Developing Advanced Practitioners in Mental Health Social Work: Pedagogical Considerations

Advanced social work practitioners in mental health services daily face the challenges of working alongside the more powerful professions of psychiatry and psychology. Advanced post-qualifying programmes in mental health social work equip practitioners with the knowledge, skills and expertise to confidently work alongside both psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in multi-disciplinary teams. This includes training in empirical research methods, which are used to develop the evidence base for psychiatry and psychology, although social work practitioners find this particularly challenging. This paper explores the importance of research methods teaching in the development of advanced practitioners in mental health social work. Using learning theory to explore possible reasons why practitioners find it so difficult, it offers some solutions which may enhance the learning and teaching of research methodology to experienced social workers.     

Social Activists: Lessons for Community Psychology

In a graduate class in community psychology, each student studied the lives and achievements of social activists. This article integrates the work and accomplishments of 5 social activists into a conceptual and methodological framework for social change within community psychology. These activists worked on issues including national liberation, women's suffrage, the rights of migrant workers, and community development. The methods used by these activists are particularly relevant to the field of community psychology. The article discusses the implications of the work and accomplishments of these social change agents.     

Nothing to give at all

Abstract

Adlerian psychology has been publicly neglected for many years but has been used covertly in many modern psychologies. Social work theory owes much to Adler's philosophy and many social workers probably unknowingly use it — in whatever guise — as their starting-point. But if Individual Psychology is their spring-board, the casework relationship may be their life-raft — to the detriment of creative and therapeutic work with people. Adler's ideas and social work theory are of value only in so far as they are expressed in the relationship of the worker with the client. For the most part, certainly in statutory agencies, other demands make it difficult for workers to operate from anything other than a defensive position. Therapeutic community practice, in contrast, reflects both Adlerian psychology and the best of social work theory: an egalitarian approach springing from a commitment to self-determination for both clients and workers.     

The theories of Heinz Kohut and clinical social work practice

Indicated in this paper is the consonance of Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic psychology of the self with the principles of clinical social work. The traditional values, precepts, and practices of social work were derived from a research of the literature written since 1889. The consistency of these two sets of ideas is further demonstrated in a case example. Unique contributions of social work are pointed up, and ways in which Kohut's theories add to the understanding of human personality and enrich clinical practice are elucidated.     

Research Learning Attributes of Graduate Students in Social Work,Psychology, and Business

Although research teaching literature suggests that social work students may have different research learning attributes than students in other disciplines, minimal data exist to support this view. This study compared the self-reported research anxiety, computer anxiety, and research orientations of 149 full-time graduate social work, psychology, and business students at a research university. Social work students reported more research and computer anxiety and generally believed that research was less important to their profession than students in the comparison groups. Implications for teaching research to social work graduate students are discussed.     

Aversive Racism and Intergroup Contact Theories: Cultural Competence in a Segregated World

The United States remains highly segregated, and social work students are likely to live and work in segregated contexts. What implications does this have for their cultural competence? Does segregation affect social workers' ability to serve diverse clients without bias? This article reviews two social psychology theories, aversive racism and intergroup contact, for use by social work educators. Together, these theories suggest both the likelihood of social worker prejudice within a context of segregation and an evidence-based method for improvement. The article concludes by offering strategies for incorporating both theories in cultural competence education.     

The psychology and behavioural economics of poverty

The paper provides an overview and assessment of an emerging literature on the psychology and behavioural economics of poverty. We particularly highlight poverty experiences, role of neighbourhoods, poverty dynamics and transmission, child poverty and disability and personal finance. In addition we consider psychology and policy responses by looking and autonomy and empowerment, and poverty reduction programs. Our central thesis is that the detailed knowledge of individual experiences, cognitions and social factors in psychology and related social science complements the traditional economic emphasis on structural factors and policy instruments in a way that is exemplified by emerging work in behavioural economics. We conclude it is increasingly recognised that poverty reduction policies which are informed by behavioural insights may, as a result, be more effective.     

The Legacy of Parsons: Career Counselors and Vocational Psychologists as Agents of Social Change

The commitment to social change demonstrated by the founder of vocational psychology, Frank Parsons, continues in several areas of vocational psychology today, including individual career counseling, guidance work in the schools, career interventions with special populations, and vocational research. This article highlights ways in which career counselors and vocational psychologists have focused and can continue to focus their practice and research to improve the condition of society and to provide interventions that enhance the ability of all individuals to love and to work in a meaningful way.     

Does Social Work Need a “Practice Doctorate”?

In the past few years, new ??practice doctorate?? programs have been mounted by some schools of social work with traditional Ph.D. programs. This trend is explored in relation to the purposes of doctoral education, specifically preparing stewards of the discipline as compared to ??stewards of the enterprise.?? Arguments advanced for and against this development in social work education are reviewed in the context of the emergence of practice doctorates in psychology, nursing and public health. Characteristics of these new doctoral programs in social work, which all focus on clinical social work, are described. Wider discussion of the concept and purposes of the ??practice doctorate?? in social work is needed in order to safeguard the gains made in research education at the doctoral level and to advance practice-based knowledge and scholarship for the future.     

The Social Psychology of Compassion

This article places social work clinicians’ compassion fatigue, burnout, and other negative consequences in a broader context of positive social work. We argue for a paradigm shift towards identifying the factors that lead clinical social workers toward human flourishing in their field. We introduce a model for creating “compassion satisfaction” or feelings of fulfillment with clients, rooted in positive psychology and expanded to incorporate the social work perspective. The model suggests that affect, work resources, and self-care influence clinicians’ positivity–negativity ratio, which in turn can result in compassion satisfaction. To maximize compassion satisfaction, research, education, and training should consider how classroom instruction and workplace policies can promote the most success among clinical social workers.     

Self psychologyand cognitive treatment: An integration

Although self psychology and cognitive treatment appear, on the surface, to represent diametrically-opposed models of treatment, they can be integrated in clinical social work treatment. A theoretical framework for this integration is presented. Adapting self psychology treatment through the use of cognitive techniques may allow clinicians to help clients with narcissistic disorders within the framework of shorter-term, less-intensive treatment which is increasingly required by programs and reimbursement sources.     

Philosophy of social work – a new and advantageous field of training and research

Within the field of social work, there is a long tradition for co-operating with the neighbouring disciplines psychology, psychiatry and sociology. This cooperation has been fruitful and made it possible to reach synthesis in form of holistic theories and multimodal approaches. This article examines the need to establish a closer contact with philosophy also. The author argues that philosophical assumptions make up a kind of cognitive frame that determines professional reasoning in the field of social work. When philosophical aspects are overlooked, the consequence may be shallowness and vagueness in professional reasoning. According to the author, future social workers will reach a more solid understanding of social work theories, the problems the clients are facing and possible relief measures if they as students undergo a thorough philosophical training. Furthermore, social work may be strengthened as an academic discipline if some undetected philosophical presuppositions are traced, clarified and evaluated.     

后现代视阈中大学生非主流现象

作为一种社会现象和社会存在,非主流文化深刻影响了大学生尤其是90后大学生日常生活的方方面面。非主流大学生在话语特征、思想观念和行为方式方面有独特的符号系统;非主流文化反映了后现代个体强烈的从众心理、逆反心理、娱乐心理、抗争心理和渴望展现自我的心理;非主流现象的盛行启示青年研究工作应转变范式,青年教育工作应更新理念,文化建设应兼容并蓄;对待非主流现象,应顺其自然,让时间和历史来检验非主流文化存在的价值与意义。     

Social Status and Decent Work: Test of a Moderated Mediation Model

On the basis of the psychology of working theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, et al., 2016), we tested a moderated mediation model with subjective social status, work volition, proactive personality, and decent work as variables. Data were collected from 225 South Korean employees (115 women, 110 men). Results indicated that work volition mediated the relation between low subjective social status and decent work. In addition, proactive personality moderated the link between low subjective social status and work volition. Further analysis revealed that the indirect effect of social status on decent work via work volition was conditional upon proactive personality; that is, the indirect effect was weaker for individuals with a higher level of proactive personality. These results provide an application of the PWT-based model in a South Korean context. Future research could include samples from marginalized populations and additional constructs (e.g., career adaptability, human need satisfaction) of PWT.     

Belonging to the library: humanising the space for social work education

Abstract

This article describes the running of four Living Libraries on a UK postgraduate social work course. A Living Library is a metaphoric remodelling of a conventional library where people, as authors of their experiences, provide specialist knowledge based on authorial areas of expertise. In the Living Libraries discussed here, ‘Living Books’ carried stories of social work—their narratives were of lived experiences as people using social care services; as carers in personal relationships with others who use social care services; or, as social work practitioners. The focus of this article is on those Living Libraries involving the participation of the first two of these groups. Drawing on social psychology, phenomenology and human geography, we propose that a Living Library can act as a connective space within social work education by engendering a discursive forum where all participants—people with experiences of services, students, practitioners and social work educators—are given both the freedom and obligation to talk openly about their differential experiences, fears and hopes for social work. Through this process, opportunities are created to consider how improvements that meet all stakeholders’ interests may be achieved.     

The Pragmatic Case Study in Psychotherapy: A Mixed Methods Approach Informed by Psychology’s Striving for Methodological Quality

At least as far back as Plato and Aristotle, psychology began as a stepchild of philosophy. The establishment by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 of the first formal psychological laboratory focused on studying psychophysiological phenomena was psychology’s declaration of independence as a discipline. By positioning itself as the application of natural-science-based, empirical methods involving quantitative, group-based approaches to psychological topics, the discipline consolidated its independence and its societal status and clout. This paper first summarizes these developments, to highlight the causes of psychology’s historical resistance to qualitative case studies, and to qualitative research generally. I then briefly review three movements that have stimulated psychology to slowly but surely embrace qualitative case study research, with the addition of complementary, quantitative data: the rise of postmodern philosophy, the related “cognitive revolution” in psychology, and the “mixed methods” model of research in the social sciences that synergistically combines qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of this embrace, in the context of psychology’s established science-oriented identity, has been for psychology to add quality-of-knowledge guidelines for elevating the yield of case study knowledge. This result is illustrated by three examples: Kazdin’s (J Consult Clin Psychol 49:183–192, 1981) strategies for reducing threats to the validity of conclusions from case studies; Elliott, Fischer, and Rennie’s (Br J Clin Psychol 38:215–229, 1999) development of methodological standards for both quantitative and qualitative research; and my own work in developing the Pragmatic Case Study (PCS), which particularly reflects three of the recent trends in psychology: pluralism, pragmatism, and the mixed methods approach. Comparisons between organized social work’s and organized psychology’s approach to psychotherapy training and research is noted, with the two fields starting off in opposite directions and recently coming together.     

Social psychology in a postmodern age: A discipline without a subject

This article reconsiders the question of the crisis of social psychology. I argue here that there is a crisis in social psychology but it is not one of a growing separation between the discipline’s psychological and sociological wings. Instead, the crisis is the result of structural transformation and associated cultural shift. It involves the gradual displacement of an earlier concept of the strong, autonomous ego by the postmodern production of the imaginary self. The self in the unfolding era of postmodernism increasingly resembles a composite of commercially produced images rather than a self-directed ego. The displacement of the self-concept by the self-image produced what has been a vaguely apperceived but, as yet, not adequately conceptualized, crisis in social psychology. I conclude with an argument on behalf of a personality and social structure approach to social psychology as the only form of social psychology conceptually able to deal with the real crisis within social psychology, that is, the erosion of the self.     

Field Education in the Present Moment: Evaluating a 14-Week Pedagogical Model to Increase Mindfulness Practice

Social work practitioners increasingly use mindfulness techniques, and research into the impact of this practice is being explored by multiple related disciplines, such as psychology and education. Cultivating the potential benefits of mindfulness at multiple practice levels necessitates curricular integration of mindfulness training. This article reports on the evaluation of a 14-week mindfulness-based pedagogical model implemented in two sections of social work field seminars. Using a pretest and posttest survey design that included an existing five-dimension mindfulness scale, students exhibited significant change in three facets of mindfulness: observing, nonjudgment of inner experience, and nonreactivity to inner experience. Implications for social work education and directions for future research are explored.     

Is Social Innovation Fostering Satisfaction and Well-Being at Work? Insights from Employment in Social Enterprises Providing Long-Term Eldercare Services

Considering insights from socio-economics, work psychology, and occupational health, this study focuses on the job satisfaction and well-being of employees working in nonprofit social enterprises (SE). We question the idea suggested by the recent literature that working for a SE brings employees a high level of job satisfaction and well-being. We also investigate whether being involved in social innovation is associated with even higher job satisfaction and well-being. Indeed, understood as a manifestation of positive social change, social innovation is expected to improve outcomes such as the quality of life at work. However, because social innovation is an umbrella concept, it embraces different innovation-related concepts. Here we explore the distinction between service innovation and workplace innovation. This article applies a multivariate analysis to an original dataset covering 1134 employees working in the field of elder homecare in Wallonia. Its implications for social entrepreneurs and scholars are also examined.     

George Herbert Mead and the “Division Of Labor”: Macrosociological Implications Of Mead'S Social Psychology*

By presenting some results of an extensive reconstruction of George Herbert Mead's work published as yet only in German it is argued that Mead's work as a whole and particularly his social psychology contain an implicit conception of social order. This can be characterized as the idea that it is not normative integration as such, but communicative coordination that makes possible human society and social order. This is shown by findings on the early development of Mead's ideas (Hegelianism, Definition of the Psychical), on German influences in Mead, and on the meaning of democracy as self-government in Mead's political biography. Some hints to a comparison of Mead with other concepts of social order (Durkheim; negotiated order approach) are given.