Theories of Psychology: Understanding Diversity in Social Care Work

This essay delves into the application of psychological theories within social care to understand the complexities of human diversity. It examines three primary psychological perspectives: psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive theories. The psychodynamic theory emphasizes the role of childhood experiences and unconscious motivations in shaping behavior, highlighting how diverse individual backgrounds influence their psychological makeup. The behavioral theory focuses on learning and environmental interactions, explaining how conditioning and reinforcement mechanisms contribute to behavioral differences. Cognitive theory explores mental processes such as perception, memory, and problem-solving, illustrating how variations in cognitive abilities contribute to individual diversity. The essay emphasizes the importance of these theories in social work practice, enabling social workers to understand clients' behaviors, address mental health issues, and provide tailored support to meet their diverse needs. The document is contributed by a student and available on Desklib, a platform offering a variety of study tools for students.

social care worker

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Describing why diversity exists in two human in the light of psychological theories:...............3
The psychodynamic perspective theory:......................................................................................4
Behavioural theory of psychology:..............................................................................................5
Cognitive psychology theory:......................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Social work is psychologically oriented towards treating mental illness of individual or a
group and empowering them to meet the requirement in bringing betterment to themselves and to
the society. Psychology is important in social work because this allows social worker to
understand behaviour of human and bring changes (Kalat, 2016). Psychology is very important
in the field of social environment hence it removes the barrier in deliver community service to
the people and society. In this report will discuss three psychological theories such as
psychodynamic theory, behavioural theory and cognitive theory.
MAIN BODY
Describing why diversity exists in two human in the light of psychological theories:
Every human being is different from each other, they have their own perspective and
behaviour. Diversity exist in everyone this diversity show case the natural differ endowment,
human diversity can be described as biological and cultural difference and variation. Diversity in
human being are basic and important, diversity divide people according to various subject, these
are age, gender, physical and mental identity, capabilities and emotion of human being, these are
some basic division in the human being which divide them from each other. Diversity exist in the
human being because they belong to different culture and human variation. Human are
diversified in various form such as through societal form, individual form and through
geographic form (Luyten, et.al., 2017). Social diversity state society and status of individual in
the society whereas individual form state the age, gender and mental stability and geographic
form state that human are diversified according to the cultural and regional difference in the
nation or a particular location. Social psychology state that every human behaviour diversity
which keep them apart from others, in social work a social worker understand the social prospect
and behaviour of individual or group. There is great role psychological theories in delivering
community social work to the society. There are three main theory of psychology from two
different school of psychology, these theories include:

The psychodynamic perspective theory:
psychodynamic theory highlight the dynamic relation of emotion in human conscious and
unconscious motivation, this theory state that childhood experience of human drive the
behaviour, feeling and emotion. Psychodynamic theory is best known for revising the childhood
experience that shape the future of human being, it is very clear that every human being is
diverse from each other which means their psychodynamic nature is also different (Guntrip,
2018). Some individual face huge problem in their childhood which means they have
unconscious experience since from their childhood, as a social worker this theory help in
understand the childhood experience of individual who need social care. This theory greatly help
social worker to understand the behaviour, feeling and emotion which drive the personality of
individual, they try to solve the unconsciousness of individual by providing certain therapy.
Every social worker know that individual or group who avail social service need guidance and
pathway to improve themselves. Psychological theory target the structure of the human
behaviour, this theory is made up from dynamic nature and prospect the human being. There are
certain basic assumptions of psychodynamic theory include:
Unconscious motive: this theory state that unconscious motive of individual affected its
behaviour and feeling, unconscious mind of an individual is main source of behaviour and
feeling. Psychodynamic theory assume experience of individual as the main source of
unconscious mind. A social worker need to identify mental stability of the client and need to
understand the conscious level to perform treatment. Social work know that past experience of
client need to be analysed before making or starting any treatment.
Childhood experience: it is very cleat that childhood experience of individual shape the
adulthood which means if the individual had any bad past experience then their adulthood is
affected. Psychodynamic theory state that childhood experience of individual play a vital role in
their behaviour, some human being become aggressive in nature if they had any bad past
experience and their conscious level and mental stability is affected. Social working is
challenging, a social worker face certain challenges in the process of treating their client, it is
very clear that past experience of client drive them to become more aggressive which is why
social worker need this theory to understand the client and their past experience.
Psychodynamic theory is also known as psychoanalytic theory, the father of this theory
Sigmund Freud state that personality of human being is dynamic which means an individual

have one personality which keep them different from each other (Nagel, 2020). It is very clear
that human have personality which help them to differ behaviour. This theory state that human
behaviour is greatly driven by unconscious level of mind, this theory believe that every human
behaviour or behaviour of an individual is deterministic. Psychoanalytic theory have three main
part such as, the id, the ego and the superego. These term are used in the study of the human
behaviour which state that every human have their own id, ego and superego which keep them
apart from each other.
Behavioural theory of psychology:
Behavioural psychology theory indicates the learning and interaction of people with
environment. Behavioural theory is concerned with inducement and systematic, observable
manner. This theory view learner of social worker as a passive. Behaviourism become a
dominant school of thought in a person behaviour. Basically, the psychology had a major
influence on the course of psychology and ideas, techniques (Kaur, and Malik, 2020). The
behaviour theory is application to treat the mental problems of the individual and treat them well.
Even through the learning ability is also known as behaviour change in a person by moulded and
gain experience. The practice of social work provides the practitioner of social work with these
models and create discipline with this. There are several types of behaviour theory which helps
social worker that describe below;
Methodological behaviourism: This type of behaviour theory indicates objective of
experimental science that help people in control their behaviours. The Introspection examination
of one's mental and emotional process help individual and social worker to understand their
behaviour.
Radical behaviourism: Radical behaviourism understanding the internal mental events.
Methodological behaviour concerns with the individuals mind while, radical behaviourism
concerns the extent of environmental factor which influence the behaviour (Mazar, and Wood,
2018).
Key concept of behaviourism theory, there are two major conditioning theory of the
behaviourism theory which described below;
Classical conditioning: This technique basically indicates the neutral stimulus with a natural
aspect. Neutral stimulus indicates towards the same response as before for instance describe in

the module such as; conditioned stimuli with whistle to dog and in response no salivation which
describe the no conditioned response. image that given below describe the;
Unconditional response indicates the unconditional stimulus.
Unconditioned Stimuli Food Plus Conditioned Stimuli Bell — Salivation.
Unconditioned Stimuli — Bell produces conditioned response — Salivation (without food).
Operant conditioning: These techniques in the behaviourism theory indicates reinforcements
and punishments which associate in between the behaviour and consequences of the behaviour.
The reinforcement should be negative or positive depend on behaviour of the individual. This
indicates the ethics, value of behaviour of a individual. For example; The mother buys the child
sweets to stop the screaming. In this scenario, the child is positively reinforced (sweets are added
for the child) and the mother is negatively reinforced (the screaming is removed). So based on
reinforcement both of these behaviours are more likely to happen in the future. This thing same
apply in social work to understand the behaviour of the individual. Same thing apply in the
punishment, like, some people hate smoking while, others are reinforced by cigarettes.
Examples of the behaviourism theory are; as a social worker this indicates individual behaviour
before conditioning is unconditioned response we cannot judge the response and the stimulus is

also unconditioned. Before, conditioned the neutral stimulus is also included which determine
the no conditioned response of an individual in their behaviour (Manstead, 2018).
During the conditioning the response of the individual while analysation are unconditioned
response because the behaviour of the individual are consistently changed and unpredictable.
After, the conditioning the influencing to the individual determine the conditioned stimulus and
the response from them also conditioned response. The behaviour theory helps social worker
because the behaviour of the people vary according to the situation and environment therefore, as
a social worker individual has to make sure about understanding the people behaviour to treat
them well.
Cognitive psychology theory:
Cognitive psychological theory state that human being process every thing from the
mind, internal mental process play vital role in the activity of an individual. Mental process
include perception, thinking ability, memory power, problem solving and language and ability to
learn new things in the world. This theory state that studying psychology of human being is
impossible if there is no understanding of the cognitive psychology (Wenzel, 2017). Mental
stability of individual play vital role in the process, every human being is different from each
other and cognitive theory is the best example for that. This theory state the condition of the
mind diversify everyone, all human being have different ability to think and process idea. A
social worker when addressing the client need to understand cognitive theory, this theory will
highlight mental stability of client and target mental illness.
Behaviourism theory took place of cognitive theory as behavioural theory target the
behaviour of an individual. Cognitive theory can be used in treating complex learning problem.
Social worker use these theory for the treatment of their client, this theory mainly highlight the
mental stability which means a social worker can treat their client if they have mental illness.
Many psychological disorder can be treated with help of this theory, mental disorder dis balance
the stability of emotion and feelings of an individual which means their behaviour is completely
changed. This theory help focus on two theory to meet the underlying cognition of the client and
help them to relief stress. There are certain area of cognitive psychology such as:
Attention: attention means individual need to process thinking, attention play vital role in the
process. Every individual have their own power to access attention which means they are
different from each other. This means an individual need to pay attention to the subject to

understand it, this theory state that mental stability cane improved if a person pay attention to the
details (Bion, 2018). Cognitive theory help understand the brain process of generating thought
and emotion which means an individual and their attention is important. Attention work in
everyday life so social worker need to carefully examine attention to detail of their client.
Perception: perception of people differ themselves from each other which means an individual
have different perception as compared to other person. This area of Cognitive psychology theory
state that perception of human being are different which means their overall action will be
different from each other. Perception decide the way human interact and process information
with each other, perception play vital role in social care work because without knowing the
perception of client a social worker might face certain issue in delivering the service.
Problem solving: problem solving means every human being have their own way to solve the
problem, cognitive theory state that an individual can solve problem through various approach.
This psychological condition help individual to identify those areas where the problem have
arise, every individual have their own power to solve the problem in the world.
Achieving goal: every human being achieved goal which they have created, the process of
achieving goal highlight that an individual need memory power in understanding and keep the
record of the memory (Heimann, et.al., 2018). Cognitive psychology theory state that human
mental function such as memory can be an important part in achieving the goal. Every individual
have different goal which keep them apart from the each other, individual goal can be a part of
diversity in two human being.
Formation of concept: every human being have ability to formulate concept, this part of
cognitive theory state that person's knowledge play vital role in the process which means concept
only can be formulated if the person have ability to store certain experience in their mind. This
theory state that all individual differ from themselves at some point, they might differ from their
set of concept and ideology.
CONCLUSION
In this report, have discussed psychological theory, psychological theory help in
understanding the behaviour of an individual. Later this report have discussed diversity in every
human being and understand importance of diversity in the human being. Later this report have
discussed the psychodynamic theory. Later this report have discussed behavioural theory and at
last this report have discussed cognitive theory.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bion, W.R., 2018. Elements of psychoanalysis. Routledge.
Guntrip, H.Y., 2018. Personality structure and human interaction: The developing synthesis of
psychodynamic theory. Routledge.
Heimann, et.al., 2018. Developments in psychoanalysis. Routledge.
Kalat, J.W., 2016. Introduction to psychology. Cengage Learning.
Kaur, A. and Malik, G., 2020. Understanding the psychology behind panic buying: a grounded
theory approach. Global Business Review. p.0972150920973504.
Klin, A. and Jones, W., 2018. Embodied psychoanalysis? Or, on the confluence of
psychodynamic theory and developmental science. In Developmental science and
psychoanalysis (pp. 5-44). Routledge.
Luyten, et.al., 2017. Handbook of psychodynamic approaches to psychopathology. Guilford
Publications.
Manstead, A.S., 2018. The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts
thought, feelings, and behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology. 57(2). pp.267-
291.
Mazar, A. and Wood, W., 2018. Defining habit in psychology. In The psychology of habit (pp.
13-29). Springer, Cham.
Nagel, E., 2020. Methodological issues in psychoanalytic theory. In Psychoanalysis Scientific
Method and Philosophy (pp. 38-56). Routledge.
Wenzel, A., 2017. Basic strategies of cognitive behavioral therapy. Psychiatric Clinics, 40(4),
pp.597-609.
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