Essay Example on Social Care Providers: Understanding Social Cognitive Theory

Introduction

Social cognitive theory is a fundamental aspect in the requisite of a social care practitioner on human developments and functioning in any given environment. The main focus of the theory is on the function and acquisition of knowledge and thoughts (Lee, Park, Lee, Kim, and Park, 2018). That is, what and how an individual happens to know and thinks as well as the role of what they do and feel. Various concepts in of social cognitive theory are vital for social care providers in the comprehension of the challenges associated with social functioning (Tougas, Hayden, McGrath, Huguet, and Rozario, 2015). General guidelines to interventions and assessments constitute these significant concepts and assumptions. Researchers and developmental theorists explain the development and nature of human cognitive systems and provide cognitive functioning models. Cognitive-behavioural theorists clarify essential processes via which the thinking of a person influences behavior and the way an individual's thinking is influenced by environmental response and behavior or the consequence of that behavior (Davis, Campbell, Hildon, Hobbs, and Michie, 2014). Some scholars claim that social cognitive theory helps in the description of a person's experience as well as other actions and the environmental factors concerning the health behavior of an individual. Davis et al. (2014) claimed that social cognitive theory gives an opportunity for social support via instilling self-efficacy, expectations as well as using observational learning and other aspects to help in achieving the behavior change of an individual. The social cognitive theory can be used as a theoretical framework in various settings as well as population. The social care practitioners commonly apply it in the guidance of behavior change intervention. The theory may be very vital, especially in the rural community setting in examining the way people interact with their environment (Eslami, Norozi, Hajihosseini, Ramazani, and Miri, 2017). More significantly, the social cognitive theory may help understand the social determinant's influence on the health and experience of an individual regarding behavior change. The focus of this paper is to examine the application of social cognitive theory in social care.

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Understanding of Individuals' Perceptions in Various Aspects of a Society

The cognitive theory in relation to social care rekindles our thoughts on the distinctions between rational scientific knowledge and various ways in which different individuals express their understanding of the real-world situation. People thus believe that they regulate their behavior as well as motivating themselves (Davis et al., 2014). Considering AIDs, an individual has to start with the understanding that behavior changes are attributed to decisions made by people based on their perception concerning their susceptibility to infections as well as the social and personal context that may make it difficult for behavior change.

Furthermore, most professional social care providers face many challenges in their attempts to provide social care services that are related to the social and cultural context of a racial-ethnic minority. Majority of social work theories that helps in guiding on the practices of cognitive therapy were established on the grounds of construction and ideology of the middle-class mainstream culture of America (Lee et al., 2018). This is done with biased or limited considerations of ethnicity and race of a client. Understanding this, we can easily infer that cognitive theory with regards to social care enables us to enquire about the ways of thinking of a client as well as the way their process their perceptions of various aspects affecting their lives.

Handing Social Conflicts

No matter the level of speciality, social care providers have to come across conflicts and issues emanating from problematic behavior or social reinforcements. For instance, a social provider may succumb to challenges like bullying, substance abuse, violence as well as psychological matters that may have adverse effects on an individual's socialization (Lee et al., 2018). All the mentioned challenges might emanate from or be under the influence of understandable situations that might be easily comprehended with the knowledge and skills or social cognitive theory. Considering a social care provider who encounters individuals with aggressive behavioural practices that hinders the ability of other individuals (Tougas et al., 2015). The social care provider may apply the social cognitive theory by examining and assessing the stimuli the individual might have been frequently exposed to that may be leading to the reinforcement of the aggressiveness, discouraging and disruptive behavior. Once the social care provider has established the causes of unpleasant behavior, they can make use of social cognitive theory to establish the dysfunctional thought patterns that may make the individual have inappropriate behaviours or emotions (Davis et al., 2014). The social worker can then make use of various aspects of social cognitive theory such as gradual therapy techniques like symbolic coding, stress management and positive modelling and different systematic and reinforcement desensitization. Making use of these may help in shaping new behaviours by altering negative or positive reinforcement related to the stimuli at the real source of the problem. Lee et al. (2018) further argued that any social care provider that has a sufficient understanding of the social cognitive theory could easily exploit some practice models for handling behavioural conflicts regardless of any setting.

Understanding and Influencing Individuals' Behaviors

In their practices, when social care providers try to influence their client's behaviours, they have to consider the multifaceted factor that leads to their behavior. Lee et al. (2018) claimed that it is naive and limited to expect that one can easily change their behaviours when exposed to some scenarios like threats of disease or illness. People are never consistent in the manner they give approach to the challenges. Thus there is a need to have a comprehensive understanding of the various variations that may occur in any social encounter. It is also worth noting that social care providers may not be consistent in the manner they view their clients' social aspects, and this needs to be improved and managed. Eslami et al. (2017) argued that issues concerning behavioural change are mostly wide-reaching and complex. A successful outcome is heavily dependent on the complexities encountered as well as a broad understanding of the required processes so as to assist in facilitating social related-behavioural change. The usage of the cognitive theory has significantly impacted the preventative directions of social behavior as well as impacting on the manner in which social care providers handle social issues.

It has been widely recognized that an individuals' intentions towards behavioural change as well as its cognitive process underpin a lot of the activities that constitute social education. Social cognitive theory is structured to examine and observe the precursors and the predictors of socially related behaviours (Lee et al., 2018). Social cognitive theory is associated with subjective expected utility theory which suggests that socially related behaviours originate from the rational cognitions potential costs against the perceived benefit of pursuing a given behavior. The present theories of thinking about cognitive functioning and the ones that support behavioural intention are in clear distinction to earlier theories that tempted to portray behavioural change as purely being controlled by the internalized response mechanism. Understanding individuals' way of thinking makes it easy for social care providers to influence their attitude towards some aspects of social life easily.

Management of Chronic Diseases in the Society

A comprehensive understanding and mastery of social cognitive theory may help a social care provider to help in the effective management of chronic diseases among individuals in society (Tougas et al., 2015). Chronic diseases have become a common form of the disease and one of the leading causes of disability in society. It is worth noting that some ailments do not respond well to biomedical approaches that are tailored majorly for acute illness. This thus calls for an understanding and application of various aspects of cognitive theories in managing individuals' behavior hence boosting the health conditions of victims of chronic diseases. Chronic disease management and treatment has to emphasize on self-management of various physical conditions based on social cognitive theory (Lee et al., 2018). The main objective of social cognitive theory is to enable the social care providers to learn on various ways of understanding the social behavior of individuals in a society in order to help in retarding biological regressions of impairments to disabilities and to enhance the quality of individuals who are victims of chronic diseases. Besides, individuals are taught various techniques for self-relaxation, cognitive pain control, as well as paraxial goal settings in combination with incentives as motivators for enhancing activity level (Eslami et al., 2017). Moreover, they educated on various aspects of cognitive theories such as self-diagnostic skills for interpreting and monitoring changes their health status, problem-solving skills as well as skills for the location of various community resources and management of programs related to the medication. The manner in which social care providers deal with various individuals in society may change the sense of efficacy in a way that undermines or support the effort of restoration. Social care providers thus need to apply different aspects of cognitive theory to ensure that their clients the best from their services.

Societal Post-Coronary Care

Majority of individuals who suffers heart attacks exhibits adverse social habits that expose them to the risk of getting other diseases. They get a lot of treatments in the hospitals but get minimal follow-up assistance in matters relating to changing behavior risk factor (Eslami et al., 2017). The social care providers can apply the knowledge that they have acquired from cognitive theory to enhance the lives of individuals to are victims of chronic diseases. This may prove to be very significant as opposed to the normal standard medical post-coronary care as it will help in controlling and hence reducing mortality and morbidity among post-coronary individuals.

A case study that was conducted by Lee et al. (2018) indicated that the self-regulatory aspect of social cognitive theory proved to be more effective than normal post-coronary care. The case study constituted 500 post coronary patients from six hospitals who had risk factors like smoking, physical exercise and cholesterol. After the first year, the disparities in the cardiovascular risk after post-coronary care reduced by five percent (Eslami et al., 2017). On the other hand, the self-regulatory proved to be more efficient and effective in minimizing the risk factors and enhancing functional cardiovascular capacity over the standard medical care. This, therefore, means that individuals who are victims of chronic diseases stand high chances of benefiting from social care providers with vast experience of various aspects of social cognitive theory.

Conclusion

Social cognitive theory is an important tool that social care providers may embrace routinely in the frameworks of practice. The theory was designed to enable the adoptio...