Introduction: Purpose
Ignacio Ramos-Vidal conducted a study in 2019 to determine what the effects of a person's position within formal and informal social networks would have on their psychological sense of empowerment and community. The reason Ramos-Vidal decided to conduct this study was to fill the knowledge gap of empirically evaluating what the effect of social connectedness was on one’s psychological sense of community and psychological empowerment. He wanted to know how integration within a social network would impact their sense of community and empowerment. His main finding was that both one’s psychological sense of community and psychological empowerment synergistically shape one another. People who had higher levels of psychological empowerment were also in the core of formal networks. (Ramos-Vidal, 2019)
Knowledge and New Research
The concept of empowerment gained momentum in community psychology when Julian Rappaport discussed a paradox or conflict for people in trouble being understood in terms of ‘rights’ or ‘needs.’ (1981) The needs model is based on a prevention orientation, whereas the rights model is based on a citizenship advocacy orientation. The paradox occurs when needs or rights are not covered by social policies and justified as not relevant. (Rappaport, 1981) Rappaport defines empowerment as the goal of enhancing one’s ability to control their own lives. (1981, pp. 15) He believes that this is the solution to the paradox found in the needs or rights approach. Empowerment is a shift from a dependency on social systems and professionals to embolden the autonomy of the individual who already has certain capacities within them for independence. (Rappaport, 1981)
Rappaport (1987) further elaborates on the concept of empowerment as having determination over one’s life and participation in community democratically. Empowerment is a psychological sense of control and mastery over one’s affairs, social influence, political power and rights. He discusses the definition of empower as giving authority/ authorizing and enabling/permitting. The word empower therefore is not an isolated property of a person but is situated within a larger socio-political context. (Rappaport, 1987)
Perkins and Zimmerman (1995) discuss how empowerment goes beyond psychological constructs like self-esteem, efficacy, competency and locus of control, encompassing a broader relation with one’s community through process of respect, reflection, care, and participation in an engagement with a fair distribution and participation with resources. Intrapersonal empowerment has the dimensions of meaningful beliefs and attitudes, competency, self-determination and impact/efficacy. They also discuss organizational empowerment which includes motivation to positively change beliefs, opportunity within structured roles of members strength and differences, economic and social support and talented leadership. (Perkins and Zimmerman, 1995)
Ramos-Vidal (2019) is new research in the area of empowerment that looks at how empowerment and one’s sense of community are connected. In a previously related study, Freeman et. al. (2007) found that students who had a sense of community also had stronger self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and value for academic tasks. Similarly, Dawson (2008) found that the closer students were in the social network of their classes, the more they had a sense of community within that class and higher quality information exchange.
Ramos-Vidal (2019)’s study is an expansion in this line of research on how one’s sense of community also increases and influences one’s sense of empowerment. A Social Network Analysis was used to determine the structure of the social context of relationships within the classroom and positions people within those networks based on how connected they are to others. Increasing psychological community and empowerment has the effect of increasing connectedness and pro-socialness, reducing dropout, and promoting collaboration. (Ramos-Vidal, 2019)
Methods, Findings and Results
Ramos-Vidal (2019) conducted his study of empowerment and psychological sense of community on sixty-four students in a human resources masters program. He proposed 3 main hypotheses:
H1: The relationship between psychological empowerment (academic task development) to one’s psychological sense of community (at the class-level) is determined by synergistic associations.
H2: The development of psychological empowerment and psychological sense of community is determined by formal and informal exchange networks in the classroom.
H3: The development of psychological empowerment and community are conditioned to core or peripheral positions students hold within the formal/informal networks of the class.
Sub-hypothesis for H2 were broken down into formal and informal contacts, and whole or egocentric networks, for community and empowerment. Ramos-Vidal (2019) wanted to know how these different variables affected community and empowerment independently. H3 had a sub-hypothesis based on how one's sense of empowerment or community is related to their core social position of formal or informal contacts.
First, the psychological sense of community was determined via questionnaire, using a sense of community index. A Likert scale (rate statement from 1 - 4, 1 being not agree, being completely agree) was used to measure dimension of reinforcement of needs, group membership and influence, and shared emotional connection. Second, psychological empowerment was evaluated using a questionnaire, with Likert scales, measuring dimensions of meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. (Ramos-Vidalm, 2019) Third, determining the formal and informal social networks of each person, a sociocentric instrument was used to create a map-like orientation of how people were related to each other. Here, students identified who they had close relationships with in class or outside of class. Formal contact was class related activities, whereas informal contact was activities not related to class. Social structure was measured based on the properties of density, homophily, transitivity, and reciprocity, and centrality measures showed the relative position of each member.
The first hypothesis had partial support, where the empowerment properties of impact and meaning were connected with all community dimensions. However, the empowerment properties of competence and self-determination had no correlation with psychological sense of community. Some of the second sub-hypotheses were supported. Maintaining an active role in informal relationships has a catalytic effect on one’s sense of community in terms of membership and reinforcement of needs. There was some support for being selected in a group having an effect on one’s empowerment perception of task performance and sub-networks developing academic activities. Lastly, having informal contact showed a high level of belonging and social needs being met. Some of the third sub-hypotheses were supported. People located at the core of the formal network showed a high level of empowerment, whereas those in the informal positions did not. One’s sense of community did not determine their location either in the core or periphery of the network. (Ramos-Vidal, 2019)
Significance, Implications and Importance
The significance of Ramos-Vidal (2019)’s study was to show how one’s psychological empowerment and psychological sense of community are connected. The study used informal and formal networks to show the impact on one’s empowerment within the classroom context. The implications of the study show how both empowerment and sense of community are interconnected. The importance of this study has direct relevance academically, demonstrating that social networks within the classroom and classroom management can directly impact the students empowerment for academic related success.
Ramos-Vidal (2019) was able to determine that formal and informal networks are not equal in how they influence one's sense of community or empowerment. As demonstrated, the main dimension of one’s sense of community is membership, where the perception of being part of the group is an essential component for that person’s attachment to the social structure itself. Reciprocity was important for a sense of community to emerge and how informal relationships influence one’s subjective attachment to the social group. (Ramos-Vidal 2019)
Conclusion: Research Strengths
The strengths of the research was the elaborate social structure analysis and how the emergent social structures had a direct impact on the sense of empowerment or community that one had. The conceptualization of the study in the form of multiple hypotheses, some supported, others not, was valuable in the sense that it demonstrates a broad conceptual approach that was subject to falsification.
Psychological empowerment as an integrated property that connects the person to the socio-political context they are embedded in, is an important phenomena to understand. The direct and synergistic connection between empowerment with the main property of a sense of community, specifically membership, is something that community psychologists can focus on to increase properties like self-efficacy, a perception of control, and autonomy when approaching social problems.
Next steps for research would be to study the connection of community and empowerment in non-academic contexts with larger sample sizes. This would yield more representative results to the general population and expand the degree of external validity in regards to the interconnection between empowerment and community in other social contexts.
In all social groups and organizations, it is important to know how empowerment and a sense of community function. A sophisticated understanding of empowerment and community can help people find meaning in the social context they are embedded in.
References
Dawson, S. (2008). A study of the relationship between student social networks and sense of community. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 11(3), 224–238.
Freeman, T. M., Anderman, L. H., & Jensen, J. M. (2007). Sense of belonging in college freshmen at the classroom and campus levels. The Journal of Experimental Education, 75(3), 203–220. https://doi.org/10.3200/JEXE.75.3.203-220
Perkins, D. D. & Zimmerman, M. A. (1995). Empowerment theory, research, and application. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), pp. 569.
Ramos-Vidal, I. (2019). A relational view of psychological empowerment and sense of community in academic contexts: a preliminary study. Behavioral Sciences, 9(6), p. 65. doi: 10.3390/bs9060065.
Rappaport, J. (1987). Terms of empowerment/exemplars of prevention: toward a theory for community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, (2), p. 121-48. doi: 10.1007/BF00919275. PMID: 3604997.
Rappaport, J. (1981) In praise of paradox: a social policy of empowerment over prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9(1), p. 1-25. doi: 10.1007/BF00896357.
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