Psychological Sense of Community

Mediated communities are a part of daily life, lending strength to local communities and building clusters of former strangers into communities around shared goals. Although some fields have been studying the interactions between online and offline communities for decades, this is still an emerging area in psychological studies. In this book Media Psychologist Jenny Fremlin provides a foundation for applying commonly used psychological scales across communities that exist online, offline, and in between. Beginning with a broad look at the implications of mediated communities on social interactions, Fremlin moves into an extensive literature review of sense of community research. She addresses well-established and emerging theories and includes a chronological exploration of scales. Fremlin then hones in on massively multiplayer online games as a home for communities to form. The book concludes with an original study on sense of community among World of Warcraft guild members across multiple communities including their local neighborhoods.

The sudden COVID-19-induced transition from a physical university life to a virtual one was a painful one for many students. Social distancing measures mean more than a simple change from face-to-face to online education. This study investigates how different social aspects, such as the students’ psychological sense of community, social capital, and use of social media, facilitated the perceived social support during the transition to the COVID-19 lockdown. Our results not only underline social media’s role, but also indicate that the perceived social support, as well as the bonding and bridging social capital, were particularly relevant during the transition process. Our findings are aimed at organizational management by recommending actionable ways in which they could improve social support by organizing computer-supported social networks, social support predictors, and specialized interventions for students with less perceived social support. As such, the study provides unique insights into the COVID-19-induced lockdown situation among students, while offering a transition model that is also generalized to other settings.

Examines the sense of community (SOC) within neighborhoods and the dimensions of social capital (SC). We have four main goals for this chapter. One is to inform researchers and program planners in community development, urban policy, and social services that many concepts thoroughly studied by community psychologists (sense of community, collective efficacy/empowerment, citizen participation, neighboring) are part of SC. Our second goal is to introduce more community psychologists to SC. Third, to both audiences, we expect to show that residential neighborhood SOC is at least as strongly related to other SC dimensions as are demographics and other widely studied community-focused cognitions (place attachment, community satisfaction, community confidence, and communitarianism--or community values). In addition to those interdisciplinary aims, our fourth goal is to explore SOC and its relationships to SC using multi-level analysis. The relationship between SOC and SC--whether they operate together, separately, or nested one within the other--and on what level(s) they operate are critical to our understanding of both concepts.

We examined how different types of interactions affect psychological sense of community among students in living-learning programs. Distinctions were drawn among 3 types of interactions—academic, social, and deeper life—in which students engage with faculty, staff, and peers. Accounting for both the type of interaction and the participants, we found 5 variables that predicted 50% of students’ sense of  community: academic interactions with peers, social interactions with peers, deeper life interactions with peers, deeper life interactions with faculty/staff, and social interactions with faculty/staff that involve a commitment of time. The results show the meaningful impact that peer interactions have on sense of community. Student interactions with faculty and staff also influence sense of community when they involve time spent together or deal with questions of meaning, value, and purpose. Understanding the impact of interactions on sense of community can help higher education leaders to intentionally design environments that are ultimately conducive to student success.

Tested a model for understanding the relationship of participation in block associations to block-level variables (i.e., demographics, the built environment, crime, the transient social and physical environment). Data were obtained from 48 city blocks using (1) a telephone survey of 1,081 residents, (2) a block environmental inventory (BEI), (3) police records of reported crime, and (4) a survey of 469 block association members. The BEI was reliable and correlated significantly with the social climate, crime, demographics, and participation. The transient portion of the framework received particular support as 4 variables independently explained almost 40% of the variance in participation. A combination of catalysts in the physical environment and enablers in the social environment may increase participation. Appendix includes all survey scales, including first use and publication of the 12-item Sense of Community Index.

Heavy metal music has constantly been under scrutiny due to its perceived negative effects on its listeners. Quantitative research has focused on heavy metal music as a risk factor for mental health problems and antisocial behaviour. This research agenda has neglected to explore and quantitatively document how the music can foster positive outcomes among its listeners, in particular a strong sense of community. Fans and producers of heavy metal music constantly reference community as an important aspect of the sonic experience. Still, few studies have addressed the communal experience in heavy metal music from a quantitative perspective. Therefore, the specific aims of this study were to (1) document levels of sense of community among members of the Local Metal Scene (LMS) in Puerto Rico, (2) explore differences on sense of community among core scene members and those at its periphery, and (3) explore predictive variables that can explain sense of community among its members. We present data from a larger study of the metal scene in Puerto Rico, which used a mixed methods approach including ethnographic observations, qualitative interviews and surveys with members of Puerto Rico’s metal scene. Results evidence high levels of sense of community, with existing differences among members of the same scene. Furthermore, our results identify six predictive variables of importance for sense of community among the LMS in Puerto Rico.

Chapter 13 CONTEMPORARY ABORIGINAL PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNITY Pat Dudgeon, John Mallard, Darlene Oxenham, and John Fielder Curtin University INTRODUCTION Aboriginal Australian people have lived on the continent for over 40000 years. They were ...

In contemporary times, there is a compelling need to understand the nature of positive community relationships that value diverse others. This dissertation is a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into the essence of what it means to feel a sense of community. Specifically, I explored this phenomenon from the perspective of middle school teachers and students through the following questions: What meanings do students and teachers ascribe to feeling, experiencing, and developing a sense of community in their classes? To what extent do students’ and teachers’ ideas about feeling a sense of community include the acceptance of individual differences? Together these questions contributed to the overarching question, what is the essence of feeling a sense of community? As the data pool for the research, I used 192 essays and 218 posters from students who had been asked to write or draw about their visions of a positive classroom community where they felt a sense of community. I conducted 9 teacher interviews on the topic as well. My findings revealed one overarching ontology, Being-in-Relation, which outlined a full integration between individuality and community as a “way of being.” I also found five attributes that are present when individuals feel a sense of community: Supporting Others, Dialogue, An Ethic of Respect and Care, Safety, and Healthy Conflict. Contributions from this research include extensions to the literature about community; clarity for those who wish to establish a strong foundation of community relationships within formal and non-formal educational programs; insight that may assist educators, leaders, and policy makers within formal educational systems; and an opportunity to consider the extent to which the findings may point toward broader implications.