Oxford University Press Influencing Social Policy: Applied Psychology Serving the Public Interest (Advances in Community Psychology)

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. Review 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 About the Author Kenneth I. Maton is a Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Public Policy at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His primary areas of research are minority student achievement and empowering community settings. He has taught a graduate level course on social policy for the past 30 years, received the Special Contributions to Public Policy Award from the Society for Community Research and Action in 2013, and served as lead co-editor of the volume Investing in Children, Youth, Families, and Communities: Strengths-based Research and Policy.