Over the course of a long and varied career I have engaged in many kinds of schol-arly and social activities and written about them for a variety of audiences. As I finished each project, I felt both a sense of accomplishment and a sense that I had not completely answered the questions with which I was concerned. Several years ago I wrote a comprehensive book in which I sought to interrelate individual and social aspects of human conduct. It answered many questions for me but still left me unsatisfied. What was left was the hardest task we face in our lives; namely, translating our ideas, or theories as we call them in academia, into some directives for applying them so that they can make a difference in our own and other people's lives. What I have tried to do here is focus on communities as the vital link in my theories about the process between people and their environments.

Skillfully combining psychological knowledge and humanitarian wisdom, Developing Prosocial Communities across Cultures shows how nurturing environments can be rooted in the common concerns of people and institutions, while giving readers the steps toward achieving this goal. Psychologist/activist Forrest Tyler emphasizes individuals’ collective responsibilities-to themselves, each other, and society-and describes a coordinated balance of discrete social changes brought about by civic action, policy changes initiated by officials, and collaboration between professionals and the community. Instructive examples from locales as varied as Colombia, Jordan, and the United States offer models from which readers can form unique, innovative solutions. And the author's multicultural/ multiethnic approach clearly maps out the road from theoretical concepts to real-world action:

Defining the prosocial community-core characteristics and elemental relationships.

Observing communities: assessing their potential for intervention, determining change objectives.

Thinking beyond traditional psychological/mental health approaches to community change.

Prosocial effects of community projects involving multiple levels of action.

Questscope: an extended example of community change in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Tyler's decades of experience, and the lucid perspective of Developing Prosocial Communities across Cultures, brings social and community psychologists new assurance that social programs can have greater relevance to the people and groups they serve.

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Definitions and Background Issues

 1.1. Background

 1.2. Defining a Prosocial Community

 1.3. Characteristics of a Prosocial Community

 1.4. Studying and Intervening in Communities

2. Psychosocial Integration: The Theoretical Framework

 2.1. Transcultural Ethnic Validity Model

 2.2. Prosociai Community Model

 2.3. Integration of the Ethnic Validity and Prosocial Community Perspectives

3. The Current Situation: Psychologists' Approaches to Community Change

 3.1. Background

 3.2. Community Mental Health/Psychology Approaches

 3.3. Reconceptualizing Community Approaches

4. The Prosocial Effect of Changing One Aspect of a Community

 4.1. Changing Individuals to Solve Community Problems

 4.2. Organized Assaults on System Injustices and Inequities

 4.3. The Creation of Alternative Settings

 4.4. Comments

5. The Prosocial Effect of Coordinating Change in Two Aspects of a Community

 5.1. Prosocial Community Projects Managed by External Consultants

 5.2. The Prosocial Effect when Consultants Become Involved

 5.3. Relevant Efforts

 5.4. Comments

6. A Guide for Establishing Prosocial Communities

 6.1. Three Levels of Action

 6.2. Creating Prosocial Communities

7. Questscope: A Comprehensive Prosocial Community Program

 (This chapter was Written in collaboration with Dr. Curtis N. Rhodes, Jr.

 President and International Director, Questscope, Amman, Jordan)

 7.1. History and Evolution of Questscope as a Prosocial Community

 7.2. Program Development Process

 7.3. Questscope's Program Elements

 7.4. Facilitating Prosocial Transformations

 7.5. The Broader Prosocial Community: Prosocially Oriented Programs and Institutions

Biographical Sketch of Curtis N. Rhodes, Jr

References

Subject Index

Author Index