ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the most common theories and perspectives used in social work. It discusses adopt a comprehensive approach to describing human behavior and problems in relation to their interaction with the environment—what social workers often refer to as the person-in-environment approach. The chapter addresses how different systems in clients’ lives operate independently and interdependently and how this affects clients’ well-being. It shows that similarities among concepts and ideas in the ecological and systems theories. Theories and perspectives within the person-in-environment approach tend to focus on client systems, which are the interrelated aspects of clients’ lives which, when considered together, function as an integrated whole. Social work education and literature often use the terms micro, mezzo, and macro when describing the different levels at which people can experience problems. Several disciplines, including social work, conceptualize human behavior from a biopsychosocial approach, which breaks down human behavior into several components that involve a person’s biological, psychological, and social functioning.
