323 Assumptions and Values of Community Health Psychology MICHAEL MURRAY Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada GEOFFREY NELSON Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada BLAKE POLAND University of Toronto, Canada ELEANOR MATICKA-TYNDALE University of Windsor, Canada LORRAINE FERRIS University of Toronto, Canada MICHAEL MURRAY is Professor of Social and Health Psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. GEOFF NELSON is Professor of Community Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. BLAKE POLAND and LORI FERRIS are Associate Professors of Public Health at the University of Toronto, Canada. ELEANOR MATICKA - TYNDALE is University Professor of Sociology at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Journal of Health Psychology Copyright © 2004 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, www.sagepublications.com Vol 9(2) 323–333 DOI:10.1177/1359105304040897 Abstract There is a need to widen the practice of health psychologists to include the theories and methods of community psychology and an awareness of contemporary issues in community health. The aim of such a community health psychology would be both to deepen our understanding of the aetiology of health and illness in society and to develop strategies that will contribute to a reduction in human suffering and an improvement in quality of life. The aim of this article is to review the background and assumptions of community health psychology and to consider some values that would underlie such an approach. Keywords community psychology, health psychology ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . An earlier version of the discussion reported in this article formed part of a larger report entitled Training in Community Health Psychology that was prepared by a working group composed of the authors together with Francine Lavoie, Roy Cameron and Ken Prkachin. The preparation of that report was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Opportunity Program, Award Number COF 38230 [www.med.mun.ca/tchp]. COMPETING INTERESTS : None declared. ADDRESS . Correspondence should be directed to: DR MICHAEL MURRAY, Division of Community Health, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, AIB 3V6, Canada. [email: murraym@mun.ca]