 Person/environment construct: Positivist versus naturalist, dilemma or opportunity for health social work research and practice?Mary K. Rodwell Social Science & Medicine, 1990, vol. 31, issue 1, 27-34 Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to indicate that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the social work purpose of simultaneous attention to persons in their contexts. In fact, the productive pull of both perspectives is what separates social work from other helping professions. Indeed, it is what separates health social work from other health professions. What has created difficulty, however, has been the predominant lens through which person and environment have been investigated, understood and manipulated. This paper compares two major models of knowledge building in an attempt to identify the consequences for research and practice in social work. Examples are provided from both research and practice that derive from these differing perspectives in an effort to clarify the choices social worker health professionals make when encountering a person-in situation. Keywords: person/environment; positivism; naturalistic; research; naturalistic; practice (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:31:y:1990:i:1:p:27-34 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.