Community Contexts of Human Welfare

Abstract

This chapter identifies "context minimization error" as the tendency to ignore the impact of enduring neighborhood and community contexts on human behavior. The error has adverse consequences for understanding psychological processes and efforts at social change. The chapter describes a series of theoretical models of how neighborhoods and community settings are associated with various aspects of human welfare and reviews evidence of associations of contexts with health, psychological distress, risky behaviors, psychological attitudes, and child development. It suggests that many psychological processes may play out differently in different contexts and that contextual factors interact with sociocultural characteristics of individuals in predicting outcomes. People, in turn, can shape community contexts. A more sophisticated understanding of the effects of contexts depends on more sophisticated approaches to assessing them.

Importance of the Welfare Facilities in the Workplace: Issues in Perspectives

“…It is imperative for employers to provide welfare facilities and services within the precincts of the organisation as they form parts of the working environment and conditions (Shinn & Toohey, 2003). Nowadays, many welfare amenities are a part of the employer's statutory obligations (Jones, 1983).…”

Operationalizing the concept of neighborhood: Application to residential location choice analysis

“…Coulton et al conclude by suggesting further research on mental maps of neighborhoods. However, even residents' hand drawn mental maps, which may be influenced by neighborhood names or generally acknowledged definitions, may not reflect the geographic areas that truly affect them (Shinn and Toohey, 2003). Grannis (1998Grannis ( , 2003) also attempts to construct practical representations of neighborhoods.…”

Helse i hvert smil?

“…Brülde, 2015), og drøfting av ulike former for baerekraftig wellbeing (Kjell, 2011). 11.2. Om å overse konteksten Shinn og Toohey (2003) påpeker at fagpsykologien står i fare for å begå det de kaller kontekstminimeringsfeilen. Med dette mener de at det psykologiske perspektivet gjerne underslår omgivelsenes betydning for menneskers atferd, tilpasning og trivsel.…”