ABSTRACT
The inquiry and assessment process is critical to effective social work. The Council on Social Work Education refers to this work as assessment and identifies assessment as a major phase of the planned change process. After engaging the client or members of the client system, the practitioner typically attempts to focus the information gathering and assessing processes. The use of a theoretical framework or frameworks reduces the likelihood of amassing a random collection of facts and observations while the theories focus and streamline the information-gathering process. Social learning theory (SLT), for instance, a highly regarded and empirically supported theoretical approach associated with the behavioral tradition, can neatly guide the worker's information-gathering work. Multi-theoretical assessment deepens information focusing, gathering, and understanding about person-interacting-in-environmental contexts by using polytheoretical inquiry focused on the array of processes facilitating and restraining individual and collective fulfillment. Explanatory theories can provide direction to inquiry and assessment.
