Social Work Practice: The Role of Implicit Bias

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Introduction

When working with a diverse population of clients, a social worker encounters different types of issues from people representing varying worldviews and backgrounds. While the basic principles of cultural sensitivity in practice have been omnipresent in academic and professional fields related to social work, diversity-related issues are more difficult to unveil. Indeed, there has been a broad discussion of implicit bias as an unconscious disliking or preference of one group over another based on unreasonable grounds. Marginalized groups suffer from discrimination and oppression in contemporary society, which poses a high level of stress and a sense of exclusion that a client expects to avoid in social work sessions. Thus, implicit bias might have a significant negative impact on social workers achieving equity, inclusion, and justice in their practice. Therefore, it is essential to detect, raise awareness, and eliminate implicit bias in order to ensure unprejudiced service delivery to all clients regardless of their background. This paper is designed to analyze the dimensions of oppression served communities might face, the role of cultural competence in social work practice, and the role of implicit bias in it.

Dimensions of Marginalization and Oppression of the Served Communities

The communities that are most likely to be served include a variety of vulnerable populations. They might be patients with a terminal illness and their families, refugees, immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ clients and their community, individuals with low-socio-economic status, the elderly residing alone, and others. All of these communities are exposed to insecurities in their daily lives, which is related to their marginalization and oppression (Craig et al., 2020). These phenomena are frequently observed in diverse modern societies where the merge of cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, and worldviews triggers a spectrum of perceptions by others (Sereno et al., 2022). Since the exemplified vulnerable clients and communities often constitute a minority, it is likely that they might experience discrimination and stereotypical attitudes from the majority. Thus, vulnerable groups are frequently stigmatized in their daily lives across multiple settings (Craig et al., 2020). The level of stigmatization is dependent on the dimensions of marginalization.

Marginalization is a broad and complex issue characterized by diminishing or superiority-induced attitudes of others toward a vulnerable group. This concept develops within three core dimensions identified in the scholarly literature. In particular, according to Dorrance Hall and Wilson (2021), marginalization is a multidimensional construct composed of difference, disapproval, and exclusion (p. 2100). Thus, the first dimension of marginalization and oppression is a difference, which entails mere recognition of a person representing a vulnerable community as different from the majority. As a dimension, difference entails that on the opposite side of the spectrum, there is a similarity, implying that when a member of society is recognized as similar to others, they are not marginalized or oppressed (Dorrance Hall & Wilson, 2021). An example of marginalization within this dimension might be an experience of a transgender teenager at school where the dominating conventional gender peers ask questions or express their difficulty relating to the individuals identity. In this case, a persons sense of being not like others might be triggered and lead to consecutive stigmatization.

The second dimension of marginalization of vulnerable populations in a variety of settings is disapproval. As stated by Dorrance Hall and Wilson (2021), this dimension spans from approval as the form of unconditional acceptance of an individual or a community by others to disapproval as a conditional acceptance. To exemplify, one might draw on a situation where peers will only be friends with a woman from Arab culture if she does not wear a hijab. Such a condition is the manifestation of disapproval of her identity and cultural difference, which is a sign of marginalization.

The third marginalization and oppression dimension is exclusion, which, on the contrary to inclusion in a group, entails the elimination of any communication or acknowledgment of an individuals existence. As the scholars state, the exclusion type of marginalization is characterized by ostracism and ignoring of a person (Dorrance Hall & Wilson, 2021, p. 2103). For example, a young male from an impoverished Black community might be denied access to education or employment based on the stereotypical perception of such individuals as unreliable. This marginalization at the exclusion level leads to even more severe oppression since it diminishes vulnerable populations access to essential services and opportunities, further worsening their well-being.

The sense of belonging to a group is hindered by marginalization, which might be explained by referring to the Confirmation Theory. As Dorrance Hall and Wilson indicate, confirming messages communicate acceptance of another while disconfirming messages deny anothers experience, discredit their feelings, and reject their communication (p. 2101). Thus, the different dimensions of marginalization entail the lack of acceptance of a person by the majority, which stigmatizes the former and leads to a vicious circle of concerns. Moreover, there are several spheres where these groups might be marginalized and oppressed. They include healthcare, socialization, education, employment, community participation, legal field, and others (Craig et al., 2020). However, it is the field of social work where such communities seek and should find the protection, recognition, and support necessary to heal and find social security. For that purpose, social work practice must be deprived of bias and injustice to ensure positive client outcomes.

Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in Social Work

Given the frequency and the far-reaching effects of marginalization of the vulnerable population served by social workers, it is imperative to identify the role of cultural competence and cultural humility in social work practice. Overall, culturally sensitive social work practice entails professionals objective perception and appreciation of others backgrounds, traditions, languages, religions, economic status, and worldviews without prejudice. Such attitudes are developed on the basis of an analytical and aware perception of a social workers culture that is viewed as equal to any other. Cultural competence is behaviors, attitudes, and policies that can come together on a continuum that will ensure that a system, agency, program, or individual can function effectively and appropriately in diverse cultural interactions and settings (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2020, p. 142). As for cultural humility, it might be defined as a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and critique, to redressing power imbalances for continuous improvement of service delivered to diverse populations (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2020, p. 142). Thus, competence deals primarily with mastery of method and technique usage, while humility entails slef-involvement and awareness.

Due to such a difference between these two concepts, the social work community has been concerned with substituting cultural competence with cultural humility for its greater appeal to the self-awareness of a social worker. However, the findings obtained during the study by Danso (2018) indicate that it is irrelevant to substitute competence with humility since Cultural humility appears not to add more value to social work practice than cultural competence (p. 410). Therefore, given the benefits of both concepts and the incompleteness of culturally sensitive practice without either of them, it is imperative for both cultural competence and humility to be implemented by social workers. Indeed, the relevance of cultural competence to social work practice is difficult to overestimate since, as the previous section of this paper demonstrates, people who need social services often represent cultural minorities. The recognition of diversity in clients is essential for providing culturally sensitive care to vulnerable populations. Thus, competence as the ability to use methods and humility as a form of cultural self-awareness, are essential tools for eliminating discrimination and bias in social work practice.

To exemplify a case of applying cultural humility and competence in interaction with a client, one might refer to the rapport building between a white female social worker with an African American transgender client. In this case, the social workers gender and ethnicity should not impose any stereotypical perception of the experiences of the client. Instead, the professional is expected to adjust her communication style to the background and needs of the client, demonstrating respect and recognition of their cultural identity. However, conducting a culturally sensitive practice might be challenging due to the complexity of biases of which a social worker might not be aware (Sereno et al., 2022). Indeed, implicit biases are stemming from past experiences and related to a category of stimuli that function outside of an individuals awareness (Sereno et al., 2022, p. 73). Thus, they strongly influence ones attitudes and behavior toward others without one acknowledging it.

In social work practice, like in any other field or service, implicit bias is inherent in the human factor. According to Sereno et al. (2022), because implicit biases are outside of an individuals awareness and are activated automatically, an individual may not recognize the impact these biases have on their patterns of behavior (p. 73). Thus, to pursue cultural competence, one should profess cultural humility through self-exploration with the purpose of detecting implicit biases. The awareness of potential inner challenges to delivering just and equality-based client-centered service to the diverse population will unfold the areas for professional growth. Such training might be initiated with the use of implicit bias tests aimed at eliciting unconscious prejudices and stereotypes in relation to some populations. In such a manner, a social worker gains an opportunity for critical self-reflection that will ultimately benefit their clients outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the role of implicit bias in social work practice is predetermined by the unconscious influence of ones individual prejudices on the character of the interaction with clients. Since the ultimate goal of a professional social workers performance is clients healing and well-being, it is essential for the interaction, communication, and therapeutic techniques to be deprived of biases. For that matter, it is in a social workers best interest that proper training and self-assessment means are implemented to profess objectivity and non-stereotypical judgment of the diverse population of clients. In such a manner, the awareness of ones implicit bias will eliminate the risks of injustice or discrimination in social work practice. Moreover, culturally, ethnically, economically, and religiously diverse clientele will obtain high-quality service congruent with the principles of care.

References

Craig, K. D., Holmes, C., Hudspith, M., Moor, G., Moosa-Mitha, M., Varcoe, C., & Wallace, B. (2020). Pain in persons who are marginalized by social conditions. Pain, 161(2), 261-265.

Danso, R. (2018). Cultural competence and cultural humility: A critical reflection on key cultural diversity concepts. Journal of Social Work, 18(4), 410-430.

Dorrance Hall, E., & Wilson, S. R. (2021). Explicating dimensions of family marginalization and types of marginalized family members. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(7), 2099-2120.

Greene-Moton, E., & Minkler, M. (2020). Cultural competence or cultural humility? Moving beyond the debate. Health Promotion Practice, 21(1), 142-145.

Sereno, M., Quigley, J., & Smith, G. S. (2022). A systematic review of the use of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to assess implicit biases held by professionals toward client populations. Research on Social Work Practice, 32(1), 73-91.

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Introduction

Dimensions of Marginalization and Oppression of the Served Communities

Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in Social Work

Conclusion

References

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