Hutchison6e_PPT01 (1).pptx

Dimensions of Human
Behavior: Person and
Environment
Sixth Edition
Elizabeth D. Hutchison

Chapter 1
Human Behavior:
A Multidimensional Approach

Consider Joshua’s Story
• Focus on the person
– Physical, emotional, and spiritual self
• Focus on the environment
– Geography, culture, political events, social
organizations, and family relationships
• Focus on time
– Passage of time
– Time’s effect on environment
Hutchison, Dimensions of Human Behavior, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
3

Human Behavior: Individual and
Collective
• Person and their environments
– Essential considerations in social work practice
• Time
– Important to consider
– People and environments are dynamic—constantly
changing
4

Social Work
• According to CSWE (2015)
• “Purpose of the profession is to promote human and
community well-being. Guided by a person-in-
environment framework, a global perspective, respect
for human diversity, and knowledge based on scientific
inquiry, the purpose of social work is actualized through
its quest for social and economic justice, the
prevention of conditions that limit human rights, and
the elimination of poverty, and the enhancement of the
quality of life for all persons”.
5

A Multidimensional Approach
• Dimension
– Can be focused on separately
BUT
– Cannot be understood without considering other
features
– How dimensions interact determines behavior
• Multi-determined behavior
– Behavior that develops as a result of many causes
6

Personal Dimensions
• Biopsychosocial approach
– Composed of biology, psychology, and social
systems factors or perspectives
– Components interact with each other
• Argument for greater attention to the spiritual
dimension of persons
• Focus on
– Biological, psychological, and spiritual
7

Environmental Dimensions
• Bronfenbrenner (2005)
– Microsystems- individual
– Mesosystems- school, family, church, etc.
– Exosystems- extended family, friends, etc.
– Macrosystems- attitudes, customs, ideology of
culture
– Chronosystems- environmental changes and
transitions over the life span
8

Environmental Dimensions
• Physical- water, sun, trees, etc.
• Culture- values, ideology, symbols, etc.
• Social structure (class) and social institutions
• Formal organization- civic and social services, etc.
• Community- two kinds
• Social movements
• Small groups- therapy, self-help, etc.
• Families (nuclear, extended, chosen)
• Dyads
9

Time Dimensions
• Dimensions not only interact dynamically, but also
change over time
• Linear time
– View of time in order from past–present–future
• Historical era
– Specific block or time period in which individuals and
collective lives are enacted
10

Time Dimensions
• Chronological age
– Change experienced over the course of life
– From birth to death
11

Time Dimensions
• The concept of time differs by culture
– Industrialized countries
o Clock time and orientation to the future
– Less industrialized countries
o Event time and orientation to the past
12

• Zimbardo and Boyd (2008)
– Past-positive
– Past-negative
– Present-hedonistic
– Present-fatalistic
– Future
– Transcendental-future
Time Dimensions
13

A Multidimensional Approach:
Dimensions in Our Lives
• Discuss
– A person dimension in your life
– An environmental dimension in your life
– A time dimension in your life
• How do they interact with each other?
– What effect does that have on your life?
14

Diversity, Inequality, and the Pursuit
of Social Justice
• Global perspective
– Awareness that my view of the world is not
universally shared
– Awareness of the diversity of ideas and practices
– Curiosity about conditions in other parts of the world
and how they relate to our society
– Understanding of where I fit in the global social
structure
15

– Awareness of how people in other societies view my
society
– Understanding of how the world works
• Globalization
– process of people becoming more interconnected
economically, politically, environmentally, and
culturally
16
of Social Justice

Diversity
• Increasing racial, ethnic, and religious diversity
• Heightened consciousness of human differences
– Gender, cultural, sexual orientation, abilities,
disabilities, family forms, and so on
– Heterogeneity
o Differences among individuals
– Diversity
o Differences among groups
• Melting pot or pluralism?
17

Inequality
• Gender, race, and class are categorizations used to
develop hierarchical social structures that influence
social identities and life chances
• Privilege—unearned advantage
– White privilege
– U.S. privilege
• Social locations—where we fit into a system of social
identities
18

of Social Justice
• What is meant by…
– “Shifting nature of terminology”
o Why is this important?
– “Privilege” and “disadvantage”
o How are they multidimensional?
• Social inequalities on the rise
– Examples?
19

Advancing Human Rights and Social,
Economic, and Environmental Justice
• NASW Code of Ethics identifies social justice as one of
six core values of social work
• Mechanisms of oppression can be used intentionally or
unintentionally
– Examples? Figure 1.4 in book
• Global social justice
• Theories of social justice
– Fairness
– Capabilities approach
20

21
Advancing Human Rights and Social,
Economic, and Environmental Justice

• 4 ingredients of “knowing how” to do social work
– Knowledge about the case
o Develop understanding of situation
o Select and order information
o Influenced by relationship quality
– Knowledge about the self
o Understanding one’s own thinking processes,
emotions, and social location
22
Knowing and Doing

Knowing and Doing
– Values and ethics
o Established by NASW
o Knowledge of self—critical to ethics
– Scientific knowledge
23

Values and Ethics
24

Scientific Knowledge: Theory and
Research
• Hypotheses
– Tentative statements to be explored/tested
– Not facts
• Theory
– Interrelated set of concepts and propositions,
organized into a deductive system
– Explains relationships among aspects of our world
25

Scientific Knowledge: Theory and
Research
– Provides framework for understanding
person/environment transactions
– Guides interventions
– Focuses attention on particular aspects of the
person–environment–time configuration
26

Theory and Research
• Concepts
– Building blocks of theory
• Propositions
– Assertions
• Deductive reasoning
– Use propositions to generate specific hypotheses to
test
27

Theory and Research
• Assumptions
– Beliefs held to be true without testing or proof
• Needs to be objective
• Empirical research
– Careful, purposeful, and systematic observation of
events with the intent to note and record them in
terms of their attributes, to look for patterns in those
events, and make our methods and observations
public
28

Theory and Research
– A problem-solving process
– Experienced through our senses, as opposed to
something that we experience purely in our minds
– Tests the assumptions of theories
29

Theory and Research
– Positivist perspective
o World has order that can be discovered, findings
can be applied to other groups, findings are
tentative, scientific methods are value-free
o Quantitative methods of research
• Measures concepts, standardize collection of
data, attend to preselected variables, use
statistical measures
30

Theory and Research
– Interpretist perspective (constructivist)
o Assume that reality is based on people’s
definitions of it
o Qualitative methods of research
• Flexible, experiential, captures how participants
view social life
31

Theory and Research
– Postpositivism
o Philosophical position
o Recognizes complexity of reality and limitations of
human observers
32

Critical Use of Theory and Research
• Critical thinking
– Thoughtful/reflective judgment about alternative
views
– Why is it important?
33

• Criteria for evaluating theory
– Coherence and conceptual clarity
– Testability and evidence of empirical support
– Comprehensiveness
– Consistency with social work’s emphasis on diversity
and power arrangements
– Usefulness for social work practice
34

– Corroboration
– Multidimensionality
– Definition of terms
– Limitation of sample
– Influence of setting
– Influence of the researcher
– Social distance
– Specification of inferences
– Suitability of measures
35

• Bias
– What is it?
– Can occur at all stages of research
– How does it affect research?
• In summary:
– Theory = ideas or assumptions about what is
happening and why
– Research = evidence based, what we can see, hear,
feel about what is happening
36

A Word of Caution
• Textbook presents personal and environmental
dimensions separately
– Note that person and environment cannot be
separated when thinking about human behavior
– Approach has been taken for several reasons:
o Personal and environmental dimensions have
been studied separately
o Introduce dimensions not typically covered in
social work textbooks
o Ensure collective behavior receives attention it
deserves
37

Hutchison6e_PPT01 (1).pptx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Hutchison6e_PPT01 (1).pptx

Similar to Hutchison6e_PPT01 (1).pptx (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Hutchison6e_PPT01 (1).pptx

Editor's Notes