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Influencing Social Policy

Applied Psychology Serving the Public Interest

Kenneth I Maton author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:8th Sep '16

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Influencing Social Policy cover

Influencing Social Policy synthesizes current knowledge about how psychologists influence social policy to serve the public interest. The volume builds upon interviews with 79 applied psychologists about their experiences in the policy domain, with special focus on the work of applied developmental psychologists, applied social psychologists, and community psychologists. Additional foundations of the volume include a review of social science scholarship across a wide range of disciplines, and author Kenneth Maton's 30 years of teaching on the topic, including frequent interactions with Washington, DC, policy experts. Together, these sources provide in-depth information about how applied psychologists influence social policy, the factors that contribute to their success, the challenges they face, and the approaches used to address those challenges. The policy influences described span all three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The policy content areas are diverse, including the death penalty prohibition for adolescents, early childhood education, gay marriage, gender discrimination in the workplace, health and mental health care reform, homelessness, home visiting programs, sexually abused child witness treatment, status offender diversion from the juvenile justice system, substance abuse prevention, and many others. Influencing Social Policy is a must-have resource for graduate students and professionals in a wide variety of disciplines with interests in influencing social policy, including psychology, education, public health, social work, policy studies, anthropology, and sociology.

"As president of the William T. Grant Foundation I met many social scientists who hoped their work would be useful to policymakers. But they had few models for how that might happen. Ken Maton's thoughtful analysis fills that important gap." --Robert C. Granger, EdD, Past-President, William T. Grant Foundation "This volume is a major contribution to the literature of social policy in the public interest. It is a book many of us have been waiting for. It allows us to learn directly from conversations with psychologists who have themselves engaged in policy work of various kinds. Every graduate program in social, developmental, clinical, and community psychology-as well as those in in related fields such as anthropology, social work, and education-would benefit from inclusion of this book in its curriculum." --Julian Rappaport, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

ISBN: 9780199989973

Dimensions: 155mm x 231mm x 25mm

Weight: 499g

408 pages