Transforming community psychology

Community psychology has made great strides in including context when under standing people in their environments. While continuing to consider context , we need to expand our conceptualization of the individual in community se ttings. I propose 3 principles: (I) focus our research on people, not progr ams; (2) consider multiple dimensions of people's experience; and (3) conce ptualize people as agentic and not simply as reactors to the environmental press. I illustrate those principles with research on domestic violence and welfare reform. In doing so, I call attention both to the way in which asp ects of people's lives intersect with community settings and to the embedde dness of people's lives (and community settings) in larger social structure s.