Through preparatory self-exploration, identify those personal factors that might inhibit your effectiveness
in this situation. Suggest a few steps you might take to diminish these potentially adverse responses.
What will be an ideal response?
ANS: Students' answers will vary. Preparatory self-exploration also involves identifying other factors that may
affect your readiness to provide service. For example, there may be extraneous circumstances unrelated to the
people or problems that might influence you. Your readiness to engage could be affected if you have a splitting
headache, are grieving the loss of a significant relationship, are trying to figure out how to pay for major repairs to
your automobile, have just lost out on an opportunity for promotion, did not sleep last night, or are worried about a
family member of your own. Similarly, if you are about to engage in some form of social activism—perhaps to
protest proposed legislation to both waive all state and local taxes, and donate a substantial portion of a public park
to a for-profit company in an attempt to recruit it to the state while simultaneously limiting child welfare benefits to
a total of 1 year during the course of the child's lifetime. You are so furious that you become worried you might lose
your composure during the event. You realize that you must determine the unrecognized reasons for your rage. You
ask yourself, "Why does this particular proposal trigger so much more rage than other legislative schemes that have
been even more unjust than this one?" Identifying the factors and their effects on you constitutes a step toward
managing them so that they do not interfere with the provision of high-quality professional services to your clients
or with your constructive, nonviolent social activism intended to advance human rights and promote social,
economic, and environmental justice.
Preparatory self-exploration enables you to identify personal factors that might affect your ability to engage
people and provide high-quality service. Once identified, you attempt to manage or contain them through centering.
As part of this centering process, you ask yourself "What can I do to ready myself personally before the meeting or
activity begins?" Centering involves organizing your personal thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations so that
they do not interfere with your professionalism, performance, and delivery of social services. Much of the time,
centering involves "accessing a place of peace" where we are free from evaluative judgment (Rosenberg, 2012) and
nondefensiveness (Ellison, 2009
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List at least seven factors that relate to human diversity. Then, explain why the understanding intersectionality is important in today's generalist practice.
What will be an ideal response?
Jerome Wakefield would argue that a professional woman who is afraid of failing would be an inappropriate target for social work intervention
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
In 2010, African Americans made up 17% of the United States juvenile population, yet they accounted for 13% of juvenile arrests. This overrepresentation may be attributed to
A) disproportionate truancy. B) disproportionate community policing in minority neighborhoods. C) disproportionate sentencing. D) disproportionate minority contact.
Men and women grieve a fetal loss in different ways. Fathers report that intense grieving lasts less than
___________, and mothers report that intense grieving lasts up to ____________.
a. 2 weeks; 6 months b. 1 month; 1 year c. 2 days; 2 months d. 6 months; 6 years