Self assessment of motives in social work practice

Social Work Assessment

From my life experience, growing up in a family that was extremely loving and supportive, it made me realize I wanted to help others with their ongoing issues because by having a supportive environment, I was able to become a balanced person despite the odds of what my downfalls. Furthermore, I want to help people become balanced despite their odds whatever they may be. With that, it has always been my dream to have a career in helping people with their relationships, careers, and daily issues. And, I believe that by obtaining this degree, my dream can be fulfilled within other areas of counseling. After I obtain this degree, I plan to take my education further in psychology/counseling so that I can better help those who are in need of counseling. To pursue this future degree, I can assist clients on a more professional level by develop those skills to do so. I find it very rewarding to make people feel good about themselves, life and their spirituality. While I am obtaining the degree, I plan to develop my skills to follow my dream.

Discussion- my plans, strengths, weaknesses

Furthermore, in the next five to ten years, I want to create a website where I provide counseling services to new and old clients. I will hopefully advertise in the right areas to gain the right clients to increase sales and activity. It is my desire to gain a great popularity with the public by giving superb counseling to those who need and want it. In my opinion, if I advertise in the right places, I believe that I can gain that popularity. Furthermore, I feel this program can give me the knowledge and skills that I need to understand how and where to market my services at.

By referring what has been studied and learned about being a social worker, I have understood that children or even adults will show aggression when they feel threatened. This is what motivates me to go into being a social worker so that I can help others to overcome their struggles and issues. My strengths would include the researcChildren from divorced homes have issues with low self-esteem and social competence because they are left out from one or both parents due to that they are usually self-absorbed from their own emotional pain. It is clear to me that children and adults become very withdrawn even though they do attempt express their emotional pain to others. It is also apparent to me that when children and adults do not have the attention that they need at home, they show aggression in a negative way.

Fromm (1973) has argued that we must distinguish in man two entirely different kinds of aggression. The first kind, which he shares with all animals, is a phylogenetically programmed impulse to attack (or to flee) when vital interests are threatened. This 'defensive' or 'benign' aggression is in the service of the survival of the individual and the species, is biologically adaptive, and ceases when the threat has ceased to exist. The other type, 'malignant' aggression, i.e., destructiveness and cruelty, is specific to the human species and virtually absent in most mammals; it is not phylogenetically programmed and not biologically adaptive; it has no purpose, and its satisfaction is lustful (THE 'EVIL' MIND: PT. 3. CRUELTY AND 'BEAST-IN-MAN' IMAGERY).

From there, it has become clear to me that if a person bottles up their emotions for a long time, he or she can become extremely aggressive to the point that they will physical harm to others as it was seen in the case of Joe. With that, I have understood that malignant aggression can become an issue for those who have dealt feelings of aggression for a long time. Research has determined that children have more emotional and social issues than adults because they are developing their personalities. A child acts out in this manner because his parents, does not give him or her the attention he or she needs or wants.

Terms such as aggression, violence, crime, and hostility are observed in medical literature. Aggression is used for both humans and animals. In humans, aggression can denote verbal aggression, physical aggression against objects, or physical aggression against people. At times, aggression towards oneself (self-mutilation, suicidal gestures or acts) is included in the definition. Violence is used only when describing human behavior and denotes physical aggression by one person against another. Crime is defined as the intentional violation of criminal law. Hostility is a loosely defined term and can refer to aggression, irritability, suspicion, uncooperativeness, or jealousy (Citrome, 2007).

When dealing with aggression, I have learned that the lack of positive adult support and communication from parents, teachers, pastors, or coaches for adolescents is leading to increased behavior issues. More social support from family, churches, and teachers, adolescents will contribute to a lower rate of behavior problems, which may need therapy.

When affirming a client's thoughts and feelings in therapy, it does not mean the counselor is accepting their feelings by default. It only means he or she is trying to get the client to open up with their feelings in order to get them resolved so that the blame will not be put on others. This approach is taking by a humanistic counselor so that the client can see that he or she is blaming others for their problems. From there, affirming the issues does not mean the counselor is accepting their feelings. They are just trying to get them out in the open to correct them.

The element of free expression can also be illustrated in the case Mrs. L, and her ten-year-old son, Jim. During the first hour of the session the mother spent a full half-hour telling with intense feeling example after example of Jim's bad behavior. She tells of arguments with his sister, his refusal to dress himself, annoying tendencies such as humming at the table, bad behavior in school, and his refusal to help at home. Each one of her comments is highly critical of her son. Throughout the mothers talking the counselor makes no attempt to persuade the mother in feeling any other way about her son. Next, the son engages in play -therapy in which Jim makes a clay image and identifies it as his father. There is a great deal of dramatic play in which the boy shows his struggle in getting his father out of bed and the fathers resistance. Throughout this Jim knocks the clay figurines head off and crushes the body while shouting frantically. In both occurrences with the mother and her son the counselor allows the feelings to flow and does not try to block or alter them" (Hall 1997).

It has become clear to me that the chances that emotionality would affect rational decision-making are very high since people who blame others for their problems usually live by their emotions, which does not include rational thinking. Furthermore, at times like these, it would not hurt for the counselor to interject their values in the session so that rational decision-making can have a chance to calm the client. This is true even though there are times where the counselor should not share their values with the client especially when he or she is being aggressive with their feelings and emotions. When the client is aggressive with their emotions, they will not be reasonable listening to other values and take them into consideration.

From there, when I am dealing with someone's aggression should not push society's values on the client until the appropriate moment time in the session when they are relax and accepting of further insight into the situation even when it is about anti-Semitism. I believe when a client is not pressured to accept a new way of thinking, they are more open to take the counselor's insights and corrections to their views by listening during the session. From there, I can help the client to rehabilitate themselves, which will help them to accept society's norms for their own.

From there, when examining aggression, it is easy to see I, myself need social support rather it comes from family or a counselor because if it is not dealt with properly, it will turn into violence. With that knowledge, I can facilitate learning and cooperation by writing down and talking about to others, which gives me an outlet to vent out my own aggression so that I can better help others with their aggression by listening to them.

I have understood that in today's modern society, the growing number of diverse groups has continued to increase since World War II. With that, it is obvious that the United States is more accepting of different groups of people. For example, in recent years, this country has made things more adaptable for those ethnic groups that speak only Spanish. In some cases, there are schools that teach the lessons in both English and Spanish. Along with that, it has been normal that school systems do not acknowledge anything that concentrates on one religion or ethnic group. Therefore, today's society in the United States is diverse, which is something a social worker needs to understand and know how to deal with each diverse group. Furthermore, through research, it has been discovered most ethnic groups that live in the United States consist of young people, which means by staying in this country, they grow accustom to their surroundings. Once they have grown accustom to living here, they feel like this is their home to start a life with their own families. This continues the growing number of ethnic groups in this country.

Due to the educational accommodations that schools and college campuses make for students that have ethnic backgrounds, there is not enough prejudice of one group to let a Holocaust to occur in the United Stated. Furthermore, this country believes in freedom of speech to allow one ethnic to be isolated from the rest and condone any imprisonment to be carried out. As a social worker, it has to be understood that race is a social construct and not biological. For example, since it has been clearly proven that Westerners and Asian-American think and learn differently from one another, it would be effective to bring their parents into the learning process so that every child can learn the same way even though they will process it in a different. If school systems would accept this concept of diversity in learning, there would be no feeling of failure for the no child left behind program. In order to learn, people need to see that learning is about diversity, which needs to become a part of the education school system. From the above evidence, it is clear that race is a social construct rather than biological because social systems such as schools treat people differently due to their racial background.

Things such as the abovementioned only form the apparentness and literalness of the behavior of American students. Because of their differing backgrounds and despite their oneness when it comes to opinionating, the ways in which they were brought up surely play the most significant factor on why they are who they are (Khramtsova and Saarnio 2007). Their behaviors are correlated with all the attributes they and their backgrounds possess. One such example is success. A student in an American classroom can correlate his depression and being antisocial with the way he is performing academically. And also, lest it is forgotten, the behavior of American students inside the classroom depends somewhat upon their relationships with professors and faculty, because, after all, they are the ones who teach the subject and interact with students (Sorcinelli 1995).

The typical American college classroom is as diverse as anything can get, on all facets, virtually. A classroom is comprised of European-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans and African-Americans. This does not stop at race or ethnicity, however that diversity triggers even more "sub-diversities," such as attitude, religion, socioeconomic, behavioral factors and even in points-of-view. It is almost as if the American college classroom is a forum of students since almost everyone is not only entitled to speak out their thoughts and sentiments. American students are urged to speak out their thoughts due to the fact that exchanging of ideas is very common. For in the American college classroom, interactions like that denote the capacity or incapacity of a student to declare his or her identity; opinion is the most prevalent thing personally possessed by individual students. They may be diverse in about almost anything, but opinion and opinionating comprise the common ground they stand on. At this point, it is obvious that the American college classroom is the embodiment, the melting point of all cultures and aspirations. However, all these possess embedded sub-factors and social construct.

On the other hand, it is inevitable that behaviors of students inside an American college classroom in a way depend on their race or ethnicity, which does not make it very neutral place of learning and social interaction. This is due to the fact race is of a social construct, everybody expects different things from different races. One example emphasized in studies is the higher depression rate among Asian-American college students, particularly the Chinese, compared to other ethnic groups. Scholars up until now argue whether this is the implication of the alienation to American students who form the mainstream population (White Americans) or just one of the effects of being drenched in a multicultural society. Additionally, upon studying the behaviors of ethnically diverse classmates in an American college, Chang in 1996 stated that Asian-Americans are more pessimistic than any other ethnic group and are more likely to anticipate possible problems in their ventures. This insinuates that they are more inclined towards avoidance of future maladies, and thus they always tend to play their affairs safe. The study added that Asian-Americans also are more prone to health problems as aftereffects of their depression and pessimism, not to mention persistent recurrences of inferiority complex.

It need not be disputed that all these can lead to a degraded individual identity of an Asian-American in a college classroom in where European-Americans are of predominance. Only aggravating the situation is the fact that there exists virtually no cultural consciousness among white European-American students, for they form the overwhelming majority of the mainstream Americans. It is a student who is Asian, African, or non-white would feel inferiority because of his or her heritage, the impediment created by other factors. For example, having English only as a second language and several others; this can be perceived by European-Americans as absurd and awkward. These differences between students learning inside one particular college classroom possess many implications, with behavior being the most affected. Another major aspect of school life that would surely be affected by these is psychological well-being. Not only Asian-Americans are experiencing those issues but also other students from other minorities have similar problems. The problems should not be associated with racism however, it should be looked upon from a perspective which is more inclined with the mingling of different cultures under one atmosphere, which is college. As stated earlier, these are all the effects of diversity, nothing more and nothing less; and the probable approach towards remedying these should also come from the root of diversity. It is a fact that almost ten percent of Americans are immigrants and it is a very probable scenario that a big percentage of that number has children rubbing elbows with American students of all heritages in colleges all across the United States (Lee 2000).

From there, I have become aware that I want to help young girls who are going through adolescences. This is because if adolescent girls who suffer from OCD have socially supportive arrangements as the attributes of socially legitimate roles which provide for the meeting dependency needs without loss of esteem, they are less likely to show this obsessive behavior while suppressing destructive behavior (Berlin, 2002).. From there, socially supportive environments were presented as pattern interpersonal relationships mediated through shared values and sentiments as well as facilitate the performance of social roles through which needs are met. In summation, social support has been defined as an intervening factor tied directly to the coping process (Taylor, 2007). Social support is needed in a society where people are influenced to be a certain way, especially when it comes to body image to compensate for the poor relationship that the two have together.

Due to the fact that our bodies do not have a healthy relationship with society, it is apparent that family structure is highly important to children's behavior due to the fact it does affect all levels of performance, which includes preschool to college. Furthermore, family has a big influence on a child behavior. This is due to the fact when observing, other family members behavior, it is not likely that they will pick up the trait but they will have a trait similar to the one that they observed (Stability and change in personality types). This goes along with the idea that support is key to overcome the bad relationship between body and society.

Youths and adults are different in their tendencies to be active and involved with the world around them. Extraverted individuals are outgoing, expressive, energetic, and dominant. Introverted individuals are quiet, inhibited, lethargic, and more content to follow others' lead. Recent theoretical and empirical work with adults has pinpointed three possible central features: the tendency to experience frequent positive moods (Fleeson et al. 2002), sensitivity to potential rewards (Lucas et al. 2000), and the tendency to evoke and enjoy social Attention (Ashton et al. 2002). Extraversion derives from a biological system promoting active approach and exploration of the environment (Depue & Collins 1999) (Caspi, Roberts, Shiner 2005). From there, if people would change their minds about what they expect from young girls when it comes to their bodies, they would have better body images. If the world would change the role women, it is clear from the evidence that as young girls that they can become stronger women.

Regardless of the differences in definition, social support has been the subject of behavioral research for over two decades and the universal outcome has been that social support has therapeutic value in mental and physical health. The majority of studies have been correlational, and so statements about cause and effect remain tenuous. Nevertheless, it is the consensus that social support is a key situation moderator of or buffer to the effects of psychosocial stressors (Pearson, 1986).

Other than using communication techniques with women, as future social worker, I have come to know that women should involve their peers to help the barriers so that they can express themselves effectively and comfortably. Knowing that they have their peers support, they express themselves with confidence from effective teaching due to the fact they feel like they have a comfort zone when friends with common interest are around. When peers with common interests are involved, women feel that they have their acceptance to learn and express themselves through subcultures, which ultimately leads to a sense of security in their everyday life so that their personalities can develop effectively.

Spirituality helps women to find their own self. From there, one could expect adolescent girls to become mature enough to analyze their own personalities and give reliable reports about themselves. They should be able to read and understand the meaning of the items included in personality questionnaires that are usually designed and intended for adults. Many 'pure' personality factors have some substantial intellectual ability component. The general ability influences some of these genuinely personality manifestations such as scope of interests or achievement motivation (Allik, Laidra, Realo, Pullmann 2004).

From the evidence above it is clear that having a religion has become more of a spiritual experience in order for a person to become closer to their God and have a better understanding of themselves. For some people, beating on drums and meditation is a spiritual way to experience their religion on a higher level, which releases a different understanding.

In order for a person to maintain their religion on a spiritual level, it is common for religions to use meditation as a tool, which helps people to reach a higher level with their God. With that in mind, experiencing religion is truly a spiritual experience.From there, it is apparent that religion and spirituality also affects subcultures because they are influences in music and dance. Spirituality may also help people to come together in subcultures.

In recent years, religion has become very spiritual for most individuals since it has a diverse selection in beliefs, which is something subcultures bring in music and style. In today's modern society, most people take their beliefs to a higher level to understand their God and themselves on a spiritual plane, which makes them open to new ideas of music and dance. From there, religion is not just about finding an understanding of God, it is also about finding one's spirituality, which helps someone to accept and have knowledge of themselves and places them in the right cultures. There might be problems, which may come from the cultural, post-culture because they have far fetch ideas of youth culture

In examining crime in social work, I have become aware race is definitely factor in the situation because each racial group is linked to a certain crime, which means they are the first to be investigated. Evidence has shown that researchers examine the correlations between race and crime, as well as the discrimination that occurs when classification of crimes and its perpetrators come into account.(Knepper, 2000, p. 15) There is however not an objective definition of race given. Knepper continues to express that current statistical methods are not accurate nor due they portray the proper picture of current criminals and their circumstances. Knepper questions the idea of whether or not African-Americans do in fact show a higher instance of criminality than others do, or are the statistics biased and skewed in nature. He concludes that there are currently four officials races used for classification: White, black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Asian and Pacific Islander and two official ethnic groups: Hispanic origin and not of Hispanic origin.

Researchers report that the definition of white-collar crime includes class, social status, and gender of a person or ethnicity. However, there are those that feel these classifications are biased. No clarity is given regarding race and gender of the individuals that believe these classifications to be biased and an insufficient means of determining criminality. (Podgor, 1994) An important issue to consider is "Whether female crime can be explained by theories developed mainly by male criminologists to explain male crime." There have been inquires into whether definitions set by white men can in fact be an accurate means to identify women and men of other races. This explains why it is important to understand how crime is perceived from men and women of all races in order to help clarify how crimes are committed so that as a social worker, I can understand the psychological aspect where the person is come from if racial background is a strong factor in the situation.

Furthermore, it has been discussed that when it comes to crime certain racial groups are thought to commit certain crimes. From there, the death penalty is extremely racial because some people feel that individuals that are not of the white race are quickly sentenced to death. Fortunately, this is only a feeling among minority groups due to the fact that they are among the minorities. Statistics show whites are served the death penalty more often than blacks or any other minority group, therefore it is not about race, it is about facing the consequences of criminal actions. From there, race is a social construct rather than biologic due to the fact how society sees racial groups.

I have become aware that many of the individuals who manipulate stocks are very far from elite status, researchers propose. Most of those who are prosecuted for crimes like bribery, tax fraud, or bank fraud are rather average in their social backgrounds and positions rather than what has been reported by many researchers as crimes conducted among the "upper crust" of society. The prevalence of this type of white-collar offender may be a result of vagaries of prosecution rather than the realities of offending. The researcher's further state that in their opinion there is a significant difference between those that commit so-called white-collar crimes and they have little in common with the powerful and wealthy individuals who are often conjured up as images of the typical white-collar offender. However, it is also important that they differ at least as sharply from the working-class criminals that are generally thought of when scholars or lay people discuss the crime problem. Although perceptions are significant it is important to note that previous research does discuss perceptions of crime by society however not the perception specifically based on race or gender.

Herzog (2003) explains that on the other side of crime are those that perceive plea bargaining in relationship to criminal offenses. He explains that "Public perceptions of plea bargaining will be significantly affected by public attitudes towards the type of criminal offense settled by such an agreement. In other words, heterogeneous public attitudes toward different criminal offenses, ranging hypothetically from complete approval to complete disapproval, will lead to heterogeneous public attitudes toward the plea bargaining practices used in settling them." Herzog (2003) continues to state that "This hypothesis allows for the possibility of a linear relationship between public attitudes toward various plea bargaining practices and types of crime; the greater the public disapproval toward the criminal act, the greater the public disapproval for a negotiated out-of-court settlement." This too could be said for the views of white collar crime. This too can be an indication as to why individuals that do white collar crimes feel in fact they have done nothing wrong, or in fact believe that they will not be caught; because the public has somehow excused these crimes to be less severe.

For example, white collar criminals are believed to be of a different status and position than those associated with more privileged status, their crimes are often as commonplace as their social backgrounds. However the researcher does state that it would be misleading to overstate the differences in their opportunities to commit costly and complex white-collar illegalities. Not only do they believe that it is not necessary to be a Fortune 500 corporate executive to develop a costly stock or land fraud. Such crimes are often committed in small firms or by employees who hold less powerful positions in larger ones. Antitrust violations involving millions of dollars are often committed by local businessmen or women. Frauds netting millions of dollars are frequently perpetrated by middle-level bureaucrats in public and private agencies who have access to large sums of money through government aid programs. (Weisburd, Waring & Chayet, 2001)

(Herzog, 2003) There are studies that "point to the existence of wide general agreement and stability across different social sectors and population groups with regard to the relative seriousness of behaviors considered to be criminal. Since public conceptions of seriousness appear to emphasize the consequences of the crime and the harm inflicted on victims, crimes of violence are often perceived by the public as the most serious offenses, followed by property, white-collar, and victimless crimes." Herzog's research has shown that the greater the perceived seriousness of an offense is, among the respondents, as expressed by the dispersion of values around the means; therefore, the low variation regarding the perceived high seriousness of violent offenses. In all, it is believed that perceptions of a crime severity are reliable in conjunction to the public's approval or disapproval of that particular criminal offense.

From there it has been determined that crime has continued to capture the attention even though there has been a decrease in the number of crimes over the past decade. While this has been stated, a lot of attention has been paid to the propitious drop in the nation's crime rates. The rate of incarceration has been increased and has been considered one of the key factors behind this drop despite the fact that a number of notable criminologists disagree. The violent crimes include murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault (Delgado, 2001, p. 3). This, however has not appeased society nor has it abated one's fears of crime and its circumstances, which helps continue research and give social workers further insight into the state of mind when people commit crimes from an ethnic group. From research, it has been concluded that crimes are densely populated in urban communities; and usually consist of black on black crimes.

From there, sometimes when dealing with ethnic groups, I have become aware that some people will have an addiction like marijuana. Therefore, I have come to understand in a crisis intervention, for example, a 33-year-old white male who is lower-middle class is having the addiction problem to marijuana. He has become unmotivated and aloof to everything, which makes him not worry about having a solid job or a stable live. When he has tried to cut back on his addiction, he has become aggressive, irritable and edgy, which at times it has seemed as if he has become abusive to his friends and family due to the fact he has been at the withdraw stage of his addiction. Furthermore, he has been gaining more weight because he has been eating more in order to replace that addiction and that space of time where he smoked marijuana.