Self as Practitioner: Values, Beliefs, and Social Dynamics, and Social Media Ethics

The Endeavour College community acknowledges Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants and traditional custodians of the land.
Respect is paid to Elders past, present, and emerging.
Specific recognition is given to the wisdom and generosity of the Anangu Ngangkari Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (ANTAC), which is the first organization of traditional Aboriginal healers in Australia.
Acknowledgment is extended to Dr. Francesca Panzironi and the Ngangkari (traditional Aboriginal healers) from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY).
The curriculum honors 60,000 years of Aboriginal traditional medical knowledge handed down through generations.

Learning Objectives (SOCC111 Week 9 Topic 2):
- Describe the nature of values, beliefs, and attitudes.
- Discuss the potential impact of these elements on individuals and others.
- Explain the importance of impression formation for practitioners.
- Discuss the impact of the attribution process for understanding behavior.
- Understand the role of social media and its ethical implications in healthcare.
Recommended Reading:
- O’Toole, G. (2020). Communication: Core interpersonal skills for health professionals (4th ed.). Elsevier. (Chapter 7).

Foundational Quote: ‐The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind‑ — William James ($1842$‑$1910$).
Beliefs:
- Defined as assumptions made about ourselves, others, and how we expect the world to be.
- They represent our perception of the relationship between things (e.g., ‐pineapples are pink‑, ‐lawyers are dishonest‑) and our estimate of the probability of something being true.
- Beliefs are typically deep-set and serve as the basis for values (Franzoi, 2006).
Values:
- Principles, standards, or qualities held in high regard by an individual or group.
- They are intrinsic to self-concept, convey what is important in life, and guide behavior.
- Values influence attitudes, behaviors, and personal choices (Franzoi, 2006).
Attitudes:
- Attitudes are how values are manifested toward others and represent feelings toward specific ideas, objects, or issues (Watson, 2014).
- They are evaluations (positive or negative) of objects that guide perception and response.
- They develop over time, influenced by family, friends, and experiences.
- Attitudes are enduring but can be changed. However, they can lead to selective perception, where individuals ignore information inconsistent with their existing attitudes, thus losing objectivity.

Impression Formation:
- The process of combining information about another person into an overall impression (Franzoi, 2006).
- Impressions are shaped by verbal and non-verbal sources (facial expressions, body movements).
- Evaluation is strongly influenced by the information received earliest in an encounter.
- Practitioners are both the formers of impressions and the source of impressions for their clients (e.g., assuming a client with folded arms is withdrawn).
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
- Occurs when an expectancy or assumption about a person influences interaction, causing the person to adjust their behavior to align with those expectations.
- The Three-Step Process:
1. The perceiver forms an impression or assumption about the target person.
2. The perceiver acts consistently with this assumption during the interaction.
3. The target's behavior changes to match the perceiver’s actions, confirming the initial impression.

Discovered by Fritz Heider ($1958$), focusing on how and why people behave the way they do.
We assign meaning to behavior by attributing it to one of two factors:
- Internal (Dispositional): Personal characteristics, personality, or biology (e.g., ‐Joe didn't do homework because he is lazy‑).
- External (Situational): Environmental events outside of the person's control (e.g., ‐Joe's dog ate his homework‑).
Fundamental Attribution Error:
- The tendency to overestimate internal factors and underestimate external/environmental factors when evaluating the behavior of others.
- It results in blaming an action on a person’s internal flaw rather than their situation.
Clinical Implications:
- Practitioners must consider whether a client’s failure to follow a treatment plan is due to internal factors or environmental constraints.
- To correct this error, practitioners should imagine they are the other person to explain behavior from their perspective.
- Example: In the Zimbardo ($2007$) prison guard study, a kind individual may become abusive due to the power of the environmental role and the uniform.

Refers to an individual's belief system regarding the causes of their experiences and factors of success or failure.
Internal Locus of Control: Believing that one's own actions determine outcomes.
External Locus of Control: Believing that outcomes result from outside forces like luck, fate, or the actions of others.
Understanding the Locus of Control is vital for health practitioners to identify how they and their clients view agency and responsibility in the therapeutic process.

Definition: Computer-mediated tools that allow the creation, sharing, or exchange of information, ideas, and pictures (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Blogs).
Benefits:
- Rapid communication and low costs.
- Broad access to health information for shared-concern groups.
- Ability to engage stakeholders and provide consumer-relevant information.
- Marketing and branding (free or cheap advertising).
Pitfalls:
- Time-consuming and high demands for creativity.
- Privacy and compliance concerns.
- Potential liability, libel, and defamation claims.
Ethical Considerations for Practitioners:
- Boundaries: Defining and maintaining professional vs. personal communication.
- Confidentiality: Ensuring privacy is upheld.
- Therapeutic Relationship: Assessing how social media use impacts trust.
- ‐First, do no harm‑: The core principle applying to practitioners' use of social media for health promotion.
- Professionalism: Practitioners must embrace the positive potential of social media to increase public confidence in the profession.

Impression Formation Exercise:
- 1. What do you notice first when meeting someone?
- 2. What are you attracted to?
- 3. What do others notice about you first?
- 4. How do you establish rapport?
- 5. What do you need to feel comfortable and trusting?
- 6. How does your impression formation process impact client work?
Scenario - Sally's Date: If Sally missed a date, internal factors would include her forgetting, whereas external factors include being stuck in traffic or being in the hospital.
Scenario - Treatment Non-compliance: If a client does not engage in positive self-talk after a second visit, the practitioner should remember environmental factors rather than simply blaming the client or themselves.