Behavioural and Social Science Discourses

The formal professional base of social work relies on received ideas, especially from the behavioural and social sciences. Social work is an applied social science discipline (Rosenman et al., 1998, p. 215). Pearman and Stewart (1973, p. 12) describe behavioural and social sciences as the ‘attempt to describe the characteristics and products of human behaviour as they occur within social configurations’. Notwithstanding the range of behavioural and social science ideas that influence the knowledge base of social workers, this chapter focuses on discourses within the disciplines of psychology and sociology because of the substantial body of evidence pointing to the central influence of these ideas on the formal base of social work practice.