PSYCHOLOGISTS IN THE COMMUNITY:

IMPORTANCE AND ORIENTATION OF THE WORK UNDERTAKEN

Abstract

Fourteen psychologists who work with communities in the
metropolitan area of São Paulo were interviewed. It was aimed, from the
practice of those professionals, to identify the orientation that was given to
their work, specially to see whether the work was related or not to Psychology.
For the purpose of this article, the following themes were selected:
the main reasons for doing community type of work and its importance
for them; what were the objectives, if any, of the work done or being
done; what are the necessary conditions one needs in order to work with
communities. An Analysis of Content applied to these themes, made it
possible to identify that motivation ranked from personal curiosity to their contribution to the community and to Psychology itself. It was also found
that the main orientation given to the work by those interviewed ranged
from strictly psychological to sociological work. The author raise some
questions concerning psychological intervention and the specificity of this
object of study in the area of community work.