Social Work Commons^™

Administrative Thinking On Youth And Youth Programs, John F. Longres, Norman Wyers

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Administrators have a lot of influence over the nature of youth programs. Because of this, their thinking on the causes of delinquency, the nature of ideal youth programs, and the role of youth workers were tapped. In the past, people in the field of delinquency have been accused of assuming an individual, personal problem or deficiency point of view. This study of administrators in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area suggests that, while some evidence for a more social structural understanding exists, in general the individual problem perspective prevails. An explanation for the persistence of a personal problem perspective is advanced …

The Transition: An Historical-Materialist Perspective On Social Welfare And Social Work Practice, Thomas Keefe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

From an historical-materialist perspective American society is in a transition to a new structural form--a new order. The future of social welfare and social work practice is intimately bound to the nature and outcome of this transition. Moreover, the transition has economic and ideological characteristics that hold important implications for changes in the ways social workers view their clients and conduct their practice. Employing an historicalmaterialist analysis, this article will discuss the nature of the societal transition and its implications for social welfare and social work practice.

The analysis will be prefaced with a synopsis of basic concepts and assumptions …

Problems Inherent In Multi-Service Delivery Units, Arnold J. Katz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Like Alice, the field of social work in general, and the social service delivery system in particular, seems to be going through a confusing state, lacking direction. Just as the Cat suggests to Alice that any direction would get her somewhere over time, so the diverse social service delivery systems(1) have, in recent years, moved off in a particular direction (methodologically) only to return to step one and then set off again. Various fads have seemed to provide the needed answers. In time, however, they served only to create a series of new questions with corresponding dilemmas.

In the last …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 5, No. 5 (September 1978)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Women's Groups As Alternative Human Service Agencies - CLAUDETTE McSHANE, M.S.W - pp. 615
• The Transition: An Historical-Materialist Perspective on Social Welfare and Social Work Practice - THOMAS KEEFE, DSW - pp. 627
• Problems Inherent In Multi-Service Delivery Units - ARNOLD J. KATZ - pp. 644
• Administrative Thinking on Youth and Youth Programs - JOHN F. LONGRES, PH.D. & NORMAN WYERS, DSW - pp. 662
• New Left Organizers and the Poor - MILES H. WHITNEY & PAUL J. CHAMPAGNE - pp. 678
• A Comparison of Factors Associated with Past Use, Projected Use, and Perceived Community Need for …

The Homemaker-Home Health Aide, Gary A. Fashimpar, Richard M. Grinnell Jr.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

For the past several years, many social workers have utilized the services of various disciplines as members of interdisciplinary teams as one approach to practice. There is ample evidence that social workers are increasingly beginning to utilize the newly constructed service of the Homemaker-Home Health Aide (H/HHA) when working with various client populations.1 In the United States, there are approximately 74,000 H/HHAs who provide social welfare and health services to the aged, disabled, and chronically ill. 2 By 1985, there is a projected need for three times this number.3

Social Continuity And Social Discontinuity: Social Work And, In, Against And Separate From Society, Hans S. Falck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The burden of this paper is to clarify social continuity and social discontinuity. Social continuity is related to individuality-groupness (the I-G effect) and its related logic is demonstrated further by a rejection of social discontinuity, i.e. individualism.

Women's Groups As Altenative Human Service Agencies, Claudette Mcshane, John Oliver

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The radical movements of the 60's were punctuated by the revival of feminism. As the movements demanded that disenfranchised citizens be allowed to actively participate in societal decisionmaking, women became cognizant of the fact that even within the movements they continued to be relegated to second class status. This realization served as a catalyst for the reemergence of the women's movement within American society. Feminist ideas spread rapidly among the social movements. Women neld political meetings to discuss social inequities and their impact upon womannood. From these meetings consciousness-raising groups evolved as a forum to raise non-movement women's consciousness of …

New Left Organizers And The Poor, Myles H. Whitney, Paul J. Champagne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The decade of the sixties witnessed a resurgence of radical or leftist movements in the United States as manifested in the political activism of college students, civil rights organizations, community groups and others. Today, in the post-Vietnam era of the seventies, the fires of the New Left appear to have been dampened. But even though these groups may be less visible and vocal today, it would be a mistake to think that their ideas are no longer of interest to certain segments of our society. Some contemporary New Left groups, while outwardly rejecting dramatic Marxist revolutionary tactics have instead engaged …

A Comparison Of Factors Associated With Past Use, Projected Use, And Perceived Community Need For Health And Social Services, Pat M. Keith

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Life change, political, and demographic factors associated with past use, projected use, and perceived community needs for services by the aged were examined. Data were derived from interviews conducted with men and women 65 or over in a midwestern community. Life changes were more useful in explaining relationships with health and social services among men than were demographic and political variables. But among women, there was less difference in the amount of variance explained by the three groups of variables. Although men and women differed little in the extent to which they had experienced life changes, discontinuity was differentially associated …

Maximizing The Potential Of The Social Work Team: Some Organizational And Professional Considerations, Edward Allan Brawley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The effective use of different kinds and levels of personnel is a major concern of the social work profession at the present time. A 1974 policy statement of the National Association of Social Workers recognizes several levels of practitioner engaged in the provision of social services: (1) the social service aide who has no formal training; (2) the social service technician who has an associate degree in a social service field or a bachelor's degree in a field other than social work; (3) the social worker with a BSW degree; (4) the graduate social worker with an MSW degree; (5) …

Organizing The Poor, Charles S. Stevens

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One area of interest in poverty in Urban America has focused attention on the urban poor and their participation. A major consideration about the problem has been the view that poverty is a pervasive condition and that it can be a determinint of behavior. The notion of a "culture of poverty" and a "welfare syndrome" was an expression of this viewpoint indicating poverty is a way of life. A second viewpoint suggests the urban poor are victims of urban society and are therefore restricted from meaningful participation.2 This viewpoint is in contrast to a "culture of poverty", but it does …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 5, No. 4 (July 1978)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction - ii
• Systems Theory - ROBERT D. LEIGHNINGER, JR - 446
• Interactionist Theory, Human Behavior, Social Work Social Work Education - RALPH SEGALMAN - 467
• Structural Functional Theory, Social Work Practice and Education - JOE HUDSON - 481
• Conflict Theories and Social Work Education - NORMAN N. GOROFF - 498
• Two Perspectives on Organizationally-Inspired Barriers to Innovation in Schools of Social Work: Short and Long Term Strategies to Promote National Minority Group Representation - ROGER MC NEELY, JOHN OLIVER - 508
• The Perpetuation of Institutional Racism Through Ethnic and Racial Minority Content in the Curriculum of …

Conflict Theories And Social Work Education, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

How one defines the world has consequences for one's actions in the world. Sociology has attempted to utilize the scientific method to help human beings understand their social world. However, in the process of its development, sociology has reflected the ideological bias of its practitioners. (Mills, 1943). Irving Zeitlin (1968, pp. vii) claims "Much of classical sociology arose within the context of a debate - first with eighteenth-century thought of the Enlightenment, and later with its true heir of the nineteenth century, Karl Marx."

The central theme of this paper is that social work education makes extensive use of conflict …

Medical Social Work Faculty: Clinicians Or Educators?, Richard M. Grinnell Jr., Nancy S. Kyte

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Within the health care field, medical social work has expanded rapidly over the past few years. In the United States, medical social workers comprise approximately 1.5 percent of the total medical schools' faculty. And, there is empirical evidence that medical social work faculty will increase substantially over the years to come.

However, we as social work educators know very little about medical social work facultys' opinions on how they perceive their overall function within medical schools. More specifically, if medical social work faculty are to function effectively in medical settings, we as a profession must know: if they perceive themselves …

Two Perspectives On Organizationally-Inspired Barriers To Innovation In Schools Of Social Work: Short And Long Term Strategies To Promote National Minority Group Representation, R. Louis Mcneely, John Oliver

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper focuses on conditions conceived to militate against innovation and change in organizations adhering to administrative principles found often in many workplaces. While these principles are not peculiar to schools of social work, these schools are singled out along with two related problems identified often by persons employed in these schools as ones for which few effective innovations have been implemented. These problems center upon how these schools may best achieve an adequate representation among faculty members, of minority group staff, and an adequate representation of substantive course offerings focusing upon the experiences of national minority group members. The …

Some Critical Questions In The Political Economy Of Social Welfare - The Carter "Welfare Reform" Proposals, L. K. Northwood

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this paper is to discuss President Carter's welfare reform proposals, appropriately titled, "The Program for Better Jobs and Income." If these proposals are adopted by Congress, they will guide the Administration in its stance toward and its work with the lowest income sectors of the nation: the welfare poor--those who cannot work and must be supported by the government, and the working poor--those who are able to support themselves, but whose yearly income is less than the poverty level.

Consequently, the paper starts with an analysis of what the government documents have to tell us about the …

Systems Theory, Robert D. Leighninger Jr.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Systems Theory has generated a lot of excitement in the last decade. It has also spawned more than its share of pitchmen, enough so that it is in danger of being discredited before its genuine potential in many fields of practice has been fairly tested. Wearing the double halo of Science and Corporate Efficiency conferred by its association with the aerospace industry and the Pentagon, it has been enthusiastically offered to Federal and State governments (Chartrand, 1971; Hoos, 1969 & 1972) as well as private individuals and organizations as a way of solving complex social problems like mass transit, crime, …

Interactionist Theory, Human Behavior Social Work And Social Work Education, Ralph Segalman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Much explanation of human behavior is based on assumptions about animal behavior. Two major contemporary theories, Behaviorism and Freudianism place major emphasis upon the human being as animal. Many middle-level theories have no reference to man's distinctive social characteristics. However, social explanations of behavior do have a heuristic advantage in the study of human functioning and "social pathology."

Structural Functional Theory, Social Work Practice And Education, Joe Hudson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The theoretical framework of structural functionalism in sociological theory does not consist of a single, unified, and consistent exposition. Different writers make different emphases, use somewhat different terminolog, and include different phenomena under a variety of similar terms. Rather than attempt to deal superficially with a wide variety of theorists writing out of this perspective, we will focus primarily on the central concepts in the work of perhaps the most eminent proponent of this approach in current sociological work - Talcott Parsons - and, in turn, discuss the relevance of this framework for social work education and practice.

The Perpetuation Of Institutional Racism Through Ethnic And Racial Minority Content In The Curriculum Of Schools Of Social Work, James E. Herrick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The author asserts that the effect of assimilation of ethnic and racial minority content into the curriculum of schools of social work may perpetuate institutional racism.

Social work education as well as the purpose of the profession itself are viewed as basically one of helping people adjust and accommodate to the dominant and racist institutions of our society. Consequently, the author argues, incorporation of ethnic and racial minority, content into curriculum that serves such a function is likely to serve ends to which it was not intended.

Five suggested areas of change in the mission of social work education are …

Creative Restitution: A Study Of Differential Response Patterns, John T. Gandy, James H. Bridges

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Creative restitution offers considerable potential to the field of criminal justice. The concept is of historical significance for it has been an important element in a variety of cultures. Yet, the notion of restitution or permitting an offender to make amends is not a significant element in our society. This paper explores the responses of a variety of populations to creative restitution. A number of findings were of significance including strong support for and acceptance of the concept by diverse groups.

The "Science" Of Social Policy: Max Weber Revisited, Asoke Basu

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Science documents two sources of knowledge--sense and reason. Further, according to Kant, "The nature of the outer empirical world is not known, what becomes known is that which is perceived." Human constructs represent outer reality. They do not express reality directly as it is in original nature. The aim of the social scientist can never be to eliminate the relative perspective of social reality. It is to understand and explain it within a larger cultural framework. The nature of this task brings the social scientist "close" to defining the social reality within a broader cultural praxis. Any policy--essentially, a set …

Systemic Perspectivism: A New Basis For Evaluative Research, Richard A. Ball

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Evaluative research has not kept pace with developments in the theory of social planning and the philosophy of science. If evaluation is to contribute to social planning, evaluators must recognize that planning is a political process. The method of systemic perspectivism may be able to provide a means of combining the virtues of general systems theory with a perspectivistic view of objectivity, allowing for a transactive planning which involves the public.

Community Assessment Scales: The State Of The Art, John F. Else, Samuel E. Walker

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Community development activities are founded on the assumption that citizens have some concept of a "good community" toward which they want to move. Attention needs to be given to how community developers can determine citizen values and attitudes about the type of community that they want. Community assessment scales (CAS's) have been used as one means of measuring community attitudes and desires.

This paper explores the state of the art of the development and use of CAS's. The conclusions are that there has been only minimal use of CAS's and that there are many conceptual and methodological problems with the …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 5, No. 3 (May 1978)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Community Assessment Scales: The State of the Art - JOHN F. ELSE & SAMUEL E. WALKER - pp. 299
• Models of Poverty and Planned Change: A Frame Work for Synthesis - DAVID S. WALLS - pp. 316
• Maintaining Goals in a Mutual-Benefit Association - JAMES R. HUDSON - pp. 327
• Living and Acting in an Altered Body: A Phenomenological Description of Amputation - MARY JO DEEGAN - pp. 342
• Blacks in the American Criminal Justice System: A Study of Sanctioned Deviance - TERRY JONES - pp. 356
• Systemic Perspectivism: A New Basis for Evaluative Research - RICHARD …

Models Of Poverty And Planned Change: A Framework For Synthesis, David S. Walls

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recent discussions of planned social change have organized interventive strategies into models which identify underlying philosophical assumptions, value orientations, and political perspectives. Two papers published in 1965 can be taken as the beginning of this model-building discussion: Richard Walton proposed a dichotomy between attitude change and power strategies, and Roland Warren outlined a continuum from collaborative through campaign to contest strategies. In the subsequent literature, three publications stand out as major formulations of models of planned social change. What is particularly striking is that each develops a trichotomous typology of change strategies. Jack Rothman (1968) formulates the Locality Development, Social …

Maintaining Goals In A Mutual-Benefit Association, James R. Hudson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Mutual benefit associations have been frequently found to confront two major problems: membership apathy and oligarchical control. The organization presented in this paper solved those two problems in unique ways. First professionals employed by the organization were kept in subordinant roles when key policy decisions were made by the lay board. Secondly, the organizational structure did not match the reward structure, i.e., salaries of supervisors were often lower than those of the professional staff. Finally, the organization operated on the principle that each of its programs should be taken over by other organizations and were successful frequently enough with this …

Living And Acting In An Altered Body: A Phenomenological Description Of Amputation, Mary Jo Deegan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Adults with recent amputations are often perceived as suffering from post-operative depression and phantom limbs. These states are frequently seen as failures in "adjustment" since there are often few physiological involvements which curtail daily functioning. This perspective is seen as compatible with major American values of pragmatism, individualism, and a mechanistic medical model. We suggest here that problems in daily living and the phantom limb are not "mental" aberrations but rather reflections of a radically altered lived experience. The performance of the actor is significantly changed and can be discussed as a function of changed experience, and style. This persppctivedraws …

Blacks In The American Criminal Justice System: A Study Of Sanctioned Deviance, Terry Jones

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Almost since the beginning of Black history in America there have been differences of opinion as to what the role of Blacks should be in reference to the criminal justice system. In the beginning these differences centered around the issue of cooperation or resistance to the slave system and a criminal justice system that guaranteed slavery durante vita. Now, while the issue is no longer slavery, Blacks continue the debate over cooperation versus resistance to the criminal justice system. What should the role of Blacks be in reference to the criminal justice system? Can Blacks be of greater assistance to …

The Labeler As An Influence On Labeling Outcomes, Wallace J. Gingerich

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Focusing upon labeling processes at the level of interpersonal relations, this paper points out the general inattention to the labeler as an influence on labeling outcomes. In addition, recent empirical findings suggest not only that labeler variables may be associated with outcomes, but that different labelers are influenced in different ways by different factors in their interpersonal labeling. Consequently, an effort is made to incorporate knowledge from social perception theory into the labeling perspective in order to enhance our understanding of interpersonal labeling processes. Several labeler related variables which might be expected to influence labeling outcomes are suggested.