PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN A POLITICALLY CONSTRUCTED GROUP

McMillan and Chavis' (1986) psychological sense of community (PSC) mod el was used to build a profile of a politically constructed group, Twe nty-three people, who were classified as Coloured in South Africa, now residing in Melbourne, Australia were interviewed with an instrument to assess PSC. The data indicated that the model presented two dimensi ons for this group. The first dimension reflected the externally const ructed and imposed definitions of group membership under the apartheid laws. The second dimension related to the ways in which the people so cially constructed notions of community within their subgroup, Results also showed that the people rejected the imposed label of ''Coloured, '' but they still internalized some of the negative stereotypes associ ated with the label and status, The people also internalized positive experiences of support and group membership that developed within the enforced groupings. It is suggested that the PSC model provides a usef ul tool for investigating group-specific meanings and understandings o f community. It is argued that a PSC facilitates experiences of belong ing, security, and relatedness, while PSC, in turn, facilitates adapta tion to new contexts. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.