The essence and nature of the laws of social work. Social work theory. promoting social rehabilitation and adaptation

One of the most important system-forming elements of social work as a science are patterns that express strong, repeating, objectively determined connections between the essence of phenomena and processes and social work. Theoretical substantiation and experimental confirmation of the laws of social work is one of the main tasks of modern scientists and researchers.

It should be noted that patterns that objectively exist in reality often differ from the patterns that take place in science.

The laws of social work formulated in science, as the knowledge of real processes develops and deepens, and as the conceptual apparatus improves, changes and transforms.

The interdisciplinary, integrative nature of social work, the need for statistical processing of a huge amount of empirical material and observational data complicates the identification and formulation of patterns.

Currently, we can talk about the following patterns:

1) social work is a specific type of activity to influence processes occurring in society in accordance with the needs of people, the requirements of a specific situation, serving the interests of all people, their spiritual elevation and renewal of social relations, the preservation and rehabilitation of social health;

2) the formation of an individual occurs according to a “social program” - under the influence of the social environment, with the determining role of the activity of the individual himself in his own development;

3) the sources of formation and consumption of social services are socially determined, that is, they are determined by the needs of society and reflect the trends of its development.

In Russian practice, the dominant theoretical principles are the psychological and pedagogical field of cognition, for example, the “principle of individual approach.” Conventionally, the principles of social work can be divided into the following groups: 1) general principles that reflect the strategies of social work in all its cognitive and practical directions; 2) conceptual principles characteristic of theoretical schools and directions; 3) operational and implicit principles implemented in the process of interactions at various levels; 4) ethical principles that reflect the moral imperatives of a social worker performing a certain mission in society. In different etchings and schools, these principles may have their own typologies and classifications.

1) General principles of social work

These principles reflect the general typological connections and relationships characteristic of all classification systems and taxonomies of social work that exist regardless of the form of practice and the subjectivity of the client in need. General principles are expressed in denotative definitions, where the description and identification of processes is carried out through clear and accessible, transparent concepts. They express the philosophy of social work in the aspect of its theoretical concepts of the meta-level of knowledge of practice as the reality of problems and needs of clients that can be changed in the right direction. Such principles, reflecting the essence of subject-subject, subject-object, object-subject relations, are the following:

The principle of activation comes from the idea of equal partnership and equal responsibility of the subject and object of social assistance. The goals of activation are related both to the determination of the independence of the objects of assistance in their political, legal, economic independence, and to the ability to identify, defend and solve their problems independently.

The principle “environment - personality” is associated with methodological guidelines for the process of interaction, where the environment acts as the object of change. The environment can be represented by various objects of change from the community to the reference group. It also acts as a methodological principle for justifying significant connections and relationships between the subject and the environment, changing his individual development strategies, as well as leading to stagnation.

The “person - environment” principle reflects the essence of strategies for changing and developing meso- and macro-objects of assistance, where an individual subject acts as an active agent of modification. The principle expresses the philosophy of social work and the process of its cognition, which assumes that there is no fatal dependence of a person on the environment, which also changes under the influence of individual transformations of individual subjects.

The “here and now” principle is a general attitude towards the process of interaction and cognition of a social worker with a client, where thoughts, feelings, and events that take place directly at a given, concrete existential time are updated.

The “there and then” principle in general represents the social worker’s focus on the process of interaction and cognition of the client, in which the client’s past experience and life situations, which were the reason for the modification of his life strategies, are updated.

The principle “I and others” is the principle according to which the process of cognition in social work must take into account the totality of influences leading to changes in the development strategies of the object. They can be represented by various connections, relationships, situations and be located in various spheres and areas of existence that are not directly related to the object of assistance. According to this principle, the strategy of providing assistance to the subject is revealed, taking into account the various forces contributing to it.

These principles are universal and characteristic of all schools of knowledge in social work, regardless of their conceptual and ideological orientation. They are historically based, reflect a certain stage of development and knowledge of social work, they are constantly updated, clarified and supplemented, depending on historical, social, cognitive needs and conditions.

2) Conceptual principles of social work

Conceptual principles in social work cognitive theory are expressed through covocatative and nominative definitions. Connotative definitions reflect the specifics of cognition of meso-level concepts and determine their special features inherent only to a given level and direction of cognition. Nominal definitions represent the main, qualitative characteristics and priorities of theoretical concepts, in their conceptual opposition and propositions relative to other theoretical concepts of social work.

The variety of theoretical concepts and directions that are constantly in the process of development makes it difficult to reflect the entire spectrum of these principles, however, approaches to their classification and characteristics of the main concepts give an idea of the nature of their functioning.

Based on M. Bloom's concept of the components of scientific theory, scientific concepts relevant to the practice of social work should consist of provable, scientifically substantiated and non-contradictory components. Each component must reflect its level of cognitive tasks, it must have its own taxation, it must represent its own unit of analysis of reality. The structure of a scientific concept should therefore consist of:

* concepts;

*classifications;

* normative models;

* principles.

So, the principles of this level of cognition are associated with basic phenomena, procedures, and meanings of the concept. Without being universal in nature, they reflect the connections and relationships of a certain branch of practice and scientific understanding. This can be shown with several examples.

Situational theory of social work is based on the concept of behavior. The central concept is “situation”. The range of its manifestations is quite wide, from individual crisis to family and collective, which makes it possible to classify normative and pathogenic situations. In this regard, the principles reflect behavioral systemic connections in the “life and behavior” coordinates. Based on K. Levin’s concept, behavior can be represented as a function of the situation: B = f(S). From here the following principle is formed: the situation is realized through personal development. However, the principle is not only a characteristic in relation to the concepts of the theory, but also a certain hypothesis when extending it to a fairly large range of social work phenomena, such as community, family and reference groups, etc., which are included in the classification system of this theory.

Similar approaches can be implemented in relation to other theories of social work.

The theory of roles is based on the determination of people's behavior by their status, position in interpersonal relationships. Approaches that are implemented in social work based on these concepts are associated with the principle of role complementarity. According to this principle, models of assistance and support to a subject are possible within the limits of changes in his social-role repertoire.

Ecological systems theory is based on the concept of mutual exchange in the “person-environment” system, which is “a continuous process where each party is constantly changing something and is an interaction.” This approach implements the principle of ecological complementarity, and its fundamental difference is that this principle is borrowed from the theory of cybernetics and complementarity is considered in opposition to various micro-, meso- and macrosystems represented in social work by the individual, family, group, community, state system. The principle of complementarity is specified according to its level of connections and systemic oppositions. Thus, in the “state-community” system, this principle is understood in such a way that a community of people receives assistance from the state, taking into account the level of their living, but in proportion to the available natural resources.

3)Operational principles

Operational principles are expressed through operational definitions. They are revealed through individual semantic categories accepted in a particular professional culture. Operational principles are built on the basis of the individual experience of the social worker in the process of his interaction with the client.

The practice of interaction with the client has developed certain approaches that have become axiomatic, for example:

* The client starts everything.

* The beginning of contact with the client is the beginning of treatment.

* Move forward with the client, etc.

4) Ethical principles of social work

Ethical principles of social work determine the normal behavior of a social worker. On the one hand, it acts in the process of assistance as one of the types of support for a “person in need.” On the other hand, principles are the value continuum in which the attitudes and relationships of a social worker with the world of professional culture to which he belongs are manifested. Thus, the ethical principles developed by the US National Association of Social Workers (NASW) cover various aspects of a social worker’s interactions in the process of professional interaction: professional behavior and relationships with clients, treatment of clients and employers, attitude towards the profession and society. Moreover, each type of professional relationship has its own principles and imperatives. Thus, NASW standards for social workers operating in the health care system, in addition to general principles, have principles related to their area of competence. Among them:

* assistance in supporting physical and psychosocial health;

* prevention of physical and mental illnesses;

* assistance in enhancing physical and psychosocial functioning; -

* attention to social and emotional shocks leading to illness and disability.

Other foreign organizations of social workers also have special standards for the professional activities of social workers, which include ethical principles of professional interaction.

In the Russian Federation in 1994, at a conference of members of the Interregional Association of Social Workers, a social worker code was approved, which includes the following principles:

* principle of competence;

* the principle of moral responsibility to the client;

* the principle of moral responsibility to society;

* the principle of moral responsibility to the profession and colleagues.

Principles follow from laws.

The principles of SR are the most important structural elements of the logical forms of scientific theory and the fundamental rules of empirical activity. The principles of SR reflect the most significant connections and relationships inherent in practical and theoretical activities.

They reflect not only the ideology of SR, the criteria for the effectiveness of practice, but also the cognitive tendencies of SR as a field of scientific knowledge.

General philosophical principles, underlying all sciences about society, man and the mechanisms of their interaction:

– the principles of determinism, which expresses the existence of the conditionality of one phenomenon or process by others; shows the causality of social phenomena by economic and political factors; for example, when working with a client’s problem, it is important to identify the factors (reasons) that determined not only the manifestation of the problem, but also its occurrence;

– reflection, which characterizes the specificity of the reflection of various facts by social actors; the specifics of reflection are determined by the characteristics of the social subject, which must be taken into account when working with different types of clients (for example, the attitude of a pensioner and a young person to various forms of assistance will be different); features of the reflection of constant and episodic phenomena by social actors, etc.

– development, which involves taking into account the unity of the quantitative and qualitative aspects when studying any object; It should be taken into account that not all changes lead to development; in the theory of SR, the connection between the categories “development” and “progress”, which are considered as the effectiveness of social assistance, support, etc., is of great importance;

– an epistemological approach, which focuses on the study and comparison of the socio-historical uniqueness of processes in society, teaches us to see their specificity, development trends and patterns;

– a personal approach, which requires, when studying social processes, to take into account that their carrier is a specific person with his needs, interests, values, feelings and thoughts;

– the unity of consciousness and activity, which equips the social worker with a correct understanding of the essence of a particular type of activity in which the social client is involved, and the influence of the level of consciousness on the development of this activity.

General principles social sciences:

– historicism, which assumes that not a single social phenomenon, not a single social process can be understood without clarifying the characteristics and conditions in which they arose;

– social conditionality, the essence of which is that in different periods of social development certain groups of clients can act as priority objects of social assistance and support; different models of social development will also imply different models of socialization (1st model: economic recovery, its stable development contribute to the restructuring of the entire system of social protection of the population, the transition to the emergence of two interacting systems - state and non-state; 2nd model: activities of state social welfare bodies provision is the main factor in supporting disabled citizens and families with children, social protection from absolute poverty; 3rd model - strengthening and progressive development of the economy and social sphere, which helps to improve the standard of living of citizens, the principle of “universality of social protection” can be implemented);

– social significance, obliges to take into account not only the nature, but also the role, significance, functions of certain social and socio-psychological phenomena, needs, interests, opinions of various types of clients; involves a value-based approach to characterizing social phenomena from the client’s point of view, taking into account its main characteristics, characteristics of the perception of the assistance and support provided;

– the inextricable connection between the individual and his social environment.

Socio-political express requirements conditioned by the dependence of the content and direction of SR on the social policy of the state: the unity of the state approach in combination with the regional characteristics of SR, the democracy of its content and methods, taking into account the specific living conditions of an individual or social group when choosing the content, forms and methods of SR with them, the legality and fairness of the social worker's activities.

Organizational principles reflect the complexity and diversity of organizational, functional-hierarchical connections and relationships (socio-technological competence of personnel, the principle of unity of rights and responsibilities, etc.).

Psychological and pedagogical the principles express the requirements for the choice of means of psychological and pedagogical influence and interaction with the client: a comprehensive analysis of assessing the living conditions of clients and the choice of forms and methods of working with them; individual approach; purposefulness and targeting of SR.

Specific principles of SR determine the basic rules for activities in the provision of social services. These include the principles of universality, protection of social rights, social response, preventive focus, client-centrism (recognition of the priority of the client’s rights), self-reliance, maximization of social resources, confidentiality, tolerance, activation, which applies equally to the activities of both the subject and the object social work; the relationship between the environment and the individual in the process of providing assistance, etc.

Most often, the principles of the theory of social work, reflecting its cognitive tendencies, are usually divided into general and specific. The first group of principles indicates the cognitive strategy of science and is of a philosophical and general social nature. The second group comes from complex theoretical approaches to social work and has a tactical orientation, indicating ways to solve problems.

M.V. Firsov divides the principles of SR theory into the following groups:

1) general principles reflecting SR strategies in all its cognitive and practical directions; 2) conceptual principles characteristic of theoretical schools and directions; 3) operational, or implicit, principles implemented in the process of interactions at various levels; 4) ethical principles that reflect the moral imperatives of a social worker performing a certain mission in society.

In different directions and schools, these principles may have their own typologies and classifications.

1. General principles of SR. These principles reflect the general typological connections and relationships characteristic of all SR classification systems. These principles are universal, characteristic of all schools of knowledge in the SR.

The principle of activation comes from the idea of equal partnership and equal responsibility of the subject and object of social assistance. Activation goals are associated both with determining the independence of the objects of assistance and with the ability to identify, defend and solve their problems independently.

The “environment-person” principle is associated with methodological guidelines for the interaction process, where the environment is the object of change. Justifies the essential connections and relationships between the subject and the environment that change development strategies.

The “person-environment” principle reflects the essence of strategies for changing and developing meso- and macro-objects of assistance, where an individual subject acts as an active agent of modification. The principle assumes that there is no fatal dependence of a person on the environment, which also changes under the influence of individual transformations of individual subjects.

The “here and now” principle is a general attitude towards the process of interaction and cognition of a social worker with a client, where thoughts, feelings and events that take place directly at a given, concrete existential time are updated.

The “there and then” principle represents the social worker’s focus on the processes of interaction and cognition of the client, in which the client’s past experience and life situations, which were the reason for the modification of his life strategies, are updated.

The principle “I and others” is the principle according to which the process of cognition in the SR must take into account the totality of influences leading to changes in the development strategies of the object. They can be represented by various connections, relationships, situations and be located in various spheres and areas of existence that are not directly related to the object of assistance. According to this principle, the strategy of providing assistance to the subject is revealed, taking into account the various forces contributing to it.

2. Conceptual principles of social work. The principles of this level are associated with basic phenomena, procedures, and meanings of the concept. Without being universal in nature, they reflect the connections and relationships of a certain branch of practice and scientific understanding.

Situational SR theory is based on the concept of behavior. The central concept is the situation. The range of its manifestations is quite wide – from individual crisis to family and collective. Principle: the situation is realized through personal development.

Role theory is based on the determination of people's behavior by their status and position in interpersonal relationships. The principle of role complementarity. According to this principle, models of assistance and support to a subject are possible within the limits of changes in his social-role repertoire.

Ecological systems theory is based on the concept of mutual exchange in the person-environment system. The principle of ecological complementarity. complementarity is considered in opposition to various micro-, meso- and macrosystems represented in the SR by the individual, family, group, and state system. Thus, in the “state-community” system, this principle is understood in such a way that a community of people receives assistance from the state, taking into account the level of their living, but in proportion to the available natural resources.

3. Operational principles. These principles are built on the basis of the individual experience of the social worker in the process of his interaction with the client. For example, principles of socialization, support, training, etc.

4. Ethical principles of social work. These principles determine the normal behavior of a social worker. They cover various aspects: professional behavior, relationships with clients, treatment of clients and employers, attitude towards the profession and society. Such principles were developed by the US National Association of Social Workers. In Russia, the Interregional Association of Social Workers approved a social worker code, which includes the principles:

– principle of competence;

– the principle of moral responsibility to the client;

– the principle of moral responsibility to society;

– the principle of moral responsibility to the profession and colleagues.

Patterns, principles and functions of social work.

The most important structural component of the scientific theory of social work is its laws. The laws of social work most fully express in an integrated form the nature and direction of the totality of social connections.

The effectiveness and efficiency of social work are largely determined by the optimal level of development and functioning of social services, the scientific validity of the choice of content and technological techniques when working with people, direct and indirect connections and mutual influences of needs, interests, aspirations, moods and motives of human behavior in various life circumstances.

The interdisciplinary, integrative nature of social work, the extreme importance of statistical processing of a huge amount of empirical material, practical data and observations - all this complicates the identification and formulation of patterns. As already noted, in social work there are managerial relations and relations between the specialist and the client, which allow us to distinguish two groups of patterns.

For administrative bodies of social protection republican and regional levels, representing a set of organizationally formed groups of specialists, management relations are determined by the following patterns:

‣‣‣ the relationship between social processes in society, social policy and social work;

‣‣‣ the dependence of the effectiveness of social protection on the social orientation of the consciousness and activities of the personnel of government bodies, the professionalism and moral qualities of social service specialists;

‣‣‣ the content, forms and methods of social work are determined by the specific circumstances of the life of various groups, individuals, communities;

‣‣‣ dependence of the effectiveness of social work on the compliance and consistency of the immediate and long-term goals of social protection of the population, etc.

Significant connections affecting the effectiveness of achieving the goals of social work in directly at the contact level, are expressed by the following patterns:

‣‣‣ common interest of the social worker and the client in the final results of their interaction;

‣‣‣ the integrity of the social work specialist’s influence on the client;

‣‣‣ compliance with the powers and responsibilities of a social work specialist;

‣‣‣ correspondence of the general level of development of the social work specialist and the client of social services, etc.

World and domestic experience of social work indicates that the patterns formulated and not yet formulated by scientists and practitioners are objective in nature and manifest themselves regardless of the will, desire of specialists, and their knowledge. A specialist in the field of social work, for various reasons, can ignore the objective nature of the patterns of social work - this will not disrupt the action and influence of the pattern, but will lead to undesirable consequences, the elimination of which will require additional effort, time and resources. That is why the more deeply a specialist understands and more fully takes into account the patterns in practice, the more effective his work.

At the same time, it should be noted that in practice the specialist is guided only by conclusions and rules arising from the laws formulated by science, which, expressing a very specific list of requirements, become the principle, starting point and general rule of the social worker’s activities.

Principles of social work- the most important structural component of the logical forms of scientific theory. It is through principles that theoretical principles are directly related to the practice of social work. Social work is closely related to problems of social development. Social workers participate in the development and implementation of social policy, the implementation of social programs for the social protection of the population from degradation and social risks and the creation of decent conditions for human social functioning. The role of social work is especially significant in supporting the vitality of “socially vulnerable” members of society, providing assistance to people who find themselves in difficult life situations,

The complexity and diversity of interacting factors in social work is reflected in the system of principles of social work, which can be divided into several groups:

‣‣‣ methodological;

‣‣‣ organizational and administrative;

‣‣‣ psychological and pedagogical;

‣‣‣ socio-political.

Methodological principles are the principles of the epistemological approach, determination, reflection, development.

Organizational and distribution principles are:

– socio-technological competence of personnel;

– stimulation;

– control and verification of execution;

–functional certainty;

– unity of rules and responsibilities.

P Psychological and pedagogical principles express the requirements for the selection of technological means of psychological and pedagogical influence on clients of social services. The main principles of this group include:

– an integrated and systematic approach to the analysis and assessment of the client’s living conditions and the choice of forms and methods of work;

– individual approach to the personality of the client of social services;

– purposefulness and targeting of social work;

– tact and tolerance when communicating with clients of social services, etc.

Socio-political principles express requirements determined by the dependence of the content and direction of social work on the social policy of the state, which determines conceptual approaches to the selection of priorities in the social protection of the population, to the combination and fusion of personal and state interests in social work. The main principles of this group:

‣‣‣ state approach to problems solved in social work;

‣‣‣ humanism and democracy in the content and methods of social work;

‣‣‣ taking into account the specific living conditions of the individual and social group when choosing the content, forms and methods of social work;

‣‣‣ legality and fairness of the social worker’s actions.

Another classification of the principles of social work theory is of interest:

I. General philosophical principles: determinism, reflection, development.

II. General social principles: historicism, social conditioning, social significance.

III. Specific principles:

Ø psychological and pedagogical – empathy, modality, attraction (attractiveness), trust;

Ø methodological – differentiated approach, continuity, consistency, continuity, competence;

Ø organizational – universality, complexity, mediation, solidarity;

Ø normative and legal – respect for human rights in the field of social services, ensuring social guarantees, equal opportunities in receiving medical and social services, voluntary consent of citizens when receiving services, accessibility of social services, respect for confidentiality, continuity of all types and forms of social services, targeting, priority of assistance to citizens who are in a situation that threatens their health or life, preventive focus, promotion of social rehabilitation and adaptation, interdepartmentalism and interdisciplinarity, active approach, territorial organization of social services, state support, voluntary public activities to provide medical and social services help.

The structural components of social work as a science make a certain contribution to the implementation of common scientific theory functions:

‣‣‣ informational, since the theory of social work contains information about actually occurring social processes, describes them in a generalized form using a conceptual apparatus, in the laws and principles inherent in the subject area of social work;

‣‣‣ explanatory, since science is called upon not just to describe processes and phenomena, but to explain complex cause-and-effect relationships, the main trends and direction of their development;

‣‣‣ heuristic, which lies in the fact that scientific theory does not simply describe reality, but carries innovations, new knowledge that expand our understanding of the problems of social work. The scientific theory of social work, like any other, is heuristic in its purpose, origin, forms and methods of its development, expression and use;

‣‣‣ practical, consisting in the fact that it is generated by the needs of practice, develops on its basis and finds confirmation of its truth, again in practice. This is especially clearly seen in the example of applied sciences, which include the theory of social work;

‣‣‣ prognostic, which identifies trends, predicts the direction of development of social processes, objects of social work and provides a proactive impact on the development of social phenomena and processes.

The functions of social work as a system of scientific knowledge are the result of a synthesis of the functioning of its components and the integration of structural relationships. Οʜᴎ act as a form and method of manifestation of the heuristic and creative activity of the system, exerting a reverse influence on the composition of components in the system, taking into account emerging new goals.

Patterns, principles and functions of social work. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Regularities, principles and functions of social work." 2017, 2018.

FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

BELGOROD STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

Tkacheva Yulia Alexandrovna

Patterns and principles of social work

student of group 120706

specialty "social work"

Discipline:

Social work theory

Scientific adviser:

CM. Batsanova

Belgorod 2009

Patterns and principles of social work

The most important structural component of the scientific theory of social work is its laws. The effectiveness and efficiency of social work with the population is largely determined by the optimal level of development and functioning of social services, the scientific validity of the choice of content and technological techniques when working with people, direct and indirect connections and mutual influences of needs, interests, aspirations, moods and motives of human behavior in various life situations. circumstances. The laws of social work most fully express in an integrated form the nature and direction of the totality of social connections.

Identification and formulation of patterns as the most significant, recurring connections on which the effectiveness of social work depends is the most important task of its scientific theory in general, scientists and practitioners in the field of social work in particular. It should be noted that the patterns that objectively exist in reality often differ from the patterns that take place in science. The fact is that in reality, patterns appear in a complex, and not in isolation from others, and only in theory, our thinking, thanks to the ability to abstract from aggregate connections, allows us to isolate and formulate patterns in their “pure form.”

The patterns of social work formulated in science, as the knowledge of real processes develops and deepens, as the conceptual apparatus and research technology improve, change and transform, constantly approaching the model of objective patterns that take place in the actual practice of social work. It should also be noted that the laws of social work as logical forms of knowledge are inaccessible to sensory perception; they can only be comprehended on the basis of abstract thinking, analysis and synthesis of the manifestation of identified trends and interdependencies in social processes.

The interdisciplinary, integrative nature of social work, the need for statistical processing of a huge amount of empirical material, practical data and observations - all this complicates the identification and formulation of patterns. As already noted, in social work there are managerial relations and relations between the specialist and the client, which make it possible to highlight certain patterns inherent in management.

For management bodies of social protection at the federal and regional levels, which are a set of organizationally formed groups of specialists, management relations are determined by the following patterns:

The dependence of the effectiveness of social protection on the structural completeness of the system of management bodies and functioning;

The dependence of the effectiveness of social protection on the social orientation of the consciousness and activities of the personnel of government bodies;

The dependence of the effectiveness of social work on the compliance and consistency of the immediate and long-term goals of social protection of the population, etc.

Significant connections that influence the effectiveness of achieving the goals of social work at the direct contact level can be expressed by the following patterns:

The common interest of the social worker and the client in the final results of their interaction;

The integrity of the social work specialist’s influence on the client;

Correspondence of powers and responsibilities of a social work specialist;

Correspondence of the general level of development of the social work specialist and the client of social services, etc.

At the same time, it should be noted that knowledge of these patterns in itself does not guarantee their use in everyday social work practice. A practitioner is not able to correlate his actions in each specific case with the patterns of social work, analyze and evaluate the manifestations of patterns in relationships with a client. Therefore, in practice, he is guided only by conclusions and rules arising from the laws formulated by science, which, expressing a very specific list of requirements, become the principle, starting point and general rule of the social worker’s activities.

The principles of social work are the most important structural component of the logical forms of scientific theory. It is through principles that theoretical principles are directly related to the practice of social work. Social work is closely related to problems of social development. Its character, content, forms and methods are inseparable from the economic, social, spiritual and moral state of society. Being a social institution operating in a system of social relations, including economic, social, political, ideological and other relations, social work is directly involved in their regulation, the implementation of functions that ensure the life of both an individual and society as a whole.

Social workers participate in the development and implementation of social policy, the implementation of social programs for the social protection of the population from degradation and social risks and the creation of decent conditions for human social functioning. The role of social work is especially significant in supporting the vitality of “socially weakened” members of society and providing assistance to people who find themselves in difficult life situations.

The complexity and diversity of interacting factors of social work, the manifestation of subordination, coordination and correlation ties and relationships are reflected in the system of principles of social work, which can be divided into several groups:

Methodological;

Organizational and administrative;

Psychological and pedagogical;

Socio-political.

Methodological principles are the principles of the epistemological approach, determinization, reflection, development. Organizational and distribution principles are:

Social and technological competence of personnel;

Stimulation;

Monitoring and verification of execution;

Functional certainty;

Unity of rules and responsibilities.

Psychological and pedagogical principles express the requirements for the choice of technological means of psychological and pedagogical influence on clients of social services. The main principles of this group include:

An integrated and systematic approach to the analysis and assessment of the client’s living conditions and the choice of forms and methods of work;

Individual approach to the personality of the client of social services;

Purposefulness and targeting of social work;

Tact and tolerance when communicating with social clients
services, etc.

Socio-political principles express requirements determined by the dependence of the content and focus of social work on the social policy of the state, which determines conceptual approaches to the selection of priorities in the social protection of the population, to the combination and integration of personal and state interests in social work. The main principles of this group:

State approach to problems solved in social work;

Humanism and democracy in the content and methods of social
work;

Taking into account the specific living conditions of the individual and social group when choosing content, forms and methods
social work;

Legality and fairness of the social worker’s actions.

Knowledge about the reality around us is a tool for its transformation. That is why an important component of scientific theory is its logical forms, such as consequences determined by laws, principles and postulates, conclusions, technological algorithms and logical operations that contribute to solving problematic situations and practical problems.

So, social work as a science, as an integrative, holistic theoretical system of knowledge can be structurally presented in the form of two interconnected subsystems: a subsystem reflecting the practical professional activities of bodies, institutions, services and social work specialists in the form of systematizing, describing and generalizing knowledge, and a subsystem logically transformed forms of this knowledge based on the movement of thought, from the empirically concrete to the abstract, and from the abstract back to empiricism, to practice.

Our understanding of the structure of social work as a science would be incomplete if we ignored its functional aspect. The fact is that any systemic formation performs a number of functions, which, however, are not adequate to the sum of the functions of the components of this system. Social work theory is no exception. Thus, the practical activities of social services and institutions, the practice of social work are the experimental basis, the source of scientific theory; scientific language is a means of dressing objective-sensual practical social work in logical forms of reflecting the material into the ideal; logical forms of knowledge reflect the content of scientific theory; conclusions and consequences resulting from theoretical provisions represent a logical toolkit for transforming the ideal into the material, transforming the social status of the social work client.

The most important structural component of the scientific theory of social work is its patterns. The effectiveness and efficiency of social work with the population is largely determined by the optimal level of development and functioning of social services, the scientific validity of the choice of content and technological techniques when working with people, direct and indirect connections and mutual influences of needs, interests, aspirations, moods and motives of human behavior in various life situations. circumstances. The laws of social work most fully express in an integrated form the nature and direction of the totality of social connections. Identification and formulation of patterns as the most significant, recurring connections on which the effectiveness of social work depends is the most important task of its scientific theory in general, scientists and practitioners in the field of social work in particular. It should be noted that the patterns that objectively exist in reality often differ from the patterns that take place in science. The point is that in reality, patterns appear in a complex, and not in isolation from others, and only in theory, our thinking, thanks to the ability to abstract from aggregate connections, allows us to isolate and formulate patterns in<<чистом виде>>.

The laws of social work, formulated in science, as the knowledge of real processes develops and deepens, but as the conceptual apparatus and research technology improve, change and transform, constantly approaching the model of an objective law that takes place in the real practice of social work. It should also be noted that the laws of social work as logical forms of knowledge are inaccessible to sensory perception; they can only be comprehended on the basis of abstract thinking, analysis and synthesis of the manifestation of identified trends and interdependencies in social processes.

The dependence of the effectiveness of social protection on the structural completeness of the system of management bodies and functioning;

The dependence of the effectiveness of social protection on the social orientation of the consciousness and activities of the personnel of government bodies;

The dependence of the effectiveness of social work on the compliance and consistency of the immediate and long-term goals of social protection of the population, etc.

Significant connections that influence the effectiveness of achieving the goals of social work at the direct contact level can be expressed by the following patterns:

The common interest of the social worker and the client in the final results of their interaction;

The integrity of the social work specialist’s influence on the client;

Correspondence of powers and responsibilities of a social work specialist;

Correspondence between the general level of development of a social work specialist and a client of social services, etc.

At the same time, it should be noted that knowledge of these patterns does not guarantee their use in everyday social work practice. A practitioner is not able to correlate his actions in each specific case with the patterns of social work, analyze and evaluate the manifestations of patterns in relationships with a client. Therefore, in practice, he is guided only by conclusions and rules arising from the laws formulated by science, which, expressing a very specific list of requirements, become principle, starting position and general rule of activity of a social worker.

Social workers participate in the development and implementation of social policy, the implementation of social programs for the social protection of the population from degradation and social risks and the creation of decent conditions for human social functioning. The role of social work in supporting vitality is especially significant<<социально ослабленных>> members of society, providing assistance to people in difficult life situations.

Methodological;

Organizational and administrative;

Psychological and pedagogical;

Socio-political.

Methodological principles- these are the principles of epistemological approach, determinization, reflection, development.

Organizational and distribution principles- This:

Social and technological competence of personnel;

Stimulation;

Monitoring and verification of execution;

Functional certainty;

Unity of rules and responsibilities.

Psychological and pedagogical principles express requirements for the choice of technological means of psychological and pedagogical influence on clients of social services. The main principles of this group include:

An integrated and systematic approach to the analysis and assessment of the client’s living conditions and the choice of forms and methods of work;

Individual approach to the personality of the client of social services;

Purposefulness and targeting of social work;

Tact and tolerance when communicating with clients of social services, etc.

Socio-political principles express requirements determined by the dependence of the content and focus of social work on the social policy of the state, which determines conceptual approaches to the selection of priorities in the social protection of the population, to the combination and integration of personal and state interests in social work. The main principles of this group:

State approach to problems solved in social work;

Humanism and democracy in the content and methods of social work;

Taking into account the specific living conditions of the individual and social group when choosing the content, forms and methods of social work;

Legality and fairness of the social worker’s actions.

So, social work as a science, as an integrative, holistic theoretical system of knowledge can be structurally presented in the form two interconnected subsystems: a subsystem reflecting the practical professional activities of bodies, institutions, services and social work specialists in the form of systematizing, describing and generalizing knowledge, and a subsystem of logically transformed forms of this knowledge based on the movement of thought, from the empirically concrete to the abstract, and from the abstract back to the empirical, to practice.

At the same time, the structural components of social work like science make a certain contribution to the implementation of functions common to scientific theory:

Informational, since the theory of social work contains information about actually occurring social processes, describes them in a generalized form using a conceptual apparatus, in the laws and principles inherent in the subject area of social work;

Explanatory, since science is called upon not just to describe processes and phenomena, but to explain complex cause-and-effect relationships, the main trends and direction of their development;

Heuristic, which consists in the fact that scientific theory does not simply describe reality, but carries innovations, new knowledge that expand our understanding of the problems of social work. The scientific theory of social work, like any other, is heuristic in its purpose, origin, forms and methods of its development, expression and use;

Practical, consisting in the fact that it is generated by the needs of practice, develops on its basis and finds confirmation of its truth, again in practice. This is especially clearly seen in the example of applied sciences, which include the theory of social work;

Prognostic, which identifies trends, predicts the direction of development of social processes, objects of social work and provides a proactive impact on the development of social phenomena and processes.

The functions of social work as a system of scientific knowledge are the result of a synthesis of the functioning of its components and the integration of structural relationships. They act as a form and method of manifestation of the heuristic and creative activity of the system, exerting a reverse influence on the composition of components in the system, taking into account emerging new goals.

In the complex interweaving of cause-and-effect relationships characteristic of interdisciplinary, integrative sciences, there are both necessary and random connections. The onset of one or another consequence in social work is most often the result of a collision of necessary and random interactions, their disproportionate influence. In this regard, the use of methods of probability theory and statistics is of great importance for researchers of social processes, and for practitioners - the use of experience and intuition.

Thus, by applying a systematic approach to the analysis of the theory of social work, we found out the significance of its structure. It is the knowledge of the structure, the internal relationships of the components of the theory as a whole that makes it possible to distinguish among the variety of connections essential and non-essential, necessary and accidental, and to confuse the most complex knot of causal dependencies inherent in interdisciplinary integrity.

Revealing the structure of social work as a science allows us to understand the place and role, the significance of the integrated components as a whole, to understand how and why the theory of social work retains its qualitative certainty and specificity.

Knowledge of social work as a science historically represents a process of thought moving from the composition of a knowledge system to its structure, and then to functions, but sometimes knowledge begins with awareness of functions. In this case, the structural components are the result of meeting the needs of the system for new organs, the result of the materialization of newly emerging functions. In the process of learning the theory of social work as an integral system of scientific knowledge, as an applied science, the relationships and characteristics of its components are revealed not immediately, but gradually, but as they penetrate into nature and essence. By accumulating knowledge about some aspects of social work, the scientific system creates favorable preconditions for knowledge of other aspects and deeper insight into the essence of the subject of research as a whole. At the same time, it is important to comprehensively use the entire arsenal of scientific knowledge tools: observation and experiment, description and theoretical explanation, justification and logical evidence, comparison and analogy, generalization and abstraction, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, hypothesis and scientific theory as a whole.