A conceptual and empirical comparison of the fields of community psychology and social work

Authors in the field of community psychology have been persistently engaged in attempts to define the boundaries of this relatively new branch of psychology. The present study addresses this boundary issue by comparing community psychology to the field of social work. A review of each field's literature suggests that conceptually the two fields are similar. This comparative strategy was operationalized here by a content analysis of articles in selected journals of each field. Two years, 1973 and 1978, were designated for sampling and all journal articles in these years were analyzed with respect to author characteristics, topic areas addressed, purpose served by the articles, subject, research design, and measurement characteristics, statistics used, and other variables. The results obtained indicate that the two fields are moving closer together across time on most variables. The 1978 data show few consistent differences between community psychology and social work, with measurement characteristics showing the most difference between the two fields. Other differences and trends across time are discussed, and implications are discussed for the future of community psychology.