Social Work Theories Essay

Understanding the various theoretical frameworks help social workers perform their job in a way that will not only help the client, but will give the social worker a guide throughout the helping process. Learning all the theories in class has been useful during the process of working in my internship for the program because I find myself applying the theories to my cases. I have found some theories to be very helpful in the field that I intend on keeping them in mind during my practice now and in the future.
Background
I am a 24-year-old heterosexual Hispanic woman that was raised in Fresno, California in a Catholic family. As an able-bodied citizen, I considered my social class upbringing to be middle class because I always had the necessary resources growing up. Being raised within my Mexican culture has made me culturally self-aware. Identifying as Mexican American, Spanish-Native Speaker and cis-gender woman, have given me a wider

Cognitive theory can be defined as “ an activating event produces a belief or thought-that produces an emotion or action”(p172). The principle of cognitive theory is that cognition is our conscious mental activity this includes all our beliefs, assumptions, and ideas. Cognition is how we process information. When you have an invalid or faulted cognition it causes distress in one’s life, which may lead to an individual seeking cognitive therapy.
The assumptions for cognitive theory are that cognitive interventions focus on assessing the rationality of one’s thought, the conclusions they then reach about one’s self, and the environment around them. A major concept in cognitive theory is schemas, which are our internalized patterns of thought, how we organize, and store, process new information. They may develop through direct and observed