MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 1 Assignment
Examine Fundamental Human Rights and Barriers to Social and Economic Justice in an Oppressed Population
Instructions
Choose one of the following areas of Human Rights practice to serve as your topic for this assignment: Children's Rights, Immigrant Justice, Economic Justice, or Criminal Justice Reform.
Prepare a brief Video Note and a written summary of your video.
Address the following in your video:
Provide a brief description of the target topic.
Understanding that "every person regardless of position in society has fundamental human rights such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education" (CSWE, 2015), discuss the right or rights that are being violated for people in your focus population
Examine the social and economic issues that affect this population. Describe our "culture’s structures and values, including social, economic, political, and cultural exclusions, [that] may oppress, marginalize, alienate” (CSWE, 2015) this group of people.
Analyze the role of the social worker in the fight for social, economic, and environmental justice for people in your selected population. (Recall information from MSW-5000 on social work roles).
Be sure to include specific examples that illustrate the need for this social justice cause to be addressed by those in the social work profession.
NOTE: You may use your topic from this week for your Signature Assignment.
Support your assignment with at least two scholarly resources.
To create a video note: Select the Record video option in the assignment submission area. You will need your webcam to complete this video. Press the New Recording button when you are ready to record your video note and the Stop Recording when finished. Click the Add button to include the video in your assignment submission. Note, the Video Note tool records a maximum of 3 minutes. Plan on splitting your video into multiple segments if need be. Alternatively, you may use Kaltura Capture within NCUOne, or you may use other video software that allows you to save your video as an mp4 for uploading.
Alternate assignment: If you do not have access to a webcam, prepare a 3-5 page paper addressing the criteria noted above.
Length: Short video clip plus 2-3 page written summary, not including title and reference pages.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 2 Assignment
Develop a Cultural Competence Resource & Reflection
Instructions
Social workers often encounter people from diverse backgrounds. It is helpful – indeed critical – for social workers to study the characteristics of various diverse populations. It is equally as important that they are open to engaging clients as experts in their own experience. In this assignment, you assume the role of learner. Your goal is to understand how diversity and difference shape the human experience and play a role in identity development, as well as to gain a deeper understanding of a selected population’s cultural needs by viewing them as experts on their own experience.
Choose a population with which you are not familiar. This can be a population defined by age, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, marital status, political ideology, race, religion/ spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status.
Briefly explain why you chose this particular population.
Based on critical aspects of cultural competence identified in this week’s readings, prepare a list of ten questions aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of your population’s cultural needs. These are not questions that you would necessarily ask a client, but academic questions aimed at improving cultural competence.
Prepare a two-paragraph response to each of your questions. In the first paragraph, explain why you believe the question would assist you in gaining a better understanding of the population’s social work needs. In the second paragraph, present a simple answer to the actual question based on the week’s readings and/or research of the social work literature.
Finally, conclude your assignment with a brief personal self-reflection on your own background, values, and relationship style and how those characteristics might make it both easier and more difficult to work with your identified population. Discuss the role of social work professional values in the working relationship between you and a client in this population.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Total Length: 4-6 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 3 Assignment
Assess your Development as a Social Justice Ally
Instructions
As a social worker, you are both an ally for your clients and an individual in need of allies in your work. For this assignment, prepare a written assessment that addresses the following elements:
Describe your self-identity as related to the factors of diversity as defined in social work education. “Factors of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of multiple factors including but not limited to age, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, marital status, political ideology, race, religion/ spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status” (CSWE, 2015).
Based on your understanding of privilege from the week’s readings, explain two examples in which your self-identity has provided you with privileges.
Based on your understanding of oppression, explain two examples in which your self-identity has led to your oppression.
Consider which ally attributes- described in the week’s reading- you have or are currently working to achieve. Identify and explain an example from social work practice to illustrate a challenge to acting as an ally in practice.
Based on the week’s readings, address barriers in your life and practice to acting as an ally (e.g. fear, internalized racism or bigotry, lack of skill, courage, or institutional support). Recommend advocacy approaches to ensure human rights to overcome these barriers.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 2-3 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 4 Assignment
Apply Theoretical Perspectives to Intervene in Real-life Scenarios
Instructions
For each of the following three scenarios, use a chart format to assess how each traditional theoretical perspective would best explain the situation that a social worker would need to address. You may create your charts in Word or another software program of your choice. An example chart follows the three scenarios.
Scenario 1
You are a hospital social worker who is working with a family whose older adult relative is in the hospital because of end-stage renal failure. The older relative has left no advanced directives regarding medical decisions. There is conflict between family members over how to proceed with the older relative’s care.
Scenario 2
You are a caseworker in a drug court. Your client has had three consecutive dirty urine analyses. She is unemployed and has violated her probation order.
Scenario 3
You are a school social worker. You have been asked by your principal to start a social skills group. Along with the third-grade teachers, you identify eight students who you believe will benefit from participation in this weekly group. You have never run a social skills group before and are starting to plan your first meeting.
Chart Example:
The questions to the right of each theory in the chart below serve as a guide for you to use as you assess each situation according to the stated theory. Please respond to these questions in your explanation of each scenario. Feel free to include information other than the answers to the questions to demonstrate deeper understanding of the theories.
Theory
Explanation for Scenario – please respond to the questions below in your explanation
Systems Theory
Who is your client? Of what systems is this client a part? How are those systems related (i.e. individual is part of a nuclear family which is embedded in an extended family and/or family interacts with certain other systems)? How does what is happening in one of those systems impact what happens in another system? How might you intervene in these systems based on your answers to these questions?
Generalist Theory
Who is your client? Describe how you might engage this client. How would you assess this client? Based on the data from your assessment, how might you intervene with this client? What are some methods you could use to evaluate that intervention? What factors would you need to keep in mind when planning to terminate your professional relationship with this client. How would you appropriately follow up with this specific client?
Behavioral Theory
Who is your client? What adaptive behaviors is the client exhibiting? What maladaptive behaviors is the client exhibiting? What is the antecedent (immediate cause) of the maladaptive behaviors? What are the consequences of the maladaptive behaviors? How are maladaptive behaviors being reinforced? What behavioral intervention would you suggest to extinguish the maladaptive behaviors?
Cognitive Theory
Who is your client? What is the identified problem? What questions will you ask to determine how your clients is thinking about this problem? What questions will you ask to figure out how those thoughts create emotions? What behavior (broadly defined) do you see as a result of these thoughts and emotions? How might you intervene at the cognitive level- the client’s thoughts- to change those thoughts, emotions, and ultimately behaviors?
Support your assignment with a minimum of three resources.
Length: 3 charts, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards where appropriate. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 5 Assignment
Professional Development Presentation on an Emerging Theory in the Field of Social Work
Instructions
The agency where you are employed assists its staff of social workers to be life-long learners through a monthly Professional Development Program. The Executive Director of the agency asks you to prepare a presentation on an emerging theory in social work practice for the next month. You are charged with presenting both theoretical knowledge on an emerging theory and information about skills involved in putting this theory into
practice. Understanding that your audience of social workers from those who recently started their careers to those who have been in the field for many years, you know that you will have to create a presentation that is engaging and relevant. Not all of your colleagues will be able to be in the room for a meeting at the same time, you are to prepare a voice-over PowerPoint presentation.
From the assigned reading and your own research, choose a theory that is not traditionally used in social work practice. In the past two courses, you’ve been exposed to many of the traditional theories, do not attempt to present one of them as an “emerging” theory.
Briefly describe your chosen theory. Questions you may want to answer include, but are not limited to: When did it start? Where did it start? Who started it? Did it grow out of a traditional theory? What information would a social worker need to know if he was considering using this theory in his practice? For example, under what circumstances is it appropriate to use this theory- clients, level of practice, type of problem, etc.
Describe specific skills that a social worker would sue to apply this theory in his generalist practice. What skills would he need in order to engage, assess, plan, intervene, evaluate, terminate, and/or follow up with clients?
Briefly compare your emerging theory, with one of the traditional theories that has been presented in this course or in your previous class.
Address how both of these theories are relevant- or not- to working with underserved populations.
Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as speaker notes for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists and should cite material appropriately. Add audio to each slide using the Media section of the Insert tab in the top menu bar for each slide.
Support your presentation with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources may be included.
Length:12-15 slides (with a separate reference slide)
Notes Length: 100-150 words for each slide
Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style where appropriate. Save the file as PPT with the correct course code information. Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 6 Assignment
Examine Research for your Signature Assignment
Instructions
This week your task is to prepare an annotated outline for your Signature Assignment. Use the following criteria to organize your outline, which will become the basis of your Signature Assignment.
The Signature Assignment for this course is to identify a current social problem with which a social worker may be involved. As part of your presentation of the problem, be sure to describe how elements of human rights and social justice intersect with this social problem.
Select a population that would require social work services related to this problem.
Select a developmental phase of life (i.e., infancy and early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, adulthood, or late adulthood), and then explain the implications of this problem on an individual’s life course trajectory.
Along with the developmental theory related to the stage of life you identified above, identify one theory of human behavior and the social environment that is used to support work with this social problem. Find at least two sources to support this claim.
Examine how you as a social worker would advocate for the affected population regarding this problem.
Support your assessment of human behavior in social environments by drawing upon at least five scholarly works in the discipline of social work.
Length: 2-3 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 7 Assignment
Examine Access to Group Treatment Opportunities in Your Community
Instructions
Your task is to create an informational brochure to educate people in your community about groupwork and local organizations that provide group treatment. Your brochure must include the following:
A basic description of group work appropriate for your community audience
A description of at least two evidence-based group treatments
Information on three agencies in your community that provide group treatment and detailed descriptions of the groups they offer. Include all of the information that a member of the community would need in order to access services in each of these groups.
Finally, submit a brief Video Note in NCUOne. Your video should identify a social policy at the local, state, or federal level that impacts the delivery of, or access to, group treatment in your community.
To create a video note, select the Record video option in the assignment submission area. You will need your webcam to complete this video. Press the New Recording button when you are ready to record your video note and the Stop Recording when finished. Click the Add button to include the video in your assignment submission. Note, the Video Note tool records a maximum of 3 minutes. Plan on splitting your video into multiple segments if need be.
Alternate assignment: If you do not have access to a webcam, prepare a 1-2 page paper addressing your recommendation in addition to the brochure.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 3-5 brochure pages plus short video clip, not including title or reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards where appropriate. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5001 Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
Week 8 Assignment
Examine a Social Problem for a Specific At-Risk Population
Instructions
This week, you will submit your Signature Assignment. Your professor has provided feedback on the Annotated Outline you prepared for Week 6 and this should assist you in completing your final paper.
Begin by providing an overview of the social problem with which a social worker may be involved. As part of this overview, explain how elements of human rights and social justice intersect with this social problem.
Next, discuss the specific population you have chosen for focus on for this assignment. Describe and analyze characteristics of this population such as ethnicity, health concerns, and socioeconomic class.
Explain the implications of this problem on the developmental phase of life (i.e., infancy and early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, adulthood, or late adulthood) that you have previously selected. Your explanation should examine how an intervention, or lack thereof, might affect the individual’s life course trajectory.
Once you have presented the social problem and the selected population, explain how your studies and experience as a social worker will assist you in advocating for your clients who face this problem.
Support your assessment of human behavior in social environments by drawing upon at least five scholarly works in the discipline of social work.
Length: 10-12 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
