Community psychology

Have been reflecting on the community psychology lectures recently, as I'm from a small (200 people) community on the West Coast, where I'm currently writing from! Our house is in the centre of the village and as our family have been here for over 30 years everyone knows all our comings and goings! The +points of living in a small community are: my parent's only lock the doors at night, otherwise the front door is always open, even when no-one is here! Dad leaves the keys in the ignition of both cars and all the car doors unlocked! You feel safe when you go for a walk by yourself. Children can play outside freely. The -points of living in a small community are: everyone knows your business and if you're not Scottish you will never be completely accepted (my English father has been here for over 30 years, but is still considered an 'incomer'.)

For my undergrad anthropology degree my dissertation title was 'A broken identity - perceptions of an island community'. I remember that one of the observations that I made was, that when visitors (tourists) visited the island they all say 'Hello' to each other and to locals, but then if you took those same people and they passed each other on the streets of Glasgow would they still be greeting one another? What is it that makes people greet and acknowledge each other in rural communities but not in cities?

The idea of belonging to a collective making us stronger and individualism making us weak and powerless is an interesting one. Having lived and worked in Japan for almost 5 years I experienced the effects of 'group culture' first hand. Certainly, if you were part of 'the group' then they looked after you in every respect. However, if you're views differed slightly then you were shuned, out of the group and probably bullied. An old Japanese proverb says 'The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.' Bullying pervades the whole society from a very young to elderly age. I witnessed physical and psychological bullying at all levels. Indeed, the pressure of having to conform to the group and 'fit in' is also immense and sadly, possibly as a result, Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world. Rather than the group standing together to resist the state, the Japanese government use the 'group culture' very powerfully to control society and ensure that they are continuing to produce 'perfect Japanese citizens'. I literally saw the 13 year olds in schools getting 'their personality/individualisation' hammered out of them until they conformed to 'the norm'.

So, I'm beginning to wonder, is it still a risky mistake to think of careers in terms of individuals? I would agree that feelings of 'identity' and 'community' seem to be locked in a permanent battle and that in times of uncetainty we possibly do depend more on the community. Therefore, the whole area of 'community guidance' is something that needs to be looked at more, especially in a time of economic downturn. Finally, making use of older people 'who have lived' is a great idea and one that should definitely be considered in the field of community guidance.