Social Work for Sociologists: Theory and Practice

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136 ● Anita Gibbs


that would enable them to have productive and successful employment. The
parents in poor families might well have grown up in poor households
themselves and have no knowledge or experience of ways to escape poverty.
Using an interventive theory of behavior modification and/or cognitive
restructuring, one might be able to assist families in gaining new skills and
insights to help them out of the poverty trap. Use of a problem-solving or
task-centered model (see chapter 2) might, for example, help parents to set
and achieve goals of budgeting and attainment of educational qualifications.
A more negative application of cognitive-behavioral intervention might be
forcing young unemployed people to attend job-seeking classes or to attend
psychological screening and treatment to challenge their so-called defeatist
attitudes in regard to work (Beck et al. 2001; Dobson and Dobson 2009).
Radical theory applied at the personal level would explain the causes of
family poverty as exclusion and oppression by powerful groups of less powerful
groups, often through class, race, or gender divisions in society. The interven-
tive theory of change would employ active consciousness raising and/or resis-
tance. It might suggest that families in poverty speak out about the oppressions
they face and create groups of families in similar circumstances who refuse to
be oppressed by other groups with more wealth or power. Resistance might
involve some form of political struggle—for example, creation of a residents
group to insist on warmer, more accessible housing for poorer families.
Humanist theory applied at the personal level would explain family pov-
erty from the position that individuals within the family unit have not had
their full range of needs met and are therefore not able to realize their full
potential. The interventive theory would involve advocacy, empowerment,
and self-determination. Families in poverty would define their own social,
financial, educational, emotional, cultural, and relational needs and be
given the resources and support required to meet those needs. Once those
needs were met, poverty would be eliminated in those families. Professionals
would work alongside self-determining poor families and use the constructs
and ideas developed by those families. They would seek to ensure that poor
families participate fully in achieving change for themselves and for their
own communities. If people are able to actively participate in solving their
own problems, then social capital is built and social networks and relation-
ships are strengthened, which is beneficial for all (Staples 2012). Such active
self-determination gives people the freedom to live a life that they value, for
themselves and for their families (Redmond 2008).


Conclusion

This chapter has outlined the need to approach social problems comprehen-
sively, from theory through to action. It has shown that explanatory theory

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