The use of an extended axial model for examining social work core knowledge about early attachment

Hurley, Audrey Land (1987) The use of an extended axial model for examining social work core knowledge about early attachment. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This examination of social work core knowledge about early attachment proposes a methodology for identification of the major contributors to core knowledge, and suggests the use of an epistemic inventory and extended version of Lally's axial model for analysis of selected work by these primary theorists. The 10 primary theorists were identified by citation count of 19 periodical articles published between 1974-1984. These articles, representing the social work early attachment literature base, were identified by a keyword search of Social Sciences Citation Index social work journals and Social Work Research and Abstracts. A selection of the primary theorists’ work was examined using an epistemic inventory to focus on issues pertinent to social work, and to plot the conceptual perspectives of the theorists. -- The findings suggest that the methodology was effective in identifying authors whose work is consistent with the definition of core knowledge. This methodology is an inversion of Garfield's clustering technique, and might be useful in identifying core knowledge about a variety of topics germane to social work practice. Conversely, Garfield's technique could be straight forwardly applied, using core theorists, to generate a wider cluster of social work literature about a specific topic, literature suggestive of applied-derived knowledge in social work. -- The use of the epistemic inventory and axial model was effective in locating the underlying assumptions of primary theorists, and in highlighting troublesome issues for social work practitioners within the core knowledge base. This analysis predicts difficulties for practitioners in extrapolating from core knowledge about early attachment to active intervention, particularly in the area of policy and ethical considerations. This study lays the groundwork for further investigation of both the applied-derived literature base and the implementation of early attachment knowledge in social work practice. The findings suggest the importance of exposure to a broad range of sometimes conflicting theoretical orientations in training social work professionals.

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