THE

DEVELOPMENTAL
APPROACH
SW107
DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
 Developmental social work has been a popular term because
of the thrust towards developmental social welfare
 United Nation started to advocate starting with the 60’s –
the first U.N Developmental Decade giving priority
attention to social development concerns
CONCERNS:
 Subsistence levels of living
 Widespread unemployment and underemployment
 Lack/inadequate access to opportunities and services
 Population growth
 Large youth population
 Effects of urbanization
 Rural underdevelopment
 Needs of special groups
Emanuel Tropp – offers such a theory seems the most
relevant and can be adapted to fit a variety of
client situations
Webster – defines development as causing
something to unfold, to grow, to change for the
better, to be realized. It regards a certain
entity as being endowed with certain potentials
which society should discover and maximize
 People are not seen as being sick or healthy,
but on a scale ranging from socially
functional (adequate) to dysfunctional
(inadequate) to eufunctional
(optimum)continually able to move up this
scale in along developmental process of self-
realization
 The practitioner who tries to help people
who are striving for self-realization is
concerned with tapping the vast unused
potential that resides within all people
and which generally used only fractionally
– physical, intellectual, aesthetic, and
interpersonal development, of which the
last is the direct concern of social work
Two Essential Features:
 Recognition of the human being as the main
resource to be utilized
 Interpersonal relationships, more
specifically social role performance, as
the focus concern
Three Major Themes characterize the developmental approach

1. Humanistic – a view of one human being by

another, Tropp elaborates on this theme by
describing how the worker functions and relates
with the group. The worker respects the group’s
common purpose and integrity as a group, deals
with the members for what they are and what
they do and respects the member to member
helping phenomenon as key principle to their
growth. The worker is an enabler, and show
belief in people’s ability to cope with their
common task. The worker offers herself with
openness, authenticity, mutuality, humility,
respect, empathy, compassion, involvement,
support, expectation and assistance
Three Major Themes characterize the developmental
approach
2. Phenomenological – The main
concern is what is happening at
present, whether in the group or
outside of it, or both. The approach
is reality-oriented, focusing on
current group and individual
behaviour rather than on the past
personality diagnosis and
interpretations of behaviour.
Three Major Themes characterize the developmental approach

3. Developmental – It sees people as

being able to move forward in a life-
long process of self-actualization or
fulfilment of potential in social
functioning. The treatment orientation,
the developmental approach sees people
as people, all of whom face difficult
developmental stages, life situation,
challenges, stresses, and crises with
which they must cope.
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach

4. Specific kinds of group experiences – Viewed

as most effective in the attainment of enhanced
social functioning. The practitioner can engage
the group members in different activities that
are appropriate and relevant to the group
purpose. These activities termed program which
emanates from the groups function.
Functional Modes:
a. Counseling Group – gathered to discuss common
life situations or common concern
b. Activity Group – gathered to pursue common
interest
c. Action Group – gathered to effect some
improvement in its social environment
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach

5. Common goal group – The experiences that

enhance people’s functioning. Goal in this theory
refer to a specific task agreed upon for a
specific group session as one means of achieving
the purpose of the group.
6. The common goal – Take the form of common
concern or common interest or common life
situation which results in a peer relationship
among the members. Except for the family group in
which the members do not have this distinctive
peer quality because of its hierarchical
structure, the approach may be applied to all
other groups which has this characteristic and
meet other membership criteria
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach
7. The effectiveness of the group goal – achieving
process is the primary target for both the members and
the worker. The events and process occurring in the
group as it pursues its common goal should be given
careful attention since on this will depend the
achievement of the members individually needed gains.
The worker’s skilful guidance of the group towards the
desirable structure and processes relating to its goal
is considered crucial.
8. The group members achieve different individual gains
in social growth within the context of the group goal-
achieving process. The leader relates to all members as
though they are expected to always engage themselves in
different activities. Thus, individual gains are
maximized by leader intervention.
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach

 There are 2 simultaneous process which affect the

social growth of individual members. These are seen
as the most powerful moving forces to challenge
individuals as members to perform social roles
a. The engagement of the group with its tasks
b. The engagement of each member with the group
in this undertaking
Tropp describes 4 basic purposive processes:
1. Release of feeling – Anger, fear, guilt and
affection tend to block effective social task
performance if not openly expressed and unburdened,
preferably in the presence of others who are in
comparable situations
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach
2. Support – Acceptance and affection through
belongingness and recognition of self expression
that is translated into achievement, which
encourages the tapping of further strengths
resulting in gains in self-esteem
3. Reality orientation- By seeing others in
similar situations, how they handle themselves,
and how others see them, each member gains a
clearer picture of behaviour among peers
4. Self-appraisal- This involves attaining from
all the foregoing a clearer perspective on one’s
self and others, new options for handling
situations, increased ability to make judgement,
and more responsible way of handling life
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach

9. The group becomes the medium for the members

actions, for perception of each other’s actions,
and for the leader’s perception of both. All of
these create a base of commonly perceived
behaviour , to which member and leader can
jointly relate their perceptions, evaluations,
and actions. The group expected to be the main
instrument for the growth of its members. The
worker is engaged in a continuing process of
perceiving what is happening, evaluating the
significance of any individual or group behaviour
and acting in relation to the group as a whole
and to individual members. Tropp points out the
importance of the worker’s and member’s relating
only to common-perceived behaviour.
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach

10. All of this process is carried out on

the basis of open agreements, openly
arrived at and openly pursued, resulting
in a mutuality of understanding and effort
between member and leader. The
developmental approach is unique in its
emphasis on mutuality of understanding and
effort between the member and worker. This
is described as a relationship in which
the worker’s presentation of self carries
the implicit message, “We are here in
common human level; let’s agree on a plan
and then let’s walk the path together”.
Other characteristics of Developmental Approach

11. The group is essentially self-directing,

within varying limits, and each member is self-
directing in relation to what he wants to give to
and get from the group. There is no intention to
change anyone for it is seen- as each member’s
right to decide how to lead his life and to then
benefit or suffer from the consequences. Human
beings are assumed to be free, responsible and
capable of self-realization.
2 Dominant professional values:
1. Respectfor the human being’s dignity and
capacity to fulfil his potentials
2. 2.The individual’s responsibility in relation
to others in society
Methodological Principles
1. The overriding consideration in the formation of a group is
that all its prospective members share a significant common
interest, concern or life situation.
2. When the group is formed, the worker comes to
agreement with the members about its purpose, function
and structure.
PURPOSE – Essentially the same as group goals except that
Tropp calls it operational purpose that answer the question
“why was the group formed or organized? The group
worker’s major contribution is in helping the group to carry
out its purpose?”
FUNCTION – Addresses the question, “What are the group
members supposed to do to carry out its purpose?”
Methodological Principles
STRUCTURE – Tropp states that the most important
structural characteristic should answer the
question “Where does the power for decision-making
reside?”
Categories:
1. All authority is vested in the leader
2. Theself-governing group, including elected
officers, or at least a chair who conduct the
meeting
3. Inbetween A and B, the widely used pattern where
there is no formal self-government and the
practitioner serves as the group leader but the
group proceeds on the basis of its choices and
agreement
Methodological Principles
3. Regardless of its purpose, function and
structure, the developmental group will go through
a beginning, middle, and ending stage. Each of
these stages involves specific experiences and
tasks on the part of the leader and member
WORKER’S 3 BASIC AREAS OF OPERATION
1. Group goal-achieving process – Tropp uses the
term goal in the sense of a task that the group
agrees to undertake for a session which will be
useful in achieving the long-range purpose of the
group. The leader/worker initiates and engages the
group in the goal-achieving process of
deliberation, decision, and action in the course
of which there is a need to be aware of one’s own
attitude and behaviour.
Methodological Principles

Interpersonal relations – In the group members’

engagement with each other as they pursue their
common goal, they are involved in two forms of
behaviour:
1. Instrumental behaviour – The behaviours that are
consciously directed toward common goal efforts.
Because they are observable behaviours, they can
be used as basis for evaluating the performance
of any member in terms of contributions to the
group relation to needs.
2. Expressive Behaviour – These are unintended
behaviour which are emotional in nature that
individual members manifest in performing
instrumental behaviours. They include expressions
of likes and dislikes, approval and disapproval.
Methodological Principles
Individual self-actualization – Tropp
underscores the point that the major gains
in social functioning for individual group
members are deprived primarily through the
medium of the goal-achieving process.
These gains result in greater group
effectiveness, vitality satisfaction, and
responsibility which are the three
criteria in determining and evaluating the
performance of the group as a whole.