Bias and Self-Awareness in Human Services Practice

Introduction to Ethics and Professional Values

Human services and social services workers need to remain aware of their personal assumptions, biases, and value systems when working with clients in order to meet the high ethical standards established by professional organizations like the National Organization for Human Services. Social service professionals ultimately aim to fulfill fundamental values such as respect for the dignity and welfare of all individuals, promoting empowerment, autonomy and self-determination, honoring and valuing diversity, and advocating for social justice (National Organization for Human Services, 2017). Biases and assumptions can occasionally compromise these fundamental values by clouding judgment, leading to miscommunication, or producing behaviors that impede the achievement of human service goals.

Understanding Bias and Assumptions in Social Services

As Barsky (2010) points out, biases and assumptions are both faulty cognitive patterns. A bias can be defined as a cognitive preference for one belief system, group of people, worldview, or point of view over others. Alternatively, a bias can mean a negative judgment of certain groups of people or worldviews. Biases are usually linked to assumptions about groups or ideologies. Both biases and assumptions can impact the development of a social service worker's value system, leading to clouded judgment and an inability to remain true to the ethical principles of the profession.

Although culture, ethnicity, religion, and gender are common areas in which biases and assumptions become most apparent, it is also important to recognize that social services and human services professionals may be subject to biases related to issues such as social class status and homelessness. As Toporek and Worthington (2014) point out, biases and assumptions can be systematically overcome through conscientious training during the pre-service, engagement, and debriefing stages of professional preparation (p. 919). It is important to remain vigilant about the emergence of bias or assumption when working with new clients or encountering different problems or populations.

Personal Reflection: Religious Bias and Professional Growth

For example, I have long held a bias against religious individuals regardless of their particular faith tradition. As I have encountered increasing numbers of highly religious people — including coworkers — I have learned to identify both my biases and my underlying assumptions. My assumption has been that religious people do not think critically and are perhaps closed-minded. These assumptions have in turn produced a bias against religious people and a corresponding preference for those who are more skeptical or science-oriented in their outlook.

As a social services professional, I am committed to using evidence-based practice, which is an applied science. However, I am also learning to recognize that good evidence-based practice includes respecting all the people I work with and for, and acknowledging that religiosity is a reality for many individuals — not something I need to view as problematic. In fact, viewing religiosity as problematic would impede my ability to help a large number of people. To ensure I am acting ethically and maintaining cultural competence, I have engaged in more open dialogues with religious colleagues to understand how they reconcile their religious beliefs with their commitment to evidence-based practice.