Community Psychology Commons^™

Indigenous Parenting Support In The Dampier Peninsula: July – December 2013 Participatory Action Research Evaluation Report, Andrew Guilfoyle, Sasha Botsis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We assessed the activities / events run by the Indigenous Parenting Support (IPS) program in the Dampier Peninsula, from July – December 2013. We evaluated their impact against the Communities for Children – IPS Program Guideline Deliverables, and include the strengths, challenges, and recommendations for each deliverable; along with our general observations and recommendations, and recommendations for activities and methods for the first 6 months of 2014.

• Continue with Current Activities: The IPS has overcome major risks and engaged the communities in a range of community bound diverse activities. We observed a diverse range of activities which have …

Cos I’Ve Always Wanted To Do This And Oh That Was Fun: An Evaluation Of The Impact On Resilience Of The Indigenous Parenting Support Mosaic And Jewellery Making Events, Andrew Guilfoyle, Sasha Botsis

Research outputs 2013

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of The Dampier Peninsula Indigenous Parenting Support Program: Progress Report 1, Andrew Guilfoyle

Research outputs 2012

This is the first progress report of the local evaluation of the Dampier Peninsula Indigenous Parent Support Program (IPS). The evaluative report extends the Participatory Action Research (PAR) based evaluation plan (Guilfoyle, Baker, & Bray, 2011). It includes a theoretical discussion on resilience building, community development, and the role of parenting support for early child development, through links to literature and direct evidence captured through community based observations, notes, and recorded interviews with IPS workers, community members, and key stakeholders on the communities and in Broome, and case studies. The evaluation assessed IPS activities in light of its policy framework …

It's A Just A Different Way Of Cooking: Social Learning And Aboriginal Father And Son Attachment Within The Dampier Peninsula Indigenous Parent Support Catch And Cook Event, Andrew Guilfoyle

Research outputs 2012

The 2012 IPS Father’s Day Catch & Cook events The 2012 Father‟s Day events held in each of the communities, built on the events held in Djarindjin and Ardyaloon the previous year. Last year the events were dedicated for fathers catching food and then cooking together with their sons. This year the event included the fathers and sons preparing food for women. With this shift there was a whole of family focus and also a shift of venue. In Djarindjin the event was held at the school grounds near the basketball courts. In Ardyaloon, rather than away from the main …

Lobbying For Endorsement Of Community Psychology In Australia, Lynne Cohen, Julie Dean, Heather Gridley, Rebecca Hogea, Ken Robinson, Emma Sampson, Anne Sibbel, Colleen Turner

Research outputs 2012

In November 2010, the areas of practice known as community psychology and health psychology were endorsed by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council (AHWMC). This was a major reversal of the Council’s earlier decision in April that year to limit the endorsed areas of practice to those represented by the other seven Colleges of the Australian Psychological Society. This paper describes the intense lobbying effort coordinated by the National Committee of the Australian Psychological Society College of Community Psychologists and their supporters, which was sustained over many months and led ultimately to a changed decision by the Australian Health Ministers. …

Risk Mitigation And Culture: An Examination Of The Utility Of Cultural Cognition Theory In Determining Operational Security Cultures In A Healthcare Environment, Melvyn Griffiths

Theses : Honours

People tend to see danger and risk in different ways depending on their experiences, attitudes and beliefs (Douglas, 1992; Kahan, 2008; Slovic, 1992). In order to develop effective risk mitigation strategies, an approach that can successfully manage competing worldviews is needed. Hospitals provide a challenging setting for security due to the contrast between the open nature of the environment and the need for appropriate entry and access control measures. This study assessed the utility of the Cultural Cognition methodology in a security risk context by measuring competing worldviews and risk perceptions between various cohorts in a healthcare environment. Cultural Cognition …

Differing Attitudes Towards The Cannabis Infringement Notice Scheme As A Function Of Career Aspirations And Dispositional Variables, Mark Thomas Wallace

Theses : Honours

This paper investigated the predictive relationship between individuals' career aspirations, dispositional variables such as temperance mentality and need for closure, and recent cannabis use, and attitudes towards the Cannabis Infringement Notice (CIN) scheme in Western Australia; and also examined if differences in attitudes towards CIN scheme existed between different career aspiration groups. The CIN scheme, a harm reduction strategy, came into effect on 22 March 2004 (Lenton, 2004). Harm reduction is one of three strategies encompassed by the policy of harm minimisation, which underpins Australia's approach to drugs and drug related harm (Ryder, Walker, & Salmon, 2006). Studies investigating attitudes …

Peer Mentoring In Higher Education: Mentees' Perceptions And Experiences, Jaye Barclay

Theses : Honours

Due to Federal Government policy reforms in the 1990's, equity and access to higher education (McKenzie & Schweitzer, 2001), has resulted in a major shift from elite to mass education (McKenzie & Schweitzer, 2001). Increased participation in higher education has subsequently led to increased attrition rates, especially among first year, first semester undergraduate students (Krause, Hartley, James, & Mcinnis, 2005). Over the past 15 years, the introduction of peer mentoring programs in Australian universities, have been recognised as an important step in addressing transitional issues (McLean, 2004), improving academic performance (Jacobi, 1991), and decreasing attrition rates (Drew, Pike, Pooley, Young, …

The Role Of Social Support Systems In Reducing Loneliness And Social Isolation For Parents Whose Partner Work Fly-In/Fly-Out, Nicole Fresle

Theses : Honours

Fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) practices in the mining and contracting industries are currently prominent and expanding throughout Western Australia. There is a strong need for effective social support systems for families during the worker's deployment due to long periods of time apart, reappraisal of family roles and social isolation. This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of parents whose partners are employed on a fly-in/fly-out basis and their views of social support systems in addressing the issues of loneliness and isolation. Family resilience was also utilised to investigate how female home-based partners deal with the stress involved …

Reasons For Migration And Cultural Distance In South African Women's Migratory Adjustment Experiences: A Phenomenological Account, Ida Steyn

Theses : Honours

Researchers have identified migration to a new country as a stressful life event that is associated with loss of family, friends and community, and adjustment difficulties in the new country (Markovizky & Samid, 2008). In addition, involuntary migration and adaption to a new cultural environment is known to be a factor of psychological distress. Much is unknown about the adjustment of involuntary migrants during the critical period of reestablishment in the new environment. Moreover, less is known about transition processes between similar cultural contexts. It might be that transition is not as well supported when there is cultural similarity between …

Factors That Influence Perception Of Seriousness Of Crime : The Application Of Race, Type Of Offence And Dispositional Empathy To An Australian Context, Giselle Larkins

Theses : Honours

The perception of seriousness of crime may be altered by numerous extra-legal factors within the criminal justice system. It is of significant importance to understand the ways in which various factors contribute to the differential treatment of defendants. Prejudicial attitudes towards Indigenous people pervade all areas of Australian society, including the criminal justice system (Paradies, 2005). For instance, although Indigenous people form approximately 2.4% of the general Australian population, they contribute to 24% of the total prison population (ABS, 2007; Paradies). Despite this, few studies have actively sought to better understand the factors that may contribute to varied perceptions of …

Family Support Within A Child Care Centre: A Case Study, Rikki Maynard

Theses : Honours

This review explored the effects of stress in the family environment and the role that family support plays in reducing this stress. Specifically, research concerning the role that child care workers play in providing support to families who utilise their services was examined. The literature showed that there are many stressors facing families today and that the experience of stress in the family environment can have a detrimental effect on children's developmental outcomes. While the literature showed that experiencing social support can reduce stress in the family environment, it was also found that many families face isolation from such forms …

The Influence Of Childhood Factors On The Public Perceptions Of The Appropriate Consequences For Young Offender, Penny Hyde

Theses : Honours

With changes in policy relating to juvenile offenders being heavily influenced by the perceived public opinion of juvenile crime, the opinion of the public on the appropriate punishment for young offenders is important within contemporary society (Mukherjee, 1997). Public opinion research suggested that while society remains unsatisfied with current methods used to punish juvenile offenders, they believe a juvenile's punishment should be proportionate to the crime and that rehabilitation should be the main goal of juvenile punishment (Barber & Doon, 2004). This research further suggested that ignorance of both the juvenile's circumstances and the perceived prevalence of juvenile crime may …

An Exploration Of Community, Identity, Religion And Spirituality, Sara Thomas

Theses : Honours

Research in the field of community psychology supports findings that membership, influence, integration and fulfilment of needs, a shared emotional connection, and a sense of belonging contribute to a sense of community (SOC) (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Sarason (1993) proposes that individuals have a basic instinctual need for transcendence which leads them to seek religious groups and experiences. Hill (1993; 2000) posits that Sarason's sense of transcendence (SOT) is a construct that is closely related to and can be useful for conceptualizing and exploring spirituality and suggests that SOC may not be fully understood until Sarason's (1993) related concept of …

Evaluating The Impact Of Peer Review And Participation Awareness In An Online Collaborative Document Authoring Environment, Greg Baatard

Theses : Honours

Online Learning Environments (OLEs) have been widely adopted by higher education facilities, offering distance education with the potential to support the social and collaborative aspects deemed crucial to modern constructivist pedagogy. Groupware, a form of software which aims to facilitate group work, has been the subject of much research, from both educational and enterprise perspectives. This research introduced Reportal, an online groupware system designed to facilitate the collaborative authoring of a document. Reportal's peer review and participation awareness features were the focus of this research, and their impact was measured against the elements of online collaboration, a typology established by …

An Exploratory Study Of Arts Participation And Wellbeing In Regioinal Western Australia: A Quantitative Study Of Denmark In The Great Southern Region, Julia Anwar

Theses : Honours

This thesis explores the belief that engaging in the arts has a positive influence on wellbeing, not just for individuals considered disadvantaged or "at-risk", but also for the wellbeing of society and communities. An attempt was also made to determine how the benefits of participation in the arts compares to the possible benefits derived from other forms of community participation. An examination into the current literature on arts participation and its links with wellbeing, as well as social impact research was combined with a quantitative survey derived and adapted from wellbeing indicators. The survey was conducted via telephone interviews with …

Parental Monitoring And The Role Of Community Norms And Neighbourhood, Katrina Sims

Theses : Honours

This study used a qualitative approach to explore parent perceptions of community norms for keeping track of children's activities, within a low socio-economic neighbourhood. Semi-structured interviews based on a questionnaire used by Kerr and Stattin (2000) were used to explore parent beliefs about three sources of parent information: solicitation, parental control and child disclosure. A sample of eight mothers of children aged nine to twelve from two low socio-economic neighbourhoods in Perth, Western Australia were interviewed. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: shared emotional connections, influence, control versus trust, and communication. Results indicated that parents used varied methods of monitoring children …

Experiences Of Anglo-Burmese Migrants In Perth, Western Australia : A Substantive Theory Of Marginalisation, Adaptation And Community, Simon D. Colquhoun

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The experience of migration and adaptation of ethnically mixed migrants; like the Anglo-Burmese migrants, has received little attention. This group began migrating to Australia, in particular Western Australia, in the 1960s due to changing socio-political circumstances in Burma. The examination of cultural issues in psychological research has operated in a number of different perspectives including cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology and more recently, community psychology in Australia. The development of community psychology in Australia has led to the development of a community research approach by Bishop, Sonn, Drew and Contos (2002). This approach requires the exploration of the substantive domain using …

Acculturative Stress Appraisal And Acculturation Attitudes, Thomas Wojcicki

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Part One : The term acculturation describes an array of cultural changes that occur when culturally different groups come into continuous, first hand contact (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936). Acculturative stress describes a multitude of psychological or social problems that are often encountered by individuals experiencing acculturation (Berry, 1994). This article reviews the empirical literature on acculturation and factors influencing the outcomes of the acculturation experience from the perspective of the research framework proposed by Berry (1974, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1990). Methodological issues relevant to advancing this area of research are also addressed. In particular the influence of attitudes to …

Causal Attributions For Crime Involving Aboriginal And Non-Aboriginal Juvenile Offenders, Elke K. Graf

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of crime-specific racial stereotypes upon the Jay person's judgement about the cause of and appropriate punishment for juvenile crime. A pilot investigation (n= 30) revealed that the crimes of motor vehicle theft and possession of an illegal drug were perceived to be more strongly associated with the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offender respectively. This information formed the basis for the type of crime and offender's race experimental manipulations of the main study. Attribution theory variables and the revised version of a previously validated questionnaire (Furnham & Henderson, 1983) were the two …

Satisfaction With Life And Satisfaction With Community: Social Research And Development Report No. 41, Noel Howieson

Research outputs pre 2011

This report describes some investigations carried out by staff and students at Edith Cowan University over the four years from 1989-1992 in the Shire of Wanneroo following the 1987 proposal by the State Planning Commission to change the zoning of a large tract of land in Wanneroo from rural and semirural to urban. The research team first carried out a profiling exercise in the area involving over 800 residents and conducted interviews to ascertain resident wishes with regard to the zoning classification. This exercise identified those who stood to gain and those who stood to lose by the proposal and …