Theories and Methods - Attachment Theory

Attachment Theory, conceived by John Bowlby and furthered by Mary Ainsworth, explores the centrality of attachment bonds in human development and emotional life. Particular attention is paid to the degree of security infants and children feel in relationship to their caregivers and the consequences when a felt sense of security is lacking (as in cases of even mild emotional neglect). Mary Ainsworth's experimental "strange situation" examined the responses of children to different caregiver behaviors and identified a set of attachment patterns (e.g., anxious-resistant, avoidant...) which followed the children into their adult relationships. Radical when originated, attachment theory has since been thoroughly integrated into much clinical practice, especially that of social workers.

For futher review: Attachment theory at Wikipedia, at Simply Psychology, attachment theory books at Amazon.

Studying with Social Work Podcasts

Some people learn best via text, others via charts and images, still others like to listen their way to knowledge. Everyone can benefit from the free audio exam preparation available on the net. Podcasts are a great way to load up on information and general social work knowledge. Early episodes of the Social Work Podcast are especially useful as they cover the very theories and approaches that may show up on the ASWB exam. (Here's a helpful menu of useful Social Work Podcast episodes.) Other podcasts may make for inefficient but effective social work exam studying. An episode of inSocialWork, focused on one content area (and not designed for exam preparation) will give you the type of depth of knowledge that will make it impossible to miss a question on that topic. But will that topic actually show up on the exam? There's no saying. What you will get is a ever-increasing sense of what it means to be a social worker and how social workers think about difficult questions. That's something you can bring to just about every question on the exam! Links:

• The Social Work Podcast
• inSocilWork Podcast
• Podsocs