LSW Exam Prep|2023 LATEST UPDATE|GUARANTEED SUCCESS

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ... Problem solving process engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, and termination - EAPIET - Identify which stage of the process you are at; if the question is about the first session or meeting with a client, the activities of a social worker should be focused on engagement, "when gathering information on the problem" indicates assessment or "when developing the contract" indicates planning. If the age of a client or others is included... it is usually relevant to selecting the correct response choice. For example, having an imaginary friend at age 4 is very different than having one at age 34. Imaginary friends in childhood are an extension of pretend play and part of Piaget's pre-operational stage. However, having one in later life might be an indicator of psychosis resulting from a hallucination or delusion. Systems Theory Important to this theory is the concept that when one thing changes within a system, the whole system is affected. Systems tend toward equilibrium and can have closed or open boundaries. Terms: entropy - closed, disorganized, stagnant; using up available energy equifinality - arriving at the same end from different beginnings suprasystem - an entity that is served by a number of component systems organized in interacting relationships Family Systems Theory Family is more than the sum of its members - aims to understand causes of behaviors from looking at interactions. The family is an interactional system whose component parts have constantly shifting boundaries and varying degrees of resistance to change. Families must fulfill a variety of functions for each member, both collectively and individually, if each member is to grow and develop. Families strive for a sense of balance or homeostasis!! Families are seen as being goal oriented. The concept of equifinality refers to the ability of the family system to accomplish the same goals through different routes. Boundaries should be flexible and able to change over time. Interdependence - Individual family members and the subsystems comprised by the family system are mutually influenced by and are mutually dependent upon one another. What happens to one family member, or what one family member does, influences other family members. Genograms - good tool relevant to this theory. Family Therapy Approaches The family is the unit of attention for diagnosis and treatment. Social roles and interpersonal interaction are the focus of treatment. The goal is to interrupt the circular pattern of pathological communication and behaviors and replace it with a new pattern that will sustain itself without the dysfunctional aspects of the original pattern. Key clinical issues include: Establishing a contract with the family, examining alliances within the family, identifying where power resides, determining the relationship of each family member to the problem, seeing how the family relates to the outside world, assessing influence of family history, ascertaining communication patterns, identifying family rules that regulate patterns of interaction, determining meaning of presenting symptom in maintaining family homeostasis, examining flexibility of structure and accessibility of alternative action patterns, finding out about sources of external stress and support. Strategic Family Therapy It is active, brief, directive, and task-centered. Strategic family therapy is more interested in creating change in behavior than change in understanding. Based on the assumption that families are flexible enough to modify solutions that do not work. Therapy focuses on problem resolution by altering the feedback cycle or loop that maintains the symptomatic behavior. The social worker's task is to formulate the problem in solvable, behavioral terms and to design an intervention plan to change the dysfunctional family pattern. Pretend technique—encourage family members to "pretend" and encourage voluntary control of behavior. First-order changes—superficial behavioral changes within a system that do not change the structure of the system Second-order changes—changes to the systematic interaction pattern so the system is reorganized and functions more effectively Relabeling—changing the label attached to a person or problem from negative to positive so the situation can be perceived differently; it is hoped that new responses will evolve Paradoxical directive or instruction—prescribe the symptomatic behavior so a client realizes he or she can control it; uses the strength of the resistance to change in order to move a client toward goals Structural Family Therapy A social worker "joins" (engages) the family in an effort to restructure it. Family structure is defined as the invisible set of functional demands organizing interaction among family members. 1. Interpersonal boundaries define individual family members and promote their differentiation and autonomous, yet interdependent, functioning. Dysfunctional families tend to be characterized by either a pattern of rigid enmeshment or disengagement. 2. Boundaries with the outside world define the family unit, but boundaries must be permeable enough to maintain a well-functioning open system, allowing contact and reciprocal exchanges with the social world. 3. Hierarchical organization in families of all cultures is maintained by generational boundaries, the rules differentiating parent and child roles, rights, and obligations. Restructuring is based on observing and manipulating interactions within therapy sessions, often by enactments of situations as a way to understand and diagnose the structure and provide an opportunity for restructuring. Bowenian Family Therapy Differentiation - The more differentiated, the more a client can be an individual while in emotional contact with the family. This allows a client to think through a situation without being drawn to act by either internal or external emotional pressures. Emotional fusion - counterpart of differentiation and refers to the tendency for family members to share an emotional response. This is the result of poor interpersonal boundaries between family members. In a fused family, there is little room for emotional autonomy. If a member makes a move toward autonomy, it is experienced as abandonment by other members of the family. Multigenerational transmission - stresses the connection of current generations to past generations as a natural process. Multigenerational transmission gives the present a context in history. This context can focus a social worker on the differentiation in the system and on the transmission process. An emotional triangle - network of relationships among three people. Bowen's theory states that a relationship can remain stable until anxiety is introduced. However, when anxiety is introduced into the dyad, a third party is recruited into a triangle to reduce the overall anxiety. It is almost impossible for two people to interact without triangulation. The nuclear family - most basic unit in society and there is a concern over the degree to which emotional fusion can occur in a family system. Clients forming relationships outside of the nuclear family tend to pick mates with the same level of differentiation. Sibling position - a factor in determining personality. Where a client is in birth order has an influence on how he or she relates to parents and siblings. Birth order determines the triangles that clients grow up in. Societal regression - in contrast to progression, is manifested by problems such as the depletion of natural resources. Bowen's theory can be used to explain societal anxieties and social problems, because Bowen viewed society as a family—an emotional system complete with its own multigenerational transmission, chronic anxiety, emotional triangles, cutoffs, projection processes, and fusion/differentiation struggles.