Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Perspectives on Development, the Life Course, and Macro Contexts

Anissa Rogers

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000043815
• Edizione: 2
• Argomento: Scienze sociali
• Categoria: Sociologia

In this new aggregated edition of Anissa Taun Roger's Human Behavior in the Social Environment, readers will find a comprehensive overview of the issues related to human behavior and the social environment. Chapters are organized to first present foundational theoretical perspectives on the human condition, and then provide information on the basic facets of human development, encouraging students to use conceptual lens to inform their practice with individuals at different stages of life. The four final chapters cover theoretical frameworks and approaches to four areas of macro concern: spirituality, families and groups, organizations, and communities. Through this section, students will understand how contemporary theories and approaches build from foundational perspectives, and how they in turn can be used to inform their work with clients.

In this edition and updated companion website, readers will also find:

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• Particular emphasis on the ways in which poverty, diversity, and strengths affect human development and behavior

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• The opportunity to see how the concepts fit into social work practice using chapter opening case examples that are referred to throughout the chapter.

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• Interactive case studies at www.routledgesw.com/cases: Six easy-to-access fictional cases with dynamic characters and situations that students can easily reach from any computer and that provide a "learning by doing" format unavailable with any other text. Your students will have an advantage unlike any other they will experience in their social work training.

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• A full library of instructor-only resources at www.routledgesw.com/hbse that provide full-text readings that connect to the concepts presented in each of the chapters; a complete bank of objective-based and essay-type test items, all linked to current CSWE EPAS (Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards); PowerPoint presentations to help students master key concepts; annotated links to a treasure trove of social work assets on the Internet; and a forum inviting all instructors using books in the series to communicate with each other and share ideas to improve teaching and learning.

CHAPTER 1
Human Behavior and the Social Work Profession

Janice is a single, 25-year-old veteran who just returned from serving for one year in Afghanistan. She is having trouble finding a job and is struggling to support herself. Although Janice wants to work, she finds it difficult because of the depressed economy in her town, her lack of job skills, and several health problems. Among other symptoms, Janice suffers from severe migraine headaches and symptoms of PTSD, and she has trouble sleeping and concentrating. The stress caused by unemployment, by health problems, and by the experiences she had while serving in the army has caused Janice to wish sometimes that she could find a way out and not feel so bad all the time.

JANICE’S STORY EXEMPLIFIES THE COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN problems. When you carefully examine her situation, you will probably identify several major issues: health problems, potential mental health issues, developmental issues associated with her age, effects of policies and programs (such as those established through the Veterans Administration that dictate which services veterans can access), cultural expectations of self-sufficiency, lack of access to affordable housing, and inequities and challenges related to employment.

Rarely in social work will you find yourself working with people whose problems are straightforward. Regardless of the type of agency in which you work or the population with which you work, you will find people’s problems to be multifaceted and interconnected on many different levels. Because the human condition is so complex, social workers need to seek a solid, knowledge-based understanding of human behavior in the context of the social environment.

DEFINING “HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT”

No single definition for “human behavior in the social environment” exists. Nevertheless, the social work profession agrees on the importance of understanding how individuals interact both with other people and with their environment, as well as understanding how individuals are affected by these interactions. This is because human behavior cannot be viewed or understood in a vacuum; not only is human behavior in and of itself complex, but we all influence and are influenced by the environments in which we live.

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the body that accredits undergraduate and graduate social work programs, requires that programs prepare students to apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment. This is how the CSWE (2015, p. 8) articulates its policy:

Social workers understand theories of human behavior and the social environment, and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge to facilitate engagement with clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Social workers use this knowledge in their work with clients—from assessments to evaluations of intervention—and this knowledge is based in and supports the core value system of the profession, which we discuss later in the chapter. This means that social workers must have the ability to critique knowledge that they use and apply in their practice (Council on Social Work Education, 2015). Here, students will learn about the interrelationships between individual behavior and the larger social environments.

Exhibit 1.1 illustrates the concept of human behavior in the social environment. Each circle represents a level of practice on which social workers might focus. This visualization also shows you how the different areas of people’s lives and environments can intersect. The intersections are those areas in which social workers generally focus their assessments and interventions.

EXHIBIT 1.1 Conceptualization of Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Depending on the agency or population, however, social workers sometimes move outside the overlapping areas to focus on issues related to a specific circle or realm. For example, a social worker might be employed to conduct mental health assessments for children. Her main focus thus would be on the individual level, specifically each child’s mental health issues. Nevertheless, she would probably still consider issues in the realm of family and small groups and the realm of society and larger forces. For instance, as she is assessing the child’s functioning, she may attend to issues relating to the child’s family, peers, school, economic status, cultural background, and so on. Moreover, she might consider other factors on the individual level besides mental health, such as the child’s coping skills, intellectual development, and physical health. The complexities and intricacies of this conceptualization should become clearer to you as you move through this chapter and the remainder of the book.

Learning about human behavior in the social environment will help you to place your knowledge into a meaningful and coherent context as you work with clients, organizations, and communities. It will challenge you to use your existing knowledge of human behavior and social environments while incorporating new ideas and perspectives on the human condition. It will give you more complex ways to think about assessment and intervention, which in turn will help you to become a more creative and effective social worker.

UNDERSTANDING HOW KNOWLEDGE AND THEORY INFORM SOCIAL WORK

As a profession, social work tends to generate, draw from, and apply knowledge based in strengths, empowerment, and social justice tenets. At the same time, however, it is also inclined to incorporate knowledge from many different disciplines that may not explicitly adhere to these tenets. Knowledge in this context refers to a wide range of information such as theories, empirical research, and practical experience that might be generated from different disciplines.

Given the complexity of individuals’ lives and the multifaceted nature of the problems that clients bring to the working relationship, social workers need to have a broad knowledge base in many different areas—such as politics, biology, psychology, sociology, and economics—and they need to understand how aspects from these different realms interact with and influence one another in ways that affect the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. In other words, social workers must be able to think comprehensively and creatively and to access their knowledge and “pull it all together” to assess and intervene with client problems.

Further, because social work is concerned with social justice and the dignity and worth of people, among other values, social workers must understand how to incorporate strength-based and empowerment concepts into their work. This is why a strong liberal arts base in your education is so helpful. The more you know about different areas such as history, government, and philosophy, for example, the better the foundation you will have for conceptualizing and intervening with client problems.

You can also be more helpful when working with a client if you are familiar with some basic facts or updated research on the particular problem with which the client is struggling. For example, when working with clients who suffer from trauma, social workers need to be familiar with current research and knowledge on how the body and brain respond to and process traumatic experiences. Similarly, social workers can more effectively bridge cultural divides between themselves and their clients if they have a knowledge base of others’ cultural perspectives and experiences. Other times, you can use your knowledge to offer a client a different viewpoint on a particular problem, no matter how technical or philosophical, to give the client a new way to think about the problem. These are situations in which your familiarity with different theories of human behavior will be useful.

To see the benefits of drawing on a broad knowledge base, let us consider how practitioners from other disciplines might approach Janice’s situation:

• A physician might be concerned only with identifying and alleviating Janice’s physical symptoms. Interventions may center solely on restoring Janice to physical health or, at least, removing evidence of disease.
• A psychologist might attend only to the individualistic or psychological aspects of Janice’s case. These might include her symptoms of PTSD, her potential for developing depression or other mental illness, her emotional and cognitive development, her issues of self-esteem and self-efficacy, and her ability to adjust to civilian life. After pinpointing these problems, the psychologist might focus on improving Janice’s functioning in these areas.
• An economist or politician might concentrate on employment prospects, economic conditions of the community, and the costs of supporting Janice through social services. Economic interventions would include activities to improve employment conditions in the community and to curb costs by reducing the amount of time that Janice might need to rely on veterans’ or other services.
• A sociologist might be interested in examining the larger social and cultural dynamics that contribute to unemployment and other problems for returning soldiers. Interventions might include helping Janice adapt to cultural expectations of employment or working to change societal attitudes toward poverty and returning service members.

Although all of these perspectives are important, considering them in isolation contributes little to understanding the scope and complexity of Janice’s problems. Even more importantly, interventions narrowly focused on any of these single perspectives are likely to be less effective than those that consider the interactions among different aspects of Janice’s overall well-being.

The Role of Theory

Given the deeply human issues that are addressed by social workers, and the profession’s roots in charity societies, “theory” and “empirical knowledge” may sound overly scientific and out of place. However, when working with clients, social workers need theory to help pull sources of information together into a meaningful perspective. They need to understand basic theories in different areas, how theories can be applied to problems, and how theories’ limitations can affect their explanations of problems. And then they need to back up those theories with knowledge based in research.

A theory is a set of ideas or concepts that, when considered together, help to explain certain phenomena and allow people to predict behavior and other events. Theories differ from other types of knowledge in that they allow you to organize knowledge on a particular issue or topic. If theories are well developed, they provide a blueprint for testing hypotheses or hunches about behavior and other phenomena, predicting certain events, and validating assumptions and knowledge about certain issues.

Without theories, knowledge about human behavior and social issues would remain unwieldy; you would not be able to make connections among related facts and information to form ideas that could help you advance your knowledge about human behavior and social issues. A variety of theories can help social workers organize information and make sense of certain problems.

Theories can offer social workers contexts from which to approach problems with the confidence that interventions are sound. Of course, some theories are more valid and useful than others, but part of being a skilled social worker is knowing how to evaluate theories for their strengths and limitations and how to apply them responsibly. This includes thinking about how theories may systematically exclude different groups of people or marginalize their experiences. As you read about theories in this book, ask yourself how they could be more inclusive in their perspectives on human development and the human experience.

It is important to keep in mind that the terms theory, model, approach, and perspective often are used interchangeably. Like theories, these other terms refer to ideas, structures, and conceptualizations that help social workers organize information. They provide ways to visualize and think about problems and issues. However, unlike theories, they lack some of the necessary elements that allow for empirical testing of hypotheses and constructs. Those elements will be discussed later in the chapter. Here, it is important to emphasize the need for critical examination of any structure social workers use to organize information in their helping roles with others.

Theoretical Lenses Because social work touches on so many aspects of human behavior, its practitioners have a large variety of theories to draw on—both our own and theories developed in other disciplines. Thus, you will find it helpful to think about theories in broad categories based on which aspects of human behavior they address. For example, does a theory explain personality development or economic development? Does it explain causes of racism or causes of obsessive-compulsive behavior?

You will see by looking at this book’s table of contents that Chapters 2 through 5 are organized in categories, or by “theoretical lenses,” to help you focus on various aspects of human behavior. Chapter 2 discusses broad organizing theories used in social work, while Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on theories that are more specific to three aspects of the human experience. Each set of theories offers a different theoretical lens through which to view problems.

This is just one way to organize the many theories with which social workers are likely to come in contact. Another way would be to group theories in terms of whether they address individual, familial, or larger social issues or some combination of these. Alternatively, theories can be grouped into subcategories according to the specific area or problem that they address. For instance, some theories explain personality development, while others address social development. Some theories explain how social change occurs, while others explain why social dysfunction is resistant to change. As you read the next few chapters, keep in mind that theories of human behavior can be organized in many different ways, depending on your purpose and perspective.

Interactions of Theories As you can see in Exhibit 1.2, sometimes concepts from different theoretical frameworks overlap; theories can explain aspects of problems in different realms. For example, theories that address how children and their care-givers establish attachments to one another might be informed by theories that explain how individuals in a relationship interact with one another, how they perceive these interactions, and how attachments impact these interactions. Attachments and interactions can also be explained by broader family system dynamics. Social workers’ understand...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Series Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• CONTENTS
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• CHAPTER 1 Human Behavior and the Social Work Profession
• CHAPTER 2 Lenses for Conceptualizing Problems and Interventions: The Person in the Environment
• CHAPTER 3 Lenses for Conceptualizing Problems and Interventions: Biopsychosocial Dimensions
• CHAPTER 4 Lenses for Conceptualizing Problems and Interventions: Sociocultural Dimensions
• CHAPTER 5 Lenses for Conceptualizing Problems and Interventions: Social Change Dimensions
• CHAPTER 6 Pre-Pregnancy and Prenatal Issues
• CHAPTER 7 Development in Infancy and Early Childhood
• CHAPTER 8 Development in Middle Childhood
• CHAPTER 9 Development in Adolescence
• CHAPTER 10 Development in Early Adulthood
• CHAPTER 11 Development in Middle Adulthood
• CHAPTER 12 Development in Late Adulthood
• CHAPTER 13 Looking Forward: Challenges and Opportunities for the Social Work Profession
• CHAPTER 14 Spirituality and Human Behavior
• CHAPTER 15 Families and Groups
• CHAPTER 16 Social Organizations and the Social Environment
• CHAPTER 17 Communities and the Social Environment
• References
• Glossary/Index