Empowerment and its Different Forms
Empowerment refers to a person's willingness to participate in or do anything due to the power or authority given to them. It also applies to a person's self-assurance and resilience when discussing issues such as human rights. Empowerment increases sovereignty and encourages self-determination.
Psychological Empowerment
Psychological empowerment is the process of manipulating a person's optimistic outlook and feelings to enlighten or change their actions and perception. Controlling and shaping people by results that improve their lives is what community empowerment entails. Both psychological and group empowerment aims to improve people's lives by shaping them through education. Psychological empowerment, on the other hand, necessitates a person study, while group empowerment necessitates a diverse collective base, that is, people who share the same ethnicity, gender, life-threatening problems, or age. Rissell (1994) argues that there should be a clear distinction between the two terms, because though they purpose to achieve advocacy, they are different. It is argued that for community empowerment to succeed, psychological empowerment has to occur first, which is not true. As the author suggests, psychological empowerment focuses on the mind of an individual that is, it concentrates on the sensations and consciousness at a personal level. On the other hand, community empowerment requires organized environments whereby people come together because of the similarities in the matters which affect their lives.
Advocacy and External Change
Advocacy or empowerment seeks to change a person both internally and externally. The internal change involves a look at someone's beliefs and the realization allows the individual to solve his or her problems. The external change involves the use of practical skills and knowledge to create an impact in collaboration with other individuals. Both psychological and community empowerment can be fused together, however, there should be a distinction between them.
Reference
Rissel, C. (1994). Empowerment: The holy grail of health promotion? Health Promotion International, 9(1), 39-47.
