Social Work Theory and Ethics

This article discusses social work theories and ethics, specifically observational learning theory and engaged theory. It explores how these theories can be applied to help individuals, with a focus on the case of Molly Nolan. The advantages and disadvantages of these theories are also discussed. Course code, course name, and college/university are not mentioned.

Running head: SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 1
Social Work Theory and Ethics
Student
Institution

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 2
Introduction
Social work theories refer to the overall explanations evidenced by scientific methods.
An argument can explain several phenomena, for example, human behavior through a
description of how humans react with each other or how such humans respond to a particular
stimulus (Simmons, 2014). It can be a theory explaining how humans react to a rise in living
standards or the cause of one’s changing behavior. It is through social work practices that social
workers learn how to implement such approaches. Through such practice models, workers get a
blueprint on how to help others through the use of the social work theory. It is through the
practice theory that one can use the social work theories to create change. There are several
theories that social workers can use depending on the nature of client at hand. These theories
make it possible for the possible work to be able to identify what might be making someone
behave the way he or she acts. In the case of Mrs. Maggie Nolan, as a social work student at the
Belconnen High School, I will be able to use observational learning theory which is a theory
under psychological perspective and engaged approach which is under sociological perspective
to help Maggie be able to identify the cause of Molly’s difficulties.
To begin with observational learning, (Albert, 2014) views it as learning whose roots are
one's daily observation of other people’s behaviors. It takes place in various varied forms hence
becoming a social learning process. There is no need for any reinforcement for this learning to
take place in one's life. A role model is required for this learning to take place. For example,
Molly's difficulties probably have got their roots from what she has been observing both at her
present home and in the school. Being fourteen years of age, it is clear that she sees what her
mother does with her current man despite her being married to her (Molly's) biological father.
When one is in their tender age like Molly, a model becomes anyone who has their responsibility

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 3
in such child’s life. What a child observes, imitates or remembers becomes a basis of such
child’s way of living. Therefore, probably, Molly has generally become aggressive due to how
his environment has been treating her. For example, it is entirely possible for a child to start
abusing drugs depending on how his or her models do. If the child is born of a father who likes
getting the drug, then probably such a child begins getting a drug. Through observational
learning, children continuously learn either desirable or undesirable ways of living (Shettleworth,
2010). Environment, behavior, and cognition incorporate to determine how a child behaves and
lives as suggested by observational learning theory.
It is through diffusion chain that the behavior of a child’s model spreads to the child.
Additionally, it is through Molly's mother behavior of not being respectful of her marriage that
Molly decided change her behavior completely. The practice has gone down from another person
to her (Hughes, 2011). This probably is because Maggie is her role model. Oneness in a family
plays a very significant role in making observational learning the dominant theory in bringing up
upright and a happy family. Parental love plays a very significant role in how children behave.
Culture is a primary ingredient in enabling observational learning turn in to a determinant
methodology of how one behaves. It expects children to be part of some cultural practices that
expose them to various methodologies and roles every time (Shimpi, Akhtar, & Moore, 2013).
Through this exposure, children observe and learn various activities that help them grow
straightforward. It could be ideal if Maggie could have allowed her three children to live in their
home place. This could have helped Molly learn what the society expects of her. For example,
when a child goes to school in his or her matrimonial home place, such kid learns with ease as he
or she doesn’t face difficulties such as racism. The critical importance of this theory is to help the
affected use their observation techniques to acquire good behaviors from other people.

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 4
According to (Albert, 2014), environment is a great determinant of how people behave. The
environment that Molly has been living within has really contributed a lot to her present
aggressive behaviors.
Through what one observes be it positive or negative, their life changes drastically
following such a channel (Zentall, 2012). Molly’s life has been full of challenges. She has not
had an easy life in her school. Racism has been a talk of the day. This has made her to hate going
to school. It is really hard to separate a child from their models. Therefore, for such children to
be able to behave accordingly, then the models must do activities that will implicate positively to
their young ones. For instance, it is through the racism that Molly has been getting from the
school that has made her hate her school. This role modeling at the tender age makes children
use observational learning theory in multiple dimensions of life. It means that Molly has got very
attentive observational skills which have made her be able change to her way of life depending
on what the environment has presented to her. She has naturally learnt that her school
environment is not ideal for her. She has since hated Canberra and believes that if she goes to
Geraldton she might probably have a happy life there. This is particularly because, through
observation, she is able to realize if the community she lives with appreciates or does not
appreciate their actions. Albert identified four stages that have to take place for observational
learning to be effective (Albert, 2014).
To begin with, attention, a child has to be attentive to what is going on around them for
them to be able to learn what is going on accurately. Molly, for instance, has been able to
observe that Canberra is not an ideal place for her to live. How attentive one mostly influences
this process stage is on seeing what has been going on around them. Secondly, retention, the
child must be able to remember all the past happening in their life (Schaffer, 2010). Molly has

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 5
been able to recognize that experience with her father was a good one, and that is why she is
determined to go back to her father. Thirdly, initiation is the ability of the child to initiate what
he or she wants in life. Molly has been able to adopt aggressive behaviors for her to make her
mother see sense on her desire to go back to her mother. Lastly but not the least, the child must
be motivated to begin such a behavior. The motivator of Molly’s desire to behave aggressively is
her desire to go back to her father.
Secondly, an engaged theory is a method that helps one, for example, a social worker
understands social complexity (Gangi & Wasko, 2016). Either social life or social relations are
the basis of the engaged theory. For human beings, the social part of life is embodied in nature.
For instance Maggie, Molly’s aggressive behavior might be based on the kind of experience of
living the girl is going through. For her to begin avoiding going to school, that means something
is happening in the school that she finds undesirable (Claussen, Kretschmer, & Mayrhofer,
2013). This theory offers a detailed procedure on how to analyze life events in a bid to
understand life events. An engaged approach is part of bigger critical theory perspective. It goes
across several fields such as sociology and history. Therefore, history of Molly’s life might be
the primary cause of her aggressive behavior. Engaged theory engages world events in a bid to
transform the world. Thus the argument is a part of the extended universe. It is majorly
concerned about what caused what and why it happened the way it happened (Geyer & Krumay,
2015). Thus it is good to look at what caused the change in Molly's behavior and why. It is very
possible to change the girl’s behavior through searching for the source of her life complications.
Happenings of the day have a significant effect on one's behavior (Hair, Ringle, & Sarstedt,
2011). The racism Molly is experiencing in school might have had a very substantial impact on
her life hence, leading to her present aggressive behaviors (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). This is

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 6
the tendency of the engaged theory to be affected by the daily happenings. For one to have a
change, there is a need for that person to be free. Therefore it will be of significant advantage if
Molly could be allowed to have her freedom by going back to her father. It is of great
significance to get the source of the issues that Molly is going through. I see it is an excellent
advantage to interrogate Molly and possibly know if she has a solution to the problems she is
going through (Lehmann, Lalmas, Yom-Tov, & Dupret, 2012). This will be the basis for helping
her since she is the only one who has an idea of what she believes is ideal for her.
To begin with, the engaged theory requires a collection of data leading to a particular
occurrence in a bid to solve the deal. This is why we have to get to the bottom of might be
making Molly behave aggressively. We can even go ahead and observe what she likes doing
when she is alone in her regular duties. This can highly give us a proper direction towards
solving the ordeal (Di Gangi & Wasko, 2016). Going to the extent of even observing secretly
those people who might be exposing the child to racism and taking them to court for such an
offense might as well help solve the menace for once and for all. Going through all the levels of
analyzing the claims Molly will give out, will be a good move towards addressing the big
underlying menace.
Social theory is seen to be an argument in concern to a social ordeal. It is a theory that is
more of an approach working towards analyzing all the happenings that might have influenced
Molly's change in behavior. Through the use of the integrated methods that the theory provides,
Molly can change her behavior and fit well to the Canberra way of living. Human practices are
based on the formation of knowledge. That means, there must be a cause as to Molly has begun
hating Canberra way of life. Understanding her past ways of life will also be of significant
advantage as one's previous way of life dramatically influences his or her means of survival.

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 7
Therefore, the entity that Molly had in Geraldton might have shaped her life. She could be seeing
those memories better than the current life she is experiencing in Canberra.
Advantages of Observational learning theory
It is through the parents and models that children learn skills (Burdick, 2014). They tend
to pick almost everything that their parents do. The primary reinforcement for observational
learning is imitation. How a child is reared profoundly influences their way of life (Groenendijk,
Janssen, Rijlaarsdam, & Bergh, 2017). That is why Molly's idea of has been affected by the kind
of treatment she is receiving from school. To add to the point, the interaction of a child with their
both parents increases chances for that particular child to imitate what their parents do (Van Gog
& Rummel, 2010).
Observational learning is paramount when it comes to the well being of a child. If a child
has been exposed to fair life treatments, then chances of the child growing morally are always
very high, because the child through observational learning adapts to the happenings around him
or her. The possibilities are high that any child exposed to the friendly environment will probably
end up showing positive behaviors in their life for example; if a child is raised up in a place
where the young people respond to the elderly respectively will end up being respectful to the
elderly. On the contrary, a child exposed to violence ends up acquiring violent behaviors such as
fighting, use of weapons and abusive words. This means that one reason based on the
environment he or she has been raised in.
Disadvantages of Observational Learning Theory
For as long as the theory advocates for imitation of models behavior as the primary
source of children behavior, it fails to acknowledge that genetic conditions such as psychiatric

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 8
disorders could also be significant sources of aggressive behaviors in children (Simning,
Wijngaarden, & Conwell, 2011). A child might have inherited their aggressive behaviors from
their parents through gene inheritance. Similarly, mothers who suffer from depression tend to be
less concerned about their children. This might also expose those children to aggressive
behaviors. Therefore the observational learning theory fails to acknowledge that the impairments
have an impact on one's behavior. Through research, it was found out that those individuals, who
have been diagnosed with disabilities, are most likely to be involved in violent activities or
having aggressive behaviors (Miller, Grabell, Thomas, Bermann, & Graham-Bermann, 2012).
Advantages of Engaged Theory
Sociology entails the study of society as a whole. The family unit and organization help a
lot to determine the behavior of an individual. The manner, in which the surrounding does
changes, does affect how one relates to the other. An engaged theory being a subset of
sociological perspective has several advantages as discussed below
To begin with, the exciting approach helps in decision making; to start with, it is easy to
decide on what affects a particular individual without getting an in-depth knowledge of the
person's environment. This is because; the context in which one is subjected to poses a more
significant impact on the person's ways of life. For one to tackle a problem, for example,
immediate aggressive behavior requires one to establish what exactly might have caused the
complication. It through engaged theory, as part of the broader sociological perspective, that one
can realize what might have created such a menace.
Engaged theory promotes civic competence. It is through social studies that one learns
how to make shrewd decisions on every issue that he or she is faced with. Society is

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 9
interdependence; therefore through engaged theory, one can understand that every happening in
one's life affects their life in whole.
Disadvantages of Engaged Theory
Despite the highly anticipated need for sociological approaches to life situation,
application of exciting theory to solve life problems is still limited. Various life issues have
highly been neglected while others are highly developed (Zielinski & Robertson, 2013). One's
behavior is highly based on psychological factors rather than sociological factors. Some factors
such as motivation, social class and cross-cultural effects to one's life are rarely considered
(Sever, 2012). This is a problem since for example cross-cultural factors can change the one life.
Take for instance; Molly's behavior might have changed because she had become familiar with
the experience at Geraldton.

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 10
References
Albert, B. (2014). Observational Learning. In J. H. Byrn, Learning and Memory (pp. 482-484).
New York: Macmillan Referance USA.
Burdick, C. L. (2014). The Merits, Limitations, and Modifications of Applying Bandura’s Social
Learning Theory to Understanding African American Children’s Exposure to Violence .
American International Journal of Social Science, 183 - 191.
Claussen, J., Kretschmer, T., & Mayrhofer, P. (2013). The effects of rewarding user engagement:
The case of Facebook apps. Information Systems Research, 186-200.
Di Gangi, P. M., & Wasko, M. M. (2016). Social Media Engagement Theory: Exploring the
Influence of User Engagement on Social Media Usage. Journal of Organizational and
End User Computing, 53-73.
Gangi, P. M., & Wasko, M. M. (2016). Social Media Engagement Theory. Journal of
Organizational and End User Computing, 53 - 73.
Geyer, S., & Krumay, B. (2015). Development of a Social Media Maturity Model–A Grounded
Theory Approach. Paper presented at the 48th Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences.
Groenendijk, T., Janssen, T., Rijlaarsdam, G., & Bergh, H. v. (2017). The effect of observational
learning on students' performance, processes,and motivation in two creative domains.
British Journal of Educational Psychology, 35 - 45.
Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. The Journal
of Marketing Theory and Practice, 139 - 152.
Hughes, C. (2011). Social Understanding and Social Lives. In C. Hughes. New York, Ny:
Psychology Press.
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world unite! The challenges and
opportunities of social media. opportunities of social media, 59 - 68.
Lehmann, J., Lalmas, M., Yom-Tov, E., & Dupret. (2012). Models of user engagement User
Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 164-175.
Miller, L. E., Grabell, A., Thomas, A., Bermann, E., & Graham-Bermann, S. (2012). The
associations between community violence, television violence, intimate partner violence,
parent–child aggression, and aggression in sibling relationships of a sample of
preschoolers. Psychology of Violence, 165-178.
Schaffer, D. e. (2010). Developmental Psychology. Childhood and Adolescence, 284.
Sever, M. (2012). A critical look at the theories of sociology of education. International Journal
of Human Sciences, 650 - 671.
Shettleworth, S. J. (2010). Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior. New York: Oxford.

SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND ETHICS 11
Shimpi, P. M., Akhtar, N., & Moore, C. (2013). Toddlers Imitative Learning in Interactive and
Observational Contexts: The Role of Age and Familiarity of the Model. Journal of
Experimental Child Psychology, 309 - 323.
Simmons, S. (2014, May 6). Theories Used in Social Work Practice & Practice Models.
Retrieved from Socialwork@simmons: https://socialwork.simmons.edu/theories-used-
social-work-practice/
Simning, A. V., Wijngaarden, E., & Conwell, Y. (2011). Anxiety, mood, and substance use
disorders in united states african-american public housing residents. Social Psychiatry
and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 983 - 992.
Van Gog, T., & Rummel, N. (2010). Example-based learning: integrating cognitive. Educational
Psychology Review, 155- 174.
Zentall, T. R. (2012). Perspectives On Observational Learning In Animals. Journal of
Comparative Psychology, 114 - 128.
Zielinski, J., & Robertson, T. S. (2013). Consumer Behavior Theory: Excesses and Limitations",
in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 09, eds. Andrew Mitchell, Ann Abor,
MI. Association for Consumer Research, 8 - 12.