Social Psychology and Social Casework

Author(s): Kimball Young

Source: American Sociological Review , Feb., 1951, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Feb., 1951), pp. 54-61
Published by: American Sociological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2087971

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 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL CASEWORK*

KIMBALL YOUNG
Northwestern University

T HE hiatus between social psychology fundamental point of view largely remains.

and social work is most unfortunate, Among other components of this view in our
but it can be closed at the level of society are, first, the dignity of the individ-
both theory and practice to their mutual ual; second, the responsibility of the com-
benefit. The reestablishment of the section munity for its deviants; and, third, the con-
of Sociology and Social Work augurs for viction that there are ways of helping and/or
better cooperation in the future. Since the controlling people "in trouble."
scope of social work is too large to handle In addition to these three fundamental
in a brief paper, my chief emphasis will be assumptions some others need to be men-
on the relations of social psychology to socialtioned. Behind social work theory lies the
casework. belief or culture pattern that the commu-
As a basis for improving the communica- nity, through certain leading groups and in-
tion between these two areas of interest and dividuals therein, knows what is good for its
activity, it will be well to delimit each field. citizens or members and more particularly
Social psychology is concerned with person- for the deviants. Furthermore, there is an
ality acting and reacting in a matrix of so- assumption that the community and its
ciety and its culture. The key concept is leaders should use community resources,
interaction and the central theme is the which are a form of power, to see that the
individual's role and status in the situation deviants get such treatment as will bring
or "field" of interacting individuals. One them into line with the fundamental value
aim of social psychology, as of like sciences,system of a given society.
is an understanding and analysis of events
with an eye either to the reconstruction of TRENDS IN CASEWORK

the past or to the making of predictions of In recent decades the secularization of

varying probability regarding future events. social work has been accompanied by certain
The statement that one purpose of science is shifts in the proximate aims and techniques
prediction and control is not quite accurate. of social work agencies. The most striking of
The functions of control rest not with the these changes is the increasingly heavy stress
scientist per se but with the policy makers in on psychological factors which enter into the
regard to public and private action. relations of agency-workers and clients. Es-
This comment regarding control gives the pecially is this true in casework, although it
cue to an examination of the nature of social is evident in group work, and even in the
work. Broadly conceived the theory and more or less straight relief-giving agencies,
practice of social work fall definitely within now largely under public support.
the scope of social control and social action. A good picture of these alterations may be
Social workers may or may not employ the
obtained by examining the curricula of de-
findings of science as a means to their ends,
partments or schools of social work of an
but their central concern is welfare. earlier date. In the 1910's, when more or less
The history of social work reveals some formal professional training began, the stress
shift from the philanthropic, "Lady Bounti- was on "organized charity and different
ful," and religiously oriented philosophy toforms of children's work, including placing
a more secular theory and practice. Yet the out, institutional care, and the protection of
childhood."' While the 1920's saw an exten-
* Paper read at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Society held in Denver, Sep-I From Announcement of the Philadelphia Train-
tember 7-9, 1950. ing School for Social Work, 1910-1911.
54

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 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL CASEWORK 55
sion of professional work, including gradu-
ate training, courses were still directed to-
ward services for "the destitute, sick, aged,
dependent children, and the groups mentally
and physically defective."2
Although the 1930's saw the largest frac-
tion of our unemployed population on relief
during our history, it had also become in-
creasingly clear in social work that matters
of interpersonal adjustment were likewise
crucial. By 1940 the day of psychiatry and
psychology had arrived.
This is apparent from even a casual in-
spection of recent catalogues of the leading
graduate professional schools of social work.
On the basis of a rough set of 15 categories
of fields covered, the writer tabulated the
present course offerings of 13 schools, exclud-
ing the field work courses. Altogether 650
courses were listed.3 Of these nearly 15 per
cent dealt directly with psychology and psy-
chiatry, while slightly less than 16 per cent
had to do with social casework and super-
vision, many of which, however, had a
definite psychological emphasis. About 12
per cent dealt with group work; a bit more
than 10 per cent with training in research
methods; medical and health courses made
up nine per cent; and the community, in-
cluding legal aspects, and public welfare had
slightly more than seven per cent each.
These seven categories account for more
than three-fourths of all the offerings. By
way of contrast, courses on immigration and
on institutional care have practically dis-
appeared. Also the relative attention to the
topic of delinquency seems to have declined.
As a means of providing a larger view of
the place of social work in our own cultural
scene, there are scattered courses on plan-
ning, democracy, and philosophy of social
work. Yet judging from this sample of insti-
tutions, there is nowhere any concerted ef-
fort to place the field of social work in any
larger theoretical and systematic frame.
Before social work was secularized, workers
2 From Circular of Information, University of
Chicago, Graduate School of Social Service Admin-
istration, 1923-1924.
3 Mostly for 1950-51; in one or two instances
for 1949-50 or 1948-49.
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in the field did not hesitate to admit its
broader rationale to be that of Judaistic-
Christian ethics. While this is not common
today, the strong moral component in social
work remains, if not in direct relationship
to the courses, certainly as a backdrop to
the entire program.
Looked at in broader perspective, the
particular theory or set of assumptions of
social casework in the United States must be
understood in terms of the broad cultural
setting from which it grows. An examination
of the more or less well-known definitions of
casework, though varying somewhat in em-
phasis, show that all stress the factor of
assistance to individuals with a view to
helping them, by various ways, to get on
their own feet.4 The basic center of attention
is the individual although the social or group
setting is by no means neglected. More spe-
cifically, the American Association of Social
Workers recently set down their objectives
so far as community services are concerned
in the following terms:
All people everywhere need organized provi-
sions to insure opportunities for work and a
stable income, to safeguard their homes, to pro-
mote mental and physical health, and adequate
education, and to provide opportunities for
religious expression and for the satisfying use of
leisure time.
Among all groups, however, some are espe-
cially vulnerable, and may need temporary pri-
orities as long as the total supply of community
services remains critically short in relation to
the total number of people whose welfare de-
pends on them. A high priority must always be
given to services for the very young and the
growing, for the injured and disabled, and for
those friendless, homeless, and displaced.5
The historical setting of this conception of
casework and the associated theory and prac-
tice are reasonably evident. The high stress
4 See Swithun Bowers, "The Nature and Differ-
ence of Social Casework: Part I," Journal of Sociat
Casework, 30 (1949), 313-315, for a listing of 34
definitions of social casework beginning in 1915 by
Mary Richmond and ending in 1947 by one from
Charlotte Towle.
5 From A Social Policy for Today, prepared by
the American Association of Social Workers, New
York, 1949.
56 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

on personal initiative in this country, the ing so, you abstain from exerting strong influ-
whole pattern of upward striving for status, ence or any pressure on the clients will.

the growing heterogeneity of our culture,
and the extreme mobility and impersonality
which characterize mass society have pro-
duced, among other effects, considerable per-
sonal anxiety, a sense of anomie which, in
turn, induces a strong need "to belong," and
an equally strong urge for emotional secu-
rity. When these emotional conditions be-
come sufficiently acute to oblige individuals
I suspect, although I am not sure, that
the narrow framework of our economy and the
widespread pressure of most difficult social
conditions has caused us to work for some kind
of social order within which the individual will
fit. If necessary, we use strong influences, and,
in extreme cases, authority and force, to bring
about his adjustments to such an order. We feel
strongly a common and joint responsibility to
provide for all, and not only to give everyone a

to seek the help of caseworkers, the latter chance to provide for himself. We find it diffi-
cult to accept a situation in which it is left to
undertake to deal with their clients under the
the client to decide whether or not he will use
old proverb of helping people to help them-
opportunities that may be available.6
selves. There is an interesting connection
between assistance on the part of an agent Most students of German culture, at least
or representative of the community and the as it relates to the modal personality struc-
stress on the need for the client to develop ture of middle class Germans, would detect
self-reliance. in these remarks evidences, not merely of a
This linkage of helping and self-reliance temporary demand for conformity because of
is part of our larger moral expectancies. It present-day economic and political difficul-
is my impression that most social workers ties, but a more fundamental reflection of an
prefer the client to show self-reliance be- authoritarian culture.
cause it fits into our individualistic, upward Not only must our casework theory and
striving value system. The relationship of thepractice be interpreted in terms of our par-
worker to the client is one of aiding the ticular value system, but the student of
latter to plan and carry out a program which human conduct who has a cross-cultural
will make him an independent, self-determin- orientation will realize that we have as yet
ing unit in our society. no proof of there being anything necessarily
In this connection let me cite an interest- superior in our interpretation of social be-
ing letter from one Dr. W. Polligkeit, Execu- havior. One of the most needed things in
tive Director of the National Association for social work, and especially in casework, is a
Public and Private Welfare, Germany, with broader understanding of cultural differ-
regard to an article by Hertha Kraus, en- ences.7 That there is some slight inclination
titled, "The role of social casework in Ameri- in this direction is seen in the fact that six
can social work." Prepared for a symposium of the thirteen institutions examined above
on casework in the United States for dis- report having a course which tries to link up
tribution in Germany, Miss Kraus presents concepts and materials of cultural anthro-
a very competent statement of the more or 6 See "Readers' Comments," Social Casework,
less generally accepted view of casework in 31 (1950), 34-35. Italics not in original. Kraus's
this country. Among other comments on thisarticle appears in this same number, pp. 3-11.
7 In this connection see H. H. Stroup, "The
article Dr. Polligkeit remarks:
Contribution of Anthropology to Social Work Edu-
We also have tried to arrive at a social diag- cation," Social Casework, 31 (1950), 189-194. For
nosis in every case, but we base on such a other evidences of the need to understand the
cultural setting of the client, see Maurine Boie,
diagnosis a plan of service which the social
"The Case Worker's need for Orientation to the
worker expects to carry out directly and per-
Culture of the Client," The Family, 18 (1937),
sonally, although naturally assisted by the
197-204; Katharine N. Handley, "Social Casework
client. Casework as you interpret it, however, and Intercultural Problems," Journal of Social
seems to have an entirely different objective, Casework, 28 (1947), 43-50; and Peter I. Sandi,
namely to activate and to clarify the will toward "The Psychocultural Approach in Social Casework,"
self-reliance and self-help of each client. In do- ibid., 28 (1947), 377-381.

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 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL CASEWORK 57

pology with those of social work. From my well-trained and well-experienced worker
own observations I doubt that this injection knows a great deal about handling trans-
of anti-ethnocentrism has, so far, had much ference, projection, and other manifestations
beneficial effect. of the client's frustrations, anxieties, and
Both social psychology and casework have other internalized difficulties.
drawn heavily upon psychoanalysis. Case- Before going on to the next section, one
work reports are more and more filled with further comment may be made. As impor-
references to the so-called Freudian mech- tant as social psychology is for casework,
anisms, such as identification, projection, there is much evidence to the effect that
repression, reaction-formation, transference, social workers have gone to an extreme in
and all the rest. Moreover, the literature of their present heavy stress on the psychologi-
casework is replete with such cliches as cal components of adjustment. Not only do
"drawing on the person's strengths," "the they need the information, balance, and
development of inner resources," "the devel- humility which should accompany knowl-
opment of the fullest capacity of life," and edge of cultural anthropology, but, among
"relationship therapy." Just what this jargon all too many caseworkers, there is consider-
means is not always made clear. It is likely able ignorance of the nature and importance
that such glittering generalities really dis- of economic, political, and sociological fac-
guise a good deal of ignorance as to just tors in human adjustment. To note but one
what the social worker and his client together illustration: Young workers, fresh from a
are accomplishing. plethora of psychologically oriented courses,
Certainly writers in the field of casework, often find themselves unable to deal ade-
as is also true of psychiatrists and analysts quately with members of a minority group
themselves, do not seem aware of the large or another race because of their almost com-
number of scientifically untested hypotheses plete ignorance of the daily habits and
found in traditional psychoanalytic literature attitudes of members of such groups.
and now in increasing amount in that of In an earlier day people aiming at a pro-
casework itself. While social psychology, in fession in social work often combined courses
company with general psychology, has taken in sociology, economics, government, and
over many psychoanalytic concepts and in- history with their special training courses.
terpretations of behavior, on the whole, they Today the curricula are so filled with courses
have done so with a much more critical considered absolutely essential to adequate
awareness of the need to put the psycho- attainment of skills in handling clients or
analytic postulates, hypotheses, and findings administrative routine that well-recognized
to a critical test.8 social science courses have no place. While a
As an art of helping people out of trouble, good many students who take professional
casework and psychoanalysis have, of course, graduate work have previously had some
much in common. While few caseworkers social science courses, a considerable frac-
are qualified to undertake even a modified tion lack an adequate foundation in sociol-
psychoanalysis, there is no doubt that the ogy, economics, and related fields. One way
to remedy this would be to bring the psy-
8 See Robert R. Sears, Survey of Objective chiatrists and psychologists themselves into
Studies of Psychoanalytic Concepts, Bulletin No. 51, closer relation at both the teaching and re-
New York: Social Science Research Council, 1943. search level with men in the academic social
The way in which caseworkers like many clinical
sciences.
and child psychologists perpetuate a lot of still
untested but widely accepted interpretations de-
IMPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH IN SOCIAL
rived from psychoanalysis is shown in regard to the
importance of "mothering" the young infant and in CASEWORK

many current practices in toilet and other early

Laying aside the topic of whether we can
training. See Harold Orlansky, "Infant Care and
Personality," Psychological Bulletin, 46 (1949), build a science out of data collected in the
1-48, for a critical review of this topic. operation of an art which stresses moral

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 58 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
judgments, helping, and service, let us men-
tion some of the minimal factors which must
be taken into account in stimulating research
in casework itself or research on some prob-
lem wherein social worker and social psychol-
ogist might collaborate.
A knowledge of the nature of the universe
with which the caseworker deals and of pos-
sible ways of selecting a proper random and
representative sample is a first requisite. For
instance, assuming that casework deals with
deviants who need help or service-on the
basis of some consciously or unconsciously
assumed standard-we would want to know
how many apply for aid from the casework
agency. How many, on the other hand, go to
fortune tellers, medical quacks, or to some
revivalistic religious organization? The more
competent agencies do record the number
who apply and who are accepted, but the
basis of selection is not always as clear as it
should be. Certainly agencies tend to select
(a) those cases that its facilities permit in
terms of staff and cost, and (b) those cases
that it thinks its workers are qualified to
handle. Where there are evident restrictions
of staff, agencies unwittingly or otherwise
may reject cases which are thought to be too
difficult or else uninteresting. It might be
scientifically worthwhile to uncover such
procedures as a means of checking on the
nature of the sample and as regards subse-
quent outcome.
Of those persons who do get into the
agency, what relation is there between the
number of visits or "contacts" between client
and worker and the solution, that is, attain-
ment of the goal? The loss of members of
this universe by spontaneous recovery, resi-
dential mobility, or for other reasons is
seldom, if ever, taken into consideration.
If social workers are to contribute to
building an objective foundation to their
own work as well as to add to systematic
social psychology, attention must also be
paid to the matter of adequate and sound
facts. Among other things the following
seem to me to be crucially important:
(1) Some standard and comparable units
to be counted and/or measured must be
determined. This may be an individual, or a
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group such as the family. Objective data
can not be obtained unless the workers have
some consensus as to the nature of the basic
unit with which they are dealing. In terms
of art and therapy the caseworker may
plead that he handles unique cases, each one
different, but this is no answer if he wants
to contribute to the science of human
behavior.
Having defined some unit or standard
item, it is then possible, at least, to count
the frequency of said unit or item, and there
may be data in social work operations of
considerable importance which cannot be
dealt with except at the enumerative level.
For example, the proportions considered
successes or failures in follow-up studies,
even if the criteria of success or failure be
only the crudest approximations, are better
than subjective impressions.
(2) In line with good practice in science
caseworkers might develop taxonomic cate-
gories. Among other things they might (a)
improve their records by agreeing generally
on a more objective scheme for classifying
so-called pathological conditions or environ-
ment from which cases derive. (b) They
might work out a more satisfactory means
of classifying diagnostically the individuals
and/or families who are the basic unit.
These should provide details about the inter-
personal matrix in which the individual or
individuals operate and indicate also the
dynamics of habits, ideas, attitudes, and
values of those concerned. (c) An effort
should be made to improve the descriptive
categories of the kinds of help given. Much
more difficult and yet also essential is (d)
the determination of goals and an objective
way of recording the same and (e) the deci-
sion or judgment as to the place the case-
work had in the attainment of the goal. As
Blenkner well says in regard to establishing
a criterion of success, one must "relate it to
the goal of the caseworker and to the original
status of the client at intake, for the criteria
of success in any operation must be relevant
to the circumstances and the purpose. . . . If
this is not done, one can never be sure that
goals and diagnoses are not being defined in
terms of results-a circular sort of procedure
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL CASEWORK 59
guaranteed to make conclusions question-
able, if not altogether meaningless."9
(3) In this connection we must not over-
look the fact that behind casework are cer-
tain assumptions of personal disorganization
or maladjustment. Frequently this, in turn,
is regarded as an individual reflection of
something called social disorganization,
meaning thereby some low level of efficiency,
poverty, ill-health, criminality, etc., in a
number of individuals who are together
regarded as a group.
Whether made explicit or not, social work
always implies a norm. For the most part
this norm is stated in vague humanitarian
terms. But as social work draws upon social
science and as it essays to develop some
measures of success or failure, it must de-
velop indices of personal and social malad-
justment. Care must be taken, however, that
the indices of such maladjustment are not
confused with the "indicators of treatment."
Burgess pointed out this danger years ago
in commenting on "Social Breakdown: A
Plan for Measurement and Control," a docu-
ment prepared by the Community Chests
and Councils in 1939.10 For example, divorce
is often considered an index of a maladjusted
family. Yet in practice, on the basis of facts
elicited from the client and others, the social
worker may advise divorce as a solution to
an "intolerable domestic situation." As such
it is an index of "good" not "bad" adjust-
ment.
We are on very uncertain ground in these
matters because the value system which
underlies the determination of norms is so
difficult to define. Certainly norms cannot
be stated outside the particular cultural
frame. Nonetheless an effort should be made
to develop some kind of indices against
which one may measure success or failure.
(4) A further step in the use of science
will follow the development of some kind of
measuring instrument. In the field of social
9 Margaret Blenkner, "Obstacles to Evaluative
Research in Casework: Part II," Social Casework,
31 (1950), 97.
10 See E. W. Burgess, "Symposium on 'Social
Breakdown': V. The sociologist's point of view,"
The Family, 21 (1941), 296-298.
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work only the barest beginnings have been
made. We have nothing comparable in meas-
uring social work to the measures of intelli-
gence or emotionality and temperament found
in psychology. In recent years, however,
various attempts have been made. Only the
most suggestive of these, that of J. McV.
Hunt and collaborators, will be noted."
Hunt and his co-workers have developed
what they call a "Movement Scale," aimed
at the standardization of caseworker judg-
ment of change in a given case. This is
essentially a rating scheme in which the
judges report on a seven-point scale their
decisions as to the direction and degree of
change or movement "in the individual
and/or his situation between the opening
and closing of his case" as this change "has
been associated with his receiving casework
help."'12 This change may be in the direction
of "deterioration" or of "improvement."
(The scale runs from -2, maximum degree
of deterioration, through -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
maximum improvement.) The raters are pro-
vided with definitions of the kinds of evi-
dence "that constitute movement" as being
"changes in the client's adaptive efficiency,
disabling habits and conditions, attitudes
and understanding, and environmental situa-
tions."13 The scale further delimits its mean-
ing by asking the raters or judges "to
consider separately those factors" ruled out
by the scale-makers as being "not move-
ment." Among others these included, "(a)
the degree to which treatment goals are
11 See also, A. A. Heckman and A. Stone, "Test-
ing Case Work Results: Forging New Tools," Sur-
vey Midmonthly, 83 (1947), 267-270.
12 J. McV. Hunt, Margaret Blenkner, and Leon-
ard S. Kogan, "A Field-test of the Movement
Scale," Social Casework, 31 (1950), 267-277. Quo-
tation from p. 267. For other material on this scale
and its development, see J. McV. Hunt, "Measur-
ing Movement in Casework," Journal of Social
Casework, 29 (1948), 343-351; and for fuller de-
tails, Measuring Results in Social Casework: A
Manual on Judging Movement; and J. McV. Hunt,
M. Blenkner, and L. S. Kogan, Testing Results in
Social Casework: A Field-test of the Movement
Scale. These latter are published by Family Service
Association of America, New York, 1950.
13lbid., p. 268.
 60 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
achieved, (b) the degree to which casework
is responsible for change, and (c) the diffi-
culty of the client's problem.'14 Finally the
instructions provide the raters with anchor-
points which aid them in making judgments.
These take the form of brief case summaries
that illustrate the "key steps" on the scale.
While it is too early to say whether this
device, developed from a sample of cases
from the Community Service Society of
New York, will have general applicability, it
represents a genuine step in the direction of
much-needed objectivity. If it does nothing
else it may serve an educational purpose of
helping caseworkers to think in more scien-
tific terms.
While we may expect improvements in
Movement Scale and in other devices to
evaluate success or failure, these cannot be
very greatly extended until social workers
are trained to regard sampling and the use
of objective units and categories, not as
instruments of personal torture but as gen-
uine aids in making their own data more
scientific and hence a more valid base from
which to predict the future of the given
client or family. Moreover, on the larger
front, such data would contribute to social
psychology by adding to our systematic
knowledge of personality and group dy-
namics.
(5) Efforts to determine success or failure
are important because they point the way
to working out some means of prediction,
which is essential to the development of
those social controls that provide a balance
between individual independence and social
solidarity. As noted above, casework is es-
sentially concerned with social action in one
form or another, hence attempts at improv-
ing predictability should help in developing
the practical arts of sound control.
Yet the task is not an easy one. We are
back to the problem of ends. We ask, did
the, job attain the goal? But we ask further,
whose goals? The social worker's, the cli-
ent's, or that of society at large, or at least
of that segment of society which supports
14 Ibid.
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private agencies.'5 In any case, efforts at
determining success or failure must define
the goals and identify whose goals they are.
We should always know the context in which
the helping and controlling functions occur.
(6) Because it is central to the collection
and interpretation of their data, caseworkers
give much attention to the nature of the
interview. In like manner much important
research in social psychology also depends
on the interview for its data. What can
workers in the two fields learn from each
other on this matter?
First, the intent of the caseworker inter-
view is different from that of the research
interviewer. The former aims at eliciting in-
theformation which will enable him to develop
with the client some plan of action. This
latter aims at getting facts which will help
him to prove or disprove a given hypothesis.
As a scientist he is not interested in the
welfare of the interviewee.
There are obvious differences in interview
usage. The quick polling type which requires
only relatively simple answers is quite differ-
ent from prolonged and repeated interviews
which are common in casework. However,
some types of research in social psychology
call for the extended and often repeated
interview and it is here that casework prac-
tice may be helpful. The well-trained case-
worker has assets which are often lacking in
the naive and relatively untrained inter-
viewer in social psychology. One of the most
important of these assets is the insight into
one's own biases and mental processes which
may arise during the interview. Another is
an understanding of the operation of mental
processes in the client or subject. For in-
stance, the well-trained caseworker is alert
to projection of her own wishes and anxieties
on to the client or vice versa. She is alert to
the emergence of transference on the part of
the client, and of the operation of other
interpersonal mechanisms which may or may
15 As social workers generally well know, the
givers of money and board members often express
much concern over the failure of their agency to
attain what they consider sound goals.
 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND CHILD GUIDANCE PRACTICE 61

not interfere with, modify, or handicap the
securing of facts. In research interviews the
interviewer, unaware of these matters, is, on
occasion, likely to be deflected from fact-
finding to giving advice or to becoming the
object of the subject's emotional displace-
ment.
There are many other important tech-
niques of interviewing which the trained
caseworker could contribute to social psy-
chology, especially in collecting those types
of data not easily secured by means of more
formal questionnaires, measuring scales, and
the like. In trying to secure intimate and
often unconsciously derived material from
an informant, one usually needs a more
subtle approach than a paper and pencil
questionnaire or a check list of items.
In closing this paper we need but briefly
restate the fundamental considerations. So-
cial casework is concerned with social action
which must of necessity involve moral judg-
ments. The latter, in turn, are rooted in the
cultural matrix of our society. In contrast,
social psychology has to do with the collec-
tion and generalization of facts with a view
to the systematic formulation of laws of
social behavior. Yet both fields may and do
contribute to each other. The contribution
of casework. to social psychology would be
greatly enhanced by further development of
objective measures of their operations. On
the other hand, social psychology may learn
much from casework, not only of facts
regarding behavior, but in many techniques
of securing data.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SOCIAL SCIENCE AND CHILD

GUIDANCE PRACTICE*

OTTO POLLAK
University of Pennsylvania

T HE history of the relations between Significantly, also, foundation interest has

social science and social welfare
practice, by and large, has been one
of estrangement and separation. In recent
years, however, there have appeared signs of
a reversal of this trend. Some private welfare
agencies have begun to draw upon the serv-
ices of research scientists for the solution
of certain problems. Papers expressing inter-of the Foundation had been directed at this
est in closer contact between scientific re-
search and social welfare practice have made
appearance in the professional literature.1
* Paper read at the annual meeting of the Amer-
ican Sociological Society held in Denver, September
7-9, 1950.
1 Stanley P. Davies, "The Relation of Social Sci-
ence to Social Welfare," Social Work Journal, 31
(1950), 20-26, 32; J. McV. Hunt, "A Social Agency
as a Setting for Research-The Institute of Welfare
Research," Journal of Consulting Psychology, 13
(1949), 69-81; Henry Maas, "Collaboration be-
tween Social Work and the Social Sciences," Social
Work Journal, 31 (1950), 104-109; Olive M. Stone,
been directed with emphasis to this problem.
In 1947-1948 the Trustees of the Russell
Sage Foundation decided to devote particu-
lar attention to the need for a closer relation-
ship between social practice and the behavior
sciences. This was not the formulation of a
completely new policy because some efforts
goal from the beginning of its work.2 The
strengthening of emphasis in this direction,
however, was pronounced and its timing
fortunate. It came at a moment when social
practitioners and social scientists were ready
to react positively to its stimulation.
During 1948-1949 the Foundation initi-
ated several projects in line with this policy
"What Can Social Case Work Contribute to the
Social Sciences?" American Sociological Review, 15
(1950), 66-73.
2 Russell Sage Foundation, Annual Report 1948-
1949, pp. 8-9.

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