i think so. i imagine most people CAN do social work, since it's a low-paid, high-turnover rate profession, so they probably hire people with other majors.
to me though, as a social work major, the two are quite different. social work is a helping profession, and i don't think i'd categorize sociology as one. it's more the study of society, whereas with clinical social work the focus is on identifying problems, focusing on the strengths people have to tackle those problems, and eventually empowering them enough that they learn how to deal with problems on their own later on. there are other forms of social work that don't involve therapy though, but i think the training i'm getting is pretty vital to any of them.
i chose social work over sociology or psychology cuz i couldn't deal with just pointing out what was wrong without making an active effort to get in there and fix it. i also didn't want there to be the power imbalance between my client and i that it felt like there could be with psychology. i plan to go into clinical practice, most likely with teenagers.
i agree with julie, except it took me a couple years to get to that place. i was more interested in studying the parts of society first, and was a major in women's studies as well as human justice, before finally switching to social work this year. after i learned all the rules of the canadian govt and the statistics about all the oppression and poverty, it didn't make sense to me to stay in a field where i would just study it, and not go out and do something about it. you can be an activist with a women's studies degree or a human justice degree, but not as hands on as with social work.
here, you can't get a job as a social worker unless you have a degree in the field, but that might just be a canadian thing. you can also work in social policy or research if you want, and they actually have a lot of gov't funded research programs that are always taking on new grads. again, thats canada.
i think so. i imagine most people CAN do social work, since it's a low-paid, high-turnover rate profession, so they probably hire people with other majors.
to me though, as a social work major, the two are quite different. social work is a helping profession, and i don't think i'd categorize sociology as one. it's more the study of society, whereas with clinical social work the focus is on identifying problems, focusing on the strengths people have to tackle those problems, and eventually empowering them enough that they learn how to deal with problems on their own later on. there are other forms of social work that don't involve therapy though, but i think the training i'm getting is pretty vital to any of them.
i chose social work over sociology or psychology cuz i couldn't deal with just pointing out what was wrong without making an active effort to get in there and fix it. i also didn't want there to be the power imbalance between my client and i that it felt like there could be with psychology. i plan to go into clinical practice, most likely with teenagers.
more than you wanted to know, i'm sure!
i agree with julie, except it took me a couple years to get to that place. i was more interested in studying the parts of society first, and was a major in women's studies as well as human justice, before finally switching to social work this year. after i learned all the rules of the canadian govt and the statistics about all the oppression and poverty, it didn't make sense to me to stay in a field where i would just study it, and not go out and do something about it. you can be an activist with a women's studies degree or a human justice degree, but not as hands on as with social work.
here, you can't get a job as a social worker unless you have a degree in the field, but that might just be a canadian thing. you can also work in social policy or research if you want, and they actually have a lot of gov't funded research programs that are always taking on new grads. again, thats canada.