Social Work Perspectives, Theories, and Oppression

Comprehensive practice flashcards defining key terminology, theoretical models, coping mechanisms, and systemic concepts related to Order versus Conflict perspectives in social work.

Theoretical Ignorance

Practicing social work without grounding in theory, which is considered unethical practice.

Scientific Construction of Theory

The development of theory through scholarly study over time, utilizing a rigorous set of requirements and demonstrating a goodness-of-fit with the world.

Functions of Theory

The four basic purposes of theory: description, explanation, prediction, and the control and management of events or changes.

Social Problem

A condition that is societal in nature, affects a significant number of people, is judged undesirable, and can be rectified through action.

Social Pathology View

A perspective based on the medical model that views social problems as arising from character flaws or personal defects in the individual, requiring treatment or cure.

Social Disorganization Perspective

A view attributing personal issues to systemic malfunction, in which approaches like systems theory only tweak or fine-tune rather than alter the system.

Value Conflict Perspective

An explanation of social problems emphasizing competing interests and differential access to resources, where the dominant group establishes rules that favor its own interests.

Deviant Behaviour Perspective

An explanation of social problems that views disadvantaged individuals as using social deviance to overcome structural barriers.

Labelling Perspective

A view that social problems arise when the powerful define or categorize specific conduct or individuals as deviant/bad versus good/normal.

Critical Theory (Social Problems)

A framework arguing that social structures favor certain groups while oppressing others along lines of class, race, and gender, requiring structural transformation for equity.

Constructionist Perspective

An approach examining the processes, discourses, and media framing that construct and interpret social phenomena as problems, often overlooking the objective condition itself.

Order Perspective

A mainstream, traditional orientation in Anglo democracies that focuses on maintaining a stable, orderly social status quo based on shared values, viewing the current system as benign.

Conflict/Change Perspective

A critical and radical orientation viewing society as divided by opposing interests, identifying structural oppression as the root cause of social problems and seeking social justice.

Culture of Poverty

A subcultural theory suggesting that poor individuals inherit traits like apathy and fatalism across generations, mistakenly framing coping strategies as causes of poverty.

Cultural Deprivation Theory

A theory attributing the second-class status of minority groups to an inferior culture, historically underpinning injustices and cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples.

Emergence

A systems theory concept establishing that the whole system is greater than the sum of its constituent parts.

Entropy

In systems theory, the natural tendency of closed, isolated systems to become disorganized and unhealthy over time.

Homeostasis

The tendency of a system to maintain stability or revert to a steady, previous state.

Genogram

A detailed visual diagram used in systems approaches to map family structures, history, and relationships.

Ecomap

A visual assessment tool used in ecological approaches to chart an individual's or family's connections and energy exchanges with wider community systems.

Trauma-Informed Practice

A practice framework grounded in safety, trustworthiness, choice, and collaboration that risks focusing primarily on treating individual pathology rather than addressing root structural oppressions.

Reflexive Practice

The active process of acknowledging one's social locations, personal history, and values to understand how they influence practice assumptions, emotional triggers, and interactions.

Postmodernism

An epistemological stance asserting that multiple truths and ways of knowing exist rather than a single objective reality, emphasizing the deconstruction of language and binary opposites.

Dominant Relations

Invisible social structures internalized into institutions, policies, and roles that reinforce hierarchies such as men over women, white people over racialized people, and affluent over poor.

Discourse

Language and knowledge creation frameworks that reflect worldviews, carry political assumptions, and actively construct social reality rather than merely mirroring it.

Dominant Ideology

A consistent set of beliefs and assumptions that serves the interests of the dominant group, presenting existing social arrangements as natural, normal, and inevitable.

Hegemony

The unquestioned dominance of conformist ideas and values that reinforce the power of the ruling group, sustained and repeated through social institutions and popular culture.

Repression

A psychological defense mechanism involving the unconscious exclusion of unwanted thoughts and feelings from conscious awareness.

Splitting

A defense mechanism characterized by separating two contradictory or incompatible feeling states rather than integrating them.

Projection

A defense mechanism in which a person attributes their own unacknowledged, unacceptable feelings or thoughts onto another individual.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

A short-term therapy oriented toward personal agency that focuses on identifying and modifying faulty thought patterns and behaviors in the present.

Psychoanalysis

A long-term therapy oriented toward past experiences that aims to uncover and resolve unconscious childhood patterns affecting present functioning.

Narrative Therapy

A short-term, present-oriented therapy focused on re-authoring personal life stories to foster self-development, awareness of strengths, and choice.

Normalizing Gaze

A nineteenth-century scientific and cultural standard that established the young, white, rational bourgeois male as the universal norm while rendering all others degenerate or defective.

Scapegoat

A vulnerable, arbitrary target singled out during social unrest to divert public attention from systemic failures and unify the dominant group.

Whiteness

A 500-year-old colonial construction, analytical category, and system of interlocking hierarchies that grants cultural and institutional supremacy to wealthy, white, Christian men.

Starlight Tours

The documented police practice in Canadian prairie cities of driving Indigenous people to the outskirts in freezing conditions and abandoning them without adequate clothing.

Micro-aggressions

Subtle or overt daily indignities perpetrated by privileged individuals that demean, invalidate, or assault marginalized persons.

Attributional Ambiguity

The state of confusion experienced by marginalized persons when second-guessing whether an ambiguous slight or negative event was caused by discrimination.

Internalized Oppression

The psychological phenomenon where an oppressed individual accepts and integrates the dominant society's negative stereotypes and beliefs into their own personal identity.

Horizontal Violence

Aggressive behavior, discrimination, and hostility directed toward members of one's own oppressed group instead of toward the dominant oppressor.

Mimesis

A coping mechanism wherein an oppressed person imitates the behavior, attitudes, and values of the dominant group toward their own community to obtain slight privilege.

Reification

The conceptual reduction of human-made social relations, cultures, and structures into inert, natural processes that appear immutable and frozen.

Culture Industry

Post-WWII commercialized entertainment and mass media systems that manufacture false needs, deflect critical thinking, and manipulate consciousness to maintain capitalism.

Society of the Spectacle

A cultural condition where advertising, media glamour, and entertainment pacify citizens, making simulated representations more influential than lived reality.

Intersectionality

A framework coined by Kimberle Crenshaw examining how multiple social locations—such as race, gender, class, and sexuality—interconnect to shape experiences of oppression and privilege.

Cultural Safety

Defined by Ramsden (1992) as an environment that is safe for people, where there is no assault, challenge, or denial of their identity, who they are, and what they need.

Othering

The discursive process of defining and categorizing individuals or groups as outside the standard norm, reinforcing an 'us versus them' dynamic.