Contributions off Sociological and Psychological Theory to Casework Practice

There has been considerable disagreement over what is considered to be optimal educational preparation for social work administrators. This paper presents the findings from a survey of 285 practicing social work administrators in regard to their valuation of MSW and post-MSW education and training, significant gaps in their educational preparation, and the relevance of their educational preparation for administrative functioning. Issues and implications for social work education and administrative practice are discussed.     

Role-Playing in the Context of Learning Theory in Casework Teaching

Abstract

This paper explores the growing tendency toward formality and legalism in social work field education. The findings of a national study of “field training agreements” is presented. It is the contention of the authors, that the more explicit the Curriculum Policy Statement and the Accreditation Standards become, in relation to the field component of the curriculum—the closer and more complex becomes the relationship between educational institutions and the practice community. This complexity, as well as the evolving legal climate—with concerns over liability—naturally leads to greater formality. Such formality has the potential for strengthening the university/field agency relationship or destroying it.     

Three Object Relations Models of Couple Treatment

This article describes three different approaches to the treatment of couples, all based on different versions of object relations theories. Object relations as a term has various meanings embodying different theoretical assumptions. It is used differentially to highlight certain aspects of clinical phenomena, to connote certain developmental paradigms, and to signal the importance of real, interactional aspects of human behavior. The three therapeutic approaches to work with couples illustrate some of the ways that the greater conceptual complexity of object relations theories affects how love is explained, couple conflicts defined, and what makes for change in couples treatment. Understanding the basic assumptions of a given theory will enable us to increase our informed consent to the use of theory in our practices.     

Uses of Systems Theory in Casework I and II: A Proposal

This paper identifies possible problems, issues, and solutions in the practice implementation of the clinical-research methodology. The areas addressed include confusion in the conceptualization of accountability, misconceptions of the clinical-research model, and institutional constraints working against the implementation of the model.     

Psychoanalysis and Domestic Violence: Exploring the Application of Object Relations Theory in Social Work Field Placement

Psychoanalytic theories are steadily falling out of favor within many American schools of social work. This lack of emphasis on psychodynamic perspectives deprives students of the rich developmental insight that can be of particular value in field placement settings like domestic violence shelters in which mother/child dyads are typically of clinical significance. However, existing examples object relations theory applied to contexts of domestic violence often fail to interrupt the replication of a hegemonic misogyny that has historically permeated domestic violence literature. In order to avoid unduly blaming women in contexts of domestic violence, clinical social work students interested in utilizing the theory of object relations in their work must employ an array of additional analyses that focus on issues such as race, financial status, and the psychological effects of trauma.     

Object Relations Family Therapy: Articulating the Inchoate

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in psychodynamic ideas within the family therapy literature. While some authors have explored the usefulness of psychodynamic concepts in the systemic context (Byng-Hall, 1995; Flaskas, 1993, 1996; Luepnitz, 1988, 1997), others have argued that psychodynamic models of family therapy should be given more credence in systemic work with families (Guttman, 1991). This paper describes Object Relations Family Therapy (ORFT), a psychoanalytic model of family therapy, in plain English in order to minimise the obscurity of some of the existing terminology and to emphasise the utility of more contemporary formulations. ORFT addresses the interface between psychoanalytic and systemic theories. It offers a way of conceptualising complex family dynamics at both the interpersonal and intrapsychic levels. It also integrates an understanding of nonverbal, unstated and often implicit processes in its formulation of problem development. The unique contribution of ORFT is elaborated using a clinical example.     

Research and Teaching of Casework

Older patients discharged from nursing homes were randomly assigned to student teams from medicine, nursing, and social work (C.A.R.E.) or to no specific aftercare. Patients seen by student teams had significantly more knowledge about community resources than did control patients, but showed no difference in rate of readmission or level of adjustment. The 24 students in the program developed significantly better attitudes toward the aged than control students. A student team approach offering services to the elderly may be one way of positively shaping attitudes of young preprofessionals in the health field.     

Stigmatizing Indebtedness: Implications for Labeling Theory

Given the low visibility of indebtedness and normative expectations regarding the use of credit and the accrual of debt, questions arise as to whether or not being unable to manage one's finances responsibly should necessarily lead a person to feel shame. Findings from a study, based on forty‐six interviews with members of Debtors Anonymous (DA), exploring the relevance of labeling theory to individual perceptions of one's indebtedness as shameful are presented. Shame is revealed to be a key element in the labeling process. How stigmatized labels arise in interaction, how such labels affect a person's thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how gender affects labeling experiences are discussed. Insights into the interconnections between labeling and shame show the labeling process to be considerably more complex than suggested in the original version of labeling theory.     

Sexual Abuse in the Preschool Years: Blending Ideas from Object Relations Theory,Ego Psychology,and Biology

This paper uses concepts from relational psychodynamic theories and findings from neurobiology to conceptualize a young child’s experience of sexual abuse. Selected developmental tasks are discussed using an integrated theoretical framework. Literature which highlights the importance of the child’s environment is reviewed. A case of a sexually abused 5-year-old girl demonstrates consequences of sexual abuse using ideas from psychodynamic theories and neurobiology. It is recommended that social work practitioners expand on the biology domain when conducting a bio-psycho-social assessment. Social work students may benefit from additional content on biology in social work curricula.     

Epistemology and Constructivism. Some Implications for Therapy

We do not relate to the world as such but through the interpretation of our perceptions and of our experience of the world. In this paper the work of Maturana, von Foerster, Bateson and Prigogine is examined from a biological and systems theory perspective, to provide support for the thesis that our knowledge of the world is a construction by an observer. Some conclusions relevant to therapy, as an outcome of the constructivist position, are also examined.     

Some Implications of the Block Grant for Social Work Education

An empirical inquiry into a block grant specimen revealed that expenditures among the priorities of control, maintenance, and change varied according to variations in poverty and minority rates in the population. Implications are that without a clearly defined national role in grant-in-aid decision making, the poor and other disadvantaged citizens may be neglected under the block grant. Social work faces a condition of change and uncertainty, which underscores the need for curricula reexamination of the preparation of professionals for successful management of this condition, if it is to continue as an organized entity in the development and delivery of services.     

Anger Management Taught to Adolescents with an Experiential Object Relations Approach

The authors propose a method of teaching anger management utilizing an objects relations theory conceptualization. The inner structure of the angry adolescent is described, and methods of addressing anger tailored to the individual differences of each adolescent's internal world are presented Role playing is utilized in the anger management group to illustrate the concepts presented. The authors conclude that when the clinical intervention resonates with the internal world of the client, the intervention will be experienced as meaningful.     

Evolutionary Theory: The Missing Link for Conceptualizing Public Relations

This article introduces the concept of using Charles Darwin's (1859/1979 Darwin , C. ( 1979 / 1859 ). The origin of species. New York : Gramercy Books . [Google Scholar]) evolutionary theory as the metatheory for conceptualizing public relations thought. It examines the state of public relations theory development and explores theories that have been proposed as metatheories for the field, including systems theory, complexity theory, and symmetrical/Excellence theory. It also explores the tenets of evolutionary theory that have relevance for public relations theory, including social intelligence, Machiavellian intelligence, cheater detection, cooperation, reciprocity, and reciprocal altruism. It then makes the case for the role that evolutionary theory could play as a metatheory in the further development of public relations theory.     

Interprofessional Education for Practice: Some Implications for Australian Social Work

Abstract

Social workers work with many other professionals in the workplace and being able to work in a team is both a practice standard for professions and a desirable graduate attribute of most universities. However, student learning about teamwork is often inconsistent and serendipitous, albeit some attention may be given to it as part of field education and work preparation. Students and new graduate social workers usually adopt the teamwork approach that prevails in the agency in which they work and teamwork behaviour is often a result of socialisation and acculturation. Internationally, over the last two decades, interprofessional education for interprofessional practice has achieved prominence in social work curricula. This article covers recent Australian initiatives in interprofessional education and the involvement of the social work program at a leading Australian university in an interprofessional education project. Implications for social work student education and social work practice are discussed.     

Repartnering Following Divorce: Implications for Older Fathers' Relations With Their Adult Children

This study examined the implications of postdivorce fathers' new unions and additional (step)children for two aspects of older fathers' relations with adult children born from a prior relationship: frequency of social contact and fathers' financial transfers. Data from multiple waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,017 observations on 4,997 adult children belonging to 1,917 ever‐divorced fathers) were used to estimate multilevel models. The results indicated that divorced fathers who go on to form a new union have weaker relations with adult children from a prior union than their postdivorce counterparts who remain single. This finding partly reflects the detrimental effects of repartnered older fathers' new biological children and stepchildren. There is no difference between older remarried and cohabiting fathers' intergenerational ties. Moreover, fathers' additional biological children and stepchildren have similarly negative effects on fathers' relations with adult children from a previous union.     

Some Dimensions of Mand Variability and Implications for Research and Practice

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Since Skinner’s conceptualization of the mand, applied behavior analysis researchers have used the concept to develop stimulus control transfer procedures...     

Correlates of Fashion Leadership: Implications for Fashion Process Theory*

This paper suggests possible implications of a study of clothing fashion leadership for current sociological theory in regard to the process of fashion diffusion. Theory of the diffusion of innovations was chosen as the framework for the investigation. Fashion innovativeness and fashion opinion leadership were studied in relation to selected social, psychological, and economic variables. Since the test of collective selection occurs in the local social system it would seem appropriate that theories regarding the operation of the fashion process account more fully for the rate and degree of acceptance and rejection of innovations in the local social system, and for the functions of local participants in the process. Does current sociological theory account for diffusion of new ideas, practices, and products as well as their development and selection?