Ecological analysis is fundamental to community psychology (Rappaport, 1977). An ecology epistemology implies that a systemic or contextual research approach should be prevalent; however reviews of community psychology research indicate that individualistic research and theory still dominate (Speer et al., 1992). We assert the need to increase contextualist research. To understand the nature of contextualist research, its underlying assumptions are discussed in the context of other research frameworks. We further argue that the dominance of positivism in community psychology is both inappropriate and misguided, and comes from a misunderstanding of the nature of people, and consequently, community. A deconstruction of personality theory is presented to allow a better understanding of people in context. Through this deconstruction, we argue for a grounded approach to research that operationalises contextualism.