Overview of theoretical orientation, factors influencing professional's formation of an orientation, and 12 strategies to refine one's orientation

1. Lesson 02 Identify Your
Theoretical Orientation
From Forte’s Forte’s An Introduction to
Using Theory in Social Work Practice
102 Theoretical Orientation

2. Theoretical Orientation:
Memorable Words
 “While social workers ‘ought’ to have a
relatively coherent, integrated
theoretical base from which they work,
often they are not clear or unable to
specify what constitutes this base”
(Beder, 2000, p. 40).
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3. Uses and Definition of
Theoretical orientation
02 Theoretical Orientation 3

4. Some Uses of A Theoretical
Orientation
 In many states, novice social workers took must prove their
readiness to acquire a professional license. The test includes a
written examination and a panel interview. At the panel, the
candidate reads a case, articulates and defends his or her overall
theoretical orientation to the case, and then responds to a range of
specific case questions inquiring about the practical use of this
orientation.
 Many employers follow this practice of challenging candidates for a
position to show at an employment interview how they would
apply their preferred theories to a particular case.
 Besides serving as an essential guide to competent and responsible practice, a
theoretical orientation can prepare social workers for meeting licensing,
employment, promotion, and other professional hurdles.
402 Theoretical Orientation

5. 02 Theoretical Orientation 5
Theoretical Orientation and License

6. 02 Theoretical Orientation 6
Theoretical Orientation - Definition
 As a product, a theoretical orientation is an organized set of
assumptions, concepts, propositions, and models used by a
social work practitioner to understand the “person interacting
in an environment,” explain client system problems, and guide
all phases of the planned change process.
 As a process, a theoretical orientation is a career-long
project of organizing knowledge to understand the client
system, the environment, transactions between system and
environment, the change process, common challenges faced
by systems, and one self as a professional.
 Other names - theoretical approach,” a “theoretical
framework,” a “model,” or a “perspective on practice,” or a
“personal practice model.”

7. Theoretical Orientation: Features
 A theoretical orientation may match with one theoretical
tradition or the theoretical orientation may reflect a
blend of multiple traditions: behavioral, cognitive, and
ecological, for instance.
 A theoretical orientation might be a very preliminary
statement of one’s knowledge base or it may reflect
extensive thinking and the careful assembly of
elements.
 A theoretical orientation may guide the practitioner in
intentional, articulate reflections on practice choices or
influence practice in automatic, unspoken ways.
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8. Key Factors Influencing Theoretical
Orientation
02 Theoretical Orientation 8

9. Professionals Develop a Theoretical
Orientation Over Time
Influences include
 Personal Factors and Life Experiences
 Self Factors (Values, Ideology, Self Concept)
 Influence of Role Models
 Formal Education
 Needs of Clients
 Requirements of the Agency
 Research Evidence
02
Theoretical
9

10. Theoretical Orientation:
Personal influences
 Personal factors include family of origin, your
reference groups, your personal role models
(significant others, celebrities, characters in fiction
and film, and so on), your philosophy of life, your
values, and your personality style.
02 Theoretical Orientation 10

11. Personal Influences: Illustrations-
Personality
 Personality characteristics including style of thinking (complexity,
emphasis on rationality); degree of initiative (on the continuum
from active to passive); enjoyment of creative and imaginative
processes; value assigned to dreams, emotions, intuition, and
insight; inclinations toward empiricism, and comfort with
assertiveness are variables that may dispose you toward some
theoretical orientations and away from others.
 For example, behaviorist practitioners tend to like empirical research
and want to take an active stance toward helping others while
psychodynamic practitioners are often people who appreciate the
complexity of the psyche and believe that emotions, dreams, and
intuition are critical elements in the human experience.
02 Theoretical Orientation 11

12. Personal Influences: Illustrations-
Personality-Values
Our personal values may clash with the core assumptions of a
theoretical tradition, and we reject it (or the reverse may happen)
 We may affirm in our beliefs and actions the value of “self-
determination,” and feel that a social structural or Marxist
theoretical framework’s assumption of the conditioning power
of political and economic forces clashes with this value. In
contrast, an activist political orientation might attract us to neo-
Marxist or empowerment theoretical traditions that espouse
“taking sides” and fighting for social change.
 Likewise, certain theoretical orientations resonate with our
self-concept. Others don’t resonate.
02 Theoretical Orientation 12

13. Personal Influences: Illustrations-
Family
 A practitioner’s earlier experiences with his or her family
of origin, with a spouse or partner, and with significant
others can influence the choice of preferred.
 My father’s abandonment of our family and neglect of his
obligations disposed me to feminist theories, for instance.
02 Theoretical Orientation 13

14. Personal Influences: Illustrations-
Culture
 Our cultural heritage has an impact on our theoretical
allegiances.
 My immersion in Catholic organizations during a period of
violence and molestation of young people and stifling of dissent
has led to ambivalence to faith-based approaches.
 It may be that my experiences as an Italian-American
deepened my appreciation for theories that assign importance
to family, group, and communication and my distaste for highly
individualistic theories.
02 Theoretical Orientation 14

15. Theoretical Orientation:
Professional Socialization
 Socialization experiences include interaction
with professional role models (teachers,
colleagues, mentors, and supervisors),
experiences in the classroom (psychology,
sociology, biology, economics, and related
classes), and participation in workshops and
continuing education events.
02 Theoretical Orientation 15

16. Professional Socialization:
Illustrations-Mentors
 A respected mentor, or a valued supervisor,
colleague, teacher, or friend may increase our
passion for a particular theoretical tradition or
persuasively disparage our theoretical framework
prompting us to consider a shift in our theoretical
allegiances.
 During my doctoral studies, I had the fortune of
meeting an applied sociologist devoted to symbolic
interactionism, He became a very influential model
and I have incorporated symbolic interactionism into
the central place in my own orientation.
02 Theoretical Orientation 16

17. Professional Socialization:
Illustrations-Supervisors
 You may be assigned to a supervisor with a passion for a
particular theoretical tradition (Feminist Social Work or Cognitive-
Behavioral Social Work, for examples).
 The supervisor’s enthusiasm and expertise stimulates your
interest and you develop a special appreciation for his or her
theoretical orientation.
 You even begin to use your supervisor as a model for
applying the theory or theories.
 A theoretical framework that we adopt early in our career may
be confirmed or augmented by a respected mentor.
 Or a valued supervisor, colleague, teacher, or friend may
persuasively disparage our theoretical framework prompting
us to consider a shift in our theoretical allegiances.
02 Theoretical Orientation 17

18. Theoretical Orientation:
Organizational Influences
 The characteristics and dynamics of our workplace
(and field internships) strongly influence our
professional socialization including our development
of theoretical preferences.
 Relevant workplace factors include the agency
mission and goals, the agency funding, the agency
training emphases, the agency reward structure, and
agency access to equipment, supplies, and other
resources.
02 Theoretical Orientation 18

19. Professional Socialization:
Illustrations-Agency
 Organizational requirements related to the organizations where
the practitioner has worked or volunteered may influence the
practitioners’ choice of theoretical framework(s).
 If the agency has a tight budget, then the worker may not be
able to adopt an orientation that requires extensive post-
graduate training, expensive equipment, or the use of high-
paid consultants.
 If the agency is a community center providing most services
through small groups, then the worker may be expected to
adopt a humanistic, mainstream group work approach.
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20. Professional Socialization:
Illustrations-Status
 Our choice of a theory or theories is also influenced by status
considerations. Issues of professional advancement, increases
in salary, and the regard of agency and community leaders are
relevant.
 Psychodynamic social work became very popular in the middle of
the twentieth century and a way to enhance status.
 The demonstration of an allegiance to a theoretical framework
preferred by the organization’s elite members increases our access
to and opportunities within their agency and social network.
 The choice of a particular theoretical foundation may be valued
locally (a family strengths and preservation model, for example) and
increase our credibility and stature as a professional in the agency’s
surrounding neighborhood if we endorse the approach.
02 Theoretical Orientation 20

21. Theoretical Orientation:
Client Characteristics
 Characteristics of our typical clients influence our development
of a theory base. These include client needs, problems and
challenges, client membership features (age, race, gender,
nationality, sexual orientation, religion, and so on), and service
users’ stated preferences regarding theory indicated in agency
evaluation data, focus groups, or informal conversations
02 Theoretical Orientation 21

22. Client Characteristics:
Illustrations-Evidence
 Evidence-based social workers consider the
research documenting the suitability and
effectiveness of particular practice theories
with particular clients with particular
problems.
 They may add behavioral and /or cognitive
approaches to their orientations because of
extensive empirical support for their applications.
02 Theoretical Orientation 22

23. Client Characteristics:
Illustrations-Preferences
 Clients may provide direct feedback that a particular
theory, theory-based conceptualization, or theory-
specific intervention suits them well or doesn’t seem
to help. Professionals should adjust their theoretical
orientations accordingly.
 Each client brings his or her informal “theory of
change,” an everyday theory, to the helping
encounter. If we act inflexibly from a theoretical
orientation alien to the client or contrary to his or her
everyday theory, then we are showing disrespect and
we are undermining our ability to help.
02 Theoretical Orientation 23

24. 12 Strategies for Developing a
Theoretical Orientation
02 Theoretical Orientation 24

25. Developing a Theoretical Orientation:
Strategies (Know Yourself)*
 1. Think deeply and often about who you are a person and how
this might best influence who you become as a theory-informed
practitioner.
 2, Reflect on your core personal values and become familiar
with social work values. Reflect on how values will influence
your theory choices.
 3. Think about your family and cultural heritage and the
enduring dispositions you development that you will bring to
practice.
*This list of strategies is a modified and expanded version of those provided by
Halbur and Halbur (2014) Developing your theoretical orientation in counseling
and psychotherapy (3rd
ed.). Boston: Pearson.
02 Theoretical Orientation 25

26. Developing a Theoretical Orientation:
Strategies (Learn about Many Theories)
 4. Summarize your personal and professional preferences and
revise this summary often as you learn more about who you are.
 5. Become familiar with a range of explanatory and practice
theories that might be incorporated into your theoretical
orientation. Listen in class, read articles and books, view
relevant videos.
 Learn about research and practice wisdom too potentially useful in your
career (will be reviewed in Lesson 12 on Integrative Multi-Theory Personal
Practice Models)
 6. Identify role models, interest groups within the social work
profession, and educational workshops. Use these explore new
theory elements that might be incorporated into your orientation.
02 Theoretical Orientation 26

27. Developing a Theoretical Orientation:
Strategies (Develop Preliminary Orientation)
 7. Learn about social workers in other countries and with
different membership identifications, which theories they use
and which theories they reject. Improve your theoretical
orientation by comparison with these diverse others.
 8. Begin monitoring your theory-informed helping work and then
process what you said and did and consider evidence to judge
how well or poorly the helping work demonstrated your
theoretical orientation.
 9. Connect your theoretical orientation experiments to the
organizational context and consider what fits well and what
doesn’t fit. Start imaging your preferred workplace, clientele,
client challenges and so on, and consider what theoretical
orientation will be useful in light of these parameters.
02 Theoretical Orientation 27

28. Developing a Theoretical Orientation:
Strategies (Refine, Refine, Refine)
 10. Try out various theory-informed engagement, assessment,
intervention, and evaluation tools and make judgments about
which fit best with your personal and professional professionals
 11. Become a student of a mentor who is expert in a particular
theoretical approach.
 12. Write a summary of your theoretical orientation and seek
feedback from a supervisor, theory expert, and advanced
practitioner. Do this again every year or so.
See Forte’s Table 02.1: Overview of 14 Theories Comprising PIE Metatheory, a
supplemental resource, for a current summary of my orientation.
02 Theoretical Orientation 28

29. Jim Forte, HimselfJim Forte, Himself
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30. 30
For Forte’s Complete Lesson 01 and
Related Lessons Check Out
02 Theoretical Orientation

31. About Jim Forte
Forte is professor, author of 4 books & 41 articles, and
presenter at international, national, & regional conferences.
Teaching human behavior classes for 16 years, Forte recently
published the books An Introduction to Using Theory & Skills
for Using Theory. As practitioner, Jim worked with the elderly
in a community center, served as clubhouse group worker for
persons with mental health challenges, and led a program for
criminal offenders. Awards include Outstanding VA Social
Work Educator, Outstanding Teaching-CNU, NASW-MD
Social Work Educator of the Year, & SU Distinguished Faculty.
jaforte@salisbury.edu or jamesforte@mac.com,
http://jamesaforte.com (Forte’s website & free resources)
02 Theoretical Orientation 31

32. Forte’s Free Teaching Resources
 I am creating supplemental resources for my two new books. By
chapter, these include a chapter outline, a PowerPoint
(expanding on chapter content), a list of key terms, and
supplemental items (lists, tables, and on for some chapters). As
I finish resources for additional chapters this semester (Spring,
2016, I will upload them).
 To access these resources (Sort by name to see them in order)
 For Skills for Using Theory in Social Work, go
https://app.box.com/s/qyxx9sgmfb79w3o1r77gt2iy9wtl849a
 For An introduction to Using Theory in Social Work Practice, go to
https://app.box.com/s/9mokwnm35h7rcd77fhd57kuf1mjqz3vt
3202 Theoretical Orientation