Social Workers’ Perceptions of the Balance between the Psychological and the Social

Abstract

Traditional conceptualizations view social work as intervening at the intersection between the person and the environment. This article uses data from 35 in‐depth interviews to describe and analyze social worker perceptions of the psycho‐social concept and to evaluate how these perceptions affect workers' practice orientations. Three types of social workers are identified: those who focus on the psychological aspect and neglect the social, those who see the psychological aspect as primary, and those who view the social as primary. The discussion addresses the epistemological roots of this ambiguity in the psycho‐social concept and suggests ways of overcoming it.

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