Nature and Development of Social Work Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The one that is not a principle of social work is the Principle of Assimilation.

Assimilation is a sociological process in which a minority group is absorbed into the dominant culture and loses its distinct identity. Social work does not aim at that: it respects the client's own culture and individuality.

Confidentiality (protecting what the client shares), accountability (answering to clients, agency and profession for one's practice) and objectivity (not letting personal bias colour judgement) are all standard principles of professional social work, so options A, B and D are genuine principles.

Answer: A

Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

The UGC's third review committee on social work education (2001) did prepare a model curriculum, and many schools of social work were slow to take it up. The reason usually given is that India has no statutory council for social work education, comparable to the Bar Council or the Medical Council, that can lay down a curriculum and require schools to follow it.

Because nobody can enforce the model curriculum, adoption is left to each school's discretion, which is exactly why it is slow. R therefore explains A, which rules out B, and since both statements are true, C and D are wrong.

Answer: A

Integrated social work refers to the use of all the methods of social work.

The integrated (generalist) approach holds that a practitioner should not be confined to a single method. Depending on the problem, the worker draws on case work, group work, community organisation, social action, social welfare administration and social work research together, treating the client system as a whole.

Each of the other options names only two methods, which is a combination, not integration of the whole range, so they describe a narrower practice than the term means.

Answer: C

Social reform specifically aims at changing the inhuman social practices.

Social reform is organised effort to remove practices that cause injustice and suffering, such as sati, child marriage, untouchability, the denial of widow remarriage and the dowry system, while leaving the wider social order in place. That was the agenda of Indian reformers from Raja Ram Mohan Roy to Jyotiba Phule.

Challenging religious dogmas or the caste system, and changing customs, are parts of particular reform movements, but each is narrower than the aim of reform as such, which is to end practices that are inhuman.

Answer: C

Social work is an interrelated system of values, theory and practice.

Standard definitions of the profession describe it as resting on three linked elements: a value base (the worth and dignity of every person, social justice, self-determination), a body of theory drawn from the social and behavioural sciences, and practice through its methods and skills. The values guide how the theory is applied in practice.

Theory and practice alone leave out values, which are what make social work a profession rather than a technique. Methods and techniques are part of practice, and 'assumptions' is not one of the three elements.

Answer: D

Such a statement is a Code of Ethics.

A code of ethics sets out a profession's core values, the principles that follow from them and the standards by which members' conduct is judged. The NASW Code of Ethics in the United States, and the declaration of ethics adopted by Indian social work bodies, are examples.

A code of conduct or discipline is a narrower set of rules on behaviour, usually set by an employer and not grounded in a statement of values, and 'code of behaviour' is not the term used for a profession's ethical charter.

Answer: C

Social Diagnosis was written by Mary Richmond.

Mary Ellen Richmond of the Charity Organization Society published Social Diagnosis in 1917. It was the first systematic statement of social case work method: gathering social evidence, drawing inferences and arriving at a diagnosis of the client's situation. She is regarded as the founder of professional case work.

Murli Desai and M.S. Gore are Indian social work educators of much later decades, and the first option is not the author of this book.

Answer: D

The one that is not a core value is Self-confidence.

The NASW Code of Ethics names six core values of social work: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity and competence. Respect for the worth and dignity of every person, service and social justice are all on that list.

Self-confidence is a personal quality that a worker may help clients to build, but it is not one of the profession's core values.

Answer: C

Who Were the Shudras? was written by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Ambedkar published the book in 1946. Using Vedic and later texts, he argued that the Shudras were originally a Kshatriya community of the Aryans who were degraded to the fourth varna after a conflict with the Brahmins over the upanayana ceremony.

Jyotiba Phule wrote Gulamgiri (1873) on caste oppression, Mahatma Gandhi did not write this work, and Irawati Karve's well-known books are Hindu Society: An Interpretation and Yuganta.

Answer: D

This is the principle of Self-determination.

Self-determination recognises the client's right and need to make their own choices and decisions. The worker helps the client see the options and their consequences but does not decide for them, except where the law or serious risk to the client or others limits that freedom.

Confidentiality concerns protecting information the client shares, acceptance means receiving the client as they are without judgement, and assimilation is not a case work principle at all.