Chapter 1
A generalized set of ideas that describes and explains our knowledge of the world around us in an organized way.
What is theory?
Name two tenets of positivism and interpretivism.
Positivism:
The world is orderly and follows natural rules we can understand.
The world exists independent of human beings, so we can stand outside it and observe it objectively.
If we observe humans systematically, we can understand the rules affecting humans just as we can with the natural world. This may be difficult, but not impossible.
Social workers can find the rules that tell us what treatment is effective to achieve our aim.
Interpretivism:
Human beings are independent, free to follow their will as part of the world.
Our understanding of the world changes our behavior, which then influences the world we are studying: human observations are subjective.
It is not possible to collect necessary information to understand the rules of human life, so it is better to think about the world flexibly.
People become more conscious of barriers to achieving their personal aims through education.
What is perspective transformation (Mezirow, 1991)?
Generalizing from particular examples to a theory that explains them and other examples like them.
What is induction?
Frameworks that set out a clear sequence of actions to take when we are faced with a particular situation.
What are models?
Taking ideas from several theories and combining them to make a single style of work.
Identifying where the use of power and authority has affected the status quo.
What is ironic deconstruction?
Applying a general theory to an individual case and seeing how it fits.
What is deduction?
Allow practitioners to make decisions according to general guiding principles.
What are perspectives?
What three theories are the basic foundation of social work theory?
Psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and systems theories.
Name an organizational threat to critical reflection according to Baldwin, 2004:
Managerialism: Insists on the right of managers to control practice rather than practitioners and relies on rationalist techniques (e.g. eligibility criteria, targets, performance indicators) to evade uncertainties.
EBP: Favors evidence at odds with reflective practice.
Rational Policy Implementation: Reduces flexibility to deal with change.
Critical Analysis Failures: e.g. taboos on discussing issues the organization deems too difficult to deal with.
Social knowledge that has been agreed upon between people because having a shared view about how things work between people helps us to live an ordered life.
What is reality?
Because social realities are always changing, there are no certainties and no security in those certainties.
What is relativism?
People’s actions and others’ reactions will always affect one another.
What is Reflexivity?
People cannot develop themselves until they become aware of social barriers to change.
What is conscientization?
Name a pro and a con of Evidence-Based Practice.
Provides for a planned and systematic form of practice.
Ethics: It’s more ethical to use methods that are proven as effective over methods preferred by providers or professional theories/values.
Accountability to Clients (practice approach): Clients are involved in decision-making and have a say in which problems are tackled, methods used, and desired outcomes.
EBP Cons (House and Lowenthal, 2008):
Paradigmatic: Fundamentally incompatible with interpretivism, which will lead to division and irreconcilable argument.
Hard to control for the diversity and complexity of client and practitioner behaviors
Prioritizes knowledge produced by certain kinds of research over others.
Prioritizes knowledge about quantitative outcomes over value of relationships, social change, and qualitative outcomes
Limited to interventions bringing behavioral change rather than broader social issues.
Explores and accepts the current social order (e.g. Western, masculine-dominated, etc.) as a result, may “blame the victim”
Implementation difficulties: Other factors apply, such as organizational practices, availability of resources, complexities of individual situations, etc.
Name the three views of Social Work objectives and their associated politics.
Problem-Solving: Liberal/Neo-Liberal
Empowerment: Social Democratic
Social Change: Socialist
Name the three alternative research practices to evidence-based practice?
Social Construction: Understanding of the world come from interactions between people as part of many interactions in social, cultural, and historical contexts.
Empowerment: Knowledge primarily comes from clients and social workers should use knowledge according to clients’ wishes to empower them further.
(Critical) Realism: Evidence of reality is not always available to empirical observation, thus the knowledge we have is limited to that which can be captured empirically.
What are Habermas' three types of understanding?
Technical: Based on empirical research into observable events, governed by technical rules.
Practical: Based on the systematic investigation into different POVs about the meaning and importance of what is happening around us.
Emancipatory: By examining the different POVs that emerge through exploring practical knowledge, we can free ourselves, through self-reflection, from the limitations of the assumptions about any particular POV.
Joint introspection involving the participants.
What is intersubjective reflection?