Social Psychology Theories - Literature review Example

1 Social Psychology Several social service groups are now working to help address problems caused by complicated personal, as well as systemic issues. Social work is indeed one profession, which continues to strengthen, support, advocates and also develop theories aligned to the needs of vulnerable people. Its workers (Abramovitz, 1998, Addams, 1960, and Jacobson, 2001) move farther to identify valuable professional values, directed towards social reforms. Various psychological theories are concern about how can a person be affected by social environment and how these factors may affect social work. The first social psychology theory which can be related in social work is Lewin's field theory and Lewin's theory of change. Lewin's field theory (1951) states that, behavior may be derived from overall coexisting factors. The so called "coexisting facts" create a dynamic field which can be referred to as any component of the field that depends on each other's part. It further indicates that the behavior of an individual relies on the present field and not on the past or its future. Note that this theory seemed contrasting to the theory of associationism as well as belief of theology. Theory of associationism stipulates that, the past is basically the cause of behavior, while belief of theology states that, the cause of behavior is the future. The field referred to in Lewin's theory is the life space that consists of the person with his or her psychological environment. Life space can also be the places where the person have been to or will still be going, his or her feelings to the said place, the events and people exiting in the said place/s. On the other hand, Lewin's theory 2 of change explains that, the entire process in terms of facilitating as well as its associated hindering factors that individual or group encounters can consequently bring change. Together with this process the organization will enable to meet human anxieties, create the new equilibrium supporting the change. Like in social works or services, several changes may be carried upon, and there is expected resistance because of certain unknown fears. Fears about coping up of their roles and responsibilities, persons promoting the changes, or perhaps, fear about the technology that the change can bring about. Another theory from Festinger (1957) is called cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is focused on the relationships among cognitions. Cognition may be considered as a piece of knowledge. In the same way, knowledge may be considered as n emotion, an attitude, a behavior, a value, etc. Festinger theorized that, individuals are motivated by the unpleasant condition of dissonance to get involve in psychological work, so as to decrease the inconsistency; this work will basically support the cognition at most resistant to change. Individuals have multitude of cognitions and these cognitions shape consonant, irrelevant, or dissonant connections with one another. Dissonance can be experienced as something uncomfortable. Individuals are motivated to decrease dissonance that is experienced by changing cognitions, or by adding cognitions or changing the relevance of the cognitions. In most cases, the relationship of attitude and the amount of justification that is provided to get involve with the attitude-discrepant behavior is inversely proportional. 3 Chapanis and Chapanis (1964) criticized that, experiments along with the theory, presented some methodological ambiguities. The statements of Chapanis and Chapanis as well as Rosenberg resulted to more experiments which were carefully designed, elicited more consistent evidences with dissonance theory (Silverman, 1964; Linder et al., 1967). Cognitive dissonance theory could have facilitated in the generation of program that might have changed attitudes. Induced compliance results to attitude change as an opposite function of justification. It was able to prove that money is not the only reason or justification that facilitates cognition consonant with behavior. Many other forms may serve the same purpose. Several people love what they suffer for sufficiently summarizes this dissonance effect. Mostly, people do not like to spend undue effort; or suffer. However, there are instances that one finds himself or herself in a situation in which they are volunteering for specific cause. This situation or gestures have been observed to most social workers. To provide more enlightenment on the previous statements, the nature and job functions of social workers can be recalled. Although increased burnout, more work with fewer resources, slow pace of change and bureaucracy may be experienced along with their line of duties, they still continue to carry out their roles since they feel that the advantages of social services have far outnumbered the disadvantages of which. They believe in more important goal and may have considered it as the most important. In this connection, self-perception and impression management are two other 4 theories that have been offered to compete with dissonance, as elaborations for the experimental phenomena. These theories are quite different from dissonance, since they do not put something as any psychological arousal existing due to inconsistency. Moreover, Bem's self-perception theory (1972) argues that, people come to find out about themselves by observing their respective behavior, in the same manner that people learn on the preferences as well as personality of others, aside from introspection. The same theory suggests that knowing one's self, depends on how he or she remembers his or her own behavior (McClelland, McNaughton, & O'Reilly, 1995). Added by Pelham (1991), self-views provide meaning to people's experiences, by enabling them to create sense of, as well as react precisely to, such experiences. Baumgardner (1990) discovered that, self-certainty cause's people to counteract challenging feedback as well as behave in a more stable way and more self-consistent. People's self-esteem, behaviors, self-concepts, and social conditions are solidly placed in cycles. Thus, this conclusion will bring to direct implications in the field of social work. Understandably, professional social workers function primarily in the surrounding structure of human relationships, which are incorporated with fear, tension, and limited options. Social workers are very much involved in various sensitive cases; they are also face with ethical challenge as to how to balance client's self-determination, safety requirement options, while simultaneously maintaining the primacy of relationships. To be a social worker means, one must 5 labor according to the limits of other people's lives. Sometimes the course of action which must be done, should balance conflicting values, attitudes, actions, choices, and consequences (Mooradian, 2006). Obviously, an individual with conflicts in one's self-perception may lead to inefficient service to the clientele because just as creating lasting changes in self-views, needs changes in the behaviors and also in social conditions. As Kindle (2006) justified, change is inevitable, it is necessary to effectively carry out social work, not just in meeting clients' needs, but also in continuing the profession. If social workers perceive themselves, if they can effectively determine the sense of their own worth, consequently, funding agencies, convincing critics, and competing professionals, of their value and effectiveness should not be difficult. As part of the social workers responsibilities, they shall provide necessary assessment, including collection of comprehensive information which will be used in developing intervention programs and treatment strategies. Assessment (NASW, 2004) is a fundamental process in the practice of social work. Intervention and treatment strategies/plans require that all social workers both assess and reassess their client needs and also to modify plans accordingly. Social work assessments may include relevant biomedical, psychosocial, and spiritual factors or indicators of the individual client as well as the family (as defined by the client). In relation to social work assessments, life-span perspective must be considered. The life-span perspective holds that individual human lives are better understood if it will be viewed according to their changing worlds. This is the 6 principle of contextualism. The principle expounds that human development cannot be positioned apart from the surrounding conditions in which it occurs (Dannefer 1984). People can't be separated from their place and time in history. All the events throughout centuries, affected the lives of people who lived through them. In other words, human development cannot be understood in isolation from the changing social environment. Another principle supporting this fact is the life stage principle, which discusses that, the manner in which individual as well as social events affected life patterns is determined or influenced by how old people are when those events occur (Elder 1994). Efforts to enhance effectively the human development through preventive or by corrective interventions will certainly benefit, if they are undertaken considerably with sensitivity to the specific age period within the entire life span's framework (Sorensen, Weinert, and Sherrod 1986). This premise informs everyone that people can be influenced by various things at distinct stages of the life course. The timing of events as well as the interventions is critical to their effect. The effective intervention strategy for troubled adolescent may not work for the adult criminal. For example, recent research reveals, that giving employment opportunities decreases recidivism among older criminals however has little effect on teenagers to young adult criminals (Uggen 2000). Erickson (1968) said, adults can better build a life of their own, career and family, if they are successful doing this; they would greatly feel that they contributed to the world and community. But if they are not able to achieve this, may feel unproductive in the world. In addition, adolescence is a critical stage in the life span, at this period children explore on their independence 7 and the sense of self is developed. Proper reinforcement, encouragement and through personal exploration lead them to a greater and strong sense of self as well as feeling of control and independence. Those who remain uncertain of their desires and beliefs will be get insecure and confused even in the future stage of life. Therefore, the principle of timing explains to the effects of both planned interventions and unplanned events which occur in the life course. Children develop greater sense of their personal control during childhood stage. As elaborated by Freud, it is also Erikson belief that, toilet training takes the essential part of this process. But, Erikson's defense or reasoning was quite far from that of Freud's. For Erikson, learning to control one's body functions results to a feeling of control as well as a sense of independence. Other vital events include obtaining greater control over all other matters. Children who successfully satisfy this stage of their life feel secure and confident; however, those who do not tend to experience a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt. Furthermore, children starts to assert their control and power during their preschool years, this is through social interactions like playing. If they are successful at this life stage, they will feel capable at the same time able to lead others. On the contrary, if they fail to acquire the said skills, then they will be left with a sense of self-doubt, guilt and lack of initiative (Caver, 2000). The next stage is the stage of social interactions, at this stage, children start to develop a sense of pride when they accomplish something or acquire abilities. This stage, they need the encouragement of teachers and parents in order to develop a 8 feeling of competence as well as trust in their skills. However, if these are not satisfied, they will doubt on their ability to be successful. The last stage of life is more concern about the events which happened in the past. If the person was unsuccessful during this stage, they will have the feeling that their life has been put into waste, thus, experience several regrets. They will feel bitter and in despair. On the other hand, those who feel proud about their accomplishments, are happier, with great sense of integrity and looks back in their past with few regrets as well as satisfied. 9 REFERENCES Abramovitz, M. (1998). Social work and social reform: An arena of struggle. In Social Work, November, vol.43, no. 6, pp. 512-526. Bank, B. J. (2000). Gender and friendships: Why are men's best same-sex friendships less intimate and supportive Personal Relationships, 7, (1), 63-78. Bentz, V.M. & Shapiro, J.J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Campbell, P. J., Masters, P. E., Goolsby, A. (2004). Global studies: Hurdles to Program development. College Teaching, 52(1), 33-38. Capitman, J., Hermandez-Gallegos, W., & Yee, D. (1991). Diversity assessment in aging services. Generations. 13 (4). 73-76. Carver, C.S. & Scheir, M.F. (2000). Perspectives on Personality. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and Society. (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. Gastil, J. (2004). Adult civic education through the national issues forums: Developing Democratic habits and dispositions through public deliberation. Adult Education Quarterly, 54(4), 308-328. Gilligan, C., (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Favorini, A., (1995). Concept of codependency: Blaming the victim or pathway to recovery Social Work, 40, (6), 827-830. Fay, B. (1987). Critical social science: Liberation and its limits. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press. Gilligan, C. (1982). In A Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Jack, D. (1987). Silencing the self: The power of social imperatives in depression. In R. 10 Jacobson, W. (2001). Beyond therapy: Bringing social work back to human services reform. Social Work, (46):1, pp. 51-61. Kindle, P. (2006). Answering the critics: The inherent value of social work. In Perspectives on Social Work, Fall, 4(2), pp.5-7. Retrieved on 10/28/2006 at http://www.sw.uh.edu/currentstudents/perspectives/fall2006.pdf. Karger, H. J. and Stoesz, D. (2003). The growth of social work education programs, 1985-1999: Its impact on economic and educational factors related to the professions of social work. Journal of Social Work Education, 39, pp.279-295. Kolb, P. J. (1999). A stage of migration approach to understanding placement in Latino families. Journal of Multicultural Social Work. 7 (3/4) 95-112. Kondrat, M.E. (2002). Actor-centered social work: Re-visioning "person-in- environment" through a critical theory lens. Social Work, 47(4), pp. 435-438. Langman, L. (2005). From virtual public spaces to global justice: A critical theory of internet worked social movements. Sociological Theory, 23(1), pp. 42-74. Lakoff, G. (2002). Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Levinson, D. J. (1996). The seasons of a woman's life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Lewin, K. (1951) Field theory in social science. New York: Harper. McPhail, B.A. (2004). Setting the record straight: social work is not a female- dominated profession. Social Work, (49):2, pp.323-326. Mooradian, j.k. (2006) Better Together or Safer Apart An Application of Ethics to Everyday Violence. The New Social Worker Magazine, Vol. 13, 2 National Association of Social Workers. (1999). Code of ethics. Washington, D.C.: NASW Press. National Association of Social Workers. (1996). Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Washington, DC: NASW. Sachs, J.D. (2005). The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin Press. Smith, A. (176). The Wealth of Nations (1976 edition),Oxford, Clarendon Press. 11 Sowell, T. (2006). On Classical Economics. New Haven: Yale University Press. Wood, J. T. (1996). Gender, relationships, and communication. In Julia T. Wood (Ed.), Gendered relationships (pp. 3-19). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing. Read More