Essay Grade

Situations 1 and 2: Making Decisions About Interventions*
Situation 1
Think back to a client (individual, family, group, agency, or community) with whom you
have worked. Place a check mark next to each criterion you used to make your practice
decision. If you have not yet worked with a client, think of the criteria on which you
would probably rely.
____1.
Your intuition (gut feeling) about what will be effective
____2.
What you have heard from other professionals in informal exchanges
____3.
Your experience with a few cases
____4.
Your demonstrated track record of success based on data you have gathered
systematically and regularly
____5.
What fits your personal style
____6.
What was usually offered at your agency
____7.
Self-reports of other clients about what was helpful
____8.
Results of controlled experimental studies (data that show a method is helpful)
____9.
What you are most familiar with
____10. What you know by critically reading professional literature
Situation 2
Imagine you have a potentially serious medical problem and you seek help from a
physician to examine treatment options. Place a check mark next to each criterion you
would like your physician to rely on when he or she makes recommendations about
your treatment.
____1.
The physician’s intuition (gut feeling) that a method will work
____2.
What he or she has heard from other physicians in informal exchanges
____3.
The physician’s experience with a few cases
____4.
The physician’s demonstrated track record of success based on data he or
she has gathered systematically and regularly
____5.
What fits his or her personal style
____6.
What is usually offered at the clinic
____7.
Self-reports of patients about what was helpful
____8.
Results of controlled experimental studies (data that show a method is helpful)
____9.
What the physician is most familiar with
____10. What the physician has learned by critically reading professional literature
*From Gambrill, E., & Gibbs, L. (2017). Making decisions about intervention. In Critical
thinking for helping professionals: A skills-based workbook (4th ed., pp. 69–70). New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Theories and Social Work
Theories and Social Work
Program Transcript
NARRATOR: Those who come to social workers for help arrive with different
backgrounds and often complex problems. For a social worker, one goal is to
understand and be able to describe a client’s problem. But after a social worker
conceptualizes a client’s problem, how do they know which intervention will work
best?
You may think that some social workers use their intuition or gut feeling based on
their past experiences when working with clients. Practical experiences or
intuition may be part of an overall outlook. But practicing social workers need
more. A social worker should have a solid foundation on which to build a change
process for a client.
That solid foundation is theory. For social workers theory is a set of statements
that had been tested and that help to explain and predict human behavior or
social problems. Some theories include, but are not limited to, general systems
theory, psychoanalytical theories, attachment theory, psychosocial framework,
and role theory, crisis theory, resilience theory, feminist theory, cognitive theory,
and cognitive behavioral theory.
It’s a theory that helps to inform practice, which then helps to either reinforce or
modify theories based on the research social workers may conduct in the field.
It’s through a strong foundation of theory and evidence based practice that social
workers are able to adapt, adjust, and critically consider the correct approach to
apply in practice and to help their clients succeed.
Theories and Social Work
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