Psychology, Justice and Well-Being: From Amelioration to Transformation

Isaac Prilleltensky Dean, School of Education University of Miami [email protected]

http://www.education.miami.edu/isaac

Three Questions

1.

What are the current approaches to well-being and what are their limitations?

2.

How can we overcome the limitations of current approaches?

3.

What can psychology do?

Question 1: What are the current approaches to well-being?



Subjective



Objective



Integrative

Seligman on Subjective well-being

   Contribution: positive affect, positive behaviors, positive cognitions, sense of agency, strengths Limitations: Minimizes importance of context “If you want to lastingly raise your level of happiness by changing the external circumstances of your life,

you should do

the following:  Live in wealthy democracy, not in an impoverished dictatorship  Get married  Avoid negative events and negative emotion   Acquire a rich social network Get religion”  Seligman’s Authentic Happiness (2002, pp. 61)

Seligman on Subjective Well-Being

 “ As far as happiness and life satisfaction are concerned, however,

you needn’t bother to do

the following  Make more money  Stay healthy  Get as much education as possible (no effect)  Change your race or move to a sunnier climate (no effect)” Seligman’s Authentic Happiness (2002, pp. 61)   Really?

If we follow Seligman’s argument to its logical conclusion we might think that there are a lot of people who are happy but dead!

Colombia: Happy but Dead

 Highest rate of murders per capita in the world  Highest number of kidnappings in the world  Colombia 5181 in 7 years  Mexico 1269  Brazil 515  Venezuela 109  Severe under reporting  Colombians report highest level of satisfaction 8.31 (out of 10) in the world in the 90s

Place Matters

Income Matters for Well-Being

Education Matters

Seligman Engages in Context Minimization Error

 “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” (Shinn and Toohey, 2003, p. 428).

Objective well-being

 Contributions: understanding of external and material factors in health, life expectancy, capabilities, and human functioning  Limitations: without understanding of psychological dynamics it cannot explain unhappiness in wealthy environments and life satisfaction in less than optimal objective conditions

Wealth matters for life expectancy (Lynch, Smith, Kaplan, and House, 2003, Income inequality and mortality. In R. Hofrichster, R. Health and social justice, Jossey Bass, p. 220).

Income is not everything though (Inglehart and Klingemann, 2000, Genes, culture, democracy and happiness; in Diener and Suh, Culture and subjective well-being. MIT Press.

Relative deprivation matters in Sweden Marmot, 2004, The Status Syndrome. London: Times

Relative deprivation matters in UK M. Marmot, 2004, The Status Syndrome. London: Times

Male Life Expectancy by Inequality

78 76 74 72 70 68 66 64 GINI 24.5

GINI 31.5

GINI 35.5

GINI 45 GINI 45 USA W USA AA Swed/Jap Australia Canada USA White USA Afri. Amer.

Chinese happiness and democracy: democracy is not everything (Inglehart and Klingemann, 2000, Genes, culture, democracy and happiness; in Diener and Suh, Culture and subjective well-being. MIT Press.

Integrative approach



Contributions: Interactionist, ecological approach



Limitations: Insufficient attention to injustice in promotion of well-being at multiple levels

Stokols on Integrative Approach to Well Being  “The healthfulness of a situation and the well-being of its participants are assumed to be influenced by multiple facets of both the physical environment (e.g., geography, architecture, and technology) and the social environment (e.g., culture, economics, and politics). Moreover, the health status of individuals and groups is influenced not only by environmental factors but also by a variety of personal attributes, including genetic heritage, psychological dispositions, and behavioral patterns.”

Stokols continues…..

 “Thus, efforts to promote human well-being should be based on an understanding of the dynamic interplay among diverse environmental and personal factors rather than on analyses that focus exclusively on environmental, biological, or behavioral factors.

(Stokols, 2000, p. 27)”

Question 2: How can we overcome the limitations of current approaches?

 Definition of well-being  Well-being is a positive state of affairs in individuals, relationships, organizations, communities, and the natural environment, brought about by the simultaneous and balanced satisfaction of material and psychological needs; and by the behavioral manifestation of material and psychological justice in these five ecological domains.

Ecological Model of Well-Being Individual Relational Sites of Well-Being Organizational Communal Environmental Objective signs Subjective Signs Values as source and strategy Justice as source and strategy health efficacy networks voice resources support social capital belonging low emissions safety autonomy

My due/Our due

caring participation diversity

Your due/Our due Its due/Our due Their due/Our due

protection of resources

Nature’s due/Our due

Ecological Model of Well-Being: Some positive and negative factors

Sites of Well-Being Organizational Communal Individual Relational Environmental Objective signs +health - illness Subjective signs +efficacy -lack of control +networks -isolation +voice -repression Values as source and strategy Justice as source and strategy +resources - lack of resources +support -isolation -social capital -lack of trust +belonging -rejection +clean air -pollution +safety -fear +autonomy -lack of power +caring -neglect +participation -marginality

My due/Our due Your due/Our due Its due/Our due

+diversity -discrimination

Their due/Our due

+protection of resources -depletion of resources

Nature’s due/Our due

Social Justice

 are Cardinal question of justice is whether there 

“any clear principles from which we may work out an ideally just distribution of rights and privileges, burdens and pains, among human beings as such”

(Sedgwick, 1922, p. 274).



To each his or her due

(Miller)

How Do We Decide What Is Due A Person, Family, Or Group?

 Dominant ideology  Ability  Effort  Alternative ideology  Ability  Effort  Needs  Rights  Opportunities  Power

The role of context

 context should determine what criterion or criteria must be preferred in each case  In social conditions of inequality , we must accord preference to needs over ability

Context of Relative Equality

 Under conditions of relative equality , where the gap between classes is not very pronounced, it is possible to favor effort over needs.

Context of Plenty of Opportunities

 In a context of plenty of opportunities for everyone, it is possible that ability and effort will be the preferred choice.

Justice Out of Context

 Societies aspiring to justice must seek equilibrium among all criteria  When context of inequality calls for need and equality, but culture favors effort, it’s because privileged groups benefit.

 As a result, group interests that influence the choice of allocation pattern often disregard the context-specific situation.

Well-Being



Justice

Well-Being

is enhanced by

Justice

is enhanced, and contributes to well-being, by the power, capacity, and opportunity to Self-determination Experience voice and choice, participate in decision making Caring and compassion Equality and freedom Experience nurturing relationships free of abuse Benefit from fair and equitable distribution of resources and burdens

Question 3: What can Psychology Do?

 Proximal caring  Caring  Compassion  Empathy  Therapy  Distal caring  Justice  Equality  Liberation  Social action

Balancing amelioration with transformation  AMELIORATION        Treatment Symptoms In the office Charity Individualistic Passive victim Neglects Power  TRANSFORMATION        Prevention Root causes In natural setting Justice Communitarian Agents of change Attends to Power

Changing how we work

From DRAIN

 Deficit orientation  Reactive  Alienation  Individual change

To SPEC



S

trengths-based 

P

rimary Prevention 

E

mpowerment 

C

ommunity change

How can we balance our work in the community?

Reactive Collective

X

Preventive Individual

Contextual Field in Helping Professions

Collective Quadrant IV

Examples: Food banks, shelters for homeless people, charities, prison industrial complex

Reactive Quadrant III

Examples: Crisis work, therapy, medications, symptom containment, case management

Quadrant I

Examples: Community development, affordable housing policy, recreational opportunities, high quality schools and health services

Proactive Quadrant II

Examples: Skill building, emotional literacy, fitness programs, personal improvement plans, resistance to peer pressure in drug and alcohol use

Individualistic

9/7/1854…Removing the Handle

Getting To The Bottom Of It….

 No mass disorder, afflicting humankind, has ever been eliminated, or brought under control, by treating the affected individual  HIV/AIDS, poverty, child abuse, powerlessness are not eliminated one person at a time.

Too much reaction, not enough prevention Investments in Reactive vs. Proactive Interventions in Health and Community Services (Nelson et al, 1996; OECD, 2005; de Bekker-Grob et al., 2007)

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Investments in Prevention: Italy 0.6% USA 3% Netherlands 4.3% Canada 8%

Reactive Preventive

4/26/2020 Prilleltensky 39

Ratio of Benefits to Costs in National Exemplary Prevention Models (Lynch, 2007, page 19) 4/26/2020

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Abeceda CPC

Prilleltensky

Perry 27 Perry 40

40

How can we balance our work with individuals? Detachment Strengths

X

Empowerment Deficits

Affirmation Field in Helping Professions

Strength Quadrant IV

Examples: Just say no! You can do it! Cheerleading approaches, Make nice approaches

Quadrant I

Examples: Voice and choice in celebrating and building competencies, recognition of personal and collective resilience

Detachment Empowerment Quadrant III

Examples: Labeling and diagnosis, “patienthood” and clienthood,” citizens in passive role

Deficit

Examples:

Quadrant II

Voice and choice in deficit reduction approaches, participation in decisions how to treat affective disorders or physical disorders

Values that support SPEC in Practice

Domain

Values PREVENTION Caring and compassion EMPOWERMENT Self-determination STRENGTH Human diversity EMPOWERMENT Participation COMMUNITY CHANGE Social justice

Questions

Does it promote the expression of care, empathy, and concern for the physical and emotional wellbeing of other human being? Does it promote the ability of individuals to pursue their chosen goals without excessive frustration and in consideration of other people’s needs? Does it promote respect and appreciation for diverse social identities? Does it promote a peaceful, respectful, and equitable process whereby citizens have meaningful input into decisions affecting their lives? Does it promote the fair and equitable allocation of bargaining powers, resources and obligations in society?

Values that support SPEC in Policies and Programs

Values Policies

EMPOWERMENT Self-determination PREVENTION Health STRENGTH Personal growth COMMUNITY CHANGE Social justice Devise policies in consultation with community stakeholders Facilitate access to health care services through universal and outreach programs Establish policies for teaching employment skills and for accessible recreational and educational opportunities Implement equitable policies and taxation laws that provide adequate resources to the poor Promote policies that strengthen high quality basic community services such as education, health and income security COMMUNITY CHANGE Support for enabling community structures STRENGTH Respect for diversity EMPOWERMENT Collaboration and democratic participation Promote inclusive work and social policies that do not discriminate on basis of marital status, gender, ability, sexual orientation, class, culture, or any other source of social power Promote educational policies that teach importance of civic duties and skills required for meaningful participation in democracy

It’s like Venice…..

Venice’s Lesson

 “The psychotherapist, social worker or social reformer, concerned only with his own clients and their grievance against society, perhaps takes a view comparable to the private citizen of Venice who concerns himself only with the safety of his own dwelling and his own ability to get about the city. But if the entire republic is slowly being submerged, individual citizens cannot afford to ignore their collective fate, because, in the end, they all drown together if nothing is done” (Badcock, 1982)