Research Methods in Community Psychology

This chapter discusses the paradigms of community research, such as post-positivism, social-constructivism and transformative research paradigms. Community Psychology is committed to using a plurality of research and action methods. It is pragmatic in its choice of methods and is not wedded to any particular methodology. Since the research setting is of relevance and utmost significance, Community Psychology does encourage a context-specific point of view. It targets its empowerment goals with a particular group in a particular setting, whilst also hoping to accumulate knowledge from experience in a variety of settings. Community Psychology leans towards participatory evaluation methods rather than solely expert-led evaluation, forms of quasi-experimental rather than randomised trial designs. Action research, especially participatory action research, gets priority in the field of Community Psychology.