Community Research and Action Program

The program in Community Research and Action is distinctive in its combination of community psychology and community development with an emphasis on rigorous research and empirically grounded practice. "Research" and "action" in CRA are not separate curricular or career tracks, but equal and inextricably linked areas of professional identity and expertise in the scientist-practitioner model.

Our program also offers distinctive graduate training in that CRA is the first community development (CD) program with an equal emphasis on community psychology (CP). It is also one of the only doctoral-level programs with a primary focus on urban CD.

Academic training in CD provides the knowledge and skills to analyze community problems; access and interpret relevant, valid, and reliable social research; and devise, organize, implement, and evaluate effective solutions. The program in CRA focuses most heavily on the urban/suburban psychosocial, political, and physical environments. Economic and international development may be taken as elective courses.

Conceptual Orientation
The central concern of the CRA program is the relationship between social systems and individual well being in the community context. Four themes are implicit in this definition:

1. The normative rationale for the program is the social integration function of community organizations and of community itself for addressing social problems at multiple levels.
2. The program's basic commitment is to action research that seeks to develop community and transform its institutions for the promotion of lifelong human development and health (both physical and mental).
3. The overarching conceptual framework throughout CRA is ecological-systems theory, which permits a problem orientation that can (and should) traverse multiple disciplines (anthropology, economics, education, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, sociology; see core and affiliated faculty).
4. The primary focus is to understand both the ethics and processes of community change and to provide the knowledge base and necessary quantitative and qualitative tools to inform and evaluate community action through the use of applied social research methods.

Community Psychology and Community Development as Core
The community context is not only social, but also political, economic, and physical. Thus the program focuses primarily on community psychology and community development as overlapping areas of academic inquiry and professional practice. From an ecological or systems theory perspective, CP activities include efforts to improve a community's psycho-social system (e.g., human services, school-based programs, neighborhood cohesion), and to a lesser extent, its political system (community organizing, citizen participation and empowerment). CD includes those same goals, but also aims to improve the community as an economic system (e.g., consumer affairs, new or expanded business and job opportunities) and a physical environment (better housing, city services, recreational facilities, urban planning).

CP and CD share values of cultural diversity, social inclusion, cohesion, participation, empowerment, equality, and justice. CP and CD also share a multi-level approach to analysis and intervention. CP includes individual-level concerns with psychological aspects of change and community-based opportunities for lifespan development and learning. Both CP and CD focus on organization-level change through program planning and evaluation and the creation of alternative institutions (schools, voluntary associations, and other mediating structures or settings), which socialize members as responsible citizens. Finally, CP and CD share a focus on community and societal-level change through policy analysis and advocacy and the development of caring and competent learning communities. The CRA program emphasizes the commonalities between CD and CP.

Trends
In recent years, community psychologists have been collaborating with researchers and practitioners, and even finding research and academic jobs in fields such as public health, education, human development, community development, environment and behavior, other branches of applied psychology, and other social sciences. This trend is just beginning to be reflected in new graduate programs oriented toward CP, but based in interdisciplinary departments outside of psychology. Through core curriculum readings and extensive minor and elective options, the program in CRA aims to include all the above fields, thus making it one of the most interdisciplinary of CP programs.

Our Applicants
The program serves doctoral degree aspirants who desire advanced training in qualitative and quantitative community research methods, positions at higher levels in organizations, or preparation for academic positions.

The doctoral program in CRA at Peabody College draws its students from several undergraduate majors including psychology, human and organizational development, sociology, political science, economics, geography, urban planning, and environmental studies.

CRA also draws students from graduate programs in the HOD department, both of which are at the terminal master's level and emphasize practical, as opposed to research-based, training: one is the Human Development Counseling program (including community counseling); the other is the Community Development Action program. The CRA program welcomes applications from students completing these or other master's degrees, as long as applicants clearly desire more intensive research training. Such transfer students would still be required to fulfill all requirements of the doctoral program, although many of their master's-level course credits could satisfy some Ph.D. requirements. Students in CRA will receive an M.Ed upon completion of an master's thesis, which is not required in the terminal M.Ed. programs.

Job Placement
Graduates of CP and CD programs have been quite successful in obtaining senior positions in research and policy organizations and have had success with academic jobs. Additionally, CP has one of the lowest rates of unemployment of any area of psychology.

Admission
Admission to the program is based on an undergraduate (and, if applicable, graduate) transcripts, Graduate Record Examination scores, letters of recommendation (three are required), a written statement of goals and interests, and an in-person or telephone interview of all finalists. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree and may apply as graduate transfers, but must fulfill all program requirements with transfer credits to be decided by the graduate admissions committee. The program expects to admit between two and five students every year.

Student Support
Every effort will be made to support (stipend plus tuition) all students requiring financial aid with a grant-related research position or a department teaching assistantship for at least their first three years in the program. Students must develop a dissertation-related grant proposal by the end of the third year. Most are expected to submit the proposal to funding agencies to support their doctoral research. Others will find full- or part-time employment while they complete the Ph.D. The required internship is expected to be a paid position in many cases, funded by either the host agency or a grant.

Curriculum
The program is 72 credit hours structured in five sections:

1. Core (15 semester hrs)
2. Methods (15 semester hrs)
3. Thesis/Grant Development (6 semester hrs)
4. Advanced Content/Specialization Areas (21 semester hrs)
   • Community Development
   • Evaluation Methods
5. Individual Projects: master's thesis, Internship, Dissertation (15 semester hrs)

The first three sections are required for all students. The fourth designates the areas of study that are elective to the students and that provide the areas of specialization in preparation for the individual projects in section five. The community psychology and community development and policy courses are to be taken the first year. The entire core curriculum covers the theoretical and empirical bases of community research and action.

The required research methods courses include both qualitative and quantitative approaches and emphasize an applied, field research orientation, including program evaluation, policy analysis, needs assessment, quasi-experimental as well as more phenomenological designs. As ecological theory deserves commensurate methodology, multiple methods (e.g., survey, systematic and participant observation, existing records, social indicators, ethnography and content analysis) and multiple levels of analysis (e.g., individual, family/group, organization/community, policy jurisdiction) are encouraged.

The program's interdisciplinary aims are reflected in the core curriculum, the required qualitative and quantitative methods courses, and the list of electives and possible minors. Minors are possible in virtually any field related to CRA, including (but not limited to) quantitative psychology, human development counseling, leadership and organizations, sociology, political science, religion, and economic development.

Structure of the Curriculum
The key domains of the curriculum are drawn from community development, community psychology, and public health. The key concepts within the domains were organized by the conceptual model presented above. These are summarized below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Key Concepts as They Relate to Components of the Model

TRANSACTIONS ACROSS MULTIPLE LEVELS Systems Theory Ecology Theory Public Health/Mental Health Organizations Individual

EXTENDED IN TIME Community Change Community Development Organizational Change Human Development Life-Span Phenomena

FEEDBACK/MONITORING Action Research Ethnographic Research Epidemiology Program Evaluation Statistical Modeling Intervention Research

The courses that cover these topics are summarized in Figure 3. That shows the course location where the various aspects of the program can be obtained as part of the core courses.

Figure 3: Sample Courses in the Doctoral Program as They Relate to the Model

TRANSACTIONS ACROSS MULTIPLE LEVELS		EXTENDED IN TIME		FEEDBACK/MONITORING
HOD 3470 Community Psychology HOD 3600 Com Dev & Urban Policy HOD 3540 Public/Community Health HOD 3200 Ethics EDLS 3452 Images & Issues in Organizations			HOD 3620 Action Research PSY 304 Field Research PSY 310 Stat Inference PSY 312 Measurement & Corr ED 3012 / EDLS 3510 Qualitative Methods

Uses of the model:

1. It can be used to identify the courses that would be needed for preparation of graduate-level community specialists.
2. It can serve as a way to organize professional presentations and course lectures. Each faculty member and student can describe their conceptualization of the phenomena under consideration in these categories.
3. It can serve as an organizing approach for the design of action research projects.

Basic Requirements
A total of 45 semester hours in required courses (including internship) are necessary. The remaining 27 hours are electives that are selected by the students in consultation with their advisor. In addition, each student must pass all required core and methods courses, write a master's thesis by the fifth semester, submit a fundable-quality grant proposal by the end of the third year, and complete a doctoral dissertation. The grant proposal will generally be focused on the dissertation topic and may elect to be submitted to one or more funding agencies to support the dissertation research.

Relationship to Other Programs at Vanderbilt University
The doctoral program in CRA both benefits and benefits from courses, faculty, and other students at Peabody College and across Vanderbilt University. Key relationships within Peabody are with the Departments of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations and Psychology and Human Development. Key relationships elsewhere at Vanderbilt include those with the Departments of Sociology, Political Science, Economics (Program in Economic Development), Religion (Divinity), and the Joint Program in Social Psychology. The Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies will also be a core resource and possible site for assistantships, internships, and job placements.

Faculty Background
Most of the core and affiliated faculty in the program have a background in applied psychological research (community, clinical, social), however, core faculty members include a sociologist and affiliated faculty span a wide variety of disciplines. All core and affiliated faculty are engaged in a variety of interdisciplinary teaching and professional activities. Most of the graduate and undergraduate classes taught draw on many different disciplines (psychology, sociology, ethics and philosophy, education and human development, economics, organizational theory, history, political science, planning). Faculty members are actively involved with many different interdisciplinary professional organizations (e.g., Society for Community Research and Action, Community Development Society, American Evaluation Association, Environmental Design Research Association, Urban Affairs Association), and publish in, and have done editorial work for, scholarly journals that attract authors and readers from a wide variety of disciplines. Courses, theses, and research and consulting projects by faculty and students involve work that is practical and inherently interdisciplinary with local (primarily urban) public and private agencies.