Then and now: A 50-year retrospective thematic analysis of Society for Community Research and Action presidential addresses.

The Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) is the primary professional home for community psychologists in the United States and increasingly around the world. Since the formation of the American Psychological Association Division 27: Community Psychology in 1966, now SCRA, 54 people have served in the Presidential role. Presidential leaders' annual addresses both reflect the current state of the field and have the ability to shape the future of both SCRA as an organization and community psychology as a discipline given their positions as leaders. This commentary explores the trajectory of SCRA as an organization via 33 available presidential addresses, 28 of which were published in the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP). Using thematic analysis and drawing on both dialectical and life cycle organizational processes, three periods of SCRA and community psychology more broadly were identified: defining community psychology, applying community psychology, and re-imagining community psychology. Themes speak to tensions between the ideals of the society and the work of the society. We conclude by offering a series of questions for consideration as SCRA positions itself for the future.

"Things Will Get Worse Before They Get Better": LGBTQ + People's Reactions to the 2020 US Presidential Election.

Introduction: Previous research has found that political discourse over proposed legislation that impacts lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ +) people serves as a distal stressor which is associated with poorer mental and physical health. This study sought to document responses to the 2020 US Presidential election among LGBTQ + people living in the USA. Methods: Nineteen LGBTQ + people ages 20 to 76 (M = 47.20; SD = 17.66) living across the USA were interviewed via Zoom video conferencing software between October and early December 2020. The modal participant was female (36.8%), identified as gay or lesbian (47.3%), and White (84.2%). Interviews were coded using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Results: Seventeen codes emerged, which were grouped into three themes. Participants viewed specific political figures, namely then-President Trump and Supreme Court nominee Coney-Barrett, as symbolic of the potential loss of rights and disenfranchisement of LGBTQ + people. Participants exhibited uncertainty about the future; however, a Biden presidential win was viewed as potentially instilling complacency and leading to fracturing of the LGBTQ + community. While some participants avoided news, most were engaged with the political process as a means of coping with election uncertainty. Conclusions: The findings have implications for better understanding the concerns of LGBTQ + folks as it relates to how they view political discourse and the future of the equality movement. Policy Implications: Policies which beneficially impact and engage a diverse range of LGBTQ + people would facilitate mobilization of LGBTQ + political communities.

Investing in Black LGBTQ+ liberation as white people: A call to action for community psychology.

Due to systemic racialized homophobia and transphobia, Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people continue to experience worse life outcomes in comparison to both their Black cisgender and heterosexual, and White LGBTQ+ counterparts. Community psychologists have the tools and training to address these disparities. Using a critical whiteness studies lens, we draw on qualitative data with 17 White LGBTQ+ people to describe how white supremacy manifests in LGBTQ+ spaces. Our research indicates White LGBTQ+ people want to create intersectional spaces but lack the necessary skills to effectively confront anti-Black racism. This resulted in actions which upheld and reinforced white supremacy, despite stated commitments to Black LGBTQ+ liberation. We conclude with recommendations for community psychologists, including engaging in intersectional coalition-building, training centered around queer critical race theory, working to address racialized homophobia and transphobia alongside existing efforts to deconstruct anti-Black racism within community psychology, and consciousness-raising work with White people involved in LGBTQ+ equality movements to dismantle white supremacist structures within their organizations.

Public psychology: Introduction to the special issue.

Psychology's role in public life and social issues has been of longstanding concern throughout the discipline. In a historical moment of tremendous social, political, and economic strife and a global pandemic, this special issue of American Psychologist seeks to extend important discourse about the concept of public psychology. The articles included in the special issue address a range of interconnected themes, including: (a) centering social problems, (b) engaging diverse publics in knowledge creation, (c) communicating and democratizing psychological knowledge, and (d) rethinking what constitutes psychology. In this introduction, the guest editors contextualize the special issue, identify its aims, and highlight the key contributions of the included articles. The guest editors argue that realizing an expansive and transformative public psychology will require structural, substantive changes within the discipline to place community concerns at the center of psychology. Nonetheless, bolstered by the insights of the special issue's contributors, the guest editors conclude with cautious optimism that psychology has much to offer in addressing the most pressing social problems of the 21st century. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Breast health beliefs, behaviors, and barriers among latina permanent resident and migratory farm workers.

There is a dearth of research on the breast health behaviors of migratory farm workers. This research used focus group methodology to compare the breast cancer beliefs and barriers of Latina women working as migratory farmers (n = 33) and permanent residents (n = 31). In comparison to their permanent resident counterparts, migrant farmers had low knowledge about the causes of breast cancer, and experienced significant barriers to care. Many barriers were cultural-specific, including culturally-based gender roles. These findings have significant implications for designing culturally-relevant interventions to improve access to care among this population.

Undermining optimistic denial reactions to domestic and campus emergency warning messages.

BACKGROUND: Individuals who prepare for public emergencies can mitigate the effects of an incident, but denial of personal susceptibility may reduce the likelihood of preparation. Some denial may be due to a positive self-image that is at odds with being "at risk". The potential for an enhanced warning message that included a positive image of a protector to circumvent this denial was tested in two studies. METHODS: Optimistic denial threat orientation was measured. Then participants received either a traditional or a positive protector warning message about terrorism (Study 1; nationally representative sample of US adults; N = 587) or campus emergency preparation (Study 2; US college students; N = 179). RESULTS: As predicted, in the enhanced image condition optimistic denial was no longer related to stronger denial reactions and lower intentions to protect oneself. In addition, Study 2 tested explanatory mediators and found that negative perceptions of and low similarity to a protector partially explained the denial of those higher in optimistic denial and why their denial was dampened in the positive image condition. CONCLUSIONS: An enhanced message including a positive image of protector may be an effective way to encourage protection for those prone to optimistic denial.

Teaching experientially in the undergraduate community psychology classroom.

Experiential learning is a useful teaching tool in the undergraduate community psychology classroom. In addition to improving student outcomes, experiential learning is particularly relevant for community psychology, as it aligns with several core values of the field and can prompt not only student learning, but also civic engagement, social justice, and community betterment. In this article, we provide an overview of the themed issue on "Experiential Teaching Practices in Undergraduate Community Psychology." The issue contains a variety of experiential teaching examples that fall into three clusters: (a) individual and group service-learning exercises; (b) using community experiences to augment in-class learning outside of a service-learning context; and (c) ways of having students draw on prior out-of-class or in-class community experiences to increase student understanding.

Reactions to a health threat: dispositional threat orientations and message characteristics.

OBJECTIVES: This study explored the interactive effects of dispositional threat orientation, type of message, and having children on reactions to a message about exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics. DESIGN: The study used a 2 (message: Fear Arousal or Plain)×2 (parenting status: child or no child)×2 (threat orientation: high or low) mixed factorial design. METHODS: Adults (N= 200) recruited via the Internet completed measures of threat orientations, reported whether they were a parent, and read either a low or high fear-arousal message about the risks of BPA exposure. They then completed measures of reactions to the message (perceived susceptibility to BPA effects, negative emotions, and behavioural intentions to engage in protection). RESULTS: Depending on threat orientations, the fear arousal version of the message and parenthood had strikingly different effects, ranging from no effect (for those high in a control-based approach) to prompting change (for those low in a control-based approach) to counterproductive (for those high in an optimistic denial approach). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that considering individual differences and their interactions with situational factors could improve both the predictive ability of threat protection theories and the delivery of messages intended to change behaviour.

Psychological predictors of college students' cell phone use while driving.

Despite the known risk, many people talk on a phone while driving. This study explored psychological predictors of cell phone use while driving. College students (final N=69) completed a survey and predicted their driving performance both with and without a simultaneous phone conversation. Their actual performance on a driving simulator was then assessed. Cell phone use reduced performance on the simulation task. Further, perceiving oneself as good at compensating for driving distractions, overestimating one's performance on the driving simulator, and high illusory control predicted more frequent cell phone use while driving in everyday life. Finally, those who talked more frequently on a phone while driving had poorer real-world driving records. These findings suggest illusory control and positive illusions partly explain driver's decisions of whether to use cell phones while driving.

Control, denial, and heightened sensitivity reactions to personal threat: testing the generalizability of the threat orientation approach.

The threat orientation model proposes three dispositional responses to threats: control, heightened sensitivity, and denial. Two studies explored the psychometric properties of the previously developed threat orientation scales and the relationship between the orientations and the responses to a variety of threats. Study 1 found that the control-based and heightened sensitivity-based scales are reliable and were related to perceptions of health, financial, and terrorist threats with a nationally representative sample. Findings held across gender, age, and ethnic groups. Furthermore, Study 1 suggested two types of denial processes: optimistic denial and avoidance denial. Study 2 used a diverse sample to gain additional evidence for two processes of denial and developed measures of each type.

The measurement of threat orientations.

OBJECTIVE: To develop measures of 3 threat orientations that affect responses to health behavior messages. METHOD: In Study 1, college students (N = 47) completed items assessing threat orientations and health behaviors. In Study 2, college students and community adults (N = 110) completed the threat orientation items and measures of convergent and discriminant validity. RESULTS: In Study 1, the control-based, denial-based, and heightened-sensitivity-based threat orientation scales demonstrated good internal consistency and correlated with engagement in health behaviors. In Study 2, the convergent and discriminant validity of the 3 measures was established. CONCLUSION: The 3 scales have good internal reliability and construct validity.