Introduces ecological framework for assessment and rehabilitation planning of learning disabled persons to facilitate integration of information and perspectives. Operationalizes framework through four dimensions: individual attributes; environmental attributes; nature, quality, and sequence of interactions; and perceptions of involved…

This paper suggests that community psychology may be going through an identity crisis because of its lack of empirical demonstrations of community intervention effectiveness, and an ecologically valid intervention research base. Although the majority of research in community psychology has used an individualistic paradigm that conceptualizes…

Discusses the value of diagnostic classification systems to counseling professionals. Describes the Ecological Diagnostic Classification Plan, an approach to diagnosis that includes the environment as a possible cause of pathology and target of intervention. (Author/KS)

A brief review of systems theory provides a rationale for an underlying theoretical model within which systems theory can be more completely understood. The essence of the model is that persons are the major unit of study because the available means of satisfying "basic needs" define and shape interaction patterns in the family as in other human…

There has been a resurgence of interest in human ecosystems, attributable to the growth of community mental health centers and public sector funding. The first of two papers discusses human ecology models based on this resurgence. Implications for future development of the mental health area are presented with the challenge to integrate…

An ecological model derived from family systems theory and strategies borrowed from family therapy are effective substitutes for the medical model and clinical methods traditionally used by school pyschologists to help children with academic or behavior problems. Behavior is an outgrowth of interpersonal processes in a particular system rather…