Social Justice,Social Policy,and Social Work

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the models underlying the conceptualization of social work functions affect the costs of integrating policy issues into practice, and, therefore, the probability that social justice goals will be pursued. An inclusive approach to policy design is seen as lowering those costs. The nature of the costs and how they vary between the models is discussed.     

Patron de Conducta Tipo a,Representacion Social y Cognicion Social. Estudio Experimental

Resumen

En el presente estudio se analizó la relación entre las representaciones de los sujetos tipo A versus tipo B del éxito y del fracaso, así como su relación con los procesos atribucionales. Utilizando el paradigma experimental de la Indefensión Adquirida se observó que los sujetos tipo A realizaban atribuciones de capacidad en mayor medida tanto ante la situación de éxito como en la de fracaso. Los sujetos tipo A comunicaron mayores niveles de implicación y ansiedad, así como una percepción más desafiante de la tarea. Se observó también una calidad de ejecución más pobre en la tarea subsiguiente en los sujetos tipo A, así como un fenómeno de indefensión en los sujetos previamente sometidos a una tarea experimental irresoluble. Por último, se propone un modelo Psicosociológico de Salud que integre niveles macro, microsociales y psicológicos.     

The Social Psychology of Robert E. Park: Human Nature,Self, Personality and Social Structure

Robert E. Park is widely recognized today for his contributions to urban sociology, race relations and collective behavior but his social psychology has been largely neglected. Park's inclusive and loose framework covered his interest in: (1) human nature and the bio-physiological instincts which for him were raw materials of personality; (2) formulation of self concept as an organization of roles; and (3) micro-macro linkages between individual and social structure. Each one of Park's three themes is still important for symbolic interaction theory and offers insights into contemporary investigations of emotions, role acquisition and identity.     

The Relationship Between Schools of Social Work,Social Research,and Social Policy

This paper outlines a curriculum model for the continuing education of graduate social workers. The curriculum plan is based on the assumption that western industrial man has entered a new era—the cybercultural era. The paper argues that the graduate practitioner must be retooled to fit the conditions and circumstances of the new era. Eight knowledge areas are explored as priorities in this continuing education plan: the nature of global ecology, the nature of mass organization, the nature of youth, the nature of the new economy, the nature of contemporary politics, the nature of inter group communications, the nature of professionalization, and the condition of social work theory. Through the exploration of these knowledge areas, it is felt that a new updated social work practice theory will be developed.     

Social Action and Social Work. Benjamin E. Youngdahl. New York: Association Press, 1966. 190 pp. $5.95 Hardbound

Social work field instructors are responsible for the gatekeeping function of evaluating student performance and determining practice readiness. Yet little empirical literature elucidates how field instructors of graduating BSW students judge competence, suitability, or readiness for practice. This qualitative study reports findings from 6 focus groups attended by 28 experienced BSW field instructors aimed at (a) exploring criteria used to judge student readiness for entry-level practice and (b) examining differences in expectations based on micro and macro placements. Two capacities emerged as being paramount in supporting the development of practice skills, personal attributes, and areas of practice in both micro and macro placements: conceptualization and self-reflection. Implications for evaluating student competence and supporting student learning in the field are discussed.     

The U.S. Economic Polity,Social Identity,and International Human Rights

In this essay, I provide some complementary perspectives on certain themes that emerge in Judith Blau's (2016) timely and insightful article, “Human Rights: What the United States Might Learn from the Rest of the World and, Yes, from American Sociology.” In response, I offer some very brief reflections structured through two prisms by which we might think further about the United States and human rights. These perspectives pick up on the core issue of Blau's article, the U.S. rejection of socioeconomic rights, and how this issue in turn relates first to the “social identity” of the United States as a whole, and second to the role of the political economy in states' recognition of human rights.     

Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Social Work Practice and Education,Edited by Marta Sotomayor. Graduate School of Social Work,University of Houston,Houston, Texas, 1976. Price Unavailable. 177 Pp.

There is a growing imperative to prepare MSW social work students for trauma-informed evidence-based practice. Given strong recommendations and promising developments within social work education and practice in this regard, a clinical elective for the advanced-year MSW student that combines the guiding principles of trauma theory and problem-based learning was created. This article describes the course objectives, structure, and format and reports on an evaluation based on 7 (total) offerings of the course by 4 different schools of social work. The course methodology was found to be effective in all schools in significantly increasing students’ self-confidence in working with traumatized children, adolescents, and their families. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Social Work,Knowledge and Social Responsibility

A beginning has been made in regarding the mentally retarded as people of worth and dignity in our society. As the social work profession endeavors to find ways to bring significant service to the retarded, social work education must respond and prepare practitioners for this specialization. The student's preparation must include substantial cognitive background, as well as emotional maturity and the ability to objectify and quantify case movement in extremely small steps. Basic concepts and principles of helping people are briefly reviewed as they relate to work with the mentally retarded.     

Paul U. Kellogg and the Survey: Voices for Social Welfare and Social Justice,by Clarke A. Chambers. Minneapolis,University of Minnesota Press, 1971. 296 Pages, $10.00. Hardbound

Abstract

Previous research showing that roughly half of social work students report a history of familial alcohol abuse—and proposing that such abuse might affect these students' current mental health and professional performance—relied on self-reports without standardized screening measures. This 1991 study, based on a convenience sample of 136 MSW students at the University of Texas at Austin, determined students' status as Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACAs) by self-reports and scores on the Children of Alcoholics' Screening Test, and evaluated related mental health functioning with four standardized measures. The results suggest that well under half of social work students are ACAs, and that not all (nor only) ACAs were vulnerable to mental health problems.     

Human Behavior,Social Environment,Social Reconstruction,and Social Policy: A System of Linkages,Goals, and Priorities

The idea of a wholesome relationship between human behavior and the forces of social environment is the focal point of this article. The author seeks to reconceptualize the goals and foci of the HBSE¹ component in the light of knowledge that underscores the need for social reconstruction. A conceptual model is offered to show appropriate linkages between different focal units. It is recommended that the HBSE and social policy components be taught in harmony with the mission of social work and in the context of humankind's prevailing condition rather than at mere systems levels.     

Meta-Power,Social Organization,and the Shaping of Social Action

Interactionist analyses of social organization stimulate examination of how social situations and collective activity are shaped. Meta-power, the creation and control of distal situations, and organization as a structuration of meta-power are used as tools for exploring the shaping of situations. Five meta-power processes are presented: strategic agency, rules and conventions, structuring situations, culture construction, and empowering delegates. These processes illustrate how situations are created or altered. This paper offers a view of social organization that emphasizes relations among situations, linkages between consequences and conditions, and networks of collective activity across space and time. The conclusion calls for additional research to make more explicit the nature of social organization and its social conditions.     

Social Work,Social Policy and the Journal

There are problems associated with mainstream sociological and criminological research into youth violence. Conventional frameworks ignore the interpretive component of violence and thus fail to treat youth violence as a form of action in which motivations, moral impulses and feelings are constitutive of the action. Young people historically have had little opportunity to enter into dominant discourses about violence. This paper reports on the accounts of 29 young people who have been directly involved in violence. Those young people were asked to define violence and describe what personal and collective meanings they attach to their actions.     

Violence Regimes: A Useful Concept for Social Politics,Social Analysis,and Social Theory

Theory and Society - This paper critically interrogates the usefulness of the concept of violence regimes for social politics, social analysis, and social theory. In the first case, violence...     

Perspectives on Social Welfare,Paul E. Weinberger. New York,Macmillan Company, 1969. 458 pp. $4.95, Paperback

Factors influencing the teacher-student relationship include student acceptance of experience as proof, questioning traditional wisdom and curriculum structure, redefinition of teacher authority, recognition of the relative state of our knowledge, demands for individual rights, and insistence on involvement in curriculum structuring and the teaching-learning process.

Useful changes toward a more egalitarian teacher-student relationship also are discussed, including elimination of the traditional academic caste system, increased faculty encouragement of student autonomy, reconstruction of fieldwork experiences, increased student involvement in school administration, individual instruction based on contract, provision for students to experience teacher roles, and development of an experimental curriculum.