Social Work Theories: Psychodynamic Theory and Systems & Socio-ecological Theory

This article explores the application of psychodynamic theory and systems & socio-ecological theory in social work. It discusses the concepts of gender role development, personality, aggression, and moral development. The article also highlights the strengths and limitations of these theories.

Running head: SOCIAL WORK THEORIES 1
SOCIAL WORK THEORIES
Name
Institution

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Assignment
Apparently, social work is an everyday job that involves taking care of people thus
bringing a change in their lives. This, however, does not include trying to provide theoretical
explanations of as to why individuals get into challenges. Conferring to Australian
Association of Social Workers code of ethics, it is evident that social work is dedicated to
tracking down and maintenance of human well-being (Miley, O'Melia and DuBois, 2016). It
targets to make the most of individual potential and the realisation of human needs, over and
done with an equivalent assurance to; helping people in achieving good stages of own and
social well-being and trying to realise social justice through social development and social
change (Padgett, 2016). Various social work commitments includes preserving people’s
interests and rights, improving peoples access to social, economic and political resources,
helping others in order to improve their well-being, educating people on structural inequities,
having policies and practices that help in fair allocation of social resources and promoting
social change to reduce social barriers, inequality and injustice
For any social worker, theories based on psychological practices are vital tools that are
useful in carrying out their activities. These theories try to explain why people act the way
they do this by understanding these theories, a social worker helps people in stopping the bad
habits and teaching them good behaviours that will help them in succeeding in life (Payne,
2015). In this paper we are going to explore two theories; psychodynamic theory and systems
& socio-ecological theory and how concepts and principles of gender role development,
personality, aggression, and moral development are applied.
Psychodynamic Theory
This is a theory by Sigmund Freud which is majorly utilised by many social workers.
Earlier contributors to social work theories such as Mary Richmond, Charlotte Towle,
Gordon Hamilton and Florence Hollis have used psychodynamic theory to aid in explaining
various complex human behaviours (Hepworth, Rooney and Strom-Gottfried, 2016). This

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resulted in them in research in areas dealing with stages of psychosexual development, roles
of drives in human motivation and ego defence mechanisms. This theory tries to explain
human behaviours & motivation based on conscious and unconscious forces and the
relationship between them (Netting, McMurtry and Thomas, 2016). Sigmund Freud believed
that drives are one of the major factors that determine the behaviour of humans. Drives can
be explained as biologically – based impulses that seek gratification. According to Freud, sex
and self-preservation were the main examples of drives but He later suggested that
destructive or aggressive drives as examples of drives. Individuals always find themselves in
frustrations (imposed by the external world) when trying to seek gratifications of their
erogenous drives (Turner, 2017). This can be seen clearly seen in our case scenario whereby
Jimmy feels angry since his mother acts as a barrier to him of fulfilling his desires. These
desires do not only depend on external individuals but also can originate from an individual
due to factors such as ego and superego. Ego in an individual is helpful as it helps an
individual in adapting to reality, understanding the world better and to the ability to control
drives. Superego in an individual is formed when a child is growing due to parental ideals
and prohibitions. Superego helps in providing direction and limiting an individual's
behaviour.
Many theorists explained more about Freud’s idea of ego as drive regulation and
included organizational and function for instance judgement, reality testing, thought
processes, regulating external and internal stimuli, regulating self-esteem and bringing
together the conflicting aspects of an individual. Many modifications of these theories depict
ego psychology as where individuals derive satisfaction by exploring and manipulating their
surrounding environment (Greene, 2017). In the case scenario, Jimmy is tired of being held
up in one place and he feels that he should find his mother another carer so that he can go and
explore the outside world. Erikson, who is a psychoanalyst, suggested that that as an
individual is ongoing development there are various stages that one undergoes that broaden

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the process of personality development. These stages present an individual with unique tasks
and opportunities which lead to further identity development and refinement (Rook, Hellwig
and Kets de Vries, 2016).
Theorists Greenberg and Mitchell depicts a shift in psychodynamic theory whereby
they suggest that there is a relationship created through repeated interactions with children
and their caregivers (Thyer, 2017). This theory generally deals with an individual who takes
care of another person. The caretaker is therefore supposed to take good care of an individual
since they depend and feel safe around the on the caregiver. In our case scenario, Jimmy's
mother solely depends on Jimmy help, she, therefore, feels safe beside his son and trusts him.
Theorist Kohut explains that individuals requiring care are isolated, fragmented and
vulnerable. He further explained that individuals are extremely sensitive to failures,
disappointments and slights (Bob and Pec 2017). In our case scenario, Jimmy had started
becoming angry with his mother since he could no longer take good care like in the incidence
where she fell down. Jimmy becomes disappointed since his mother is not recovering and
that he needs to ‘get a life’.
While a couple of various schools of thought overwhelmed the early years of
psychology, the quantity of topics contemplated by psychologists has developed drastically
since the mid-1960s. There are various approaches to consider human behaviour and conduct.
The numerous viewpoints in present-day psychology give social workers an approach to
approach distinctive issues and find better approaches to clarify and anticipate human
conduct and also grow new treatment approaches for problem behaviours.
Each topic in psychology can be looked at various distinctive ways. For instance, on
the issue of aggression, a psychologist who lays emphasis on biological perspectives would
look at how the mind and the sensory systems strengthen aggressive activities. Another
diverse approach should seriously think about how culture and social impacts add to forceful
or aggressive practices. Social learning scholars would take a look at the good examples to

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which the individual has been presented to in order to clarify their aggression.
Psychodynamic theory suggests that social workers should explore the early adolescence of
individuals requiring care in order to know the causes of aggression. Each and every
approach has something important to offer. Different methodologies or approaches are used
in treating and comprehending various problem behaviours
It is evident that many people today are using Freud’s theory in helping them in
bringing up their children. In his theory, he carefully explained how behaviour can be driven
by unconscious mind instead of the conscious mind. (Hatch, 2018). It is hard for people to
detect an unconscious mind nowadays but it's easy to detect how people's behaviour is
manipulated when under hypnosis. People with these types of problems can be helped by
undergoing some hypnotherapy sessions. These therapy sessions are useful in individuals
who are embarrassed and ashamed about expressing their feelings. Some of the strengths of
the theory include; majorly focuses on the effects of childhood experiences on personality
development, the theory provides an inclusive structure to describe human personality, the
theory relates both nature and nurture and lastly it helps individuals in determining the role
of the unconscious mind in determining behaviour. Psychodynamic theory is however
criticized majorly for an inadequate explanation on the cultural context of human
development and also on various factors such as; it’s difficult to measure or prove
unconscious mind, it’s believed that hypnosis leads to false memory syndrome, Physical and
biological aspects are not accounted in this theory, Social learning outside the family is not
well discussed, some of the facts in the theory lack scientific validity and psychoanalysis
depends on the therapist’s subjective interpretation. The theory can also be seen as
determinist since it suggests that a child suffering from trauma will obviously have abnormal
behaviour in later stages of development, ignoring the fact that genes and thinking patterns
may contradict the theory’s fact.

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Systems and Socio-ecological Theory
Systems theory can be defined as a persons’ behaviour due to a range of issues that
work together as a system. These factors comprise of parents, friends, school, economic class
and home environment (Padgett, 2016). They are responsible for changing the way an
individual thinks and acts. Systems theory explains the relationship between individuals and
the society and the various effects due to social pressures. This makes the theory to cover a
broad range of theoretical and methodological practices in many areas of social works. This
theory suggests that all systems are interrelated and each system affects the other in one way
or another.
Systems theory is a way of explaining more and more on complex systems across a
scale that includes an individual in the environment. Systems theory also assists individuals
to comprehend the Mechanisms & changing aspects of client systems in order to understand
problems and improve sensible intervention approaches, with the aim of increasing the
“goodness of fit” between people and their environments. (Bowker, Star and Turner, 2014).
Systems theory does not stipulate certain theoretical contexts for comprehending problems,
and it lacks to direct social workers to certain intervention strategies. Relatively, it aids in
bring together a conceptual framework in order to comprehend issues easily.
Generally, social workers use the systems theory to know how a system works and how the
system affects individuals. They find ways of bringing a positive change through social work
system and community. The theory can be applied to fix or improve systems on individuals
that do not work accordingly (Healy, 2014). The theory in trying to fix any problem focuses
on an individual’s positive attributes that bring about positive effects on behaviour and the
life system of an individual.
Systems theory tries to understand the dynamics and relationships of families and
their effect on an individual. For example in our case example, Jimmy is from a simple

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family whereby he is the only child and caregiver of his ailing mother. This family set is seen
affecting Jimmy since he is very young and his mother should be the one who is supposed to
be taking care of him. This change of roles greatly affects Jimmy's behaviour whereby at one
point when his mother falls down when trying to get to bed, instead of Jimmy getting worried
and sorry for her, he becomes angry. This clearly shows that Jimmy has a problem that
should be addressed.
Systems theory explains the social structures of communities and societies. It suggests
that there should be policies and programs that should promote social justice, economic
prosperity, equity and improved and proper living standards. Social workers employ this
theory to analyse and interact with communities so as to know the issues facing individuals at
the community level and how they formulate ideas to try and resolve the issues. We can
relate this to our case scenario whereby it is evident that there are no laid down programs to
help people who have few or no competent caregivers. Jimmy's family compromises of him
and his mother and since Jimmy is young, there should be programs that should help his
mother go on with his life not necessarily depending on his son.
Systems theory is fully depicted in situations whereby various systems inseparably connect
and affect one another. Mostly used in scenarios whereby contextual understandings of
behaviour will result in better practice interventions (Ruggie, 2017). This theory focusses on
strengthening any missing part in any system including community, family and the society at
large. Social workers have a variety of practical interventions that vary depending on the
context. These are some of the interventions that are greatly involved in systems and socio-
ecological theory:
Improving one part of a system in order to improve the system as a whole – this
includes fixing a problem in any system so that to solve a problem. For example, in Jimmy's
case, the family system may be improved so as to help Jimmy in taking care of his mother.

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Networking and referrals- social workers are encouraged to direct clients to qualified
specialists or to organizations that can help them. Ecomaps – these are useful to social
workers since they help them in organizing the complexity of any system.
Genograms – this a graphic representation of a family tree. It describes the relationships
between any extended family. Important to social worker since they help them in knowing
relationships and patterns of a certain family. In Jimmy’s case, this could have been
employed in order to know the closest relative who could have helped him in looking after
his mother.
Any social worker is expected to understand and apply systems theory. This is
because this theory helps clients navigate the various systems that affect their lives. Some of
the strengths of the theory include: The theory focuses on changing environments rather than
individuals, emphasis on many ways of getting the desired result and helps in crisis
intervention where individuals are able to deal with life transitions.
In an ecological approach, the theory helps in understanding and acknowledgement of
the relationship between an individual and the environment and also suggests a range of
resources that support people internally and externally (Ruggiero, Spada and Caselli, 2018).
Some of the limitations of the theory include factors like it does not explain why certain thing
happen or how to bring about change, gives more emphasis on the bigger picture instead of
details and the theory does not encourage challenge of unfair systems.
In conclusion, social work may be seen as a profession that helps individuals, groups
and the community in order to enhance social functioning and well-being of individuals.
Social workers, therefore, work with many populations like children, adults, people with
disabilities and people fighting with addiction. (Babbie, 2015). Capable practice in social
work commands that social workers act from an educated and research-based information
base. These theories furnish social workers with the apparatuses to offer their clients good
services. Failure to employ these social work theories may lead to careless, unsafe and

SOCIAL WORK THEORIES 9
unreliable services. As social workers gain understanding and experience in their field they
will start to perceive their own examples that may upgrade past theories or make new ones.
Intercessions based on this theories are attempted and tried and create to some degree a track-
record that enables social workers to foresee, with some certainty, the consequences of any
action they take. Social work students, however, undergo various problems such as in
determining the best theory in solving problems, they are not flexible to the changes in the
theories and using fanatic strategies when applying any theory. Institutions teaching social
work should, therefore, address these challenges in order to help students learn quickly and
efficiently. Psychodynamic theories and systems & socio-ecological theories discussed in this
paper try to explain the complex behaviours of human beings. They majorly focus on human
growth and development and social service delivery. The theories discussed are clearly
demonstrated and various key issues addressed on how social work theories inform social
work practice response. All theories are analysed so as to show their strengths and
weaknesses and how they can be used in day to day activities to help individuals in having a
normal upbringing and a good life thereafter.

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