Concepts

Adaptation 

One of the four functional variables in social systems theory.  It is conducted externally and facilitates goal attainment.

Concepts

Administration

A method of indirect practice in social work that is employed to efficiently achieve organizational goals and objectives in a manner that also advances the well-being of organizational members.

Concepts

Assumption

A belief or supposition that something is true.  An example of an assumption is psychoanalytic theory is that there are only two basic psychological motives, sexuality and aggression.

Concepts

Boundary

A systems concept that defines the border that separates the system from its suprasystem.

Methods

Case management

Methods

Casework

A method of direct practice in social work typically conducted on a face-to-face basis with a client system and focused on improving the client's level of social functioning.

Concepts

Client system

The ultimate beneficiary of a helping effort.  A client system can be an individual, group, family, organization, or community.

Concepts

Concept

A mental construct or idea derived from or associated with a theory, perspective, or model.

Methods

Community organization

A method of social work practice that helps individuals, groups, organizations, and other collectives from the same geographic area (community) to deal with shared interests, opportunities, or problems in a manner that enhances their state of well-being.

Concepts

Conversion operations

The processes by which a system transforms its inputs into outputs.

Forms of Practice

Direct practice

The form of social work practice that involves direct client contact, usually face-to-face, such as casework.

Theories and Concepts

Eclectic

A collection of various theories and practice methods that are differentially employed by a social worker in response to the needs of the client system.

Concepts

Feedback

The return of information to the system as input.  In social systems theory, the term is restricted to information petaining to the extent that output conforms to proposed output.

Concepts

Focal system

An identified system that is the subject of attention.  Designation as a focal system is a matter of the observer's perspective.  If a family is a focal system, the siblings are a subsystem and the community is a suprasystem.

Forms of Practice

Generalist Practice

A form of professional social work practice that can be competently conducted in a variety of settings with client systems of varying size at the several levels of prevention and that utilizes a trasferable body of knowledge, values, and skills.

Concepts

Goal attainment

One of the four functional variables in social systems theory.  It is an external function and is synonymous with the concept of task output.

Methods

Group work

A method of social work practice that involves a small group of people with common interests who meet regularly in order to work toward their common goals.

Concepts

Helping system

The social system created by the social worker, which becomes the tool for conducting the helping process.

Forms of Practice

Indirect practice

The form of social work practice that involves indirect contact with clients.  For example, social work administration is conducted on behalf of clients but does not usually involve direct contact with them.

Concepts

Social systems model

A particular representation of a social system. i.e. diagram

Concepts

Input

All of the resources, including people, that are required by a social system to accomplish its purposes.  Money appropriated to an agency is a vital input.

Concepts

Integration

One of the four functional variables in social systems theory.  It represents an internal function and is synonymous with the concept of maintenance output.

Concepts

Interface

A boundary segment shared and maintained by two systems, for example, a contract between a school of social work and a child welfare agency through which the agency would provide practicum placements for the school's students.

Tools

Logic modeling

A tool for applying critical thinking skills that seeks to identify an underlying system of reasoning as the means of explanation.

Concepts

Macro

A large social system, typically a formal organization or community.

Concepts

Micro

A small social system, typically a social group or family.

Tools

Model

A representation of something real; for example, a social systems model is a representation of a social organization.

Concepts

Output

The status of signal/task and maintenance inputs following a conversion cycle of a social system.

Concepts

Pattern maintenance

Protection of a system's core structural patterns, those that provide its unique identity.

Concepts

Perpective

A way of viewing things broadly so that their relationships and relative importance are understood.

Concepts

Practice

The process of providing professional assistance to individuals, families, groups, organizations, or communities in an effort to make planned changes designed to move the person/organization toward a state of well-being.

Forms of Practice

Primary prevention

A form of intervention intended to enhance well-being and/or to prevent the occurrence of a problem, such as child abuse, AIDS, substance abuse, and so on.

Concepts

Problem-solving paradigm

A conception of how social work is practiced.  The approach had its social work origins in the casework method of practice.

Concepts

Proposed Output

A statement of what a system intends to accomplish.  The concept is synonymous with a system's goals and objectives.

Forms of Practice

Secondary Prevention

A form of prevention that involves action directed to limit the extent and severity of a problem already in existence, for example, early case finding and early treament.

Concepts

Social services

A program of activites provided by social workers and others directed toward the helping of people to meet their needs and/or to enhance their level of social functioning.

Concepts

Social system

A social entity characterized by individuals or other social units possessing functionally interdependent relationships with each other, for example, a family, agency, or community.

Theories and Concepts

Social systems perspective

A set of assumptions on which social systems theory is based.

Theories

Social Systems Theory

A set of assumptions and concepts that seeks to explain the general patterns of behaviors exhibited in the functioning of social systems and how such systems achieve well-being.

Concepts

Social Work

A profession committed to the enhancement of well-being and to the alleviation of poverty and oppression.

Theories and Concepts

Strengths Perpective

A manner of approaching practice that focuses on the strengths and capacities of people and the organizations they form to achieve a sense of well-being.

Theories and Concepts

Subject system

The system that is the object of social work practice in which social systems theory is being employed.

Theories and Concepts

Subsystem

A component element of focal system.  Subsystems display all the attributes of a system, but can be located within a larger designated system.  For example, a married couple functions as a system and is a subsystem of the total family unit.

Theories and Concepts

Suprasystem

That aspect of the social environment to which as subject system is functionally linked; for example, birth families are relevant parts of a family's suprasystem.

Theories and Concepts

Technology

In social work, the application of science to the achievement of its purpose.  Included would be the intire body of methods, approaches, materials, and products used to conduct practice.

Theories and Concepts

Tertiary prevention

Theories and Concepts

Theory

A logically derived set of assumptions and concepts used to explain something, for instance, social systems theory.

Theories and Concepts

Value

A belief comprising the normative structure of a social system pertaining to what is right and good.  For example, values form the foundation on which all social systms develop.