Social Work: the Social Psychological Approach

This book was created to describe the social psychological approach (SPA) to the social work process. It has long been asserted that social workers need to understand and use social psychology in their practice. Yet the literature avail· able to social workers has been limited. There have been no texts on social psychology specifically designed for social workers. Instead, social workers have been presented with various forms of individual psychology and macrosociol­ ogy. There is, however, an important contribution which social psychology, the study of the individual in a social context, can make to the social work process. This contribution is the central concern of this book. Consequently, the book is seen as filling a fundamental gap in the existing social work literature. The structure of the book is dictated by the belief that social workers and social psychologists should collaborate in evolving a social psychological model of social work practice. Such a model, the result of collaboration between a social worker and a social psychologist, is presented here. The book is addressed not simply to teachers and students of social work but also, specifically, to social work practitioners and to social psychologists besides all those who deal with social work problems. In addressing a wide audience, it is important to estab­ lish a lingua franca: social workers need to understand the basics of social psychology and social psychologists must understand the basis of social work practice.