The key variable in determining if clients will make positive changes in their lives is whether
they have the motivation to make the efforts necessary to improve their circum-stances. Failure in counseling or social work generally occurs when clients do not become motivated.
Many public assistance recipients are discour-aged. Continued economic pressures and generally a long series of past “failure” experiences when they have tried to improve their circumstances frequently have sapped their motivation. Discouraged people tend to travel through life in an unhappy “rut” that is dull, stagnating, and generally unfulfilling but that is seen by them as normal and predictable. For them, extensive efforts to improve their circumstances are viewed as risky and frightening. Many feel it is safer to EP 8a, b
remain in their rut than to try something new that might further expose their weaknesses and result in psychological“hurt.”
Seeking a job, finding transportation, and making day-care arrangements could be seen as overwhelm-ingly difficult for an unskilled single mother (on public assistance) who has never been employed previ-ously. For a wife with five children who periodically is physically beaten by her husband, seeking counseling or making separation arrangements may be seen as highly risky because the future would be uncertain; she may also fear that such actions would only make her hus-band more abusive. For a person with a drinking prob-lem who has recently lost his last two jobs, giving up drinking may be seen as giving up his main“crutch.”
To motivate a discouraged person, the social worker has to be an“encouraging person.” According to Lewis Losoncy, an encouraging person does the following:
Has complete acceptance for the discouraged per-son and conveys “I accept you exactly as you are, with no conditions attached.” (She or he should not, however, convey acceptance of the deviant behavior that needs to be changed.) Has a nonblaming attitude so that the
discour-aged person no longer feels a need to lie, pre-tend, or wear a mask.
Conveys empathy that she or he is aware and can to some extent feel what the discouraged per-son is feeling.
Conveys to the discouraged person that she or he is genuinely interested in the counselee’s prog-ress and conveys that the counselee is an
important, worthwhile person. For discouraged people to believe in themselves, they generally need an encouraging person who conveys the idea that they are important and worthwhile.
Notices (rewards) every small instance of progress—for example, if the person is wearing something new, the counselor says “That’s new, isn’t it? It really looks good on you.”
This is particularly valuable during the begin-ning of the relationship.
Conveys to the discouraged person that she or he has confidence in that person’s capacity to improve.
Conveys sincere enthusiasm about the discour-aged person’s interests, ideas, and risk-taking actions.
Has the capacity to be a nonjudgmental listener so that the discouraged person’s real thoughts and feelings can be expressed freely, without fear of censure.
Has the time to spend listening and understand-ing the discouraged person as fully as possible.
Motivating a discouraged person takes a long, long time. Discouraged people generally have a long history of failures.
Has a sincere belief in the discouraged person’s ability to find a purpose in life.
Allows the person to take risks without judging him or her.
Reinforces efforts made by the discouraged person. The important thing is that one tries and not necessarily whether one succeeds. By making efforts to improve, there is hope.48
S U M M A R Y
The following summarizes this chapter’s content as it relates to the learning objectives presented at the beginning of the chapter. Chapter content will help prepare students to:
1.
Describe the extent of poverty and the effects of living in poverty.About 15% of our population lives below the poverty line. Poverty is relative to time and place. An agreed-on definition of poverty does not exist. The usual defini-tions are based on a lack of money, with annual income
most commonly used to gauge who is poor. Income is defined using either an absolute approach or a relative approach. The pain of poverty involves not only finan-cial hardships but also the psychological implications that being“poverty stricken” have for a person.
2.
Comprehend the income and wealth gaps between the rich and the poor in the United States.Huge income and wealth gaps exist between the high-est fifth and lowhigh-est fifth in our society, and social
mobility (movement up the social-status ladder) occurs rarely. Wealth perpetuates wealth and poverty perpetuates poverty. The ideology of individualism and the Protestant ethic still stigmatize the poor in our society.
3.
Summarize the causes of poverty.Those most likely to be poor include female heads of households, children, people of color, older adults, large families, those with limited education, the unemployed, and those living in pockets of poverty and high unemployment.
The causes of poverty are numerous. Poverty is interrelated with most other social problems. There-fore, almost every social service combats poverty to some extent. Some researchers have noted that the poor have a set of values and attitudes that constitu-tes a culture of poverty. There is now considerable controversy about whether this culture perpetuates poverty or is simply an adaptation to being poor.
In some ways, poverty is functional for society.
For this and other reasons, some decision makers are not actively seeking to eradicate it.
4.
Outline current programs to combat poverty and discuss their merits and shortcomings.The major income maintenance programs to combat poverty were created by the 1935 Social Security Act.
The federal government’s role in providing social insurance programs and public assistance programs was initiated by this act.
Social insurance programs (which are consistent with the institutional view of income transfers) receive less criticism than public assistance programs (which are consistent with the residual view of income transfers). A danger of punitive, stigmatized public assistance programs is that poverty and depen-dency may be passed on to succeeding generations.
In 1996 welfare reform legislation was enacted that focuses on putting adult public assistance recipi-ents with children to work. In 1935, when the AFDC program was enacted, it was thought best for single mothers to stay at home to raise their children. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which created TANF, main-tains that single mothers (and fathers) must work.
5.
Specify a strategy to reduce poverty in the future.The United States is the only Western industrialized country without a family allowance program. Under a
family allowance program, the government pays each family a set amount based on the number of children in the household. If payments were large enough, a program like this could aid in eliminating poverty, particularly in large families.
6.
Describe a social worker’s role in motivating people who are discouraged.Although the profession of social work has gratifica-tions, it also has frustragratifica-tions, including dealing with mounds of paperwork and red tape, working in a bureaucratic structure that is slow to respond to emerging needs, and working with discouraged peo-ple who do not follow through on“intervention plans”
to improve their circumstances. To motivate discour-aged clients, the social worker has to be an “encour-aging person.”
Competency Notes
EP 6a Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frame-works to engage with clients and constituencies (all of this chapter).This chapter focuses on poverty and public welfare. It provides a history of our response to the poor; describes the rich and the poor; identifies the population groups who are poor;
summarizes the causes of poverty; and describes the culture and functions of poverty. It also outlines social insurance programs and public assistance pro-grams, and describes a social worker’s role in motivat-ing people who are discouraged.
EP 8a Critically choose and implement interven-tions to achieve practice goals and enhance capacities of clients and constituencies.
EP 8b Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frame-works in interventions with clients and constitu-encies(pp. 126–127). Information is presented on the social worker’s role in motivating people who are discouraged.
Media Resources
Additional resources for this chapter, including a chapter quiz, can be found on the Social Work CourseMate. Go to CengageBrain.com.
Notes
1. U.S. Poverty Statistics, www.bread.org/.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Linda A. Mooney, David Knox, and Caroline Schacht, Understanding Social Problems, 9th ed. (Stamford, CT:
Cengage Learning, 2015), pp. 173–177.
7. Marilyn Flynn, “Public Assistance,” in Contemporary Social Work, 2nd ed., Donald Brieland, Lela Costin, and Charles Atherton, eds. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), p. 165.
8. Michael Harrington, The Other America (New York:
Macmillan, 1962).
9. Mooney, Knox, and Schacht, Understanding Social Pro-blems, pp. 180–184.
10. “U.S. Poverty Rate Climbed to 15.1 Percent Last Year, Total Number Hit All-Time Record,” Huffington Post, p. 9.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. William Kornblum and Joseph Julian, Social Problems, 14th ed. (Boston: Pearson, 2012), p. 188.
14. Ibid., p. 189.
15. Ibid., p. 189.
16. Quoted in Kornblum and Julian, Social Problems, p. 190.
17. Ibid., p. 189.
18. Kornblum and Julian, Social Problems, pp. 191–192.
19. Ibid., p. 191.
20. U.S. Poverty Statistics.
21. Ian Robertson, Social Problems, 2nd ed. (New York:
Random House, 1980), p. 31.
22. James W. Coleman and Donald R. Cressey, Social Pro-blems, 4th ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), p. 161.
23. U.S. Poverty Statistics.
24. Second inaugural address of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt (Jan. 20, 1937).
25. President’s Council of Economic Advisors, Economic Report of the President (Washington, DC: U.S. Govern-ment Printing Office, 1964), pp. 56–57.
26. Kornblum and Julian, Social Problems, pp. 187–191.
27. Mooney, Knox, and Schacht, Understanding Social Pro-blems, pp. 183–184.
28. Oscar Lewis,“The Culture of Poverty,” Scientific Ameri-can, 215 (Oct. 1966), pp. 19–25.
29. Ibid., p. 23.
30. Eleanor Leacock, ed., The Culture of Poverty: A Critique (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971).
31. Elliott Liebow, Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Street-Corner Men (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967); Ulf Hannertz, Soulside: An Inquiry into Ghetto Culture and Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969); Leacock, The Culture of Poverty.
32. William Ryan, Blaming the Victim, rev. ed. (New York:
Vintage Books, 1976).
33. Thomas Sullivan, Kendrick Thompson, Richard Wright, George Gross, and Dale Spady, Social Problems: Diver-gent Perspectives (New York: Wiley, 1980), p. 390.
34. Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (New York:
Henry Holt and Co., 2001), p. 221.
35. Herbert J. Gans, More Equality (New York: Pantheon, 1968), pp. 133–135.
36. Helen M. Crampton and Kenneth K. Keiser, Social Wel-fare: Institution and Process (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 73.
37. These conservative views are summarized by Samuel Mencher, “Newburgh: The Recurrent Crisis in Public Assistance,” Social Work, 7 (Jan. 1962), pp. 3–4.
38. Rex A. Skidmore and Milton G. Thackeray, Introduction to Social Work, 2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976), pp. 111–112.
39. U.S. Poverty Statistics.
40. Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1986).
41. Quoted in David Whitman,“The Next War on Poverty,”
U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 5, 1992, p. 38.
42. Quoted in Kornblum and Julian, Social Problems, p. 213.
43. Ralph Dolgoff, Donald Feldstein, and Louise Skolnik, Understanding Social Welfare, 4th ed. (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1997), pp. 217–218.
44. Ira Colby and Sophia Dziegielewski, Social Work: The People’s Profession (Chicago: Lyceum Books, 2001), p. 155.
45. Kornblum and Julian, Social Problems, pp. 213–217.
46. Preamble to the Code of Ethics of the National Associ-ation of Social Workers, as adopted by the Delegate Assembly of Aug. 1996.
47. Council on Social Work Education, Final Draft of the 2015 Educational Policy (EP), (Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education, 2015).
48. Lewis Losoncy, Turning People On (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977).