Human Development and Behavior in the Social Environment

Social Policy

Laws and regulations established by a government that determine which social programs exist, what categories of clients are served, and who qualifies for a program. Social policy also sets standards regarding the type of services to be provided, the qualifications of service providers, etc., and rules for how money can be spent to help people and how these people will be treated.

Biopsychosocial Approach

Assumes that biophysical, psychological, and social factors all play an important role in human functioning and encourages social workers to consider and integrate a broad of range of influences when evaluating a client's development and behavior at all levels (individual, family, community, etc.) and to examine a client's appraisals of these influences and reactions to them in terms of physiology, emotion, cognition, and behavior.

Identity Statuses (Marcia)

Marcia proposes that the achievement of an identity (including values, beliefs, and goals) involves four stages that take place primarily during adolescence and young adulthood: diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, the previously neutral stimulus that, as the result of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, now elicits a conditioned response (CR).

Sympathetic Division

The division of the autonomic nervous system involved in the mediation of flight or fight (emergency) reactions. Activation produces increased heart rate, pupil dilation, increased blood sugar, and inhibition of the digestive processes.

Nonprofit Private Agency

A social agency operated to achieve a service provision goal rather than to make a financial profit for its owners.

Symbolic (Modern) Racism

A theory about current, less blatant forms of racism that reflect a combination of anti-African American attitudes, strong support for traditional American values (e.g., the work ethic), and a belief that African Americans violate those values.

Psychosocial Development

Erikson's theory of personality development, which proposes that an individual faces different social crises at different points (stages) throughout the life span. These stages are trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair.

Teratogens

Substances (e.g., alcohol, nicotine, lead, amphetamines and other drugs, certain medications) that cross the placental barrier and cause defects in the embryo or fetus. The different organs are most susceptible to the effects of teratogens at different times but, overall, exposure during the embryonic stage is most likely to cause major structural abnormalities.

Social Agency

An organization or facility that delivers social services under the auspices of a board of directors and provides a range of social services for members of a population group that has or is vulnerable to a specific social problem.

Interference Theory (Retroactive and Proactive)

Theory proposing that the inability to learn or recall information is due to the disrupting effects of previously- or subsequently-learned information. Proactive interference is the inability to learn or recall new information as the result of the effects of previously-learned information; retroactive interference occurs when the inability to remember previously-learned information is due to the acquisition of new information.

Concrete Operational Stage

Third stage in Piaget's model of cognitive development (age 7 to 11 years). During this stage, children acquire logical operations and use logic to reason about concrete events or situations. Children at this stage can conserve.

Newborn Reflexes

Reflexes are unlearned responses to particular stimuli in the environment. Early reflexes include the Babinski reflex (toes fan out and upward when soles of the feet are tickled) and the Moro reflex (flings arms and legs outward and then toward the body in response to a loud noise or sudden loss of physical support).

Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Development

According to Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory, moral development coincides with changes in logical reasoning and social perspective-taking and involves three levels that each include two stages: preconventional (punishment and obedience; instrumental hedonism); conventional (good boy/good girl; law and order); and postconventional (morality of contract, individual rights, and democratically-accepted laws; morality of individual principles of conscious).

Diminished Capacity To Parent (Wallerstein)

The deterioration in the relationships between children and their parents following divorce. Following divorce, mothers and fathers spend less time with their children, are less sensitive to their children, have trouble separating their own needs from the needs of the children, and are often inconsistent, but more restrictive and demanding, in terms of control and punishment.

Tracking (School of Social Work)

The practice of placing students into homogeneous groups or classes on the basis of current achievement levels. Research suggests that tracking is associated with negative effects, especially for lower-ability children who do better in heterogeneous groups.

Positive Punishment

In operant conditioning, the application of a stimulus following a response with the goal of reducing or eliminating the response.

Resilience (Werner And Smith)

Longitudinal research by Werner and Smith suggests that exposure to early (prenatal and perinatal) stress may be ameliorated when the baby experiences fewer stressors following birth, exhibits good communication skills and social responsiveness, and receives stable support from a parent or other caregiver.

Ego

As defined by Freud, the structure of the psyche that attempts to deal with reality in a practical, rational way (secondary process thinking) and that mediates the conflicting demands of the id, the superego, and reality; the "executive function" of the personality. Operates on the basis of the reality principle.

Deindividuation

A state of relative anonymity that allows group members to feel unidentifiable. Has been associated with increases in antisocial behaviors, apparently because the deindividuated person's behavior is no longer controlled by guilt, fear of evaluation, or other inhibitory controls.

Disciplinary Strategies

"Power-assertive" discipline (punishment) includes physical punishment, threat of punishment, and physical efforts to control a child's behavior. It tends to increase children's aggressive tendencies. "Love withdrawal" involves withdrawing love when a child's behavior is considered inappropriate. Children of parents who apply this strategy tend to be excessively anxious and to have difficulty expressing their emotions. "Induction" involves using explanation and rationality to influence a child's behaviors and provides them with opportunities to learn how to exercise self-control and develop internal moral standards. Compared to children who are punished, these children tend to be more thoughtful and generous toward others.

Contact Hypothesis

Proposes that prejudice may be reduced through contact between members of the majority and minority groups as long as certain conditions are met (e.g., members of the different groups have equal status and power and are provided with opportunities that disconfirm their negative stereotypes about members of the other group).

Observational Learning (Guided Participation)

Bandura's observational learning theory predicts that behaviors can be acquired simply by observing someone else (a model) perform those behaviors (i.e., the acquisition of behavior is due largely to social influences) and that learning is cognitively mediated and involves four processes: attention, retention, production, and motivation. The research suggests that guided participation (participant modeling) is the most effective type of observational learning, especially for treating phobic reactions.

Somatic Nervous System

Consists of sensory nerves that carry information from the body's sense receptors to the central nervous system (CNS) and motor nerves that carry information from the CNS to the skeletal muscles. The SNS governs activities that are ordinarily considered voluntary.

P.L. 94-142 (Education For All Handicapped Children Act)

Guarantees an appropriate free public education to all children ages 3 to 21 who need special education services. An individualized educational program (IEP) must be developed for each student with a qualifying disability. The IEP is written by school personnel in collaboration with the student's parents and must provide the least restrictive environment for the student (the environment must be as similar as possible to the regular classroom setting, taking into account the nature of the student's disability). Over time, P.L. 94-142 has been amended, and in 1990, it was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, (P.L. 101-476).

Hyperthyroidism

A condition caused by hypersecretion of thyroxine by the thyroid gland and characterized by a speeded-up metabolism, elevated body temperature, accelerated heart rate, increased appetite with weight loss, nervousness, and insomnia.

Field Theory

Lewin's theory of human behavior describes it as a product of interdependent factors in the person and his physical and social environment.

Intermittent (Partial) Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, any pattern of reinforcement that is not continuous. Includes fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable interval, and variable ratio schedules. Associated with greater resistance to extinction than a continuous schedule.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

The unexpected death of an infant for which no physical cause can be found. Although the cause of SIDS is unknown, SIDS occurs more often in low-birth-weight infants, premature infants, infants with low Apgar scores, infants who sleep on their stomachs, infants with a sibling who previously died of SIDS, and male infants. Maternal risk factors include young age, low SES, smoking, drug abuse during pregnancy, closely spaced pregnancies, and inadequate prenatal care.

Hazardous Event (Crisis)

An initial shock that disrupts a person's equilibrium and initiates a series of reactions that may culminate in a crisis. The hazardous event may be anticipated (e.g., marriage, retirement) or unanticipated (e.g., the unexpected death of a family member).

Schema

A knowledge structure or framework about a particular topic or process that influences how information and events are interpreted and responded to.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The nerve cells, fibers, and tissues that make up the spinal cord and brain.

Precipitating Factor (Crisis)

The final stressful event in a series of events that moves a person from a state of acute vulnerability into crisis. The precipitating factor is often a minor event but it can assume catastrophic proportions in the context of other stressful events and the person's inability to use their usual problem-solving strategies.

Negative Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, the withdrawal of a stimulus following a behavior in order to increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur again.

Continuous Schedule of Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, providing reinforcement after each emission of the target response. Associated with rapid acquisition of a response and susceptibility to extinction.

Discrimination vs. Prejudice

Discrimination refers to behaviors such as unequal treatment, while prejudice refers to attitudes, which may or may not include behavioral manifestations.

Group Polarization and Risky Shift Phenomenon

The tendency of groups to make more extreme decisions (either more conservative or more risky) than individual members would have made alone. The tendency to make decisions in the risky direction only is referred to as the "risky shift phenomenon."

Social Networks

Networks that include individuals or groups linked by a common bond, shared social status, similar or shared functions, or geographic or cultural connection. They develop and discontinue on an ad hoc basis, depending on specific need and interest. Types of social networks include support systems, natural social networks, self-help groups, and groups of formal organizations.

VR (Variable Ratio) Schedule

In operant conditioning, an intermittent reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is applied after a varying number of responses (with the average number of responses being predetermined). Associated with a high, stable rate of responding and the greatest resistance to extinction.

Goodness-Of-Fit Model (Thomas And Chess)

Proposes that behavioral and adjustment outcomes are best for children when parents' caregiving behaviors match the child's temperament.

Integrated Communities

A "well-integrated" community is associated with a low rate of mental disorders. Indicators of high integration include strong community associations and groups, able and adequate leadership, diverse recreational and leisure opportunities, cohesive informal social networks, high income level and stable incomes, acknowledgment and resolution of differences between cultures, and an emphasis on religious and spiritual values.

Sensorimotor Stage

First stage in Piaget's model of cognitive development (the first two years of life). During this stage, knowledge is acquired through the senses and motor behaviors. The end of this stage is marked by the emergence of symbolic thought and object permanence.

Secondary (Conditioned) Reinforcer

Reinforcers that are not inherently reinforcing but that acquire their reinforcing value through association with a primary reinforcer (e.g., tokens are reinforcing only because they can be exchanged for primary reinforcers).

Mckinney Act

Federal response to homelessness which called for the establishment of programs providing specific services to homeless individuals to help them regain their independence (e.g., emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, job training, primary health care, education).

Overcorrection

An operant technique used to eliminate an undesirable behavior. It involves having the individual correct the consequences of their behavior (restitution) and/or practice corrective behaviors (positive practice). Overcorrection may require constant supervision and/or physical guidance.

Latent Learning (Tolman)

Proposes that learning can occur without reinforcement and without being manifested in actual performance improvement. Tolman's research showed that rats formed "cognitive maps" of mazes even without being reinforced for doing so.

General Adaptation Syndrome

According to Selye, the human response to stress is mediated by adrenal-pituitary secretions (e.g., cortisol) and involves three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion. The model predicts that prolonged stress can result in illness or death.

Cycle Of Violence (Walker)

A three-stage cycle of violence that describes many abusive spousal/partner relationships. Includes tension building, acute battering incident, and loving-contrition ("honeymoon").

Assimilation (Piaget)

The incorporation of new knowledge into existing cognitive schemas.

Consists of external linkages that connect community units (people, groups, organizations) to units outside the community and provide a way for local communities to reach out to other systems (groups, organizations, other communities). Decisions made by organizations outside the boundaries of a local community may not always be in the best interests of the community.

Vertical Community

Preoperational Stage

Second stage in Piaget's model of cognitive development (age 2 through 7 years). Children at this age can think symbolically but haven't mastered logical operations (e.g., mental addition, classification, conservation).

Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model

Distinguishes between five stages that people experience as they attempt to understand themselves in terms of their own culture, the dominant culture, and the oppressive relationship between the two cultures. The five stages are: conformity, dissonance, resistance and immersion, introspection, and integrative awareness.

Physical Abuse (Children)

The nonaccidental physical injury to a child caused by a parent or other caregiver. May result from an act of commission or from an act of omission (e.g., failure to protect the child). Occurs across all socioeconomic classes but a disproportionate number of known cases (i.e., reported cases, or those that come to the attention of authorities) involve low-income families. Perpetrators of child physical abuse are more often female than male; and young, low-income, single mothers with young children are at greatest risk of abusing their children.

Parasympathetic Division

The division of the autonomic nervous system involved in the conservation of energy and relaxation. Activation of the parasympathetic division is associated with a slowing of heart rate, lowered blood pressure, contraction of pupils, reduction of sweat gland output, and increased activity of the digestive system.

Contact Comfort

Research by Harlow with rhesus monkeys indicated that a baby's attachment to their mother is due, in part, to contact comfort, or the pleasant tactile sensation that is provided by a soft, cuddly parent.

Learned Helplessness

Seligman's learned helplessness model proposes that depression is due to exposure to uncontrollable negative events and internal, stable, and global attributions for those events. A reformulation of the theory by Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy emphasizes the role of hopelessness.

Sexual Abuse (Children)

The initiation of an interaction with a child by an adult or older child for the purpose of sexually gratifying or stimulating the adult or older child or another person (e.g., genital fondling, molestation, rape, incest, sexual exploitation, exhibitionism, pedophilia). The majority of victims are assaulted by someone they know and trust (e.g., a parent, parent surrogate, other relative, friend). Only a small minority of sexual abusers use physical violence; most use bribes, threats, and other forms of coercion and/or the existing relationship with the child to gain the child's cooperation.

Hypertension

"Primary (essential) hypertension" is diagnosed when high blood pressure is not due to a known physiological cause, while "secondary hypertension" is diagnosed when elevated blood pressure is related to a known disease. Primary hypertension accounts for about 85 to 90 percent of all cases of high blood pressure; untreated, it can lead to cardiovascular disease, and it is a major cause of heart failure, kidney failure, and stroke. High risk is associated with gender (males), obesity, cigarette smoking, excessive use of salt, and genetics (e.g., African American heritage).

Ecological Systems Perspective

Framework combining systems theory and ecological concepts that advocates a transactional view of the person-environment relationship. The transactional view suggests that a person and their environment are engaged in constant circular exchanges in which each is reciprocally shaping and influencing the other over time. Transactions between a person's coping patterns and the qualities of their environment constitute a person-situation duality. In social work, the objective is to help people find ways of meeting their needs (of achieving an adaptive person-environment fit) by connecting them to needed resources and by improving their capacity to use resources and cope with negative environmental influences.

Gain-Loss Theory

A theory of attraction proposing that liking is related to the pattern rather than the amount of rewards. The theory suggests that people tend to be most attracted to individuals who show increased liking for them and to be least attracted to individuals who show decreased liking for them.

Hypothyroidism

A condition caused by hyposecretion of thyroxine and characterized by a slowed metabolism, slowed heart rate, lethargy, lowered body temperature, impaired concentration and memory, and depression.

Huntington's Disease

Inherited disorder characterized by cognitive decline, chorea (involuntary tremors, twitching), and athetosis (slow writhing movements).

Accommodation (Piaget)

The modification of existing cognitive schemas to incorporate new knowledge.

Equilibration

According to Piaget, the tendency toward biological and psychological balance. Equilibration underlies cognitive development.

Failure To Thrive

Occurs when a baby's weight falls below the 5th percentile for their age. In "organic failure to thrive," there is an underlying medical condition that causes the slowed rate of growth. In "nonorganic failure to thrive," no medical cause can be found. Risk factors for nonorganic failure to thrive include maternal childhood deprivation, the infant's temperament (i.e., they are difficult to feed), and certain family characteristics such as high levels of stress, parents who don't understand the baby's nutritional needs, and poverty.

Postconventional Morality

For Kohlberg, the final level of moral development. At this level, moral judgments are independent of personal consequences and social convention and are based on social contracts, democratically determined laws, and universal principles. Many adults do not reach this stage of moral development.

Ego Functions

Include self-regulation and self-control; judgment; reality testing capacity; thought processes (cognitive functioning); capacity for interpersonal relationships (object relations); integrative functioning (synthesis); and defensive functioning (ego defense mechanisms). When healthy ego functions are characteristic of a person's long-term and current functioning (i.e., they don't disappear under conditions of stress), they are associated with effective functioning and a subjective sense of personal well-being. Generally, a social worker evaluates a client's ego functioning as it relates to the problem areas they have identified.

Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Positive beliefs about one's self-efficacy (personal mastery) include feeling competent, effective, and in control of one's life. A person's self-efficacy beliefs determine how much effort they are willing to exert and how long they will continue to act when faced with obstacles.

Outreach

Public relations approach in which efforts are made to bring an agency's services and information about its services to people in their homes or other natural environments. Avenues used to achieve outreach include case finding, public speaking, interagency collaboration, and written material.

Satiation

Satiation is the condition of being satisfied or gratified with regard to a particular reinforcer. Satiation is a problem with continuous reinforcement and with the use of primary (unconditioned) reinforcers. Satiation must be distinguished from habituation, which is the process of becoming accustomed (physiologically nonreactive) to a stimulus as the result of prolonged exposure to that stimulus.

Buffering Hypothesis

The hypothesis that lower susceptibility to stress, greater life satisfaction, and other positive outcomes are associated with a perception that one has adequate social support.

Catchment Area

The geographic area served by a social agency.

Stakeholders

People in a community with a particular interest in what happens with a social agency or program; they may be for or against the service or program. For a typical social service, there are usually three kinds of stakeholders: (a) patrons (those who provide support and/or legitimacy for the service or program), (b) agents and the social service agency (those who carry out the patrons' wishes and provide the services), and (c) clients (those who receive the services).

School Phobia/School Refusal

Intense anxiety about going to school or being in school, usually accompanied by a stomachache, headache, nausea, and other physical symptoms.

Protective Factors

Protective factors coexisting with risks are personal, social, and institutional factors that promote personal competence and successful development and, thereby, decrease the likelihood of a problem occurring. Examples include adequate prenatal care, active coping mechanisms, and low family stress.

Institutional Racism

The denial or restriction of material conditions (e.g., access to health care) and access to power to members of minority groups.

Board Of Directors

A group of people authorized to establish an agency's objectives and policies and oversee the activities of agency personnel who have day-to-day responsibility for implementing those policies. In a private or voluntary social agency, the board of directors has ultimate responsibility for the agency's programmatic and financial operations. In public agencies, a board has less power and takes on more of an advisory or administrative role.

Diathesis-Stress Model

A model of certain mental disorders that attributes them to a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental stress factors.

Vulnerable State (Crisis)

A person's subjective response to stressful events. Is marked by an increase in anxiety, which the person attempts to relieve by using their customary coping strategies. If these are unsuccessful, the person's tension continues to rise and eventually they are unable to function effectively.

Psychosexual Development (Freud)

Freud's theory of personality development, which proposes that development involves five invariant stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital), in which the libido shifts from one area of the body to another.

Resilience

A person's ability to function adaptively despite exposure to risks.

Locus Of Control

A construct developed by Rotter to describe the extent to which an individual believes that life events are under their own control ("internal locus of control") or under the control of external forces ("external locus of control"). The research suggests that "high internals" attribute their success to intrinsic factors and are more achievement-oriented, self-confident, and willing to work hard to achieve personal goals; are less anxious, suspicious, and dogmatic; and tend to be better adjusted than "high externals."

Physical Neglect (Children)

A parent's or other caregiver's persistent lack of attention to the child's basic physical needs (e.g., food, shelter, clothing, supervision, health care). Types of neglect include abandonment/lack of supervision; nutritional neglect; hygiene neglect; medical neglect; shelter neglect; educational neglect; and some cases of failure to thrive (signs of chronic undernutrition). Any acts of commission or omission that put a child in danger constitute child endangerment, and physical neglect is the most common type of child endangerment.

Norms

The standard rules of conduct used by groups to maintain uniformity of behavior among group members. Norms may be formal (codified or written) or informal (unwritten but "understood" by group members). Norms do not govern all aspects of behavior, only those considered by the group to be important for effective group functioning. In addition, norms usually apply to behavior not to personal feelings and thoughts.

Symbolic (Representational) Thought

The ability to use words, actions, and other symbols to represent objects and experiences. Emerges at the end of Piaget's sensorimotor stage of development. Also referred to as "symbolic capacity."

Role

A social role is defined in terms of fulfilling an established and regulated position in society (e.g., child, parent, sibling, spouse, employee, organization member, neighbor, immigrant, patient, parolee).

Helping Social Network

Networks that allow individuals in a community to give and receive reciprocal help for specific problems and that exist whether a person uses them or not. They differ from close-knit networks because their concerns are specialized (i.e., they are problem-anchored), their membership is heterogeneous, and their members may lack other common values.

Patterns Of Attachment (Ainsworth)

Research using Ainsworth's "strange situation" revealed four patterns of attachment: secure, insecure/ambivalent, insecure/avoidant, and disorganized/disoriented. Each is associated with different caregiver behaviors and different personality and behavioral outcomes.

Risks

Hazards within a person or in the environment that increase the likelihood of a problem occurring. Examples include genetic predisposition for a mental disorder, insecure attachment pattern, and living in poverty.

Superego

For Freud, the structure of the psyche that represents society's standards of right and wrong (the conscience) and the individual's own aims and aspirations (ego ideal). Develops at age 4 or 5 years, primarily as the result of identification with one's parents.

Human Plasticity

The concept that variations in the environment can affect a person's personality, cognitive and social functioning, and physical and mental health, independent of their genetic endowment. Describes one way that the environment can influence development over the lifespan.

Positive Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, the application of a stimulus following a response with the goal of increasing the occurrence or strength of the response.

Parkinson's Disease

Movement disorder involving bradykinesia (slowness of movement), rigidity, and resting tremor. About 20-60 percent of patients eventually develop neurocognitive disorder due to Parkinson's disease.

Object Permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are no longer detectable by the senses (e.g., when they are out of sight). Object permanence emerges at the end of Piaget's sensorimotor stage of development.

Heteronomous Versus Autonomous Morality

Piaget distinguished between two stages of moral development. The stage of "heteronomous morality" (morality of constraint) extends from about age 7 through age 10. During this stage, children believe that rules are set by authority figures and are unalterable. When judging whether an act is "right" or "wrong," they consider whether a rule has been violated and what the consequences of the act are. Beginning at about age 11, children enter the stage of "autonomous morality" (morality of cooperation). Children in this stage view rules as being arbitrary and alterable when the people who are governed by them agree to change them. When judging an act, they focus more on the intention of the actor than on the act's consequences.

Effects Of Divorce On Children

The effects of divorce are moderated by several factors including the child's age and gender and the custody arrangements. Preschool children exhibit the most problems immediately after the divorce, but long-term consequences may be worse for children who were in elementary school at the time of the divorce. Boys exhibit more problems than girls initially, but there may be a "sleeper effect" for girls who may develop symptoms in adolescence. Overall, children do best when they reside with the same-sex parent. Negative consequences are reduced when the conflict between parents is minimized.

Equity Theory

A theory of motivation that predicts that motivation (e.g., motivation to remain in a relationship) is affected by the comparison of input/outcome ratios.

Private (Voluntary) Agency

A social agency that is privately owned and is operated by people who are not employed by a government. A board of directors has ultimate responsibility for a private agency's programmatic and financial operations.

Classical Conditioning

In classical conditioning, a neutral (conditioned) stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus alone eventually elicits the response that is naturally produced by the unconditioned stimulus. In Pavlov's original studies, the meat powder was the unconditioned stimulus (US) and salivation was the unconditioned response (UR). A tone was the conditioned stimulus (CS). As the result of pairing the tone with the meat powder, the tone eventually elicited salivation - the conditioned response (CR).

Proprietary Practice

The delivery of social services for profit, typically by self-employed professionals in nonclinical settings. The term "private practice" has a similar meaning but usually refers to clinical practice. Social workers in private practice assume responsibility the services they provide in exchange for direct payment or third-party reimbursement.