Chapter 4 & 9: Critical Theories (SWRK 136)

Jane Addams

"Mother of Social Work," was an advocate for social welfare through her efforts in bringing the settlement movement from Europe to the United States.

4. What are the main premises consistent with symbolic interactionism regarding environment and heredity? ... nature and culture?....the self?

(1) "human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them"; (2) meanings are derived from social interaction and group life; and (3) "these meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process used by the person in dealing with the things he [or she] encounters"

23. What are signs of naïve consciousness?

-Occurs when people are unaware of the conditions in which they live and how those conditions oppress them. -Freire's concept for partial empowerment which relates to the symptoms of oppression, engaging with single issues rather than the underlying roots of injustice".

Initiating a public process of self-Reflection

-The goal of critical theory is not to control or influence the decisions othe make; instead, the goal is to initiate a public process of self-reflection. - Critical theorists would support this b/c it acknowledeges the need to include multiple perspectice of people who represent varying degrees of authority or power.

12. How does our concept of self develop?

Self-concept develops, in part, through our interaction with others. In addition to family members and close friends, other people in our lives can also contribute to our self-identity.

Reference groups

a group to which an individual or another group is compared, used by sociologists in reference to any group that is used by an individual as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.

25. Interactionists believe that as humans evolved with language and the ability to reason, they were able to turn back on nature itself, actively directing how natural forces act. What symbolic interactionism theme does this support?

human life is lived in the symbolic domain.

18. Which activity involves the mind and also involves imagining the world from the perspective of others and directing one's actions accordingly.

people develop self-images through interactions with other people. He argued that the self, which is the part of a person's personality consisting of self-awareness and self-image, is a product of social experience.

Role

presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Goffman believed that we use "impression management" to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived.

3. What kinds of research are critical theorists most likely to support?

- Questioning and acting on all forms of oppression - Initiating a public process of self-reflection

Challenging uncritical acceptance of progress

-How to do somthing is placed above any critical reflection on why we should or should not do something. - Critical theorists were concerned with the negtaive soical and moral consequences that result from uncritical acceptance of scientific and technological progress. -Instrumental reason.

Instrumental Reason

-In our contemporary society, individual autonomoy is sacrifieced for efficiency and pursing action that will achieve the best results in any situation.

The looking glass self

-It is described as our reflection of how we think we appear to others. •We direct ourselves in part based on what we think others will think of our actions •We admonish and recognize ourselves as others would

stigma

-Stigma is an attribute that conveys devalued stereotypes. -such as one's skin color or body size, or could be hidden but nonetheless discreditable if revealed, such as one's criminal record or struggles with mental illness.

Critique of Enlightenment

-The belife that all societies can and should be changed by the power of reason according to universally cail critieria. - Critical theorsts challenged this viwe arguing that individuals and institutions can only be understood by examining the assumptions and actual practices of a particular society. •Advance of Science and technology. •Egoism, possessiveness, and domination of Western individualism. •Views of critical theorists.

11. Which of the following best describes divide and rule?

-a common dimension of subordination of the large majority by a small, powerful minority is to divide and rule -" the Minority cannot permit itself the luxury of tolerating the unification of the people" -a policy which is intended to keep someone in a position of power by causing disagreements between people who might otherwise unite against them.

9. Which idea or concept best describes assistentialism?

-an especially pernicious method of trying to vitiate popular participation in the historical process. emphasizes the importance of knowledge and skills that are useful in today's world than does perennialism. -the use of well-meaning professionals as an instruments to keep people in their respective socioeconomic positions.

8. Which threat to liberation can be understood as both internal and external?

A Culture of Silence

Mead

A writer of symbolic interactionism, Mead viewed human behavior as much more than a response to physical stimuli and thereby distanced himself strict behaviorists

14. According to Freire, this particular concept is defined as the awareness that recognizes social, economic, and political factors as causal forces that shape human behavior.

Critical consciousness

21. Why have critical theories been challenged?

Critical theorists challenged this view arguing that individuals and institutions can only be understood by examining. critical theorists were most concerned with the negative social and moral consequences.

Massification

Defines people as "objects" who are unable to take responsibility for their own liberation. In contrast as "subjects" people can participate in democratic dialogue seeking to jointly take risk to develop their own liberation.

Anitdemocratic

Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.

6. Which of the following statement is consistent with the critical race theory?

Empowerment model, which emphasize a process of self-efficacy or self-confidence, the development of a critical consciousness that emerges in dialogue with other and the power to take effective change to reach personal goals. - this model is commendable in that it appropriately links individual empowerment to collective empowerment. and it has been applied to social work practice within marginalized population.

19. Why was Freire skeptical of the role of social workers?

Freire was skeptical of the role of social workers because they are a tool for social control.

17. Which statement(s) is(are) true about the liberatory model of education?

Laboratory education is problem posing, which aims at demythologizing the oppressor's insidious message.

Perspective

Social workers who operate from a critical theory perspective need to be able to identify unjust practices and institutions and then, challenge and change them.

20. Critical theory is most consistent with what level of practice?

Structural level theory: social structures, processes and systems and how they shape people experiences; primarily rooted in discipline of sociology, economics, political science;

Objectification

Term used to describe the treatment of a human being as an object - that is, treating them as a means to an end, without regard to their individual feelings or agency.

11. What concept did one theorist define as the larger social context which gives meaning to our individual behaviors.

When we interact with others, the context in which our actions take place plays a major role in our behavior. This means that our understanding of objects, words, emotions, and social cues may differ depending on where we encounter them.

Questioning and acting on all forms of oppression

Which Indivduals use reason not as a means to achieve a universal, objective goal but to identify specific, subjective ways to the world by defining and leading a good life.

Culture of silence

Which develops because individuals are blamed for their lot in life with no recognition that they have little valid opportunity to act differently. they remain silent because they have internalized the mythologies of the oppressors.

Symbolic interaction

agree that the human and social sciences require methods of inquiry that are different from the natural sciences. - views social interaction as central to everything humans do. -an approach used to analyze human interactions by focusing on the meanings that individuals assign to things in the world around them, including words and objects.

Richmond

dentified the first principles, theories, and methods of social casework, or work with individuals. "The first guide to social casework practice reflected the territory that social work was pioneering- the interaction between the individual and society".

Marx

emphasizes that realizing subjective agency is dependent on analyzing the constraints imposed by objective conditions, and this calls for a consciously political practice that reflects on the relationship between the state and class forces, and the role of social work within this.

Material circumstances

events or developments which bring about any circumstance in which an insider becomes aware of material price sensitive information.

Total institution.

illustrates how residents' social life in a mental institution can pervert the morality of the interaction order. These residents start with at least a portion of citizen rights or freedoms and ends up stripped of almost everything. Cut off from contact with the outside world, they are subject to the authority, indoctrination, and discipline of a small staff who control almost every aspect of their lives. This is the nature of a total institution.

Macro

include lobbying to change a health care law, organizing a state-wide activist group, or advocating for large-scale social policy change.

14. According to Cooley, what is true about the ?self?

individuals develop their concept of self by observing how they are perceived by others,

Cooley

individuals develop their concept of self by observing how they are perceived by others, a concept Cooley coined as the "looking-glass self." This process, particularly when applied to the digital age, raises questions about the nature of identity, socialization,

Micro:

involves meeting with individuals, families, and small groups to help them identify and manage mental, emotional, social, behavioral, and/or financial challenges that are negatively impacting their happiness and quality of life.

critical consciousness?

is when you uncover real problems and actual needs instead of not helping at all

Siporin

made significant contributions to the social work literature with the publication of the widely used textbook entitled Introduction to Social Work Practice, which became the gold standard for teaching social work in many schools

meso

serve on the staff of schools, hospitals, community centers, and prisons. Clinical social workers at the mezzo level could coordinate care for their patients and diagnose mental health problems in a hospital setting.

2. According to symbolic interactionism views, what is central to everything humans do?

that people respond to elements of their environments according to the subjective meanings they attach to those elements, such as meanings being created and modified through social interaction involving symbolic communication with other people.

Generalized other

the ability to understand and take into account the attitudes and viewpoints of those in our society, as well as our expected roles within society. Generalized other is the final stage in the development of the self.

22. What is TRUE about early forms of the social work profession?

•20th-century social workers created outcomes based on "good" by collective means •By late 1800s sociologists, social workers, and philosophers combined knowledge and action •Emphasis on development of skills necessary for "professional" practice

7. What is the focus of the empowerment model currently used in social work practice?

•Critiques unjust institutions and other social structures in which social workers are employed •Educational approach to empowering oppressed population

What main idea(s) is(are) consistent with critical theory?

•Critiques unjust institutions and other social structures in which social workers are employed •Educational approach to empowering oppressed population. -Critical theorists (broad sense) encourage us to analyze power

13. Who theorize about a dramaturgical approach that analyzed the social order of human interactions, which includes common rituals and routines.

•Erving Goffman and Symbolic Interactionism -Developed dramaturgical approach that analyzed social order of human interactions -Social life as on-stage drama filled with everyday rituals -Self must be produced anew on every occasion of social interaction -Individual to society to social interaction depends on authentic performances and mutual trust

5. What are the main statements consistent with symbolic interactionism regarding the stability or predictability of human behavior?

•Self, identity, role, stigma, primary group 1) individuals act based on the meanings objects have for them, (2) interaction occurs within a particular social and cultural context in which physical and social objects (persons), as well as situations, must be defined or categorized

25. What are Freire's main views/ideas?

- Get people in dialogue with each other - Expand knowledge and awareness -Conscientization -Becoming a better human presence in the world -Taking responsibility for expanded ethical consciousness

5. Feminist theorists are cautious or careful about which activity?

- Newer forms of feminism include more diverse women. -Newer forms of feminism have also include the experiences of diverse women of color, Lesbians, those who are poor and others. - Multicultural feminism has become important.

Assistentialism

- : is an especially pernicious method of trying to vitiate popular participation in the historical process -involves the use of well-meaning processionals as instruments of control to keep people in their respective socioeconomic positions

Collective power

- people have the power to collectively transform society and its institutions - society and its institutions are socially constructed by those with the power to do so - "it is what it is" thinking it false conciseness and a form of social control

13. What is true about Freire and his ideas?

-According to Freire, critical consciousness is defined as the awareness that recognizes social, economic, and political factors as causal forces that shape human behavior. - Freire was skeptical of the role of social workers because they are a tool for social control

24. When working with women with experience of sexual abuse, a social worker who practices critical theory will likely focus on what issues?

???????

Self-creating producers

An ethical principle in social work, which recognizes the rights. and needs of clients to be free to make their own choices and decisions.

reference group stages

An individual's self is not a single whole but is divided between various social world. Her the self we communicate changes in a given situation. we are able to take the role or perspective of one of several groups depending on the situation

10. What is "fear of freedom" referring to?

Another factor that threatens the liberation from oppression, believing they have no capacity for changing oppressive conditions, people tend to fearing the very possibility of their own liberation - they tend to believe their condition is static, that they have no choice, that it is "just the way it is".

Slavocratic

Anti-democratic, and dominated by an oppressive outside force

preparatory stage:

Child imitates the acts of significant, rather than actually understanding their perspectives. When we imitate others act towards self, we also begin to be aware of the self as an object.

Game stage.

Child selfhood matures into an organized whole and is able to generalize attitudes of members of the whole (e.g. in the community) and react to one's self from the standpoint of those generalized attitudes.

Play stage:

Child takes the role of significant others and sees, directs, controls and analyzes self from the perspective of important individuals; yet no organized perspective of the self and formed.

24. What accounts for the process of change according to the "functional" perspective that arose in the 1920'?

Is a normative approach to describing and predicting group performance that focuses on the functions of inputs and/or processes. The aim of theory and research from this perspective is to understand why some groups are successful and others are not.

10. Which theorist is generally credited with the development of the looking glass self concept.

George H. Mead - Taking the role of the other and the looking glass self - we direct ourselves in part based on what we think others will think or our actions - we admonish and recognize ourselves as the others would.

1. Which individual was a major symbolic interactionism theorist?

George H. Mead was the key founder of symbolic interactionism

face

Goffman described how over time we learn to have feelings attached to the selves we present to others and we care about how others see us and about the positive social value we claim through our performances. Goffman called this "face." Goffman suggests that this emotional attachment to projected selves or faces is most fundamental to the social control that leads us to regulate our own conduct. This concept of "face" is what deters us from misrepresenting ourselves to others because of the danger of being discovered "in the wrong face" and exposed as a dishonest performer. Our emotional attachment to face leads us to avoid situations in which we would be "out of face" and in which others would refuse to recognize and respect the self we present.

18. Which theorist argued that individual citizens have equal footing no matter their place, status, and power in society?

Habermas have attempted to elevate the role of individual citizen as having equal footing no matter their place, status, power in society.

Which of the sciences do critical theorists argue are in the best position to challenge all forms of oppression?

Habermas referred to the important role of the SOCIAL SCIENCES In contrast to the humanities or natural sciences, in critically questioning all forms of oppression. It is the SOCIAL SCIENCES that are in the best position to challenge oppression. •Questioning and acting on all forms of oppression —> It is the social sciences that are in the best position to challenge oppression. Horheimer indicated that a critical theory is adequate only if it explains what is wrong with current soical reality,idenfifes people who can change this reality, provides stanards or norms for criticism, and puts forth achievable practical goals for soical transformation.

16. Which basic statement(s) is(are) true about the banking model of education?

It is typically used by an oppressive class in order to maintain the current order.

4. A group is working to develop effective medical practices and treatment for a disease. According to critical theorists, which of the following groups should be involved in this process?

Initiating a Public Process of self-reflection. - Critical Theorists would support this type of problem solving because it acknowledges the need to include multiple perspective of people who represent varying degrees of authority or power. E.g. Patients, Physicians, Lay participants.

Conscientization

Is a broad term indicating the ongoing humanization of people as subjects

19, 20, 21. Be able to recognize the basic premises (e.g. human action and the environment) and the concepts that are relevant to symbolic interactionism theory.

Meaning, language (language provides means [symbols] for debating meaning) and thinking principle. Symbolic interaction theory acknowledges the principle of meaning as the center of human behavior.

23. What is the similarity between the major two social work thinkers, Mary Richmond and Jane Addams?

Richmond and Addams recognized the importance of focusing on the interactions between individuals and their environments (P/E): Richmond used a medically based perspective in her attempt to arrive at the "social diagnosis." Jane Addams emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural and social conditions in which both Hull House and its clients existed.

15. Which educational methods features gathering people in small groups and showing them slides of various cultural artifacts?

The Laboratory model: A model of education has its center the reconciliation of the teacher- student contradiction: teachers are simultaneously teacher and Students.

12. Which is adaptation as referenced in this chapter?

The adaptive person is person as object, adaptation representing at most a weak form of self-defense. if a man is incapable of changing reality, he adjusts himself instead. The adaptive person is person as object, adaptation representing at most a weak form of self-defense. That is, people tend to develop a fatalistic attitude, often fearing the very possibility of their own liberation. They tend to believe their condition is static, that they have no choice, that it is "just the way it is," possibly attributing it to the desires of various deities or other magical.

3. How is social interaction achieved, as understood by symbolic interactionism?

Through the repetitive act of interaction, individuals as actors in relation to social groups constitute symbolic and shared meanings.