3 Main Social Work Theories You Should Know Before Applying to MSW
Your Guide to Social Work Theories for the MSW Application – Part 1: Foundational Theories
If you’re an applicant who didn’t come from a BSW background, or maybe it’s been a while since you finished your BSW, you may be struggling with how to incorporate social work theories and concepts into your personal statement.
When I was working on my personal statements for my MSW application, I was in the exact same boat – I didn’t come from a BSW background, and even though I had been working in the field for a couple of years I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the actual theories or terminology.
Why Should You Use Social Work Theories in Your MSW Personal Statement?
When writing your personal statement, whether or not you already have your BSW, incorporating a social work theory or two can really help improve your statement. As a BSW applicant, it will be important to include some discussion of the field including a theory or two, because the admission committee will probably expect you to have a certain baseline level of social work knowledge given your academic background. That said, mentioning social work theories as a non-BSW applicant can also go a long way in setting apart your statement, because you will be able to demonstrate the strength of your existing knowledge of the field, especially considering it probably wasn’t something you learned in school.
What are the Overarching Theories in Social Work?
The foundational theories that inform social work practice are the person-in-environment theory, strengths-based perspective, and client centred theory.
In this blog post, I’m going to cover three of the most foundational theories and perspectives in social work, and how you can seamlessly incorporate them into your personal statement so that you can put your best foot forward and show the admissions committee that you are prepared for graduate-level social work education.
This is the first post in a three part series covering various social work theories and how to use them in your personal statement. Visit the links below to check out part 2 & 3 of this series.
Part 1: Foundational social work theories (below)
Person-in-environment perspective / ecological systems theory
Strength-based perspective
Client centred perspective
Part 2: Social justice based theories
Empowerment theory
Feminist theory
Conflict theory
Part 3: Direct practice theories
Cognitive and Behavioural Theories (CBT)
Narrative theory
Task-centred model
Person-in-Environment Perspective
One of the central perspectives of social work, and one aspect that sets social work apart from other helping professions, is the person-in-environment perspective (PIE) or Ecological Systems Theory. What this means is that when we are working with clients, we are not only considering the client, but also the environment that impacts them at the micro, mezzo, and macro level. In this sense, the “environment” can be very broad and encompasses many aspects of a person’s life.
For example, the environment in this context could include micro and mezzo level interpersonal relationships like family, friends, or coworkers, the health and social services that they may or may not have access to, and the area and surrounding physical environment that they live in. The environment can also include other influences like cultural background or beliefs, and traditions or customs that inform daily living.
Additionally, the person-in-environment perspective is not limited to the people and places that surround someone. The environment can also include more macro-level influences such as local or federal-level policies that impact someone, along with other systemic factors like discrimination, racism, and sexism.
Simply put, the person-in-environment perspective means that when working with clients, we are considering the physical, social, and political circumstances that impact them.
Using the person-in-environment perspective in your personal statement
If you have some experience relevant to social work already, the odds that you were working from a person-in-environment perspective already are pretty high. You can use this to your advantage by mentioning the perspective when discussing your experience in the personal statement.
For example, say you have experience working or volunteering with children at a daycare. You may have been able to apply the person-in-environment perspective in this work by considering all the external factors that influence the kids you work with. Perhaps there was sometimes a child who had some behaviour challenges, like struggling to listen to workers and being defiant. When working to resolve the issue, you could take a person-in-environment perspective and consider all the other factors that could be related to this issue. There are countless different ways the child’s environment could be impacting the problem. For example, they may have challenges within their family, and regularly witness arguments and fights between their parents. Maybe their family struggles with food insecurity. Maybe they live in a small apartment with their parents and multiple siblings and don’t have a space to themselves. Maybe they are a person of colour and are being bullied by other children in the daycare. By looking at the external factors that could be impacting the situation, and not just the person we are working with, we can get a much better idea of why something might be happening, and solve the problem more effectively.
Even though the applicant in this example was not a social worker, by considering these external factors they are taking an approach that aligns with social work values. In the personal statement, you can make the most of your past experience by highlighting how it aligns with social work, like by explaining how you were able to take a person-in-environment perspective when working through challenges or even in your day-to-day role.
Strengths-Based Perspective
Another key approach in social work is taking a strengths-based perspective. Historically, social work as a profession followed the medical model of practice, meaning it was more focused on assessing and intervening to solve problems. However, more recently, social work has taken more of a strengths-based perspective, which is well-aligned with the social work core values.
From a social work lens, strengths can be internal or external. Internal strengths would be a person’s own internal traits, like their resourcefulness, problem-solving skills, or even their sense of humour. External strengths are a person’s outside resources, like their family, social connections, or community resources that are available to them.
Taking a strengths-based perspective is exactly what it sounds like; instead of placing the focus on the problems or deficits that exist, the focus is on strengths and past successes. This perspective is useful at all levels of social work practice but could be applied in other fields as well.
Using the strength-based perspective in your MSW personal statement
Chances are, you have probably taken a strengths-based approach at some point during your work or volunteer experience, whether it was related to social work or not. For example, perhaps you have experience with an organization where your role was to coordinate volunteers. While considering your team of volunteers, you probably thought about the skills they possess so that they would be able to use these skills to best help the team. In doing this, you were applying a strengths-based perspective, by looking at the strengths and talents of each of your team members and providing them with opportunities to use them!
Taking a strengths-based perspective can apply to a super broad range of experiences, even if you haven’t had work experience that was directly related to social work. By explaining examples of using a strengths-based perspective in your personal statement, you will be able to show the admissions committee that you not only have a baseline understanding of social work theories and values, but that you have actively applied them throughout your experience so far!
Client-Centered Theory
The last main social work theory that I want to highlight is being client-centered. This theory is rooted in the social work value of respecting the dignity and worth of all people, and centers around client self-determination. This means that ultimately, the client is at the center of decision-making. As well, client-centered theory emphasizes the therapeutic helping relationship and values unconditional positive regard for clients.
Like the other two perspectives discussed above, client-centered theory can be applied to a wide range of experiences. In particular, if you are writing about non-social work experience like customer service in your personal statement, discussing how you took a client-centered approach can show that you are already applying social work values, despite your experience not being totally related.
Using client centred theory in your MSW personal statement
Once again, I’ll illustrate how you might use this theory in your personal statement when talking about your past experience with a specific example. Say you worked at a call center for a company. When you were doing this role, in addition to developing your skills in communication and active listening, you could explain that you were client-centered in your work because you prioritized the needs of the customer and ensured that they felt heard in your conversations while you were helping them.
Although you may be new to the field of social work, incorporating some social work theories and terminology can show whoever is reviewing your personal statement that even though you may not have direct social work experience, your own experiences and values are aligned with those of the field, and you would make a great social worker in the future!
Are you applying to your Master of Social Work? Check out our free webinar to learn how to integrate social work theory into your MSW personal statement.
This post is part of our 3 part series on social work theories. In this post we covered the following theories:
Part 1: Foundational social work theories
Person-in-environment perspective / ecological systems theory
Strength-based perspective
Client centred perspective
Check out part 2 and 3 in the series here:
Part 2: Social justice based theories
Empowerment theory
Feminist theory
Conflict theory
Part 3: Direct-practice theories
Cognitive and Behavioural Theories (CBT)
Narrative theory
References
Langer C., & Lietz, C. (2014). Applying theory to generalist social work practice: A case study approach. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
