HUMAN ECOLOGY AND THE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONS

This editorial discusses the human development and mental health disciplines and professions, there is conceptual ambivalence and even contradiction in the ebb and flow of concern with environmental factors. In order to understand the relevance of the ecological model, it is helpful to review the ro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of orthopsychiatry 1982-01, Vol.52 (1), p.109-110
Main Author: Gordon, Edmund W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community Mental Health Services
Developmental Psychology
Ecology
Environmental Effects
Human
Human Development
Humans
Mental Disorders - psychology
Mental Health Personnel
Social Adjustment
Social Environment
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Summary:This editorial discusses the human development and mental health disciplines and professions, there is conceptual ambivalence and even contradiction in the ebb and flow of concern with environmental factors. In order to understand the relevance of the ecological model, it is helpful to review the role the system plays in providing the physical, psychosocial, and sociocultural phenomena necessary for the successful adjustment of human beings to their environments. Within any system both supportive and restrictive forces are present, facilitating or interfering with reception of the basic life resources and thereby placing individuals at varying degrees of risk. Basically, the ecological model provides a synthesizing function when superimposed on a social system. By providing a conceptual frame encompassing the human and nonhuman environments, the model offers a framework for gathering data of a multidisciplinary nature without disturbing the natural interplay of environmental forces. In addition to integrating the physical, psychosocial, and sociocultural milieu, the ecological model is based on evolutionary principles stressing the process of development. By allowing the analysis of both structure and function, the model is congruent with the developmental nature of the person. At first glance the focus of the ecological model on the individual primarily as a member of a community or other organizational system may seem incongruent with our professed concern with the development of the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
ISSN:0002-9432
1939-0025
DOI:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb02670.x