Psychology and Social Work
| Date | 01 November 1938 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455053800300306 |
| Published date | 01 November 1938 |
| Author | J.E. Alderson |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
4I
PSYCHOLOGY
AND
SOCIAL
WORK
By
Mrs.
J.
E.
ALDERSON,
J.P.
The
present
popularisation
of
psychology
has
at
least
two
disadvantages.
It
encourages
the
un-
critically
optimistic
person
to
expect
from
it
the
solu-
tion
of
most
of
his
problems,
and
on
the
other
hand,
it
antagonises
the
more
reflective
because
of
the
ex-
cessive
claims
of
enthusiastic
devotees.
This
is
un-
fortunate,
for
psychology,
soberly
pursued,
has
ad-
vanced
far
enough
to
have
widened
and
deepened
our
knowledge
of
human
nature,
and,
as
the
prob-
lems of
the
social
worker
are
primarily
human
prob-
lems,
he
should
know
something
of
the
methods
and
results
of the
science
of
human
behaviour.
Only
such
knowledge
can
enable
him
to
judge
of
the
extent
and
limitations
of
its
usefulness.
Social
work
touches
so
many
branches
of
know-
ledge,
that
the
worker
cannot
be
expected
to
become
an
expert
in
this
particular
one.
It
is,
however,
possible
to
learn
a
good
deal
in
a
short
course
of
study,
if
it
is
pursued
in
the
right
spirit.
It
is
unfortunate
that
such
a
disproportionate
amount
of
attention
has
been
concentrated
on
abnormal
psy-
chology.
This
has
tended
to
obscure
the
fact
that
what
we
all
need
most
of
all
is
an
understanding
of
the
springs
of
action
in
ordinary
people.
It
is
often
assumed,
not
so
much
by
social
workers
themselves
as
by
others,
that
the
people
who
fall
into
the
so-
called
&dquo;social
problem&dquo;
class
are
necessarily
abnor-
mal.
Nothing
is,
of
course,
farther
from
the
truth.
Probation
officers
and
magistrates
know
that
the
abnormal
person
is
the
exception,
but
that
they
are
constantly
up
against
problems
of
social
maladjust-
ment.
The
foundation
of
the
study
of
psychology
should
itherefore
be
laid
in
an
understanding
of
the
principles
and
results
of
investigation
as
applied
to
the
normal
person.
Perhaps
the
most
important
advantage
that
one
can
gain
from
an
elementary
study
of
psychology
is
the
encouragement
in
the
student
of
the
correct
atti-
tude
of
psychological
approach
to
the
subject-
matter.
That
involves
impartiality,
impatience,
in-
terest
in
humanity
for
its
own
sake,
and
an
apprecia-
tion
of
the
possible
importance
of
things
that,
at
first
glance,
seem
trivial
and
insignificant.
It
is
an
attitude
which
the
pressure
of
practical
problems
and
the
necessity
of
doing
something
about
them
makes
it
difficult
to
maintain,
and
the
least
prejudiced
of
social
workers
are
capable
of
having
their
vision
of
facts
affected by
their
theories
of
w’hat
things
ought
to
be.
A
good
training
in
psychology,
even
if
it
is
a
short
one,
ought
not
only
to
encourage
the
right
method
of
approach,
but
also
to
familiarise
the
student
with
the
various
psychological
methods,
so
that
he
may
use
them
in
a
modest
way
himself.
So
far
as
the
results
of
psychological
investigation
are
concerned,
social
workers
will
find
its
contribu-
tion
to
the
understanding
of
human
motive
useful.
Everybody
who
has
to
deal
with
vagaries
in
be-
haviour
is
faced
with
the
fundamental
problem
of
why
people
behave
in
such
extraordinary
ways.
The
psychologist
of
the
nineteenth
century
tended
to
look
on
man
as
essentially
guided
in
his
actions
by
rational
considerations,
and
as
so
constituted
that
he
naturally
adopts
the
course
of
action
that
can
be
shown
to
be
reasonable.
Moral
teachers
and
practi-
cal
social
workers
find
that
this
is
far
from
being
the
case,
and
they
welcome
the
influence
of
the
study
of
biology,
which
has
led
the
psychologist
to
give
their
due
to
those
instinctive
urges
which
supply
the
drive
behind !human
behaviour.
Psychologists
may
disagree
in
their
methods
of
classifying
in-
stinots,
but
they
would
all
admit
that
sex,
pug-
nacity,
the
herd
instinct,
self-assertion
and
so
on
are
fundamental
forces
in
the
human
being.
The
business
of
social
and
moral
education
is
largely
that
of
finding
outlets
for
these
natural
urges
which
shall
be
reasonable
and
socially
acceptable.
It
cer-
tainly
is
not
a
matter
of
repressing
them
because
some
of
their
manifestations
are
undesirable.
If
modern
psychology
teaches
anything,
it
is
the
pos-
sible
disastrous
effect
on
mind
and
body
of
repres-
sin,
through
circumstances
or
unwise
education,
of
instinctive
activity.
Again
the
psychologist
is
well
aware
that
the
cause
of
an
action
is
not
by
any
means
necessarily
that
attributed
to
it
by
its
doer,
nor
that
which
seems
to
reveal
itself
easily
to
an
observer.
Its
springs
may
lie
deeper
than
the
conscious
surface
of
the
mind,
and
the
child
who
stutters
or
steals
or
is
cruel
may
do
so
for
reasons
very
indirectly
connected
with
the
act
itself.
The
complexity
of
the
human
mind
shows
itself
too
in
that
persistence
of
memories
which
may
be
in-
capable
of
recall,
but
remain
active
all
the
same,
affecting
the
life
and
health
of
the
individual
in
obscure
ways.
A
person
may
suffer
from
evil
dreams
or
from
a
demoralising
fear
or
other
obsession,
without
having
the
least
idea
that
these
symptom
are
capable
of
being
traced
back
to
apparently
lost
experiences
of
early
life.
The
same
outward
action
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