Running Head DISCUSION ON CRIMINAL MATTERS .docx

Running Head: DISCUSION ON CRIMINAL MATTERS
1
DISCUSSION ON CRIMINAL MATTERS
2
Use this assignment area to submit a rough draft of your final
paper. You will receive feedback for this draft. This is required
but ungraded.
· The student will develop a five-page research paper (excluding
title page, reference page, and any applicable attachments) that
addresses a single component of the corrections subsystem (e.g.,
jails and prisons, probation/parole/community
corrections, OR juvenile corrections).
· From the focused perspective of a subsystem, develop a theme
or hypothesis concerning the area (i.e., overcrowding in prisons,
the effectiveness of reentry programs, or alternatives to juvenile
incarceration, etc. – Note these are just examples – you can
develop a topic and subtopic area in corrections that interests
you) and form the research around this subtopic.
· The student is expected to use at least 10 scholarly sources for
this paper.
· The paper should critically analyze the theoretical and applied
nature of the issues and develop evidence-based conclusions on
the accuracy and effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of those
theories in modern society.
Student’s name:

Professor’s name:
Topic:
Institution:
Date:
Discussion on Criminal Matters
Discussion 1
My chosen topic for the final paper is police misconduct. Cases
of police misconduct continue to raise eyebrows, and
unfortunately, this has become a major social problem. Police
misconduct comes in many forms. It can come in the form of
unwarranted arrests, police brutality, racism especially towards
a specific group, abuse of their authority, dishonesty, using
unjust means to force confessions, and also promising suspects
leniency by demanding sexual favors. This societal pattern has
been witnessed for such a long time, prompting citizens to
wonder whether the legal system truly cares about the actions of
the police. Research studies show that police misconduct is a
leading cause of wrongful convictions. To be more specific,
statistics reveal that close to 50% of wrongful convictions are
as a result of police misconduct, as stated by Harris (2014).
Police officers are charged with the responsibility of making
the society safe and secure. More often than not, their zeal to
see justice being served results to even greater injustice. Thanks
to cell phone cameras, citizens have been able to capture and
report incidents of police misconduct when observed, raising
public awareness on the same. However, for most citizens,
reporting an incident of police misconduct is quite challenging,
majorly because of the due processes that ought to be followed
when filing police misconduct complaints, and the fear of being
victimized. Police misconduct has also resulted in serious
financial implications for the government. Police agencies have

been forced to part with millions of dollars owing to lawsuits
filed by the victims of police misconduct.
Reference
Harris, C. (2014). The onset of police misconduct. Policing: An
International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 37(2),
285-304.
intermediate outcomes are an important class of outcomes that
usually are pursued in the process of treatment. They consist of
the necessary preconditions, or the facilitators, for successful
attainment of the desired treatment goals--the ultimate
outcomes. But empirical research on interventions and treatment
effectiveness has paid little attention to the role of intermediate
outcomes in the success of treatment, and the intermediate
outcomes nested within or characterizing social work
interventions have not been explicated sufficiently. This article
is based on a study of the treatment records of 141 clients
treated by 69 social workers in community family agencies.
Qualitative data analysis was used to explicate and categorize
the intermediate outcomes that were pursued in these
treatments. The findings yielded a rich variety of intermediate
outcomes, which were classified into a number of conceptual

categories characterizing social services. The article discusses
the findings within the context of the method used and
addresses implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM
AUTHOR]
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Author Affiliations:
1Lecturer, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel 91905
2Barbara A. Bailey Professor of Social Work, George Warren
Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St.
Louis
Full Text Word Count:
6462
ISSN:
1070-5309
DOI:
10.1093/swr/23.2.79
Accession Number:
1986172
INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES PURSUED BY
PRACTITIONERS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
Contents
1. METHOD
2. Overview
3. Sample and Procedure
4. Unit of Analysis

5. FINDINGS
6. DISCUSSION
7. TABLE 1--Example of Four Components of the Treatment
Plan
8. TABLE 2--Categories of Intermediate Outcomes, by
Frequency and Percentage
9. REFERENCES
Full Text
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Intermediate outcomes are an important class of outcomes that
usually ore pursued in the process of treatment. They consist of
the necessary preconditions, or the facilitators, for successful
attainment of the desired treatment goals--the ultimate
outcomes. But empirical research on interventions and treatment
effectiveness has paid little attention to the role of intermediate
outcomes in the success of treatment, and the intermediate
outcomes nested within or characterizing social work
interventions have not been explicated sufficiently. This article
is based on a study of the treatment records of 141 clients
treated by 69 social workers in community family agencies.
Qualitative data analysis was used to explicate and categorize
the intermediate outcomes that were pursued in these
treatments. The findings yielded a rich variety of intermediate
outcomes, which were classified into a number of conceptual
categories characterizing social services. The article discusses
the findings within the context of the method used and
addresses implications for further research.
Key words: intermediate outcomes; practice research; practice
wisdom; systematic planned practice
The clinical research literature, particularly that concerned with
studying the effectiveness of clinical treatment, long has been
wedded to e process-outcome distinction. Studies either dealt
with assessing treatment outcomes or focused on understanding
the treatment process as a process of dyadic interaction
(compare reviews by Orlinsky & Howard, 1978, 1986). In the
tradition of this distinction, treatment outcomes were studied in

relation to practitioner and client variables, and the process
element in evaluative studies usually was treated as a "black
box" (Gurman & Razin, 1977; Kazdin, 1986). Although the
process was not explicated, things were assumed to transpire
there and inexplicably contribute to the attainment of treatment
outcomes (Bergin & Lambert, 1978). Studies showing moderate
gains in treatment but failing to find that differences in outcome
were associated with different treatment approaches led to the
suggestion that the treatment process contains seemingly
effective "common ingredients" that need to be specified
(Lambert & Bergin, 1994; Lambert, Shapiro, & Bergin, 1986).
That realization directed attention to conceptualizing and
studying the treatment process in terms that would make it
amenable to deliberate manipulation by practitioners to attain
desired outcomes.
The black box status of the process of treatment in evaluative
studies is now progressively being abandoned. In addition to the
continued search for the common ingredients in all change
efforts (Omer & Dar, 1992), a potent research agenda has been
testing the effectiveness of different approaches to treatment
through use of specific treatment manuals (for example, Elkin et
al., 1989; Hill, O'Grady, & Elkin, 1992; Jacobson et al., 1996;
Wills, Faitler, & Snyder, 1987). The potential applicability of
such research is enhanced further by use of the "aptitude X
treatment" interaction paradigm, which considers the
moderating effects of client variables on the effectiveness of
interventions (Shoham-Solomon & Hannah, 1991; Smith &
Sechrest, 1991).
But studying interventions as elements of the treatment process
fills the proverbial black box only partially. Still unattended to
are the many and varied outcomes that are an integral part of
and are embedded in the treatment process. The term "outcome"
is used here to designate any state or condition (of a client, or
client-related) that a social worker attempts to reach through his
or her intervention efforts. To better guide research on the
effectiveness of practice, treatment outcomes were

differentiated according to the role they have in a particular
treatment effort (Rosen, 1993; Rosen & Proctor, 1978, 1981).
The primary distinction made was between the roles in
treatment of ultimate and intermediate outcomes. Ultimate
outcomes are those desired conditions or states the pursuit of
which justifies engaging in treatment in the first place. Ultimate
outcomes derive from, and should be formulated in relation to,
the client's problems, characteristics, and situation. Thus,
ultimate outcomes constitute and express the purposes and goals
of treatment in terms of specific client-related conditions, the
attainment of which, in turn, signifies the extent of treatment's
success.
Intermediate outcomes are client-related states or conditions
that in a given treatment a social worker views as facilitative of
or as necessary preconditions for successful attainment of the
desired ultimate outcomes. Thus, intermediate outcomes are
pursued because the social worker views them in a particular
treatment as way stations (Hollis, 1972)--the conditions that are
necessary to go through and attain when pursuing the ultimate
outcomes. Ultimate and intermediate outcomes are distinguished
only in terms of the clinical role that the worker assigns them in
any given treatment situation. Substantively, the same client-
related states or conditions can assume either role (compare
Rosen 1992, 1993; Rosen, Proctor, & Livne, 1985).
In most if not all treatment situations, successful pursuit of
ultimate outcomes requires that workers first pursue and attain
the relevant intermediate outcomes. Decisions on which
intermediate outcomes need to be pursued, and by what
interventions, take into account client's resources and liabilities,
service constraints, and environmental factors and are
influenced by workers' experience and clinical orientation.
These factors express the uniqueness of each treatment effort.
Whereas in most responsible treatment efforts workers
commonly formulate and state explicitly the desired ultimate
outcomes, the intermediate outcomes for pursuit are likely to be
enveloped within the black box of the treatment process. But, in

actuality, practitioners do pursue a variety of intermediate
outcomes as they work toward reaching ultimate outcomes,
although much of what social workers actually do and try to
attain as part of the process of treatment still remains implicit
(Mattaini & Kirk, 1991; Reid, 1994).
A number of intermediate outcomes generally thought to be
involved in psychotherapy have been more clearly
conceptualized and studied of late. Among these were attempts
to define components of a good therapeutic relationship, such as
the therapeutic alliance (for example, Greenberg, 1986a;
Greenberg, 1986b; Krupnick, Sotsky, Simmens, Moyer, Elkin,
Watkins, & Pikonis, 1996) and other variables (Muran et al.,
1995). Social services are of broader scope and often have goals
that differ from those of psychotherapy. Despite such attempts
to formulate psychotherapeutically relevant intermediate
outcomes, it is incumbent on social work to focus on the
intermediate outcomes that are relevant in practice. Although
social services stand to benefit from more knowledge of the
psychotherapeutic process, they probably also have a unique set
of intermediate outcomes that may be essential to their success.
These outcomes need to be formulated and studied.
Social workers did relatively little research to study
intermediate outcomes in the context of actual treatment
(Cheetham, 1997; Reid, 1997). An important task of such
research is to formulate intermediate outcomes from the
apparent wealth of experiences, expert knowledge, and "practice
wisdom" that underlie and guide practice (Klein & Bloom,
1995; Scott, 1990), and that often remain covert and private
(Rosen, 1996). In advocating that social work research pursue
the explication of implicit practice knowledge, Scott (1990)
concluded, "Practice wisdom or tacit knowledge that can be
transformed into testable propositions presents an exciting
challenge. That challenge must be met with creative approaches
to developing practice research methods that start where the
practitioner is and end with findings of direct relevance to
practice" (p. 567).

We agree with Scott's (1990) conclusion and view the
investigation we report on here as one step in meeting this
challenge. We report on an effort to explicate and describe the
intermediate outcomes that social workers pursue in the process
of treatment. Such explication is required to give substance to
and to depict social workers' conceptions of the process of
treatment in terms of the way stations used to reach the
treatment goals. It is also a necessary step for efforts to explore
further and uncover testable clinical hypotheses (Nelsen, 1993;
Scott, 1990) regarding workers' conception of potent
interventions to attain the intermediate outcomes.
METHOD
Overview
The method selected for explicating the knowledge on which
workers base practice decisions plays a critical and determining
role in the nature of the findings. A number of different
methods have been suggested for such tasks (compare Nelsen,
1993; Scott, 1990), and some have been used by researchers
(compare Bitonti, 1993; Gilgun, 1992; Harrison, 1987). In
general, these methods rely on use of qualitative analytic
components. For example, Gilgun (1994) suggested that to learn
"what works," a better understanding of the practice situation is
needed, and this understanding can be attained through case
studies. According to Gilgun, qualitative case studies give
practitioners the opportunity to describe the process specifically
for each case. Another qualitative approach to uncover practice,
based on cognitive mapping, was used by Bitonti (1993) to learn
about the self-esteem and coping of women during major life
transitions.
Klein and Bloom (1995), Reid and Fortune (1992), and Mullen
(1978, 1983) all have suggested that practitioners may arrive at,
and be guided by, personal models of practice. These personal
models involve making practice decisions through a complex
process, at least partially covert, and of using knowledge
derived from personal experiences, theory, research findings,
and other sources (compare findings by Rosen, 1994 and by

Rosen, Proctor, Morrow-Howell, & Staudt, 1995). Whatever the
source and however composed, the knowledge and
considerations contained in such personal models of practice are
what actually guide in-practice decisions and worker actions.
Therefore, in studying practice wisdom, the procedures devised
to help workers become aware of, think through, evaluate (judge
the worth of), and explicate their practice decisions are most
important and determine the results.
The method for explicating that knowledge in the present study
is based on and was developed as part of a continuing program
of research and development of practitioner-friendly procedures
for systematic planned practice (SPP). SPP was designed to aid
practitioners in treatment planning, implementation, and
evaluation through standardized guidelines for workers to
explicate and give the rationale for their primary practice
decisions (compare Rosen, 1992, 1993; Rosen et al., 1985). SPP
and its procedures are based on a view that social work practice
and its process involve a set of considerations and goal-directed
actions deliberately formulated and enacted by practitioners in
relation to their clients and their situation. For any given case,
these considerations, goals, and contemplated actions are
represented in the treatment plan. A treatment plan reflects the
intentions of the worker. Although it is not yet tempered by the
unavoidable compromises involved in actual implementation,
the treatment plan can be viewed as the worker's statement of a
behavioral intention (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). Despite
compromises in implementation, behavioral intentions were
considered theoretically, and treatment plans were found to be
empirically, highly correlated with their actual enactment
(Ajzen, 1991; Rosen & Mutschler, 1982). Consequently,
behavioral intentions, as represented in carefully considered,
justified, and explicitly stated treatment plans, can be
appropriately used as a source of information on practitioners'
treatment decisions. Thus, in addition to being guided in making
judicious and defensible practice decisions, when workers
implement SPP and thereby record their decisions and

rationales, they enhance self- and peer review of practice, as
well as the accumulation of data for research.
In this study we used qualitative methodology to identify the
intermediate outcomes practitioners pursued, but we
systematized the conditions for eliciting the information by
instructing social workers to practice and make decisions within
the SPP framework (see Rosen, 1992, for detailed description).
Practice within this framework ensures that all social workers
are asked the same thing but are encouraged to respond in their
own unique way. These procedures capture differences in
judgment and decisions that result from client and situational
characteristics and worker factors such as experience,
knowledge, and professional orientation. Such unrestrained
responding yields rich and varied information and suggests
qualitative analysis as the method of choice to exploit that
richness (compare Rosen, 1994).
Treatment planning decisions guided by the SPP conception
revolve around four components: (1) client's problems to be
addressed, (2) desired ultimate outcomes, (3) the necessary
intermediate outcomes, and (4) the interventions needed to
attain the outcomes (Rosen, 1993; Rosen et al., 1985).
Consistent with social work's presumed commitment to a
rational problem-solving model (Rosen, 1996), these decisions
are posited to be sequential and logically interrelated as the
example in Table 1 demonstrates. The treatment episode
portrayed is anchored in one client problem and the ultimate
outcome that the social worker decided to pursue to address that
problem. The social worker had decided to reach the ultimate
outcome through a process requiring the attainment of three
different intermediate outcomes, which were sequentially
ordered in relation to the ultimate outcome. Each of the
intermediate outcomes is shown in relation to the interventions
selected by the social worker to attain it.
Sample and Procedure
The study was conducted as part of a demonstration project
sponsored by the Ministry of Social Welfare of Israel to train

social workers to practice systematically. Six public family
service agencies from different municipalities across Israel were
selected and agreed to participate in the project. All agencies
were subject to the same Ministry of Social Welfare guidelines
regarding staffing, clientele, and services. Selection of
participating agencies was based on location (to include
different regions and demographic characteristics of the
population) and size of agency's social work staff (a minimum
of 10 social workers). Agency directors and supervisors fully
supported all activities related to the project. Project staff
taught the social workers (didactically and through case
presentations) the concepts and procedures of SPP over four
consecutive, weekly, four-hour training sessions. Following the
training, social workers implemented (with consultation by
project staff) that model of practice with two of their new
clients concurrently (randomly assigned and with replacement
for closed cases), for a period of six months. The data for the
study were obtained from the records of implementation.
Seventy-three social workers were trained in and implemented
SPP with 15 ! of their clients. Full sets of data (filled-out SPP
forms on all phases of treatment) were available from 69 social
workers regarding 141 clients, who made up the sample for the
present study (6.5 percent data loss). The number of clients per
agency ranged from 16 to 33, with a mean of 2.04 clients per
social worker. Social workers' mean age was 34 (SD = 7.6,
range 24 to 53 years); most were experienced practitioners
(mean practice experience = 6.5 years, SD = 5); and most (93
percent) had full academic-professional training equivalent in
content and skills to the MSW degree in the United States; 7
percent had professional certification only, which is roughly
equivalent to the BSW degree in the United States; most of the
social workers (93 percent) were women. Most of the social
workers (72 percent) defined themselves as generalist social
workers (that is, social workers who work with different client
populations), and others said they specialized in working with
families (9 percent), elderly people (8 percent), youths (7

percent), or as child welfare officers (4 percent). Fifteen (22
percent) of the social workers also served as field instructors
for a school of social work.
Unit of Analysis
The intermediate outcomes posited for pursuit with a client and
recorded by the social worker in the SPP forms were the data
for the study. To qualify for consideration as an intermediate
outcome according to the SPP conception and to constitute a
unit of analysis, the intermediate outcome recorded had to be
part of a treatment episode that included, in a logical sequence,
a client's problem, an ultimate outcome, an intermediate
outcome, and an intervention. (Examples of three intermediate
outcomes, each constituting a unit of analysis--that is, having a
related problem, an ultimate outcome, and an intervention-are
provided in Table 1). The SPP records of all 141 cases yielded a
total of 1,001 units of analysis (M = 7.1, SD = 4.2, range = 6 to
20 intermediate outcomes per case). Interrater agreement in
designating units of analysis was 96 percent. All nonagreements
were due to unclear handwriting.
FINDINGS
The 1,001 intermediate outcomes were classified into categories
by qualitative content analysis following the "open coding"
technique (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). This procedure was
conducted jointly by two judges working together. The judges
were professional social workers (MSWs) with advanced
training and rich practice experience. They formulated the
categories and classified the outcomes by an iterative process.
The judges first studied all the intermediate outcomes in the
context of their respective units of analysis, reflecting on and
searching for more general and professionally meaningful
concepts that related to the discrete outcomes and that could be
used to summarize them. A few general categories emerged. The
judges canvassed the original outcomes within their meaning
units again, attempting to classify each outcome into one of the
then existing categories, while being vigilant for additional
emerging general categories. Whenever a new category

emerged, all intermediate outcomes previously classified were
reviewed to see if they would better fit into the new category.
This process was repeated, with consultation between the
judges, until no new categories could be formulated or the
definitions of existing categories refined, and each of the
intermediate outcomes seemed to be appropriately classified
(best fit) into one of the general categories. In that manner the
1,001 intermediate outcomes were classified into 13 discrete
categories (Table 2).
The 13 general categories summarize the array and variability
of the specific intermediate outcomes. They reflect the extent of
differentiation of the treatment process by the social workers, as
well as the range of practice issues and client problems in the
community-based family services studied. The first three
categories are the most frequently occurring intermediate
outcomes, encompassing more than 50 percent of the total.
These categories all refer to some form of interpersonal or
personal change as necessary preconditions for accomplishing
the treatment goals. The first category, change in an
interpersonal relationship, includes such specific outcomes as
"husband and wife will express their emotions to each other,"
and "parents will see how their relationship affect their
children." The category of personal change includes such
outcomes as "client will become aware of own behavior," and
"husband will take responsibility for use of contraceptives."
Realization of affective or cognitive potential consists of such
specific outcomes as "removing fear of failure as barrier to
achievement in school," or "increase wife's emotional
expressiveness to better perform in role of mother." These three
general categories and their specific outcomes all involve some
personal change and likely reflect a counseling orientation to
treatment.
Categories 8 and 11 also pertain to cognitive or affective
personal change, and together include about 10 percent of the
specific outcomes. But unlike the first three categories, these
concern specific types of change. Category 8 deals with

accepting the reality of loss or crisis, such as "wife accepting
her husband's desertion," or "accepting the need for a
mastectomy." Category 11 includes such outcomes as "reach a
divorce decision," or "decision to move to a nursing home."
Together with these two categories, about 62 percent of the
specific intermediate outcomes, concerned some form of
personal or interpersonal change.
Meeting of clients' basic needs (category 4) such as housing,
meals-on-wheels, and homemaker services constituted more
than 12 percent of the total outcomes. In community-based
social services, such outcomes usually are pursued as ultimate
outcomes. That such basic-need outcomes had the role of
intermediate outcomes is perhaps a reflection of the apparent
counseling orientation of the social workers in the study.
Category 5, client's implementation of decisions made in
treatment, was a relatively frequently pursued outcome (11.4
percent). This category includes such specific outcomes as
"client will get HIV test," or "client will apply for an abortion."
This outcome category may reflect a hands-on approach by
workers, viewing client's implementation of treatment decisions
as their responsibility and part of the treatment process. This
category also seems to complement and be a logical
consequence of category 11. The next in frequency (8.9 percent)
is category 6, entry or integration into a new social system. It
includes outcomes like "client will join and attend a social
club," and "client will enroll in a protected employment
workshop." Although this outcome category also implies
implementation of decisions made during treatment, as does
category 5, the judges viewed it as conceptually distinct.
Category 7, worker's outcome, with about 7 percent of the total
outcomes is instructive. This category refers to outcomes that
pertain to social worker's own behavior in relation to a given
case. That is, the social workers specified case-relevant
conditions that they had to meet for the ultimate outcomes to be
attained successfully. Examples of social worker outcomes were
"I shall obtain client's medical record," "I shall reach a decision

whether to involve the police," or "I shall get the opinion of
children protective services." The specification in the treatment
plan of worker outcomes to be pursued indicates that social
workers were viewing not only client behavior but also their
own behavior as an object and target for change.
Category 9, establishing a treatment relationship and contract,
represents nearly 6 percent of the total intermediate outcomes
specified by workers. It contained such outcomes as "reaching a
mutually agreed upon treatment contract," "getting husband to
agree to participate in treatment," and "enhancing client's
perception of treatment as helpful." Outcomes in this category
are representative of social work's long-standing view on the
role and uses of the treatment relationship (see Hollis, 1972).
The category of environmental outcomes (number 10), with
about 5 percent of the total, consists of change targets in the
clients' environment, representing outcomes typical of social
workers' brokerage role. They include such outcomes as "have
home caretaker understand her role," and "find a volunteer for
home visits with (elderly) client." The two remaining categories
(12 and 13) were infrequent; each contained just over 1 percent
of the total outcomes. Category 12 refers to workers
recommending a formal, legally sanctioned decision with
respect to the client, such as "applying to the court for order to
remove a child from home," "activating the youth protection
law," and "recommending transfer of a child to another school."
Category 13 consists of follow-up on client functioning in the
natural environment, such as "child's performance at school," or
"the caretaker's functioning with the client." We would have
expected that such intermediate outcomes might be more
frequent in community family services, but at least their
incidence was sufficient to be detected and conceptualized as a
category by the judges.
DISCUSSION
When practitioners decide on the intermediate outcomes they
need to pursue to successfully attain the ultimate outcomes,
they not only have charted the direction of the treatment process

but also have translated their intention of addressing a client's
problem into specific manageable steps. Together with the
interventions that are subsequently selected to help attain them,
the intermediate outcomes constitute the core elements of a
professional helping process. Thus, the identification of
commonly occurring intermediate outcomes, as was the intent of
this study, holds the potential of providing social workers with
the conceptual tools necessary for structuring the process of
treatment and for planning its implementation. But before
discussing the merit of the categories identified in this study, it
is important to place the results in methodological perspective.
Usually, considerations of internal validity (the extent that the
findings provide a true or valid answer to the questions
investigated) and external validity (the extent that the findings
can be appropriately generalized beyond the specific sample or
situation studied) are primary criteria for evaluating the
adequacy of a research effort. In most research the internal and
external validity of the results are enhanced through error-
reducing provisions for measurement, design of data gathering,
and sampling. However, such provisions do not apply in their
traditional sense to a study like the present one in which,
because of the nature of the substantive questions asked,
eclectic use of research methods (Allen-Meares & Lane, 1990)
was indicated, and a qualitative, grounded theory approach was
the primary method of choice. Strauss and Corbin (1990) stated,
"Grounded theorists share their conviction that the usual canons
of `good science' should be retained, but require redefinition in
order to fit the realities of qualitative research" (pp. 249-250,
emphasis in original). Their subsequent "redefinition" of the
canons of reproducibility (replicability) and generalizability
(Strauss & Corbin, 1990) indeed underscore the tentativeness of
grounded theory findings and the restraint required in attempts
to generalize them beyond the particulars of a grounded theory
research effort.
We insert this methodological note of caution not to challenge
the legitimate expectation that fruits of professional research be

generalizable but rather to emphasize the tradeoffs involved in
choosing to explicate practice wisdom by the method
appropriate for the task. In fact, the sample of practice on which
the current effort was based (149 cases of 69 different workers)
is appreciably larger than any prior practice-related grounded
theory study of which we are aware (for example, Belcher,
1994; Gilgun, 1992; Harrison, 1987; Mizrahi & Abramson,
1994). Our sample probably reflects practice in a public
community-based family agency in Israel and the broad range of
services in such agencies. It includes cases of marital
counseling, parent-child relations, services to elderly people,
child protective services, as well as advocacy, brokerage, and
referral functions. Although the services studied were in Israel,
results of two other studies of practice in Israel and in the
United States, respectively, suggest that Israeli workers'
decision making was based on considerations similar to those of
their U.S. counterparts (Rosen, 1994; Rosen et al., 1995).
Perhaps the most instructive aspect of the findings is the extent
to which intermediate outcomes were differentiated elements in
practitioners' conceptions of treatment. Each of the intermediate
outcomes selected for pursuit was viewed by workers as a
necessary precondition for successful attainment of an ultimate
outcome. On the average, seven different intermediate outcomes
were so designated for each of the 141 clients. These findings
primarily reflect the richness and complexity with which social
workers conceived of the process of treatment. And perhaps as
significant is the relative ease with which the proverbial black
box designation of the treatment process could be unraveled, to
yield evidence of usually implicit professional thinking and
practice wisdom.
Explication of the social workers' clinical thinking and
reasoning can be attributed in large mea sure to the framework
in which practice was conducted. SPP was designed as a helping
tool for social workers to think through, explicate, and organize
treatment decisions. SPP also was designed to be content free,
alerting workers to the clinical decisions that need to be made

(that is, on problems, outcomes, and interventions), but not in
any way dictating or suggesting the substance of these decisions
(compare Rosen, 1992). However, social workers were taught
and instructed to recognize the role of intermediate outcomes in
their professional thinking. In the SPP manual, which guided
their treatment planning, intermediate outcomes were defined as
follows: "Intermediate outcomes are outcomes that according to
the worker's judgment are essential for the continuation of the
treatment process and for attaining the ultimate treatment
outcomes." (Rosen, Eldan, Barak, Rosenik, & Shefer, 1989, p.
53; see also Rosen, 1992). To ensure that social workers'
decisions on intermediate outcomes were a product of their best
clinical thinking, they were asked to provide written rationale
for each intermediate outcome they selected (as they were for
other clinical decisions). Social workers were told that the
"rationale for intermediate outcomes is the reason which
explains why the outcomes that were designated are essential
for continued successful treatment and attainment of the
ultimate outcomes" (Rosen et al., 1989, p. 54). The number and
variety of intermediate outcomes the social workers addressed
thus suggest that by implementation of relatively simple
decision aids, much of the hitherto "intuitive" clinical reasoning
can be explicated and its characteristics scrutinized (for studies
of decision making rationale see Rosen, 1994; Rosen et al.,
1995).
Our study succeeded in identifying a wide array of intermediate
outcomes that practitioners used in their pursuit of ultimate
outcomes, the primary treatment goals. The intermediate
outcomes were classified by an open coding process into 13
conceptually distinct categories. Although about 60 percent of
the specific intermediate outcomes (grouped in five categories)
concerned personal change in the client as their target, these
and the remaining intermediate outcomes portrayed a rich and
complex reality of the treatment process. It is interesting to note
that the category of establishing a treatment relationship and a
contract was found only in about a third of the cases in the

sample. This intermediate outcome had been perhaps the one
most focused on in the practice literature (Germain &
Gitterman, 1980; Northen, 1995; Pincus & Minahan, 1973).
Earlier research on the treatment process also focused on these
intermediate outcomes, particularly as related to client
satisfaction and continuance in treatment (compare Baekland &
Lundwall, 1975; Duckro, Beal, & George, 1979). Rather than
being a reflection of this category's relative unimportance, its
relatively low frequency may reflect the richness and variety of
the total intermediate outcome repertoire elicited in the study.
Whether the specific intermediate outcomes and the general
categories obtained in this study are typical of social work
practice in like settings remains for future studies to address.
Intermediate outcomes are but one of the two primary
components of the treatment process. For treatment to be
successful and attain the ultimate outcomes, practitioners need
to decide on the intermediate outcomes and select and
implement appropriately the interventions with which to pursue
them. Thus, an important next question to be studied is whether,
and how, social workers differentiate and organize interventions
in relation to these intermediate outcome categories. Our
subsequent efforts will focus on this issue.
TABLE 1--Example of Four Components of the Treatment Plan
Legend for Chart:
A - Problem
B - Ultimate Outcome
C - Intermediate Outcomes
D - Interventions
A B
C D
Inadequate housing Moving to a new apartment
1. Client understands 1. Discussions and reflection

it's a problem
2. Finding resources 1. Applying for financial help
3. Control over expenses 1. Home visits
2. Contracting
TABLE 2--Categories of Intermediate Outcomes, by Frequency
and Percentage
Legend for Chart:
A - Outcome Category
B - n
C - %
A B C
1. Change in an interpersonal relationship
(behavioral, cognitive, or affective) 183 18.3
2. Personal change (behavioral, cognitive,
or affective) 165 16.5
3. Realization of affective or cognitive
potential 165 16.5
4. Meeting of basic needs 127 12.7
5. Client's implementation of decisions
made in treatment 114 11.4
6. Entry or integration into a new social
system 89 8.9
7. Worker's outcome 73 7.3
8. Acceptance of loss or crisis: death,
illness, separation 67 6.7

9. Establishing treatment relationship
and contract 57 5.7
10. Environmental outcomes 46 4.6
11. Client makes critical life decisions 38 3.8
12. Use of authority 14 1.4
13. Maintaining contact (follow-up)
with client 12 1.2
Total 1,001 100
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Original manuscript received January 20, 1998
Final revision received July 23, 1998
Accepted October 15, 1998
~~~~~~~~
By Anat Zeira and Aaron Rosen
Anat Zeira, PhD, is a lecturer, Paul Baerwald School of Social
Work, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus,
Jerusalem, Israel 91905; e-mail: [email protected] Aaron Rosen,
PhD, LCSW, MO, is Barbara A. Bailey Professor of Social
Work, George Warren Brown School of Social Work,
Washington University, St. Louis.
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TEENAGE MOMS LIVING IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA: AN
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Jackson, Lois A;Marentette, Hilary;McCleave, Heather
International Quarterly of Community Health Education;
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