Changing Social Work Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Government in a Policy Class

ABSTRACT

Understanding student political attitudes—feelings about government and perceptions of its role—has long been of interest to social scientists. One factor that may influence political attitudes is belief in a just world, a complex psychological construct well established in the literature. Our study explores changes in social work students’ perception of a supportive role of government and their beliefs in a just world after one policy course using a pretest and posttest design. Student perceptions changed toward a more supportive government role, but there was no significant change for belief in a just world. The study contributes to empirical evaluation of the social work education policy class in terms of the Council on Social Work Education competencies.

Notes

¹ Hyman (1959) cites a formulation by Allport that identifies four conditions that form political attitudes: “(1) the accumulation and accretion of experiences, then become more specific through (2) the individuation or differentiation of earlier diffuse attitudes in the face of experience and/or (3) through the occurrence of trauma [identified as a discrete, one-time experience] and/or (4) through adoption directly from parents, teachers, peers and other individuals” (p. 51).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Brierton Granruth

Laura Brierton Granruth is Assistant Professor and David H. Johnson is Associate Professor at the Millersville University School of Social Work. Peter A. Kindle is Associate Professor at University of South Dakota. Michael L. Burford is Clinical Assistant Professor at East Tennessee State University. Elena Delavega is Associate Professor at University of Memphis. Susan Peterson is Retired Faculty, Minot State University. Mary A. Caplan is Assistant Professor at University of Georgia School of Social Work.