MACRO-SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS

Innovative Macro-social Interventions

    Top-down

        Efforts to influence national and/or international authorities to craft laws and develop policies that are informed by psychological science

    Middle-out

        Efforts to influence community leaders, who in turn influence leaders above them along with their constituencies

    Bottom-up

        Efforts to influence large numbers of people directly

Based on

    Policy Development
    Group Work
    Local Empowerment

Multidisciplinary Explanations and Solutions

    Epistemological Trap of Reductionism

Goal To Improve Collective Well-being

    Social Justice Focus

Conceptual Core
        
    Systems Analytic Framework

        Multi-sectoral
        Multi-level

    Target Actors / Institutions and Exploit their Linkages

        Locally and Vertically

    Sensitivity to Ethics, Culture, and Power

        Beware of Universalism
        
Examples

    Top-down

        Institutionalization of Orphans

    Middle-out

        Interactive Problem-solving

    Bottom-up

        Community Empowerment and Capacity Building

    Mixed-model Interventions

        Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

DISCUSSION:

➢    How can macro-social interventions be designed to accommodate universal dimensions of culture (e.g., individualism-collectivism, science-folklore) and unique features of a particular culture?

➢    How should a psychologist prepare before proposing a macro-social intervention, especially one intended for use in an unfamiliar context and setting?