In Human Behavior Theory and Applications, authors Elizabeth DePoy and Stephen Gilson use a critical thinking approach to engage students to think in depth about theory and its use in social work practice. With a strong focus on diversity, this book expands its theory coverage to include progressive and the most cutting-edge contemporary thinking. The authors skillfully introduce theory, critically examine each theory, including developmental theories, environmental theories, diversity theories, systems theories, and new and emerging theories, and then apply each theory to social work practice providing a synthesis of classical and contemporary theory for scholarly analysis and application to professional, intellectual, and social action.

The Human Experience examines, analyzes and applies theories of humans, environments and human-environment interaction to professional thinking and action. The authors highlight tacit values and assumptions that underlie theory generation and application to professional practice and challenge the reader to answer two questions: how do we "know," and what do we do with our knowledge? Significant critical emphasis is devoted to diversity of humans and environments and the value-perimeter in which professionals think and act.

Professional accountability has become central to both public and private sectors. Governments have emphasized and even developed empirical models, logic modeling, and evidence-based practice in the programs they support, and not-for-profit, for-profit and NGO entities increasingly rely on systematic strategies such as strategic planning, marketing research, outcome measures, and benchmarking to identify needs and determine success. Evaluation Practice bridges the apparent gap between practice and research to present a logical, systematic model to guide all professional thinking and action within the context of everyday professional life. Their framework embraces diverse theories, action, and sets of evidence from a range of professional and disciplinary perspectives.

Presenting fully integrative text covering disability from a variety of disciplines This innovative text first reviews existing theories, then sets forth a new viewpoint that incorporates elements from disability studies, sociology, human services, rehabilitation counseling, and public health. Authors Elizabeth DePoy and Stephen French Gilson explore the history of disability with a focus on both Western and non-Western cultures, examine the historical conceptions of disability and how they have affected the lives and civil rights of the disabled, and explore a wide range of both classic and new and emerging theories. The book concludes with a section on application of theory to practice and policy in the professional and public realm and the recommendation of a socially just community.

This book provides a theoretical lens through which to view Disability. Rather than taking a medical-diagnostic stance, which has been the traditional perspective, the authors explain disability as category in which membership is based on of judgments about explanations for what people do, experience and how they appear. In Part I, the authors discuss various aspects of the history and current trends, which influence how disability is defined and addressed. In Part II, Explanatory Legitimacy' (EL) theory is explained in detail and applied to an analysis of disability. In Part III, the EL theory is applied to rethinking disability now and in the future.

Emerging Thoughts in Disability and Humanness examines the role of embodied disablement in providing an important but often circumvented analysis of the explicit and implicit nature of the legitimate human body, its symbolism, and responses that such bodies elicit from diverse local through global social and cultural entities. Beyond simply theorizing, this work begins to unearth a potent and in-depth examination of membership, meaning and social valuation on the basis of embodied features that include desirables in and exclude “offending” bodies from membership in the category of human. It invokes contemporary post-postmodernist marriages of varied disciplines as frameworks for returning creative substance into rethinking disability as part of the fabric of humanness.

This text presents both the quantitative and qualitative methods and focuses on teaching students how to skillfully apply the full range of research designs, methods and strategies to evaluation of social work in all domains of social work practice. The book provides a framework for the integration of systematic inquiry with practice that can be used by all social workers. The authors have created a model called, "evaluation practice" that provides the evidence-based structure within which diverse social work theories and skills can be organized, examined and verified.

Over the past fifty years, design and branding have become omnipotent in the market and have made their way to other domains as well. Given their potential to divide humans into categories and label their worth and value, design and branding can wield immense but currently unharnessed powers of social change. Groups designed as devalued can be undesigned, redesigned and rebranded to seamlessly and equivalently participate in community, work and civic life. This innovative book argues that disability as a concept and category is created, reified, and segregated through current design and branding that begs for creative change. Transcending models of disability that locate it either as an embodied medical condition or as a socially constructed entity, this book challenges the very existence and usefulness of the category itself. Proposing and illustrating creative and responsible design, DePoy and Gilson include thinking and action strategies that are useful and potent for "undesigning," redesigning, and rebranding to meet the full range of human needs and to enhance full participation in local through global communities. Divided into two parts, the first section presents a critical examination of disability as a designed and branded phenomenon, exploring what exactly is being designed and branded and how. The second part investigates the redesign of disability and provides principles for redesign and rebranding illustrated with examples from high-tech to place-based sustainable strategies. The book provides a unique and contemporary framework for thinking about disability as well as providing relevant design and branding guidance to designers and engineers interested in embodiment issues.