Marianne Hughes, Practice Learning & Development Manager, Midlothian Council 2015

Module 2: Establish Effective Working Relationships (F1WB37)

HANDOUT 1 & EXERCISES: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD IN

PRACTICE LEARNING LEVEL 10

SOCIAL WORK AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION?

1. What is meant by Emotional Intelligence?

These are some useful quotes which summarise the meaning, and it is clear why this form of intelligence is so central to the work of the Social Work profession. We are working directly with people who are often in distress or under stress, and we ourselves – in being fully human – are affected by the distress of others and need to learn to work with our own feelings and those of others. These “people skills” are a crucial area of development for students/learners engaged in Practice Learning.

Emotional Intelligence:

“being able to motivate one-self and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods & keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathise and to hope”

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, D. Goleman, 1996, London: Bloomsbury

“ a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own & others’ feelings & emotions, to discriminate among them, & to use this information to guide one’s thinking & action”

“Emotional Intelligence” , Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. in Imagination, Cognition & Personality, 1990 (9)3), pp185-211

2. In what aspects of Social Work practice is Emotional

Intelligence necessary?

Tony Morrison outlines Five Core aspects of Social Work practice in which Emotional Intelligence plays an important role in the effectiveness of the engagement and intervention. The Standards (or Key Roles) have been added and these are expanded on below.

Role of Emotional Intelligence & Emotion in Five core Social Work tasks:

•  Engagement with service users (Standards 1, 2, 6)

•  Assessment & observation (Standard 4)

•  Decision making (Standard 4)

•  Collaboration & co-operation (Standards 1, 2, 5, 6)

•  Dealing with stress (Standards 2, 5)

Emotional Intelligence, Emotion & Social Work: Context, Characteristics, Complications & Contribution, Tony Morrison, 2007 British Journal of SW

3. Where does Emotional Intelligence feature in the Social

Work Degree?

It is crucially important that Practice Educators/Practice Teachers use the full curriculum of the Standards/Key Roles for the Social Work degree, not the “learning foci” alone, in their work with students/learners. The full Social Work degree outlines the knowledge, skills and outcomes that a Social Work student needs to attain.

As an aid some of the key areas relating to how students are developing in their direct inter-personal work with service users and with colleagues are quoted and outlined below. (S = Standard, or Key Role in some SW Degree Programmes).

“S1a knowledge: The importance of inter-personal factors in delivering effective social work services

S1a outcome: Engage & relate effectively with people who use services, with their families & other carers, & with other professionals, maintaining awareness of their own style & approach & its effect on others

S2a skills: Think logically, even under pressure

S2b skills: Communicate effectively across potential barriers resulting from differences, e.g. in culture, language, ability & age

S2d skills: Challenge others when necessary, in ways that are most likely to produce positive outcomes

S4b skills: Recognise & work with the complex tensions & links between intra-personal & inter-personal processes, & the wider social legal, economic, political & cultural context of people’s lives

S4b outcome: Critically reflect on their practice & performance & modify these as a result

S4d skills: Reflect critically on their own conduct & practice, identifying the need for change

S5a skills: Manage uncertainty, change & stress in work situations, using appropriate support

S5a skills: Handle inter-personal & intra-personal conflict constructively

S5f outcome: Deal constructively with disagreements & conflict within work relationships

S6: Overcome personal prejudices to respond appropriately to a range of complex personal & interpersonal situations”

(Framework for Standards in Social Work Education (2003): Scottish Executive)

4. How can we approach this as Practice Educators/Practice

Teachers?

It is clear from the above curriculum within the Social Work Degree Framework that there are considerable areas of SKILLS that Practice Educators/Practice Teachers will be – in part – responsible for assisting students to learn, and on which we will be assessing their development

The Paradigm below can be a useful one in considering questions around:-

How aware is the student of their own feelings? (self-awareness)

How aware is the student of their impact on others, and able to change this? (self-management)

How aware is the student of the feelings of others? (other awareness)

How able is the student to work with others’ feelings as part of their practice? (relationship management)

In the student/learner’s Reflective Journal can you gain a sense of the answer to the above questions in relation to their practice, or you might need to ask the student to include more of this material in her/his Reflective Journal in order to provide evidence of these aspects of their practice.

Intrapersonal Intelligence Inter-personal Intelligence

Self-awareness Other awareness

Self-management Relationship management

(ibid Tony Morrison 2007)

5. Exercise for student/learner relating to Emotional

Intelligence

a)  Using the Emotional Intelligence Paradigm identify an experience in your practice in which your “self-awareness” led to “self-management”, OR where – looking back - it would have been more positive if you had managed your own emotions (intrapersonal intelligence).

b)  Using the Emotional Intelligence Paradigm identify a practice

experience during which your awareness of another person’s emotions led you to acknowledge these as a part of your work with the person, OR where – looking back – you can see that this would have been an effective or constructive response (inter-personal intelligence).

c)  Identify events, people, techniques that assisted your own learning in

relation to a) and b)

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SOCIAL WORK AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION?byMarianne Hughesis licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.