aim is to create dialogue between training institutions in South Africa, with a focus on research in psychology. Key questions asked about the “informal” distinction between research in psychology and research psychology as a sub category; the role psychological research could or should play in developing psychology’s role in promoting human rights, mental health; whether research psychology should stand as a sub category or whether greater integration of research into the other categories should be the focus.

2) STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY
Authors:
Leana Meiring (meiril@unisa.ac.za), Kyla Mills (kylajmills@gmail.com) and Angelo Fynn (fynna@unisa.ac.za)
The holistic development of students as psychological professionals requires consistent and regular reflection on the various functions psychologists are required to perform. It is therefore important to create spaces in which students can actively voice their perceptions and ideas of how the various aspects of a psychological professional integrate for them individually. This active voicing of their envisaged professional ideals performs multiple functions. First, such a discussion can provide one with a multitude of ideals obtained from students coming from various fields of psychological specialisation, for example clinical, counselling and research psychology. These ideals can be construed as the expectations that students hold of the field in which they seek to embed their careers. This may further provide training institutions - and the student themselves - with insight into the expectations of the different fields of psychological specialization which in turn can contribute to the enhancement of training curricula at various training institutions. Second, active discussion of these professional ideals might facilitate the process where psychology students re-envision the importance of the various roles within the profession of psychology.
This conversation proposes to bring psychology students from the various registration categories in psychology to collaboratively discuss their development as a psychological professional. The discussion will focus on key issues such as duration of study, access to psychological knowledge, the relevance of psychological training methods, the role of research in psychology and the value of a psychology degree in the job market.

3) CONVERSATION WITH THE PROFESSIONAL BOARD
Authors:
Fatima Seedat (fatima@psyssa.com) and Angelo Fynn (fynna@unisa.ac.za)
This roundtable aims to facilitate a discussion between the student body, training institutions, organised psychology, practitioners and the professional board regarding the registration categories in psychology. Key discussion points include: Scope of practice; registration requirements; training guidelines; the dynamics of communication between stakeholders and ethical standards and enforcement.

4) THE PROBLEM WITH STUDYING PSYCHOLOGY...
Authors:
Angelo Fynn (fynna@unisa.ac.za) and Fatima Seedat (fatima@psyssa.com)
This roundtable invites departments of psychology representatives to participate in a vigorous and active debate on the recruiting, training and exit levels in psychology. The socioeconomic context of South Africa dictates a practical training approach which focuses strongly on access to the job market. Yet, psychology as a discipline provides few market ready exit points relative to the large number of students registered at undergraduate levels. This roundtable questions the ethics of accepted training practices such as accepting large numbers of undergraduates with the knowledge that only a small percentage can be accommodated at the post graduate level.

5) COMMUNITY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Author:
Puleng Segalo (segalpj@unisa.ac.za)
As part of the relevance debate, there have been moves within training institutions to integrate more community-based settings in an attempt to bypass the individual focus of treatment. These moves are at best ad hoc and disjointed and largely divorced from the principles of community psychology. The consequent focus on throughput and skills development sets the stage for potential exploitation of both student and chosen community. This roundtable focuses on the ethics of training in communities; the nature of empowerment and challenges the notion that psychology in communities is for poor black people. Students are encouraged to share their experiences of engagements with communities.

6 ) DEVELOPING STUDENT COMMUNITIES/ORGANISATIONS
Author:
Angelo Fynn (fynna@unisa.ac.za) and Tebogo Fafudi (fafudit@yahoo.com)
In this roundtable the PsySSA Student division invites representative from all universities to share their experiences of being involved in a student society. The discussion will centre on the process of establishing a student society, the benefits of belonging to student societies, the role these societies could or should play in giving psychology students a voice in organised psychology.

7) INDIVIDUAL MENTAL HEALTH
Authors:
Catherine Govender (govenco@unisa.ac.za) and Nikki Themistocleous (themin@unisa.ac.za)
Training for psychological interventions is still dominated by the discourse of individual treatment. The National Health Act poses a challenge for psychology to which psychology needs to adapt. The perception of psychology as a suburban treatment persists and, if psychology is to survive as a discipline we must question if we afford to maintain this perceived exclusivity. On a practical level, we have few psychologists working in national health, very few paid posts available to them, few training and work opportunities for categories such as registered counsellors and too much debate around scope of practice.

8) SCHOLARLY DEVELOPMENT: PUBLICATION AND PRACTICE
Authors:
Eduard Fourie (fourime@unisa.ac.za), Puleng Segalo (segalpj@unisa.ac.za), Elliot Masemola (masemme1@unisa.ac.za) and Sumaya Laher (Sumaya.Laher@wits.ac.za)
Scholarly development is synonymous with publication. This roundtable focuses on the realities of entering the publication context as an emerging scholar. This discussion is a continuation of a process initiated at the third biannual Southern African Students’ Psychology conference. The discussion will address the stages of publication: the fear and loathing of drafting manuscripts, the terror and terrorism of the peer review, the absolution of eventual publication.

9) SOME STUDENT PUBLICATIONS IMAGINED
Authors:
Yaseen Ally (ysn.ally@gmail.com), Melusi Mbatha (mbathm@unisa.ac.za), Eduard Fourie (fourime@unisa.ac.za) and Martin Terre Blanche (terremj@unisa.ac.za)
Over the past few years we have been involved with a number of publications that involve collaboration between students and academics. We briefly review these, and then describe our most recent initiative, a book entitled “Some communities imagined”, in more detail. We describe the process of putting the book together, highlight important themes that emerged from the students’ writing, and critically discuss the implications for community and psychology in South Africa. We also provide some details on pragmatic considerations and practical mechanisms in creating publications, and consider the theoretical and political implications for the knowledge (re-)production process. Finally,

‘Writing Biko’ - Lecture by Derek Hook

With the recent publication of Xolela Mangcu’s (2012) biography of Steve Biko, and in light of the proliferating use of Biko’s name as a ‘master-signifier’ in post-apartheid discourse, it becomes possible to plot several versions of the Biko legacy. More important perhaps than an analysis of the various identifications and narrative agendas identifications that emerge in the key biographical accounts of Biko’s life is the question of the relationship between the multiple contemporary versions of Biko. Added to this is the question of how ‘creative non-fiction’ might serve as a methodological resource that aids us in returning to key narrative events in the various accounts of Biko’s life.

Derek Hook is a lecturer in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London; a visiting associate professor in Psychology at Wits University in South Africa; and an associate lecturer in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Foucault, Psychology and the Analytics of Power (2007), A Critical Psychology of the Postcolonial (2011) and of the forthcoming (Post)apartheid Conditions (2013). A trainee psychoanalyst at the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, Derek is also a lead researcher in the Apartheid Archive Project based at Wits University

Date: 14^th May 2013

Time: 13h00-14h00

Venue: Emthonjeni Auditorium

RSVP: Nomonde.Gogo@wits.ac.za