An Intervention Research On Residents’Psychological Empowerment

Community Psychology is one of the fields most involving in empowerment. Researches related to empowerment mainly focused on community, organizational and individual level. To study empowerment from individual level is the so-called psychological empowerment. In western, one of the most influential conceptions of psychological empowerment was advanced by Zimmerman; he further proposed this concept consists of beliefs about one’s competency, efforts exert on gaining control and understanding of the social-political environment. In the process of advancing the naturalization of the psychological empowerment research, Chinese scholar proposed a Chinese Local conception of psychological empowerment, which was defined as a process of personality-oriented, self-motivated, and proactive control with the aim of community members’citizen participation. Its basic dimension comprised an inclination to criticize based on change, the self-evaluation for participatory competence, and the proactive control of participatory motivation. Then a Chinese Residents’Psychological Empowerment Scale was developed, this effort so provide a instrument for the empirical research about psychological empowerment.On the basis of above basic research, purpose of the present study was to carry out an intervention research on residents’psychological empowerment.14residents participated voluntarily in the study; Chinese residents’psychological empowerment scale was taken as the measurement tool and experimental-control group pre-post test quasi-experimental design was adopted, research results were as follows:(1) Participants’average scores on psychological empowerment scale were around3, which indicating the psychological empowerment of all participants was at a moderate level. No significant differences were found between experimental and control group before intervention.(2) After intervention, no significant differences were found between pre-post scores on psychological empowerment scale in control group (P>0.05); significant differences were found between pre-post scores on psychological empowerment scale in experimental group (P<0.05).(3) After intervention, independent-sample t-test indicates there were significant differences between pre-post scores on the self-evaluation for participatory competence and the proactive control of participatory motivation subscale in experimental group (P<0.05). No significant differences were found between pre-post scores on the inclination to criticize based on change subscale in experimental group (P>0.05)(4) Further analysis on qualitative data showed that guiding residents both concerning on negative and positive sides of their community can be beneficial to psychological empowerment. To guide residents recognizing and understanding the means and meaning of their community life can increase their community participation. Harmonious neighborhood and perceived social support can improve residents’interests on community life as well as their confidence while coping with community daily affairs.