Filipino Reality and Social Work

• Personality


  A person's collection of interrelated behavioral, cognitive and emotional patterns that comprise a person's unique adjustment to life
• Personality refers to the set of traits and patterns of thought, behavior, and feelings that make you you
• Personality refers to the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways
• The unique constellation of the ways we approach the world, interpret events, and act consistently across situations is our personality
• Bio-psycho-social framework


  • Integrated approach to psychology that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural perspectives
  • Holistic approach to understanding an individual's behavior that attributes it to multiple causes rather than just one
  • Interactions of our body, mind, and our environment all affect each other in different ways
• Biological influences


  • Genetics and family history
  • History of trauma or illness
  • Overall health, physical abilities, weight, diet, lifestyle, medication/substance use, gender, and genetic connections/vulnerabilities
• Psychological influence


  • Psychological cause for either a singular symptom or a combination of symptoms
  • Mental health, self-esteem, attitudes/beliefs, temperament, coping skills, emotions, learning, memory, perceptions, and personality
• Social component


  • Socioeconomic status, religion, culture, and level of technology available
  • Peer and family relationships, social supports, cultural traditions, education, employment/job security, socioeconomic status, and societal messages
• Social Functioning


  • Interaction between individual and his situation or environment
  • What results from the interaction between the individual's coping capacities and the demands of his situation/environment
  • Social worker's job involves mediating, matching, or striking a balance between people's coping ability and situational/environmental demands
• Person-in-Environment (PIE)


  • Practice-guiding principle that highlights the importance of understanding an individual and individual behavior in light of the environmental contexts in which that person lives and acts
  • A person's environment, along with their experiences, will help shape the way they view the world, how they think, and why they respond the way they do
• Micro-level


  • Represents individual needs and involves direct interactions with clients
  • Explores aspects related to biology, psychological needs, social (peer) and interpersonal (family) relationships or supports, and spiritual beliefs
• Mezzo-level


  Represents connections or interactions with small groups, such as family, schools, churches, neighborhoods, community organizations, and peers/co-workers
• Macro-level

  • Represents connections to systemic issues within large systems, such as laws/legislation, policy, healthcare systems, and international associations
  • Explores ethical frameworks, historical impacts of group experiences, and how discrimination and prejudice can impact marginalized populations
• It is important to remember to explore the interconnectedness and interactions between what information is presenting on each level for the person and how this may have an impact on their functioning and development within their environment
• Person-in-Environment (PIE)


  • A social framework that considers the person in the broad context of their environment
  • Knowing and understanding the client's problem in the context of their life
  • Social workers are not having good intentions, they are having good outcomes
• Intersectionality

  The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage
• Ecological systems theory


  • Concerned with the interaction and interdependence of individuals with their surrounding systems
  • Encourages social workers to take a holistic view by assessing how individuals affect and are affected by physical, social, political, and cultural systems