COMMUNITY STUDY TOOLS: EXAMPLES AND OBSERVATIONS FROM FIELD EXPERIENCES

Abstract

The current article aims to convey the experiences of using community-study tools. The experiences and information in the article were based on literature review, authentic field-work experiences from the activities in Introduction to Community Psychology course including being a coaching team of Thai Health Promotion Foundation. According to the study, the following five tools have been popularly employed: 1) genogram diagram/family plans, 2) Geo-Social Mapping, 3) community structure plans, 4) life clocks (persons) and 5) problem trees. In addition, the researchers found that community-study tools have been as important as "a compass" which enables staff to complete tasks. It was because the community-study tools help collect both necessary individual and community information for further community activities. In addition, the information collected from the community could be applied in various community tasks in terms of studying about individual, community, and society facets.