A comparison of selected values of social work with alcoholics anonymous [microform]
- Bib ID:
- 3283046
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Volk, Roger Malcolm
- Description:
- 197 p.
- Summary:
-
The social work literature recommends referral of clients with alcohol problems to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Social work clients who accept such referral are therefore exposed to the values of two reference groups. This study selected two central values of social work, self-determination and self-realization, and operationally defined the values based on an exploration of selected social work writers. These two values were then examined in the primary literature of AA revealing that the values are not espoused in the AA primary literature. The values of self-determination and self-realization were operationalized using Rotter's Locus of Control scale and a belief in change item developed by Bernard.
A study was conducted to see if the value differences between social work and AA, as defined above, existed in the attitudes of social workers and AA members. The social work sample consisted of 278 social workers, members of the Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. The AA sample consisted of 182 people attending AA meetings in Norfolk, VA. The social work sample approximated the social workers in the universe sampled in age and sex. The AA sample approximated a national AA sample in sex and race, but not age. However age did not seem to affect scores on the dependent variables. Overall Locus of Control scale scores were very similar to national norms. Results indicated that social workers espouse more strongly than AA members the value of self-determination but that AA members espouse more strongly than social workers the value of self-realization.
Social workers with a connection to AA through family, friends, or professional contact did not differ in their value positions from social workers without such contact. In responding to the items of the Locus of Control scale, AA members did not differentiate between two forms of control, personal control and control ideology, as did respondents studied by Gurin, Gurin, Lao, and Beattie. Implications of the findings for social work practice and education were discussed.
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAI9001907
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: A, page: 2653.
- Director: Hans S. Falck.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 1989.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Social Work
- Other authors/contributors:
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1989
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