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Psychology > Graduate Programs > Community & Cultural Psychology

Community & Cultural Psychology

Download the Community & Cultural Concentration Brochure (PDF, 140KB)

The brochure contains additional detailed information on the following topics:

  • Faculty (Core, Emeritus & Affiliated)
  • Research
  • Recommended Curriculum
  • Degree Offerings
  • Certificate Offerings
  • Financial Support
  • Applying to the Program
  • Awards

Overview

The CCC is a graduate specialization leading to the Ph.D. in psychology. The importance of multi-disciplinary education is recognized and, therefore, the core CCC curriculum is combined with offerings from other departments at the University of Hawaiëi. This multi-disciplinary curriculum is designed to provide systematic coverage of the major theoretical and empirical work in the field with sufficient flexibility to meet student interests, enthusiasms, and career goals.

The Concentration's multi-disciplinary curriculum, including Certificate options in Conflict Resolution, Disabilities Studies, Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Planning Studies, and Policy Studies, is grounded in an empirical orientation applied to professional activity. The skills people develop, the interpersonal relationships they form, and the organizations and settings in which people participate are regarded as so interwoven that human behavior is best understood as part of its social and cultural fabric. Consistent with this model, professional activities are guided by research and data-based assessment and directed toward social and cultural contexts and settings for the prevention of human problems and the enhancement of social competence. For these reasons, we believe that the CCC offers education relevant to employment and impact in a wide variety of settings, including academic, research, consultation, social services, advocacy, program planning, evaluation, and community development.

The CCC is a nucleus for the collaboration of faculty and students with common scholarly interests. It is an educational and professional specialization based on the scholarly foundations of community and cultural psychology, the enhanced intellectual and professional opportunities inherent in multi-disciplinary education, and the nationwide coordination provided by the Council of Program Directors in Community Research and Action (CPDCRA). In this endeavor, we are united by three commitments: (l) a scientist-practitioner approach to the creation and application of knowledge, (2) a multi-disciplinary curriculum, and (3) a scholar-apprentice model of education. We seek to advance knowledge and influence social policy through research and the application of social intervention strategies.

The heart of the CCC is the advisor-advisee relationship. This relationship is viewed as an apprenticeship in which a faculty advisor supervises each student's research. In many cases, these initial advisors move naturally into the role of thesis and dissertation supervisors. However, as interests develop, students as well as advisors may renegotiate the advisor-student relationship at any time. A statement on faculty-student relationships written by students and faculty is presented in Appendix A of the Community & Cultural Concentration Brochure (PDF, 9.9Mb).

Research

Students are continually involved in research during their participation in the CCC. This involvement typically begins with student collaboration in a faculty research project, proceeds to a masterís thesis, and continues to an independent dissertation. For additional information please see the Community & Cultural Concentration Brochure (PDF, 9.9Mb).

Degrees & Certificates Offered

Awards

Winner of the 2004 APA Honorable Mention Award for Innovation in Graduate Education in Psychology.

The Community and Cultural Concentration (CCC) was honored to be one of three graduate programs in North America to receive an Award for Innovation in Graduate Education in Psychology from the American Psychological Association (Board of Educational Affairs and the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology). The central innovation of the CCC is the systematic integration of community psychology and cultural psychology within a single program. Other innovative features of the program include practicum experience involving interdisciplinary teams, health issues in rural communities, and community capacity-building, equal emphasis on qualitative and quantitative methodologies in course requirements, research projects, and practice, and five interdisciplinary Certificate options. All of these features are designed to support the integration of community and cultural psychology.

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