Social Work Example: A Genogram for Hernandez Family

Socialization refers to the process in which children get diverse knowledge about the values, language rules, behavior, etiquette and the social expectation of a given society. Most of the socialization tend to occur during the early childhood age despite it being a continuous process throughout the entire life of an individual. It helps in the understanding of the vital information that is required for an individual to be able to live in a given society smoothly (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016).There is no difference between how Hernandez punishes their children and the manner in which they were also punished while they were young which is the element that the Hernandezs uses to address their social worker issues.

According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman Learning theory assist in the provision of a positive approach towards the behavior of an individual. A person can develop a given behavior through the process of learning them. Behaviors which are not pleasant or appealing can as well be unlearnt. Behaviors can be passed from one generation to another whereby their children can acquire certain behaviors that are exhibited by the parents. The Hernandezs were able to learn various behaviors from their parents, and it can be regarded as generational. Being the social worker of the family one of the responsibilities is to address that children are not adults and therefore will learn various behaviors from their parents. The way in which parents punish or reinforce their children has a direct impact on their behavior. Good actions should be reinforced for example through giving of rewards and this motivates a child to continue with such behavior while in turn punishing bad behaviors will stop the child from repeating the same mistake (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016).

A genogram is made up of three generations regarding a family. It is a graphical representation of a family tree which gives detailed data and information about the relationship that exists between individuals. It is of great importance in an intergenerational context as it helps family members and the employee to be able to examine various behavioral and emotional problems. Genograms assists the members of a family to be in a position of understanding and identifying the relationship patterns that exist in the family. Behavioral and emotional patterns tend to be repeated in a family and hence passed from one generation to another therefore what happens in one generation is most likely to occur in the next generation.

Being a social worker, one is required to have the relevant knowledge regarding the culture of Hernandez, the family structure and as well as an understanding of their behavior regarding punishment. Learning of positive and negative reinforcement can be of great benefit to the Hernandez which could lead to the change of their behavior (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016).

For successful parenting to occur, active listening should be emphasized. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, active listening is a communication technique whereby the person receiving the message entirely concentrates on what the sender of the message is saying to ensure that he/she understands the message to be in a position of responding to it. The Hernandezs can be able to learn the techniques of effective parenting through practicing to be effective listeners. Active listening is a skill which individuals can acquire and develop with practice.

References

Zastrow, C., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2016). Understanding human behavior and the social environment.