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social work exam vocab
Problem Solving Casework - a form of social casework, developed primarily by Helen Harris Perlman. This model stresses clear delineations of the goals of the casework intervention, focused and time-limited intervention, and concern for the environmental and social forces that influence and are influenced by the client. Public Assistance - also known as social assistance, a government's provision of minimum financial aid to people who have no other means of supporting themselves. Funds come from the general revenues of the federal and state governments and not from any social insurance funds such as Old Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance (OASDHI). Some are administered at the federal level, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments, which cover the Old Age Assistance (OAA), Aid to the Blind (AB), and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD) programs. Others are administered by states and localities, sometimes with the help of federal funding. These include Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) for those ineligible for any other categorical assistance programs. Systems Theories - Those concepts that emphasize reciprocal relationships between the elements that constitute a whole. These concepts also emphasize the relationships among individuals, groups, organizations, or communities and mutually influencing factors in the environment. Focus on the interrelationships of elements in nature, encompassing physics, chemistry, biology, and social relationships. Assessment - the process of determining the nature, cause, progression, and prognosis of a problem and the personalities and situations involved therein; the social work function of acquiring an understanding of a problem, what causes it, and what can be changed to minimize or resolve it. Goal-Setting - a strategy used by social workers and other professionals to help clients clarify and define the objectives they hope to achieve in the helping relationship and then to establish the steps that must be taken and the time needed to reach those objectives. The community organizer-social worker uses _____________ by helping key members of the target population or client community define their objectives and spell out the goals they want their people to achieve.
Social Group Work - an orientation and method of social work intervention in which small numbers of people who share similar interests or common problems convene regularly and engage in activities designed to achieve certain objectives. In contrast to group psychotherapy, the goals of ________ _________ _____ are not necessarily the treatment of emotional problems. The objectives also include exchanging information, developing social and manual skills, changing value orientations, and diverting antisocial behaviors into productive channels. Intervention techniques include, but are not limited to, controlled therapeutic discussions. Some groups also include education and tutoring; sports; arts and crafts; recreational activities; and discussion about topics such as politics, religion, sexuality, values, and goals. Although _________ _________ _______ draws on the theoretical perspectives of existential theory, learning theory, psychoanalytic theory, and social exchange theory, its major theoretical perspective to describe group functioning is social systems theory. This orientation provides workers with a way to conceptualize about the effect of group dynamics and interrelationships outside the group. ________ _______ _________ theorists delineate three major conceptions of group work: (1) the social goals model, (2) the reciprocal goals model, and (3) the remedial goals model. Guardian Ad Litem - an individual appointed by a judge to protect a party to litigation who is assumed to be unable to protect his or her own interests, such as a child in a custody dispute or an adult who is alleged to be incompetent. The responsibilities of the ____________ _______ ___________ are temporary and limited to the course of the litigation. Tactics - carefully designed and implemented procedures an individual or, more often, a group uses to bring about short-term changes in another group or individual. __________ refers to short-term or day- to-day maneuvers, whereas strategies refers to the long-range approaches and ultimate goals. Target System - The individual, group, or community to be changed or influenced to achieve the social work goals. This is one of the four basic systems in social work practice (including the change agent system, the client system, and the action system). _________ _________ and client systems are sometimes, but not always, identical. They are different when the client is not to be changed. For example, a client may be a poor family that is being evicted, and the social worker's __________ _______ might be the landlord. __________ ____________ and client systems may be the same when the client wants to achieve some self-change, such as relief from symptoms of emotional distress.
The organization of social workers established in 1955 through the consolidation of the American Association of Social Workers (AASW), the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers (AAPSW), the American Association of Group Workers (AAGW), the Association for the Study of Community Organization (ASCO), the American of Medical Social Workers (AAMSW), the National Association of School Social Workers (NASSW), and the Social Work Research Group (SWRG). _________'s primary functions include promoting the professional development of its members, establishing and maintaining professional standards of practice, advancing sound social policies for the betterment of the nation, and providing other services that protect its members and enhance their professional status. The organization has developed and adopted the NASW Code of Ethics and other generic and specialized practice standards. Certification and Quality assurance are promoted through several credentials, including the Academy of Certified Social Workers, the Qualified Clinical Social Worker, the Diplomate in Clinical Social Work, and other specialty certification programs. NASW maintains a lobbying group to influence national poly and it's Political Action for Candidate Election organization. NASW also sponsors professional conferences and continuing education programs and produces journal, books, and major reference works such as The Encyclopedia of Social Work and the Social Work Dictionary. Variance -
- In research, a measure of dispersion within the distribution of events. 2. In statistics, the square of the standard deviation (SD). 3. In social administration, the difference between budgeted expectations and actual results. 4. In urban development, a legal exemption from zoning and building codes. Ventilation - In the social worker-client therapeutic relationship, the process of permitting the client to express feelings during the description of the problem situation. According to psychosocial theorists, this releases or discharges emotions that have built up and cause the individual to have internal stress and conflict. It is also referred to as catharsis. Confidentiality - a principle of ethics according to which the social worker or other professional may not disclose information about a client without the client's consent. This information includes the identity of the client, content of verbalizations, professional opinions about the client, and material from records. ____________ does not preclude the communication of pertinent information about the client to relevant colleagues in the worker's agency. In specific circumstances, social workers and other professionals may be compelled by law to reveal to designated authorities some information (such as threats of violence, commission of crimes, and suspected child abuse) that would be relevant to legal judgments.
Acceptance - recognition of a person's positive worth as a human being without necessarily condoning the person's actions. In social work, it is considered one of the fundamental elements in the helping relationship. Dual Relationships - In clinical social work, the unethical practice of assuming a second role with the client, in addition to professional helper, such as a friend, business associate, family member, or sex partner. __________ __________ tend to exploit clients or have long-term negative consequences for them. Workers who engage in these relationships are liable to legal as well as professional sanctions. The NASW Code of Ethics has explicitly forbidden sexual relationships since 1979; the explicit prohibition against other dual relationships was included in the 1994 code revisions. The prohibition against dual relationships has been in the code of ethics of the Clinical Social Work Federations since 1988. Accountability -
- The state of being answerable to the community, to consumers of a product or service, or to supervisory groups such as a board of directors. 2. An obligation of a profession to reveal clearly what its functions and methods are and to provide assurances to clients that its practitioners meet specific standards of competence. ACSW - An NASW credential established in 1962 to evaluate and certify the practice competence of individual social workers with advanced degrees. Social workers are eligible for _______ membership if they have obtained an MSW, DSW, or PhD degree from an accredited school; have two years of full-time or 3,000 hours of part-time practice experience under the supervision of a qualified social worker (one who has an ACSW, QCSW, or DCSW credential); provide references from a colleague and sign an agreement to adhere to the NASW Code of Ethics and the NASW Standards for Continuing Professional Education; and successfully pass the _______ examination. Action System - The people and resources in the community with whom the social worker deals with to achieve desired changes. For example, the ___________ ________ for a client who is being evicted might include the other residents of the apartment building, local housing officials, and the media contacted by a social worker in an effort to change a landlord's policies. Activity Group -
an individual's expression of mood, temperament, and feelings; an individual's overt emotional state. Saul Alinsky - A community organizer based in Chicago, he developed methods for effectively mobilizing a community such as realistic goal setting and personalizing social problems by identifying scapegoats or "villains". Mary Richmond - Considered one of the principal founders of professional social work, ________ ___________ led the Charity Organization Societies movement to develop schools to train social caseworkers. She taught volunteers and paid employees in various settings and developed some of the first teaching programs for social work. Her books were among the first to be used in training for social work. They included Friendly Visiting Among the Poor, Social Diagnosis, and What is Social Case Work? Almshouse - A home for poor people; a form of indoor relief prevalent before the 20th century in which shelters funded by philanthropy were provided for destitute families and individuals. In recent decades, __________ have largely been replaced by outdoor relief programs in which needy people are provided with money, goods, and services while living in their own homes. Altruism - unselfish regard for the well-being of others, accompanied by motivation to give money, goods, services, or companionship. Analysis of Variance - a statistical procedure commonly used in social work research for determining the extent to which two or more groups differ significantly when one is exposed to a dependent variable. Applied Research - systematic investigations to acquire facts that can be used to solve or prevent problems, enhance lifestyles, advance technologies, or increase income. This is contrasted to basic research. Most social work research is _________ ________ because it pertains mostly to the interactions between people and their environment, social problems, and methods for helping.
Charity Organization Societies - Privately administered and philanthropically funded organizations that were the essential forerunners of modern social services agencies. The first _____ was founded by Octavia Hill in London in
- The first American _______ was in Buffalo, New York, in 1877 and was duplicated in most larger eastern cities soon thereafter. As more ______ workers, sometimes known as friendly visitors, gradually became professionalized, they were called social workers. Autonomy -
- An individual's sense of being capable of independent action; the ability to provide for one's own needs. 2. Independence from the control of others. Baseline - the frequency with which a specific behavior or event occurs in a natural state, measured before any attempts are made to influence it. Block Grant - a system of disbursing funds to meet a locality's health, education, and social welfare needs while permitting the recipient organizations to determine how best to distribute the money. Used mostly by the federal and sometimes state governments, the system is designed to consolidate budget itemization and eliminate the necessity of earmarking funds for every individual and categorical program. Proponents say it increases efficiency and local control, and opponents suggests that it is a covert way of reducing expenditures for social welfare needs. Bonding - the development by one person of attachment for another. The process begins when the individual has needs that are regularly fulfilled by the other, and his or her identity is partially shaped by the interrelationship. Broker role - A function of social workers and community organizers in which clients (individuals, groups, organizations, or communities) are helped identify, locate, and link available community resources, and various segments of the community are put in touch with one another to enhance their mutual interests.
The organizations, social agencies, and community institutions that provide the auspices and additional resources through which the social worker (change agent) provides service. Chicano - a term sometimes used to describe American citizens of Mexican birth or ethnic heritage. Some Mexican Americans dislike the term because of its identification with political agitation and civil rights activism. Childhood - the early stage in the human life cycle characterized by rapid physical growth and efforts to model adult roles and responsibilities, mostly through play and formal education. Many developmental psychologists say this stage occurs after infancy and lasts until puberty (that is, from about 18 to 24 months to 12 to 14 years) or until adulthood (18 to 21 years). This stage is sometimes divided into early childhood (from the end of infancy to about age six) and middle or late childhood (from age six to, or through, adolescence). CHINS - Children in need of supervision, a designation used in some states for young people, for those who habitually are truant, use drugs or alcohol, runaway, or are antisocially aggressive. In most instances, those designated as _________ are children who have committed offenses that would not be considered illegal if they were adults. Chronic - pertaining to problems, abnormal behavior, and medical conditions that have developed and persisted over a long period. Many helping professionals consider problems that have lasted more than six months to be this and those that last few than six months to be acute. Class Action Suit - a civil legal action taken by or on behalf of a group, community, or members of a social entity against an alleged perpetrator of harm to that group or some of its members. Client System - The client and those in the client's environment who are potentially influential in contributing to a resolution of the client's problems. For example, a social worker may see a nuclear family as the client
and the extended family and neighbors, teachers, and employers as making up part of the _________ __________. Closed System - in systems theories, a self-contained system with rigid boundaries that is organized to resist change and maintain the status quo. For example, a closed family system is relatively uninvolved with non-family members, less tolerant of ideas that differ from the family myths, and structured to maintain its interrelationships with minimal outside interference. Code of Ethics - an explicit statement of the values, principles, and rules of a profession, regulating the conduct of its members. Coercion - forcing or compelling an individual or group to perform (or stop performing) some activity. This may occur through legal actions, government interventions, social influence, or political pressure, as well as through threats of violent harm. Informed Consent - the granting of permission by the client to the social worker and agency or other professional person to use specific interventions, including diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and research. This permission must be based on full disclosure of the facts needed to make the decision intelligently. Must be based on knowledge of the risks and alternatives. One of the greatest risks in professional malpractice suits is failure to achieve __________ ___________. Cognitive Theory - clinical intervention using ________ ___________ concepts that focus on the client's conscious thinking processes, motivations, and reasons for certain behaviors. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) is said to have been a major originator of cognitive therapy. Current forms of this approach include rational- emotive therapy, reality therapy, existential social work, and rational casework. The psychosocial orientation of early, "pre-Freudian" social workers was considered to have much in common with the cognitive approach. Coming Out -
in research, a group of subjects who are equivalent in every possible respect with an experimental group, except that they are not exposed to the variable being tested. Correlation - in research, a mutual relation; a pattern of variation between two phenomena in which change in one is associated with change in the other. High _________ are not necessarily indicative of causality. Cost-of-Living Index - A measure to determine the relative purchasing power of money at a given time in a given society. In the United States, the index is calculated by weighting the average prices of the major commodities that are considered important or representative of people's overall needs. Creaming - Selection of clients, not based on their need, but on their likelihood of benefitting from the intervention. The effect is for the agency to appear to have more success than if all clients had equal access. Crisis Theory - Concepts pertaining to people's reactions when confronted with new and unfamiliar experiences. These experiences may come in the form of natural disasters, significant loss, changes in social status, and life-cycle changes. This theory suggests that when people experience crises, they tend to follow predictable patterns of response. Curandero - in the cultures of some Hispanic groups, a person without formal medical training who is consulted about cures for various physical, emotional, or spiritual problems. Dependent Variable - in systematic research, the phenomenon or reaction to be tested or measured when a new stimulus, condition, or treatment is introduced. The factor that is introduced is the independent variable. Diagnosis-Related Groups -
the name applied to a federally mandated prospective payment mechanism designed to control the costs of medical and hospital care for Medicare recipients. Payments made to the hospitals caring for Medicare patients are determined in advance, based on which one of 467 discrete categories of disorder-or ______- the patient has at the time of admission, as well as on the patient's age; whether surgery is necessary; and in some cases, the presence of complications. Each category, with relevant additional factors, is equated with a flat sum. If costs for care exceed the predetermined amount, the hospital is expected to bear the excess; if they are lower than the predetermined amount, however, the hospital may keep the difference. Dorothea Dix - social activist and advocate for the humane treatment of prisoners and especially for people with mental illness. Her lobbying activities led to the establishment of many public and private mental hospitals. DSM 5 - The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, published in 2013. The DSM-5 labels each psychiatric disorder and provides a numerical code and systematic criteria for distinguishing it from other mental disorders. The mental disorders in the Social Work Dictionary, sixth edition, are consistent with, although not as detailed as, those in the _________ Educator Role - In social work, the responsibility to teach clients necessary adaptive skills. This is done by providing relevant information in a way that is understandable to the client, offering advice and suggestions, identifying alternatives and their probable consequences, modeling behaviors, teaching problem solving techniques, and clarifying perceptions. Other social work roles are identified as the facilitator role, the enabler role, and the mobilizer role. Enable Role - in social work, the responsibility to help the client become capable of coping with situational or transitional stress. Specific skills used in achieving this objective include conveying hope, reducing resistance and ambivalence, recognizing and managing feelings, identifying and supporting personal strengths and social assets, breaking down problems into parts that can be solved more readily, and maintaining a focus on goals and the means of achieving them. Other primary social work roles are identified as the facilitator role, the educator role, and the mobilizer role. Entitlement Programs -
intervention by a professional social worker or other family therapist with a group of family members who are considered to be a single unit of attention. Typically, the approach focuses on the whole system of individuals and interpersonal and communication patterns. It seeks to clarify roles and reciprocal obligations and to encourage more adaptable behaviors among the family members. Variations in family therapy techniques are practiced by proponents of psychosocial, behavioral, systems, and other orientations. Some of the more influential family therapy "schools" have been influenced by Salvador Minuchin (structural family therapy), Jay Haley (strategic family therapy), Virginia Satir and the Palo Alto Group, Murray Bowen, Carl Whittaker, Henry V. Dicks, Mara Selvini-Palazzoli, and Peggy Papp. Feminism - the social movement and doctrine advocating legal and socioeconomic equality for women. The movement originated in Great Britain in the 18th century. Freedom Riders - civil rights activists who rode buses into the American South in the 1960s to challenge racial segregation laws and practices. Generalist - in social work, a practitioner whose knowledge and skills encompass a broad spectrum and who assess problems and their solutions comprehensively. The _____________ often coordinates the efforts of specialists by facilitating communication between them, thereby fostering continuity of care. Group Leader - An individual who facilitates group processes. The leader can be an indigenous member (for example, one of the students in a class) who, through charisma, skill, or other attributes, influences the others. The leader also can be external (for example, a group therapist), whose position or expertise usually results in some influence over the group. Each group has a leader (whether or not the group recognizes it as such), but the leader may change from one meeting to the next or from one minute to the next. Group Therapy - an intervention strategy for helping individuals who have emotional disorders or social maladjustment problems by bringing together two or more individuals under the direction of a social worker or other professional therapist. The individuals are asked to share their problems with other members of the group, discuss ways to resolve their problems, exchange information and views about
resources and techniques for solving the problem, and share emotional experiences in a controlled (by the professional) setting that enables the members to work through their difficulties. A typical format in group therapy is to have six to eight members meet with a professional therapist in a facility provided by the therapist for 90 minutes once each week. Among the many variations of group therapy are closed group and open group. Group therapy is a format used by practitioners of many orientations, including behaviorism, transactional analysis (TA), family therapy, gestalt therapy, and psychoanalysis. Hawthorne Effect - a phenomenon in social research in which subjects behave differently from their norm because of their awareness of being observed. Hispanic - persons who identify themselves as coming from or being descended from people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, or South America. Hispanic-origin persons may be of any race and in census statistics may be included in any one of these racial groups. The term refers to Spanish-language users, rather than any racial or ethnic identity. Homeostasis - the tendency of a system or organism to maintain stability and, when disrupted, to adapt and strive to restore the stability previously achieved. Impaired Social Worker - One who is unable to function adequately as a professional social worker and provide competent care to clients as a result of a physical or mental disorder or personal problems, or the inability or desire to adhere to the code of ethics of the profession. These problems most commonly include alcoholism, substance abuse, mental illness, burnout, stress, or relationship problems. An organization that provides confidential collegial assistance is Social Workers Helping Social Workers. Incrementalism - gradual changes in policies, attitudes, and behaviors. Social welfare planners tend to use ________ because of public resistance to adopting comprehensive programs all at once. Independent Variable -
special language that is used by various professional groups as a shorthand method of communicating complicated concepts, which usually seem obscure and confusing to those outside the group. Social work jargon includes many of the terms found in this dictionary. Jim Crow Laws - statutes requiring or condoning racial segregation in the United States. Such laws have been ruled unconstitutional. Labeling Theory - the hypothesis that when people are assigned a label, such as "paranoid schizophrenia," to indicated some kind of disorder or deviance, others tend to react to the subjects as though they were deviant. Also, the subjects may begin to act in a way that meets the others' expectations. This may be a type of self-fulfilling prophecy and an example of the Hawthorne effect. Laissez-Faire -
- In social policy, the idea that government should not interfere with the economy and that individuals will provide all services and fulfill all needs by means of financial incentives. 2. In social administration, the management practice of minimal involvement. A ______________ leader lets staff make their own decisions (compared with an autocratic leader, who makes the organization's decisions). Latency Stage - In the Freudian theory of psychosexual development, the stage of personality development in the child that follows the phallic (oedipal) phase and precedes the genital stage (adolescence). Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) viewed this as a time in which no new conflicts are introduced, but the child consolidates previous progress. Other analytic theorists, such as Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949) and Erik Erikson (1902-1994), saw this stage as important for the child's developing social skills and sexual identity. Lesbian - A woman whose sexual or erotic orientation is for other women. Liability - a legal obligation to perform some duty, pay for some action, or refrain from doing something. Professional __________ can take the form of paying clients who have been harmed by the
intervention, and the ___________ can extend beyond the direct practitioner to that person's supervisor, as in vicarious __________. Licensing - granting a formal government authorization to do something that cannot be done legally without the authorization. Before one can legally engage in the practice of clinical social work in any jurisdiction in the United States, one must obtain a license in that jurisdiction. Life Model - the social work practice approach designed by Carel Germain and Alex Gitterman that uses the ecological perspective as a metaphor for focusing on the interface between the client and the environment. The social worker who uses this approach views stressful problems in living (life transitions, interpersonal processes, and environmental obstacles) as consequences of person- environment transactions. Longitudinal Study - repeated testing of the same phenomenon or group of subjects over an extended period Macro Practice - Social work practice aimed at bringing about improvements and changes in the general society. Such activities include some types of political action, community organization, public education campaigning, and the administration of broad-based social services agencies or public welfare departments. Mainstreaming - bringing people who have some exceptional characteristics into the living, working, or educational environments to which all others have access. In education, for example, a child with certain learning or physical challenges is permitted to attend classes and activities available to all the other children. Mainstreaming permits individuals to have greater opportunity for socialization and integration. However, it also subjects them to greater risks of social rejection and reduction of special care. Malpractice - willful or negligent behavior by a professional person that violates the relevant code of ethics and professional standards of care, and that proves harmful to the client. Among a social worker's actions
