Ecological Theory: Johnny's Substance Abuse

For presenting problems one and two Johnny needs to identify the triggers that started his substance abuse, as well as use these triggers to assist in maintaining sobriety and curbing cravings. Ecological theory was applied to these problems. “Ecology means….study of the living conditions of organisms in interaction with each other and with the surroundings…social work…has expressed purpose in fostering healthy and independent transactions between persons and their environment” (Ungar, 2002, p. 481). This framework has evolved in social work due to social works nature to aid in assisting people in relation to their surroundings. In identifying triggers Johnny’s environment must be taken into account. One must review peer interactions, family
It had been identified that Johnny had the inner strength to have positive social interactions. Strengths based social work discusses that “all people have a wide range of talents, abilities, capacities, skills resources, and aspirations. These strengths guide human growth when they are identified, recognized and developed” (Hill, 2008, p. 107). Johnny had the capacity to make friends, he had a group of peers previous to his substance use. Those social skills and peer relational skills needed to be identified once again. In the strengths perspective, “instead of viewing character as fixed and narrowly defined construct, character is seen as multifaceted….and unique to the individual” (Linkins, Neimiec, Gillham, Mayerson, 2015, p. 65) It also states that “rather than prescribing a particular recipe for positive character this approach provides a language for describing (and calling forth) each individual’s character…” (Linkus et al, 2015, p. 65). This framework allowed for working with the client’s relational strengths. For example, Johnny often became aggressive when he had strong cravings but was able to control his aggression around his friends. A strength this shows is good self control and emotional management. It allowed for the creativity needed to empower Johnny to identify and visualize his strengths as well as fine tune and generalize strengths to daily sober
The founder of social learning theory, Albert Bandura, stated “In the social learning system, new patterns of behavior can be acquired through the direct experience or by observing the behavior of others” (Bandura, 1971, p. 3). In other words, social learning theory states that individuals have the tendency to learn behaviors by interacting with and observing other individuals. Social learning theory originated in the 1970s when Bandura abandoned the psychoanalytic approach and began to emphasize and research cognitive and processing capacities that mediate social behavior (Grusec, 1992). Albert Bandura discussed observational learning with his “Bobo doll experiment” where children observed individuals either acting aggressively or acting passively towards the doll. The individuals then left the child alone with the doll and behavior was observed. The study displayed that children who had observed the aggressive behavior were more aggressive than children who observed peaceful behavior. This can be applied to the case of Johnny by looking into his past peer relations. Johnny commented having very few friends before using substances. Johnny felt the only peers that accepted him were ones that used drugs. It can be hypothesized that the behavior of substance abuse was partially learned from peers in addition to the positive reinforcement of the behavior by having a larger circle of friends. In addition