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Chapter 2
Human SystemPerspectives
Theoretical Frameworks for Practice
• Theories about human systems
• Theories and models of change
• No one practice framework clearly represents "the social work view”
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Analyzing Theoretical Perspectives
• What is the main focus of the theory?
• To what system level does the theory apply?
• Does the theory apply widely to diverse situations, or narrowly to particular cases?
• Does the theory further understanding of behavior or guide change?
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Key Perspectives: Ecosystems
• Combines concepts from ecology and general systems theory
• Describes transactional relationships between persons and environments
• Consistent with various theories of human behavior
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Key Perspectives: Social Constructionism
• Knowledge is created not discovered
• Culture and social status influence perception
• Social work roles– Question socially generated “truths”– Advocate for social and political changes
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Key Perspectives: Feminist Perspective
• Personal is political
• Gendered lens
• Democratized process
• Considers other oppressions
• Transformational nature of change (Hyde)
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Life Course Theory & Critical Theory
• Life Course Theory– Provides a view of sociological influences on
human development across the course of life
• Critical Theory– Contextual influences on human behavior– Interconnections between people and their
environments
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Ecosystems: Humans in Context
• Humans – Biological, psychological, spiritual, social, and
cultural beings – Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors– Responders to environments
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Ecosystems: Transactions
• Reciprocal interactions
• "Person: environment" connections
• Sources of energy that sustain human system functioning and fuel change
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Development as Evolutionary Change
• Views human development as evolutionary
• Individuals and other human systems:– Change and stabilize in response to internal
and external forces
• Contextual Influences
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Ecosystems: Goodness-of-Fit; View of Dysfunction
• Balance between system and environment
• Mutual benefits for the system and the people / situations around it
• Removes the blame from clients
• Defines problems as transactional
• Identifies problems as gaps between available resources/environment demands
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Implications for Change
• Change and maintain both client and environmental systems
• Determine multiple possibilities for change– Alter part of any transaction to affect other
transactional elements
• Focus on building strengths and system competencies
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Human Systems
• System - group of interacting and interdependent people or parts
• Holons - all systems composed of smaller systems & contained within larger systems
• Subsystems - systems within a system
• Environments - larger systems encompassing a system
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Human Systems: Structural View
• Boundaries distinguish interior from environment– Vary in permeability– Separate people within a given system
• Hierarchy delineates – Status; Privileges; Power
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Human Systems: Interactional View
• Equilibrium-maintain patterns; stability
• Feedback - information that maintains or disrupts a system’s patterns
• Mutual causality - behavior mutually determined in interactions with others
• Wholeness - change in one part of a system creates changes in the whole
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Human Systems: Biopsychosocial Dimensions
• People are able to make choices about– How they view themselves – How they view events
• At all system levels, cognitive and affective dimensions hold promise for change
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Human Systems: Cultural Influences
• Cultural memberships affect the way others treat us
• Generalizations may obscure individual differences
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Ecosystems: A Conceptual Framework for Practice
• Identify the focal system.
• What’s happening in the system?
• What’s happening outside the system?
• How do the inside and outside connect?
• How does the system change through time?
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Practice Framework: Focal System
• Point of reference
• Varies, depending on the purpose or activity
• Can be a client system or other target system in the environment
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Practice Framework
• What's happening inside the system?– Structural perspective; Interactional view– Biopsychosocial dimensions; Cultural
influences
• What's happening outside the system?– Examine the ecosystem's structures,
interactions, and sociocultural dimensions
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How do the inside and outside connect & Move through time?
• Competent functioning depends on successful interaction with environment
• Analyze
• Dynamic state of constant change
• Expected developmental - occurs naturally
• Unexpected - nodal events
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