Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice

Roberta R. Greene, Roberta R. Greene

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351310345
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice remains a foundation work for those interested in the practice and teaching of social work. Roberta Greene covers theoretical areas and individual theorists including classical psychoanalytic thought, Eriksonian theory, Carl Rogers, cognitive theory, systems theory, ecological perspectives, social construction, feminism, and genetics. She discusses the historical context, its philosophical roots, and major assumptions of each theory. The general theme, which distinguishes this volume, is that the person-in-environment perspective has been a central influence in the formation of the profession's knowledge base, as well as its approach to practice. Greene provides perspective on how individuals and social systems interact.

This book examines how social workers can use theory to shape social work practice by increasing his or her understanding of and potential for enhancing human well-being. Greene covers the relationship between human behavior theory and professional social work practice. She also explores the challenges and limitations of each theory and addresses the following issues: how the theory serves as a framework for social work practice; how the theory lends itself to an understanding of individual, family, group, community, or organizational behavior; what the implications are of the theory for social work interventions or practice strategies; and what role it proposes for the social worker as a change agent.

Throughout the profession's history, social workers have turned to a number of theoretical approaches for the organizing concepts needed to define their practice base. The aims of social work--to improve societal conditions and to enhance social functioning of and between individuals, families, and groups--are put into action across all fields of practice and realized through a variety of methods in a range of settings. This third edition, completely revised, represents a fundamental contribution to the field, and like its predecessors, will be widely used as a basic text.

1

Human Behavior Theory, Person-in-Environment, and Social Work Method

Roberta R. Greene

Practice is always shaped by the needs of the times, the problems they present, the fears they generate, the solutions that appeal, and the knowledge and skill available.

—B. C. Reynolds, Learning and Teaching in the Practice of Social Work

Social work is a young, evolving profession characterized by a dynamic helping process and a diversity of roles, functions, and career opportunities. The aims of social work—to improve societal conditions and to enhance social functioning of and between individuals, families, and groups—are put into action across all fields of practice and realized through a variety of methods in a range of settings.

For today’s social worker to pursue a career in any one of the profession’s diverse service arenas, he or she will need to acquire conceptual frameworks that provide the context for understanding the complexities of contemporary practice. Throughout the profession’s history, social workers have turned to a number of theoretical approaches for the organizing concepts needed to define their practice base. This book will provide the beginning social worker with the applied knowledge about human behavior in the social environment that serves as the theoretical underpinning for direct practice in social work. This book focuses on selected conceptual frameworks that have made major contributions to the profession’s understanding of human functioning and examines the ways in which these frameworks have shaped social workers’ approach to enhance client functioning. The main theme of this book is that the person-in-environment perspective has been a central influence in the formation of the profession’s knowledge base, as well as its approach to practice, providing a perspective on how individuals and social systems interact. The succeeding chapters explore the ways specific theories have contributed to understanding the person-in-environment construct and examine the idea that all clinical social work intervention is anchored in a common paradigm: reshaping the context of the person-in-environment configuration (Bartlett, 1970; Greene, 2005; Saleebey, 2005; Van Den Bergh, 1995).

This book also explores the manner in which each theory offers explanations about the biopsychosocial and spiritual development of individuals across the life course and about their functioning as members of families, groups, organizations, and communities. The book addresses the theory’s universality, its utility in addressing cultural and ethnic diversity, and its assumptions about what constitutes adaptive behavior. Each chapter outlines the central frames of reference and concepts of a particular theory. Its salient constructs are then applied to practice approaches in selected settings with various client populations. Suggestions are provided about the ways in which practitioners may use the various frameworks to structure professional activities, to guide the practitioner through key social work processes: conducting assessments and selecting interventive strategies, and creating new meanings through discourse. Client cases then illustrate various ideas for helping individuals, families, and groups.

Organization of the Chapters

This chapter introduces the organizing principles of the book. Chapter 2 discusses the relationship between human behavior theory and professional social work practice. Chapters 3 through 12 present a series of theories (or selections from particular schools of thought). The historical context, its philosophical roots, and major assumptions of each theory are discussed. The chapters examine how social workers can use a theory to shape direct social work practice by increasing his or her understanding of and potential for enhancing human well-being. The chapters also explore the challenges and limitations of each theory and address the following questions:

• What does the theory offer for understanding development across the life cycle? Life course?
• What does the theory suggest about the interactions among biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors of human development and functioning?
• What does the theory suggest about healthy/functional and unhealthy/dysfunctional behaviors or wellness?
• What does the theory say is adaptive/maladaptive? How does the theory present stress factors and coping potentials?
• Is the theory universal in its application? How does the theory lend itself to cross-cultural social work practice or various life contexts? Does the theory address social and economic justice?
• What does the theory propose about individuals as members of families, groups, communities, and organizations?
• How does the theory serve as a framework for social work practice?
• How does the theory lend itself to an understanding of individual, family, group, community, or organizational behavior?
• How does the theory suggest the client and social worker go about defining presenting situations, problems, or concerns? Does the theory suggest a strengths perspective?
• What are the implications of the theory for social work interventions or practice strategies? Do the principles of the theory emphasize a client’s capabilities and resources?
• what does the theory suggest the social worker do? What does it suggest the client (system) do?
• What role does it propose for the social worker as change agent? What is the aim of treatment/intervention or meaning creation? What does it suggest enhances functioning or promotes change in the client? In society? In societal institutions?

These chapters also provide examples in which a theory is used to “direct” or guide the social worker—client interchange. Each situation suggests how the theory can be used to shape the social worker’s role. Examples use individual, family, and group methodologies and are chosen from among the fields of practice. Clients in a variety of contexts—setting, age, and culture—are addressed.

Human Behavior Theory, Positivist Tradition, and Reliance on Scientific Thought

At the very least we ought to know what concepts we are utilizing, and where the concepts come from, and the state of their verification.

—S. Firestone, The Scientific Component in the Casework Field Curriculum

Changes in Epistemology

Human behavior theory needs to be understood within the context of the history of scientific thought. History suggests that the social work profession has moved from a position of little practice theory to an over abundance of theoretical approaches (Turner, 1995). Each theory stems from a particular paradigm, the configuration of beliefs, values, and techniques that are shared by members of a professional community. Each paradigm is a reconstruction of prior thinking (Schriver, 2003) and may have dramatically different philosophical assumptions, so much so that Kuhn (1970) said that “it is rather as if the professional community had been suddenly transported to another planet.”

Guba (1990) has described the shifts in paradigm—from positivism, the belief in universal laws; to postpositivism, the belief that knowledge is conjectural; to constructivism, the belief that each person constructs meaning for themselves. Positivists theorists argue that objective laws and universal truths can be discovered through scientific activity, logic, and reason, leading to objective social work practice (see Burrell & Morgan, 1979; Martin & O’Connor, 1989). Postpositivists suggest that although natural laws exist, people cannot possibly perceive them and that social worker objectivity would be an ideal. Social constructionists have proposed that many realities are created at the local level through human interaction (Foucault, 1980). Therefore, they believe that no social work endeavor is value free, but must be understood through individual mental frameworks. Theories that stem from these various philosophies are presented throughout the text.

The Value of Theory

The usefulness of theory to social work practice can be viewed in a number of ways (Table 1.1). Social workers who use theories of human behavior that stem from positivist tradition, such as Freudian theory and systems theory, rely on information, facts, and data to guide their clinical practice. They view theory—a logical system of concepts that provides a framework for organizing and understanding observations—as the primary tool in planning assessment and intervention processes (Table 1.2). Theories—intended to offer comprehensive, simple, and dependable principles for the explanation and prediction of observable phenomena—assist practitioners in identifying orderly relationships (Newman and Newman, 2005).

Table 1.1
Value of a Theoretical Framework

Theories provide the framework for organizing social work practice.

Just as social scientists used theories to deal with vast quantities of data by formulating significant questions, selecting and organizing data, and understanding the data within a larger framework, social workers also sought theories to help guide and organize their thinking about a client’s presenting problem. Theories also helped social workers explain why people behave as they do, to better understand how the environment affects behavior, to guide their interventions, and to predict what is likely to be the result of a particular social work intervention (Wodarski & Thyer, 2004). For example, social workers who base their practice on Freudian theory may choose to help a client examine the uses of defense mechanisms in the belief that modification of overly rigid or ineffective defenses will lead to a healthier personality configuration (see Chapter 3). In contrast, the practitioner who bases his or her practice on a social systems approach may evaluate the relatively closed or open quality of a family system with the idea that helping a family communicate more openly will improve its functional capacity (see Chapter 7). Each theory has its own set of assumptions about the cause of the presenting problem and its resolution. Questions that guide the interview suggest that the social worker has an understanding about what constitutes a healthy individual or well-functioning family.

Positivist theorists suggest the social worker take a neutral stance during the helping process and that theory can help the social worker guard against the temptation to act on personal bias. Briar and Miller (1971) underscored the idea that a social worker needs to be able to separate fact from inference and to make explicit his or her assumptions about human behavior to make sound professional judgments:

The choice for the practitioner is not whether to have a theory but what theoretical assumptions to hold. All persons acquire assumptions or views on the basis of which they construe and interpret events and behavior, including their own. These assumptions are frequently not explicit but are more what has been called “implicit theories of personality.” Thus, the appeal for practitioners to be atheoretical amounts simply to an argument that theory ought to be implicit and hidden, not explicit and self-conscious. It is difficult, however, to defend an argument favoring implicit theory that, by definition, is not susceptible to scrutiny and objective validation and therefore cannot be distinguished from idiosyncratic bias. (pp. 53–54)

Social workers often turn to the theories of human behavior in the social environment they believe will provide a knowledge base for understanding and action (Bloom, 1984).

Table 1.2
Definitions of Theory

The use of theory is the hallmark of professional helping.

Those theories that help in understanding the causal dynamics of behavior that has already occurred and in predicting future behavioral events meet this definition for action oriented knowledge. In short, theoretical frameworks are useful to those in the helping professions to the extent that they provide a conceptual foundation that shapes the direction of professional activities and gives context to specific actions.

Whatever their choice of theory, a social worker’s actions are not random but tend to reflect the theories, implicit or explicit, that he or she accepts and uses. Theory tends to shape the practitioner’s viewpoint, what he or she makes of it, and what he or she decides to do about it. How the practitioner defines a need, situation, or problem largely determines the action he or she will take. If the practitioner views the problem as being within the person, the theory will lead him or her to take a different course of action than if the problem resided within the environment. The social worker who does not believe in a problemladen social work approach will take another course of action (Laird, 1993; Saleebey, 2005).

During the past three decades, there have been several concerns about the use of theory and whether it is evidenced-based. There are, of course, limitations to the rigor of scientific theories and their capacity to explain or account for events. No single theoretical construction can encompass all aspects of a phenomenon (Turner, 1995). By their very nature, theories are selective about the factors they emphasize and those they ignore. In addition, a growing number of social work theorists have challenged positivist tradition. This challenge has involved an interest in an...