You are on page 1of 7

Dr.

Ninad Jhala

SOCIAL WORK DEFINITIONS & CONCEPT


Cheyney, Alice (1526)

H. Witmer (1942)

Fink (1942)

Anderson (1943)

Clarke (1947)

W. Friedlander (1951)

W. Friedlander (1955)

A. Youngdahl (1949)

G. Konopka (1958)

Boehm (1959)

Social Work includes all voluntary attempts to extend benefits in response


to needs which are concerned with social relationship and which avail
themselves of scientific knowledge and methods.

The prime function of social work is to give assistance to individuals in regard


to the difficulties they encounter in their use of an organized groups service
or in their performance as a member of an organized group.

Social work is the provision of service designed to aid individuals, singly or in


groups in coping with present or future social problems and obstacles that
prevent or are likely to prevent, full or effective participation in society.
Social work is a professional service rendered to people for the purpose of
assisting them, as individuals or in groups, to attain satisfying relationships
and standard of life in accordance with their particular wishes and capacities
and in harmony with those of the community.
Social work is a form of professional service comprising a composite of
knowledge and skills, parts of which are and of which are not distinctive of
social work, which attempts on one hand to help the individuals satisfy their
need in the social milieu and on the other to remove as far as possible the
barriers witch obstruct people from achieving the best of which they are
capable.
Social work is that process which deals directly and differentially with persons
who have problems relating primarily to their social solution and witch
endeavours, individual to individual to understand what help is needed and
to assist the individual to find and utilize the help indicate.
Social work is a professional service , based on scientific knowledge and skill
in human relations, which assist individuals, alone or in groups, to obtain
social and personal satisfaction and independence.
Social work seeks two things for people: economic well-being and the deeper
source of happiness, that is self-realisation, the stuff of concern is human
behaviour and relationship. Its focus of attention is the individual and his selfadjustment to a recognized reality.
Social work is an entity representing three clearly distinguished but interrelated parts: a network of social services, carefully developed methods
and process and social policy expressed thought social institutions and
individuals. All three are based on a view of human being, their
interrelationships, and the ethical demands made on them.
Social work seeks to enhance the social functioning of the individuals, singly
and in groups, by activities focused upon their social relationships which
constitute interaction between men and his environment. These activities can
be grouped into three functions: restoration of impaired capacity, provision of
individual and social resources and prevention of social dysfunctions.

Page 1 of 5

Dr. Ninad Jhala

H. H. Stroup (1960)

A. Pincus & Minahan


(1978)

Kher (1947)

Sushil Chandra
(1954)

Indian Conference of
Social Work (1957)

S. K. Khinduka (1962)

Mirza R. Ahmed
(1969)

Moorthy and Rao


(1970)

National Association
of Social Workers

Social work is the art of bringing various resources bear on individual, group and
community need by the application of a scientific method of helping people to
help themselves.
Social work is concerned with the interaction between people and their social
environment which affects the ability of people to accomplish their life tasks,
alleviate distress, and realize their aspiration and values.
The aim of social work, as generally understood, is to remove social injustice,
to relieve distress, to prevent suffering and to assist the weaker member of
society to rehabilitate themselves ans their families and in short fight the five
giant evils of (1) Physical wants, (2) Disease, (3) Ignorance, (4) Squalor,
(5) Idleness.
Social work is a dynamic activity undertaken by public or private effort in the
implementation of social policy, with a view to raise the standard of living
and to bring about social, economic, political and cultural well-being of the
individual, family and the group with society irrespective of its stage of social
development.
Social work is a welfare activity based on humanitarian philosophy, scientific
knowledge and technical skill for helping individuals or community, to live a
rich and full life.

Social work, help an individual in his social functioning. It is based on certain


knowledge foundation, call for skill in human relationship on the part of its
practitioner, and has a set of values furnishing its philosophical base.
Social work is professional service based on knowledge of human relations
and skill relationship and concerned with problem of intra-personal and or
inter-personal adjustments resulting from unmet individual, group, or
community need.
Social work is help rendered to any person or group, who is suffering from
any disability, mental, physical, emotional or moral, so that the individual
or group so helped is enabled is enabled to help himself or itself.

Social Work is the professional activity of helping individuals, groups, or


communities enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning
and creating societal conditions favourable to this goal. Social Work
practice consists of the professional application of Social Work values,
principles, and techniques to one or more of the following ends: helping
people obtain tangible services; counselling and psychotherapy with
individuals, families, and groups; helping communities or groups provide
or improve processes. The practice of Social Work requires knowledge of
human development and behaviour; of social, economic, and cultural
institutions; and of the interactions of all these factors.

Page 2 of 5

Dr. Ninad Jhala

Betty Baer & Ron


Frederico

Social Work is concerned and involved with the interactions between

people and the institutions of society that affect the ability of people to
accomplish life tasks, realize aspirations and values, and alleviate
distress. These interactions between people and social institutions occur
within the context of the larger societal good. Therefore, three major
purposes of social work may be identified:
to enhance the problem-solving, coping and developmental capacities of people;
to promote the effective and humane operation of the systems that provide people
with resources and services;
to link people with systems that provide them with resources, services, and opportunities.

International Federation The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human
relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance their
of Social Workers,
wellbeing. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work
2000
intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles
of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.

A perusal of the above definitions clearly indicates that it is very difficult to define social work
but still keeping in view its historical development from service to professional service and its
concern from helping people in need to changing the social system, we may define social work
as : "Social work is a specialized kind of work - honorary or paid, done by making use of
scientific knowledge and technical skills with humane and democratic outlook, to render
help to people in need to enable them to realize their potentials optimally, to perform their
social roles effectively and to live in a free, decent and dignified manner, particularly by
introducing required changes in personality as well as social structure."
Social work is relatively a newer and socially less recognized profession, mainly because of its
inability to demonstrate the ready visibility of the results that follow from its practice. The
most important reason behind this inability is the use of social relationships as the major
medium of professional practice/help that by their very nature are intangible. The major
concern of this practice/help with changing personality structure of people and social structure
and system in society both of which again are not distinctly visible. Because of the nascent
growth of the profession, there is a lot of confusion in respect of various terms which are used
while teaching in class-room, doing research in social work and practising the profession with
people in need in society. Since effective professional practice demands clarity in terms of the
varied kinds of concepts used, it becomes obligatory to clarify and define them and point out
the distinction between similar concepts used in social work or the same concepts used in other
social sciences like Sociology and Psychology from which social work has heavily borrowed.
Social work which emerged out of the need to provide poor relief in a systematic manner
gradually grew into a semi-profession or profession having expert knowledge and technical
Page 3 of 5

Dr. Ninad Jhala

skills for effective provision of help to needy. In the initial stage it was concerned with helping
people to solve their psycho-social problems which obstructed their effective social
functioning. In course of time, it was realized that social living as it operates at the practical
plane had three distinct and noteworthy levels: of individual, group and community. There was
need for dealing with them separately by developing three different methods of social
casework dealing with individuals, social group work with groups and community organization
with communities. In course of time, they were accepted as the three primary methods of social
work. It was also realized that while providing social work help by using these three methods,
there was always a need for providing some social welfare services and gathering validated
knowledge,

and

this

realization

finally

culminated

into

development

of

two

subsidiary/auxiliary methods of social work namely, social welfare administration and social
work research. In course of time it was seriously felt that since psycho-social problems have
their roots in faulty social structure and system, and any client facing these problems cannot, be
held responsible for his/her problems, there was need for evolving and including some weapon
in the armoury of social work which could play a significant role in bringing about desired
changes in society, and thus emerged social action as an auxiliary/secondary method of social
work.
Important characteristics of social work as it exists today, particularly in India which has had
great social service tradition, are as following:
1) Social work is a specialized kind of work.
2) This work is performed by persons who are specifically trained to do this work.
3) Education/training for social work equips social workers with some specialized kind of
scientific knowledge and technical skills and develops among them a democratic and
humanitarian outlook and orientation.
4) Social Work adopts the required strategy according to the nature of problem it deals with
and its root causes which may lie in the personality structure of the person who is
facing problem or in the unequalitarian and unjust social system of which he/she is a
part.
5) Strategy used in social work may introduce changes in the personality structure of person
faced with problem and/or bring about transformation in social structure as well as
system.

Page 4 of 5

Dr. Ninad Jhala

6) Social work promotes human and social development, ensures fulfilment of human rights
and guarantees performance of social duties obligations towards family members,
people in the community and members of society at large.
7) Social worker may accept compensation for the work done by him/her either from those
who engage him/her or take work from him/her or from those who benefit from his/her
work. At times, moved by altruistic considerations a trained social worker may be seen
providing services absolutely in an honorary manner.

References :
1. G. R. Madan Indian Social Problems Vol. 2, Rawat Publications.
2. Brenda Dubois Social Work : An Empowering Profession, Allyn & Beacon
Publishers.

Page 5 of 5

This book was distributed courtesy of:

For your own Unlimited Reading and FREE eBooks today, visit:
http://www.Free-eBooks.net

Share this eBook with anyone and everyone automatically by selecting any of the
options below:

To show your appreciation to the author and help others have


wonderful reading experiences and find helpful information too,
we'd be very grateful if you'd kindly
post your comments for this book here.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Free-eBooks.net respects the intellectual property of others. When a book's copyright owner submits their work to Free-eBooks.net, they are granting us permission to distribute such material. Unless
otherwise stated in this book, this permission is not passed onto others. As such, redistributing this book without the copyright owner's permission can constitute copyright infringement. If you
believe that your work has been used in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please follow our Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement as seen in our Terms
of Service here:

http://www.free-ebooks.net/tos.html

You might also like