| Abstract: | This paper emphasizes the importance for social work practitioners of making their assumptions about human nature explicit and of taking responsibility for the clinical consequences of using these assumptions. More specifically, it proposes a conceptual tool to help practitioners examine both the assumptions that guide their deliberations and the practical implications of these assumptions. This conceptual tool is based on nine fundamental assumptions about the human condition pertaining to matters such as freedom-determination, subjectivity-objectivity, proactivity-reactivity, and so forth. Each assumption is presented on a continuum along which practitioners can locate themselves. By deliberately placing themselves on each of the nine continua, the practitioners are encouraged to articulate their clinical concepts. This articulation enables them to maintain a critical dialogue with themselves about the ideas they use to understand and help their clients and makes the underlying concepts, and the decisions that stem from them, more amenable to the practitioner's conscious evaluation and control. The framework can also be used to compare the assumptions of practitioners to different theoretical approaches and can thereby help practitioners to better understand their own theoretical predilections. Finally, I propose that this framework be employed as an educational aid for the professional development of students and practitioners in social work education. |
