Chapter 1 a Multidimensional Framework
PSY 383/Human Behavior in a Social Environment
Assignment 1/Chapter 1
Dion West
9 JUNE 2013
1.What approaches are available for assessing human behavior? What is unique about the way social workers conceptualize human behavior? Why is it important to consider both a person’s internal variables and the external variables of the environment? What focus guides the social worker’s assessment of human behavior? Would a psychologist have a different focus? Would a teacher have a different focus?(20 Points)
Some approaches for assessing human behavior are medical, psychoanalytic, social learning, social-group, community, and organizational models, as well as moral models and strengths perspective. There is no one concept for guiding the development of cases in social work or any other human service profession. There are no universal theories that must be used in conceptualizing people, behaviors, problems, and situations. It is important to consider both variables because human behavior cannot be understood by isolating the internal variables of people from the external variables in their environment. For that reason the subject matter of human behavior and the social environment is examined by using an integrative multidimensional approach. Social functioning is the primary focus of a social worker orientation to human development. Socialogists research and theory construction, by contrast, has focused on understanding the contributions of social changes to age differentiated life course. Socialogists are much more interested in studying changes in patterns of life or in social environment pathways. Psychologists do have a different focus. They focus their research on understanding changes in behavior across a person’s life span. Yes a Teacher would have a different focus
2.Of the four cases presented in Chapter 1, the first is unique in that it involves assessing an organizational situation, whereas the other three address individual behavior in various
Assignment 1/Chapter 1
Dion West
9 JUNE 2013
1.What approaches are available for assessing human behavior? What is unique about the way social workers conceptualize human behavior? Why is it important to consider both a person’s internal variables and the external variables of the environment? What focus guides the social worker’s assessment of human behavior? Would a psychologist have a different focus? Would a teacher have a different focus?(20 Points)
Some approaches for assessing human behavior are medical, psychoanalytic, social learning, social-group, community, and organizational models, as well as moral models and strengths perspective. There is no one concept for guiding the development of cases in social work or any other human service profession. There are no universal theories that must be used in conceptualizing people, behaviors, problems, and situations. It is important to consider both variables because human behavior cannot be understood by isolating the internal variables of people from the external variables in their environment. For that reason the subject matter of human behavior and the social environment is examined by using an integrative multidimensional approach. Social functioning is the primary focus of a social worker orientation to human development. Socialogists research and theory construction, by contrast, has focused on understanding the contributions of social changes to age differentiated life course. Socialogists are much more interested in studying changes in patterns of life or in social environment pathways. Psychologists do have a different focus. They focus their research on understanding changes in behavior across a person’s life span. Yes a Teacher would have a different focus
2.Of the four cases presented in Chapter 1, the first is unique in that it involves assessing an organizational situation, whereas the other three address individual behavior in various