Social role discrepancies as clues to practice

Martha W. Chescheir, DSW, is Assistant Professor, National Catholic School of Social Service, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Over the years, the knowledge base notice social inequities, the inadequa of social work practice has expanded cies of resources, ethnic differences, to include intersystemic and interperand the impact of powerful others oil sonal as well as intrapsychic processes, weak or relatively helpless clients or and generic practitioners often face client groups. The intervention se complex decisions about which theolected by these practitioners is likely retical framework to use and whether to be social change, client advocacy, to choose an intervention that emphanegotiation, and the manipulation of sizes the individual, a group, or some power groups, large social system. All social workSocial workers oriented to the in ers know that the basic person/situadividual concern themselves with tion configuration of practice theory what has happened in a client's past, makes it possible to work with indiThey tend to locate problems in the vidual clients or groups of clients person and in his characterological toward either internal or external makeup and to emphasize such factors change. Nevertheless, in the last decas underlying motivation, unconscious ade, the emphasis has been on working thoughts and fantasies, and mani with the interpersonal aspects of the festations of internal resistance to person/situation gestalt because this change. Intrapsychic treatment most middle position between the intraoften means slowly building relation psychic and intersystemic approaches ships, restructuring defenses, and includes the possibility of changes in working through internal conflicts, all three spheres and makes it easier Practitioners adopting the interper to move in either direction depending sonal perspective consider and work on the needs of the case. The underwith interactive phenomena, paying standing of this middle position has special attention to patterns of corn remained clouded, however, because munication and to the social role as combining personality and sociologiit is played out in family units or cal theories tends to create theoretical small groups. For these social work fuzziness. ers, treatment includes reeducation, This article suggests that it is posresocialization, and the kinds of di sible for the generic practitioner to rected behavioral change that can be reduce this theoretical confusion by accomplished through active partici understanding three basic concepts— pation of the worker in the client's character structure, role, and social immediate concerns, structure—and their relationship to Even the practitioner who recog the three corresponding realms of nizes that all three perspectives have practice—intrapsychic, interpersonal, merit when appropriately selected of and intersystemic. The article further ten has difficulty knowing which proposes a scheme for interpreting the method to use under which sets of concept of social role in such a way circumstances. What has happened as that it can be used diagnostically to a result of the proliferation of theo determine whether more attention ries regarding psychosocial treatment should be given to personal or situais that we social workers quarrel tional goals in a particular case. among ourselves about which perspec Each of the three realms of practice tive is best, often not recognizing that attends to a unit of a different size the various theories offer explanations and offers a different theory of perfor different sets of phenomena. In sonality development or social organithe end, we rely on our personal and zation. Each psychological or sociotheoretical preferences, rather than logical theory highlights a different on selecting the most appropriate set of phenomena, and this, in turn, treatment for the clients, dictates a different course of action Figure 1 presents a version of the for the social work practitioner. Those person/situation paradigm that has who approach a case by looking first been expanded to include a generic at the system tend to emphasize exinterpretation of the various realms ternal factors and to explain what of practice.1 What this view of the they see in broad social terms. They treatment continuum implies is that