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Stress In Social Work Practice

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Within the social work profession, stress is an element that can be experienced by the client and the social worker. Stress is considered the physical, mental, and emotional strain that results in negative consequences to those that experience it (American Institute of Stress, 2017). For instance, stress for a social worker and their client can begin influencing their behaviors based on those stressful experiences or by observing others in a stressful situation. In social psychology, these changes in social behavior are based on the learning theory (Lewis, 1936). For this paper, the direct experiences of stressful situations will be discussed and applied to the learning theory of social behavior. The impact of stress through the learning theory …show more content…
For example, there is a study on the model of decisions from experience (DFE) that is based on the instance-based learning theory (IBLT). To clarify, DFE provides framework for studying how individuals adapt and learn how to make decisions, which is based off the information gained in an instance (Gonzalez & Martin, 2011). The authors go on to explain how cognitive information is learned from an experience within an instance, which consist of three parts: a situation, a decision or action, and an outcome Gonzalez & Martin, 2011). Within social work practice, stress can be caused by various relating factors. For instance, the social worker can experience stress in the workplace due to increased workloads or lack of support. Within the community, the clients can be experience their own stress from life traumas and other reoccurring crisis situations. Galluch, Grover, and Thatcher (2015) discuss that there are two types of stress that individuals can experience: (1) chronic stress is long term and consistent and (2) episodic stress is short term and inconsistent. Based on the types of stress that the social worker and the client is experiencing, it can have a vital impact on their behaviors and interactions within the therapeutic relationship

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