Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies

In this paper we argue that the focus on the development and application of practice competencies for community psychology runs the risk of being a distraction from good practice. We outline three areas that demonstrate the inherent flaws in focusing on traditional notions of competencies for commun...

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Main Authors: Dzidic, Peta, Breen, Lauren, Bishop, Brian
Format: Journal Article
Published: Vincent T. Francisco, Ed. & Pub. 2013
Online Access:http://www.gjcpp.org/pdfs/2013-003CCSI-20131018.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34127
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author Dzidic, Peta
Breen, Lauren
Bishop, Brian
author_facet Dzidic, Peta
Breen, Lauren
Bishop, Brian
author_sort Dzidic, Peta
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description In this paper we argue that the focus on the development and application of practice competencies for community psychology runs the risk of being a distraction from good practice. We outline three areas that demonstrate the inherent flaws in focusing on traditional notions of competencies for community psychology – the limitations of competencies themselves, the schism between competencies and ethics, and the disconnect between competencies and applied practice. In opposition to traditional notions of competencies underpinned by positivist and mechanist notions, we propose that the distinction between virtue and procedural ethics provides a model for comparing and contrasting virtue and procedural competencies. Virtue competencies provide an orientation and value-base that may be applied to any context in which community psychologists work; in this way, competencies may be positioned as tools for understanding, rather than as understandings.
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publishDate 2013
publisher Vincent T. Francisco, Ed. & Pub.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-341272017-01-30T13:41:21Z Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies Dzidic, Peta Breen, Lauren Bishop, Brian In this paper we argue that the focus on the development and application of practice competencies for community psychology runs the risk of being a distraction from good practice. We outline three areas that demonstrate the inherent flaws in focusing on traditional notions of competencies for community psychology – the limitations of competencies themselves, the schism between competencies and ethics, and the disconnect between competencies and applied practice. In opposition to traditional notions of competencies underpinned by positivist and mechanist notions, we propose that the distinction between virtue and procedural ethics provides a model for comparing and contrasting virtue and procedural competencies. Virtue competencies provide an orientation and value-base that may be applied to any context in which community psychologists work; in this way, competencies may be positioned as tools for understanding, rather than as understandings. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34127 http://www.gjcpp.org/pdfs/2013-003CCSI-20131018.pdf Vincent T. Francisco, Ed. & Pub. fulltext
spellingShingle Dzidic, Peta
Breen, Lauren
Bishop, Brian
Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies
title Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies
title_full Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies
title_fullStr Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies
title_full_unstemmed Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies
title_short Are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? A critique of community psychology practice competencies
title_sort are our competencies revealing our weaknesses? a critique of community psychology practice competencies
url http://www.gjcpp.org/pdfs/2013-003CCSI-20131018.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34127