Professional Math Project

n social work practice, the strengths perspective has emerged as an alternative to the more common pathology-oriented approach to helping clients. Instead of focusing on clients' problems and deficits, the strengths perspective centers on clients' abilities, talents, and resources. The social worker practicing from this approach concentrates wholly on identifying and eliciting the client's strengths and assets in assisting them with their problems and goals (Saleebey, 2006). Nonetheless, Critical social work seeks to address social injustices, as opposed to focusing on individual people's problems. Critical perspective and prevention propose autonomous and democratic organization which allows people previously silent to express their need and expectations. Prevention is based on the principle of empowerment.

Correlation is usually when two things tend to happen together at the same time and causation is something happens because of something else. I think it is harder to prove causation because

Correlation is not causation means that a correlation between two variables does not mean that one variable causes the other. Often there is a third variable that is not considered that can be tested and found to be the true cause of a particular event or outcome. One very good example that made everything clear to me is that an increase in ice cream sales causes an increase in drownings. It’s clear to most people that something is missing because this doesn’t make a lot of sense. The true variables that are causing the increase in drownings are the increase of temperatures and increase of people swimming. Researchers refer to this circumstance as the third variation problem (King p 34). With this example, it’s obvious that the independent variable is number of hot days; not the amount of ice cream sold and the dependent variable is the number of drownings. Stanovich says, Scientists often have to use incomplete knowledge to solve problems. The important thing is that we approach correlational evidence with a certain skepticism (Stanovich p 96). Although correlation evidence can be very deceiving, it is sometimes a very necessary starting point to create the causal evidence researchers are in search of. To clarify why correlation is not causation, correlation means that two variables are related and causation means that one variable causes the other to occur. Causation is simply cause and effect.

As social workers, it is our responsibility to use the most effective method of practice to engage our clients, assess their situation, and help them create goals that will produce positive outcomes. Every client will present a unique set of challenges; therefore, the social worker must be careful in choosing an approach that will meet the client’s needs, compliment the skills of the therapist and are in line with the agency’s mission. According to Robert and Watkins (2009), psychotherapy is a therapeutic interaction between a trained therapist and a client that is

Social work practice works with many people in different situations, needing concise help from professionals. This assistance includes a range of skills such as; identifying the problem or problems, apply and use evidence based practice and theories and critical reflection. All these skills are integral parts of best practice in social work, and are needed by all service users.

In a research article by Michael Sheppard and Marian Charles titled, Critical Thinking and Interpersonal Dispositions in Those Commencing Social Work Training, the authors examined the importance of these two aspects. With out interpersonal relationships there would be no social work, but that is hardly the only component to this vast and varied field. While relations to others are a highly needed attribute of successful social workers, being able to critically think through a situation is just as important. Social workers encounter people from all lifestyles, most commonly when in crisis, the client may be so distraught that they cannot successfully evaluate for themselves the situation at hand.

Firstly, the value of a social work practitioner is the ability to view the larger systems that have influenced and impacted a client’s life. As education, affords the awareness that all levels of intervention are deeply interconnected, I understand that there is a direct correlation to the biological, psychological, and social interplay that influences behaviors. With this mentioned, I understand the indebtedness of always viewing a client in a larger scope to acknowledge their environmental

A mental health treatment for a client is put in the least restrictive setting possible. There is a wide range of mental health places that Social Workers’ are involved in. There are also several diagnosis for a psychiatric disorder. Critical thinking is also very necessary when it comes to issues relating in mental health. The social work roles in mental health settings is that Social Workers’ can be case managers in micro practices. They can provide counseling and crisis intervention along with getting clients the right resources.

This knowledge combined with studying Psychology has provided me with the opportunity to use research and human behaviour to further understand the workings of the brain. Psychological research also required statistical analysis to identify findings which studying Mathematics has allowed me to do effectively. In addition to this Mathematics has also enabled me to detect problems and think analytically to work towards a solution, this is a skill I use in all aspects

Self-reflection and correction in social work practice is important for continued learning and professional development. Without self-awareness, social workers cannot separate their personal feelings, values, and attitudes from their professional. This is important because we need to focus on the needs of the client, not what we think they need. Knowing how to separate our personal feelings and values from our professional feelings and values will prevent us from getting burnout and help us maintain professional boundaries.

Critical thinking is important to the profession of social work because social workers help people from every community and come across people or populations with experiences, ideas and opinions that often vary from their own (social workers). Before client’s treatment plan or intervention, social worker need to consider the beliefs, thoughts or experiences that may underlie the client’s action without the social workers making a snap judgment, social workers should be able to look at the client’s situation from an objective and neutral standpoint, without the social worker jumping to conclusions or even making any assumptions, social workers would have to obtain as much data as possible from observations, research, interviews, supervision, case notes, to assemble a plan of action to help the client, without allowing their own biases or prejudices to interfere (social worker). To be an effective social worker, they need to have self-reflected, maintain positive social work ethics, ability to intervene in crisis situations not to over identity because the client’s situations or experience is similar to yours (social worker).

General social work is the foundation of the social work profession. This basic set of skills gives the practitioner the ability to work with a diverse population that ranges from individuals to groups. The practitioner also has the knowledge to work within the settings of the micro and macro levels of the social work system. I believe that the generalist can work within the three levels and has a wide variety of skills to draw from to help the client or clients to the best of their ability. The generalist also uses different approaches to intervene effectively. This practice also uses many strategies to help with understanding the issue at hand, while teaching these strategies to the clients. This type of practitioner uses the client’s self-determination to help increase the empowerment of the

The two key elements in successful practice are the social workers ability to guide clients through the phases of the change process and assist clients in making decisions that will result in enhancement of their social functioning or the improvement of a social condition (Bradford W. Sheafor, 2008, p. 52). Social workers select and use specific techniques that have been individualized to the needs and situation of the client or client group being served, and the resources that are applied to help resolve the client’s problem or concern (Bradford W. Sheafor, 2008, p. 51).

In Psychology 101 we learned that research methods are used in order to understand our mental and behavioral processes by making observations in a systematic way, following strict rules of evidence and thinking critically about that evidence. This scientific research is based on theories (tentative explanations of observations in science), hypotheses (predictions based on a theory) and replication (testing a hypothesis in more than one study). Some of the different research methods are firstly, descriptive studies. Descriptive studies are studies that use survey methods, naturalistic observation and clinical methods. Another research method is correlational studies. Correlational studies are studies that help one to determine if a relationship exists between two or more variables and if so it tells one how strongly those two variables relate to one another. With in correlational studies one can have positive correlation (as one variable increases or decreases so does the other), negative correlation (variables go in opposite directions) or zero correlation (no relationship between the variables). Another research method is formal experiments. Formal experiments are studies that allow us to draw conclusions about how one variable may cause or have an effect on another variable. With in formal experiments there are four elements, which are the independent variable (variable that is manipulated or controlled), the dependent variable (variable that is measured), the experimental

Psychology established into a mathematical discipline through a series of events during history. This establishment led to the development of mathematical psychology; a field encompassing empirical methodology (Benjafield, 2015). Furthermore, through the implementation of math in psychology, findings from previous and current studies of psychology influenced the plethora of knowledge available today—directly impacting society’s understanding and application of psychological phenomena. This is articulated through mathematical ideas originating from the ancient Greeks, which inspired further research in the field – abundantly, throughout the past three centuries (18th to 21st) (Benjafield, 2015). Specifically, ideas from Euclid in ancient Greece inspired Gustav Fechner to develop mathematical concepts in his formation of psychophysics (Zudini, 2011). In the 18th century, arguments regarding the implementation of math in science were becoming a common query. The field of psychometrics began during this period and early psychologists like Ernst Weber began developing relationships between mathematical concepts (Benjafield, 2015). During the 19th century, Gustav Fechner developed his field of psychophysics and inspired several future psychologists to continue his work and develop their own ideas of mathematical psychology (Benjafield, 2015; Robinson, 2010). Developments in this field instigated the notion of using experimental psychology during World War I, and the 1950s-1970s