82094 - Community-Based Health Promotion

Course contents

The Course is delivered in the I semester (starting from 26 September 2017), on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon (h. 14-17). It is addressed to II year students of the Master programme in School and Community Psychology. Classes will be in Cesena, School of Psychology and Education, Piazza Aldo Moro, 90, Cesena (FC), aula F.

Objectives. The course aims to introduce students to some intervention strategies and methods that are part of the professional competences of psychologists who work in the field of prevention and health promotion in a variety of contexts (e.g. family, school, health services, local communities, media).

The topics of the course are discussed from the perspective of Community psychology and Social Psychology. It is assumed that students are already familiar with such disciplines, their theoretical paradigms and key issues. Moreover, it useful to have some basic knowledge and competences in methodology of psychosocial research. During the first lectures, the level of knowledge and competences will be assessed.

The Course includes two modules, dealing with the following issues.

Module 1 (15 lectures) (Prof.ssa Elvira Cicognani)

Part A – Introduction on key basic concepts (health, well being, risk; determinants of health and illness; prevention, health promotion; the approach of community health psychology). This part will be dealt using lectures, discussion of papers and documents provided in class.

Part B – Assessement of health needs: methods and instruments for conducting an analysis of health needs of a community. This part will be dealt with using lectures, exercises, case study analysis.

Part C – Planning and evaluating interventions in the domain of prevention and health promotion. This part will be dealt using lectures, analysis of projects, group work.

Module 2 (5 lectures) (Prof. Luca Pietrantoni)

Part A. Risk perception and risk communication in communities. This part will be dealt using lectures and discussions of documents and papers provided in class.

Part B. The development of effective communication interventions in specific domains. This part will be dealt using lectures, exercises in class, case study analysis.

Readings/Bibliography

Ricci Bitti P.E., Gremigni P. (2013) Psicologia della salute. Modelli teorici e contesti applicativi, Carocci Editore, Roma.

De Piccoli N. (2013), Salute e qualità della vita nella società del benessere, Carocci, Roma.

Zani B., Cicognani E. (2004), Psicologia della salute, Il Mulino, Bologna.

Inguglia C. (2012). La progettazione di interventi psicosociali. Carocci, Roma.

Teaching methods

The following instruments will be used:

• lectures
• group discussions
• case study analysis involving collection of information (bibliographic research) and data collection (with interviews, questionnaires)
• critical analysis of papers and projects

Assessment methods

Since the course involves practical activities, attendance to classes (certified by at least 70% of presence) is necessary in order to register for the exam in the modality of “attending students”.

Students attending classes

The exam includes the following:

1. preparation and discussion of a prevention project on a topic provided by the teacher. The project, that will be prepared in small groups, following guidelines provided in class, will be described in a paper of 20-25 pages (50% of the total grade).
2. Written exam on a selection of the course readings and on the topics addressed during lectures of both teachers. The written exam includes 6 open ended questions (3 per each module), with a maximum limit of text. (50% of the total grade)

Students not attending classes

The exam includes the following:

1. Written exam, with 10 open ended questions, on the compulsory readings
2. Oral exam.

Teaching tools

Overhead projector, slides, scientific papers, online bibliographic sources, software SPSS

Office hours

See the website of Elvira Cicognani

See the website of Luca Pietrantoni