Conclusion: looking backward and forward - Chapter 7

After studying the previous chapters, reading the suggested literature, and completing the various exercises, the basic skills for addressing practical problems through applying social psychological theories will have been trained and developed. Nevertheless, it takes quite some time, effort, and experience before the PATHS model can be used in an optimal way.

It’s important to be somewhat flexible in applying the various procedures outlined in this book. The more experience you get, the more likely it is that you can swich between the various steps in the model, and will go back and forth between, for instance, developing a problem definition and coming up with explanations, or between developing a process model and proposing an intervention. Gradually, you’ll become more and more able to ‘play’ with the procedures, you will know when and how to switch between stages, and you will develop a sense for when and how to skip a stage. Some practitioners eventually develop their own approach that deviates from the PATHS model, but that has proven its value in practice. This model has as its main goal allowing practitioners to develop their own effective approach, informed by knowledge from social psychology.

Generally, when presenting the results of one’s analyses to a client, a practitioner should try to avoid presenting clients with the outcomes of various exercises and the procedures as they are presented in this book. These exercises and procedures are just tools in the toolbox of the practitioner. Usually, the practitioner would present an analysis of the problem, the major causes that can be addressed in an intervention, and the nature of the intervention. Such a presentation needs to be given in clear and crisp language, without too many scientific terms and without any jargon, social psychological concepts may be introduced, as far as they clarify the analysis of the problem. The central goal should be to make clear what you are proposing and to convince a client that this is a well-developed and effective approach.

To conclude, this book presents an elaborate procedure for developing theory-based interventions, the PATHS methodology, based on current social psychological science and theory. PATHS is a tool rather than a ritual that one should go through at all costs. The goal of this book is to facilitate the idea that social psychological concepts, theories, and methods may help understand and coping better with pressing issues that societies are facing. It also aims to provide practitioners and policy makers with the knowledge, skills, and tools to help them accomplish the important task of making this world a better place for everyone. By offering the tools to study the deeper and more proximate causes of various problematic practices and behaviours, the hope is that practitioners can come up with the right interventions to change them.