A Psychometric Study of the Theoretical Orientations of Clinical Social Workers

Previous studies of clinical social workers have neither described a representative range of their theoretical orientations, nor have they established a firm relationship between professed theoretical orientation and either hypothetical or actual in-session behavior. A related question which has not been thoroughly examined is whether client problems constrain clinical social workers from adhering to specific theoretical orientations or "schools" of practice. This study therefore has two purposes: (1) to assess the psychometric properties of a range of theoretical orientation measures on a sample of clinical social workers, and (2) to determine how much of the variation in these measures is explained by: (a) professed theoretical orientation and (b) the problems for which specific in-session behaviors are used. These issues were investigated with analogues of clinical interviews and attitude scales which discriminate among helping professionals in terms of their theoretical orientations. The sample consists of 199 currently practicing M.S.W. and doctoral clinical social workers. Findings supported the validity and reliability of the scales and revealed that professed theoretical orientation explains approximately 5 to 20 percent of the variance in beliefs about the helping process. However, approximately 40 to 60 percent of the variance in hypothetical in-session behavior is explained by the problems for which those behaviors are intended. These findings suggest that while clinical social workers' beliefs about the helping process are weakly related to their professed theoretical orientations, their choices of specific in-session behaviors in hypothetical interviews are strongly influenced by the problems for which those behaviors are intended.