General Unobservable Bases: Values and Lifestyles (original) (raw)

Working with the family: the role of values

American journal of psychotherapy, 1996

In this paper, we have examined that ethical aspect of working with families which stresses the relevance of values. Given that values are at the heart of both the family's and the therapists's view of the world, we see it as crucial for them to be addressed in the course of assessment and treatment. A variety of approaches have been adopted by clinicians ranging from those who regard ethics as a cornerstone of therapy to more compartmentalized positions, whereby specific sociopolitical themes like racism, poverty, and sexism are highlighted. Whatever model is preferred, the essential task is to accept that values are a necessary feature of therapeutic work and require negotiation. Failure to do so may have adverse repercussions on the therapist-family relationship, even to the point of jeopardizing therapy. Guidelines can be articulated to forestall such unfortunate consequences. We have attempted to identify these in the hope of clarifying for therapists the necessary step...

Constructing Family from a Social Work Perspective in Child Welfare

Journal of Comparative Social Work, 2017

The transformative reality of diverse Canadian families is outpacing national and provincial statutes and policies. Social workers in child welfare agencies are faced with the complex task of making decisions about families while working within the confines of national/provincial statutes and social policies, as well as within agency structures. They attempt to balance the rights of diverse Canadian families and still protect children at risk of harm with the principle of the ‘best interest of the child’. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the construction of ‘family’ and decisions about family life in protection services from the perspective of professional social workers in the prairie region of Canada. Social workers from several urban communities were invited to participate in focus groups. During the focus group discussions, themes of social worker’s nuanced and somewhat fluid understandings of family did not always converge with current legal and profess...

A Straightforward Questionnaire for Family Assessments at Social Services Organizations

2013

In order to examine the perception regarding parenting skills, children’s social skills, and community involvement of a sample of families receiving services at a non-profit organization in Puerto Rico during 2012, a family assessment questionnaire was developed and administered to a non-probability sample of voluntary subjects. The selfadministered questionnaire consisted of 27 closed-ended questions with multiple choice and Likert scales. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data entry and analysis. The self-administered questionnaires were completed by 97 subjects. Almost 50% of the parents considered their parenting skills as good or excellent. Forty percent of the parents considered their children’s social skills as good or excellent. More than 40% of the parents considered as good or excellent their community involvement.

The Family as Moral Community: A Social Work Perspective

Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 1998

Social work, while rich in literature about practice with families, has largely ignored the moral dimensions of this work. Conceiving the family as a moral community draws our attention to this neglected dimension. A framework, drawn from the literature on moral behavior, is used to conceptualize the moral life of families. The components are: (1) moral sensitivity – interpreting the situation; (2) moral reasoning – deciding what to do; and (3) moral character – following through and doing what is seen as right. These are offered as conceptual tools for focusing our attention and providing practice direction.

Family Values Reconsidered: A Response

We respond to six critiques of our book Family Values: The Ethics of Parent-Child Relationships. Replying to Gheaus, we emphasize the limited and illustrative role given to the principle of fair equality of opportunity while, unlike Macleod, doubting that a just society could eliminate entirely the conflict between it and the family. In response to Sypnowich we clarify the ways in which our account is and is not perfectionist and, prompted by Cormier, acknowledge some lack of clarity in our views about parents’ rights to shape their children’s values. We sound cautionary notes about Weinstock’s view that the promotion of autonomy can be left to schools, and offer a more positive take on the value of childhood than that proposed by Hannan and Leland.

2013 - SEARCHING FOR NEW VALUES IN FAMILY LIFE AND IN THE PRACTICE OF FAMILY THERAPY

This paper represents an attempt to integrate several approaches to family therapy and parenting practices into a unified perspective and its multiple implications for both types of contexts, based on the assumption that good parents and therapists have a lot in common. We are going to explore these two roles and their complementarities in recent scientific reference literature as well as in our own and our supervisors’ counseling and therapeutic practice. We are going to reflect critically about de old moral consensus in the definition of and expectative from therapists and parents, considering the impact and implication of changing paradigms and values, from authority of a view or another towards the active co-creation of meaning. We expect that integrating values such as integrity, personal responsibility, authenticity and equal dignity in the therapeutic process and family life is likely to lead to therapeutic, life-changing effects, yet these concepts although widely accepted and relatively easy to define, do not seem equally easy to implement, given some factors that we will also analyze here. New approaches to the integration of these concepts in day to day therapist client and family relationships, as well as perspectives on the role of parents and therapists are envisioned in this paper. KEYWORDS: family dynamics, family therapy, change, values, paradigmatic shifts, relations of equal dignity

Revisiting Family Values: A Pathway towards Societal Stability

The paper examines the family, regarded as society’s oldest and most important social institution. Family responsibilities may include providing guidance, support and a sense of belonging to its members. This was basically the case with the traditional family where children learnt the values of discipline, hard work, respect for elders and constituted authority, responsibility, integrity and credibility. Indeed, a good family guarantees a god society and a good society would guarantee a god and stable nation. With modernity and industrialization, the role of the family seemed to have waned considerably as majority of parents have had less time for their children and seemed to have delegated most of their responsibilities to nannies and house-helps due to work commitment. The paper affirms that the end results have been an increase in juvenile delinquency, high levels of criminality, drug abuse and addiction, high rate of promiscuity, disregard for elders and constituted authority, the get rich quick syndrome, disregard for hard work, corruption and a lack of responsibility, integrity and credibility. This paper therefore examines the situation critically and proffers solutions on how best to revert the situation before the society derails completely.

Journal of Social Work Values & Ethics

2007

Our subscription rates do not follow a seasonal trend, but illustrate slow growth. The subscription rates also suggest that social workers have a growing interest in values and ethics. Based on experience with other journals, we felt that a subscription rate of 600 would be very good. Thus, the entire editorial board is delighted by the interest in our work! Dear Editors: Congratulations on trying to use video as a way of extending the journal, I think it is important that we extend the range of media available to further discussion of ethical issues in the profession. Your observations about the difference in teaching between Britain and the USA were interesting, although I do question whether we should generalise in this way when there are such a range of approaches used in each country. For the future, I would like to see shorter and more focused video content, as I found I was drifting off after about 8 minutes. Certainly our experience of using podcasting and video podcasting h...