P
Paining behaviours - Choosing misery by developing symptoms (such as head aching, depressing anxiety) because these seem like the best behaviours available at the time.

Paraphrasing - To reword a message using one's own words rather than the words of others.

Paraprofessional  - One who works alongside a professional but does not possess an advanced (graduate) academic degree.

Paraprofessionals Persons with work experience or specialized training who are generally trained to assist professionals but do not themselves have professional training and credentials.

Parole - The practice of allowing prisoners to complete their sentences under supervision in the community after a period of imprisonment.

Participation of the poor Involving poor people in planning for social lwelfare programs.

Participatory Research - a type of community work which refers to a process of research comprised of education, investigation and action directed at changing the structures that promote inequality and the structures that produce knowledge which perpetuates the current power structures.

Patriarchy - The domination of society by men.

Paulo Freire – Brazilian social activist who pioneered a community development method for empowering the oppressed. His method contributed to the inspiration of Latin Americans to participate in the development of their countries.

Pauperization - the fear in the 19th century that people would become dependent on charity and become pauperized or dependent on relief. This is a theme that is still prevalent today.

People not counted in the labour force – includes "discouraged" workers, students, persons declared as unemployable, people at home raising children, seasonal workers (during their working seasons).

Perceived world - The reality that we experience and interpret subjectively.

Performance Information - Measures reporting on the extent or impact of activities and products on clients and/or expected outcomes on indirect clients, stakeholders and on Canadian society.

Performance Measurement - Regular measurement of the results (outputs/outcomes) and efficiency of services or programs.

Person with a disability: Terms such as cripple, defective, abnormal, handicapped, physically challenged or mentally challenged have been applied to people who are disabled.   The most acceptable terms are terms which put the person first not the disability: people with disabilities, person with a disability, person with intellectual disability, etc.

Personal Change - an element of the structural social work approach, enhanced client power via worker encouraging clients to take responsibility for feelings, thoughts and behaviour which may be destructive to self or to others; linking feelings, thoughts and behaviour to primary structures.

Personal social services Nonfinancial social welfare programs that enhance people's personal development and functioning.

Personal Tragedy theory of disability - problems faced by people with disabilities are not the result of physical impairments alone, but also of the social and political inequality which exists between people with disabilities and able bodied people (Oliver, 1990).

Petty or Petit Bourgeoisie - Small proprietors, peasants, artisans, and tradesmen - people broadly speaking who employ labour but also labour themselves.

Phenomenology - A method of exploration that uses subjective human experiencing as its focus. The phenomenological approach is a part of the fabric of existentially oriented therapies, of Adlerian therapy, of person-centred therapy, of Gestalt therapy, and of reality therapy.

Physical Abuse - Physical assaults such as hitting, kicking, biting, throwing, burning or poisoning that cause, or could cause, physical injury as well as behaviours or omissions that cause, or could cause, physical injury to a child.

Physical limitations The partial or total loss of the use of bodily organs, limbs, or other body parts.

Physiological needs - Basic needs for physical survival; the lowest level on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Picture album - The perceptions and images we have of how we can fulfill our basic psychological needs; also referred to as one's quality world.

Political Change - an element of the structural social work approach, activism by clients and workers within social justice organizations and social movements; developing alternative services and using non-violent conflict tactics; coalition/solidarity work.

Political Economy - believes that the operation of economic markets is tied to private concentrations of ownership of the productive enterprise and is essentially exploitative. Social spending is a right fought for by the working class. Some within this approach believe that social spending serves to prop-up and justify the economic system. This is called the acaccumulation and legitimating functions of welfare state.

Political institution The social institution aimed at ensuring an orderly process for societal decision-making, and providing a workable structure to enforce rules and laws.

Political rights model -  theory of disability, primarily concerned with broader social and political change. It contends that a comprehensive understanding of disability can only occur through examination of a social oppression theory of disability along with the already predominant personal tragedy theory of disability.

Pornography - The combination of sexual material with abuse or degradation in a manner that appears to endorse, condone, or encourage such behaviour.

Portability – One of the five principles of Canada Health Act. Health services must continue to be covered when residents move from one province to another. It is supposed to cover Canadians temporarily out of the country.

Positivist social science - believed that society could be studied using the same principles as the physical world, and that the scientific observer could suspend judgement and therefore not subject social phenomena to the bias of human judgement.

Post-modernization in sexuality - "difference” is personally mediated by life experience, recognizing that sex and sexuality are only one of many contested domains of living. Such factors as historical period, ethnicity, financial resources and opportunities will all play a significant role in self-definition. The "homosexual/ heterosexual dichotomy” is the result of scientific explanations of sexual expression that attempt to bring organization to a domain of human behaviour and experience viewed as threatening to a defined social order.

Post-Structuralism - Post-structuralism is a critical philosophy that has grown out of the work of Lacan, Derrida, Focault, Lyotard, Deleuze, and Guatarri. Post-structuralism can be broken down into several critiques. Critique of the human subject: post-structuralists want to deconstruct the notion of the "subject." They hold, as the structuralist Levi-Strauss before them, that the goal of the human sciences is not to constitute man, but to dissolve him. To them, human reality is a social construction and consciousness is decentred.

Post-war transformation phase of social welfare - after WWII, a period of rapid economic growth and mass consumption, as well as rapid expansion in social work jobs, education programs and training for social workers. In addition, alternative models of practice were introduced and developed.

Poverty line - The level of income that the federal government considers sufficient to meet basic requirements for food, shelter, and clothing.

Power theory in wife abuse- a feminist-based theory, explains that wife abuse is a societal problem which occurs because of the power imbalance between men and women, specifically because of the dominance of men and men's roles. Wife abuse continues because there has been historical acceptance of abuse and of men's right to control women, even by force. This theory maintains that society must change its attitudes, values and responses with respect to women if wife abuse is to be prevented. This theory fits in really well with structural social work.

Powerlessness - The perceived or actual condition of inability or lack of position of an individual, group, or category to protect one's own interests or to influence, direct, control or have any power over social events that affect one's life.

Pre-industrial Patriarchal Care - an historical phase in which rural "traditional" families had children working in farming with other family members, and household employees. The mother was seen as responsible for family care needs, such as cooking, cleaning, and nursing. These tasks were viewed as not having any economic value, and were seen as natural tasks to be performed by women. The father was responsible for the economic survival needs of the family. He was seen as the family patriarch.

Pre-industrial social welfare - includes the period from the formation of Canada up to the 1890s. During this phase, private charities developed, offering material relief and lessons in moral ethics. Social welfare in the form of what was then called relief began largely as "indoor relief" but became increasingly "out-of-door relief" for those people who were judged to be "deserving".

Prejudice - An adverse opinion that "pre-judges" entire groups, based on incomplete and inaccurate information.

Pre-retirement planning - Helping people plan ahead so that they will be emotionally and financially prepared for retirement.

Primary labour market – characterized by high earnings, good working conditions, good chances for advancement, more likely unionized, closed to external competition. Predominately male.

Primary social supports - The network of social relationships, including friends and family, that provide gratification of a person's needs.

Primary structures – structural social work identifies the primary structures of oppression that need to be addressed when practicing social work: patriarchy, racism, capitalism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism.

Primary system of distribution - market return to different factors of production - income in the form of wages, interest, and rent on property.

Private Sector - That part of society owned and controlled by individuals.

Private social welfare Social welfare programs funded by voluntary charitable contributions of individuals and private organizations, by fees people pay for the services they receive, or which are provided by funds spent by corporations to provide social welfare services for their employees.

Privatization The use of the private sector to provide social welfare services, often in addition to or instead of existing public services.

Probation Allowing convicted offenders to serve their sentence under supervision in the community instead of in prison.

Problem-solving approach - an approach to social work which breaks down every problem into component parts and develops objectives which must be met in order to solve overall problem.

Professional registration The process of compiling and maintaining a list of names of people who have met specified professional standards.

Projection - The process by which we disown certain aspects of ourselves by ascribing them to the environment; the opposite of introjection.

Proletariat - The class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.

Proletariat - The working class in a capitalist society, who do not own the means of production but rather sell their labour for a wage. An individual member of the proletariat is called a ‘proletarian’.

Prosthesis An artificial replacement for a limb or other bodily part.

Protestant ethic The belief, based in Protestant religious values, that work fulfills God's will and that those who do not work are sinners.

Protestant work ethic - A social philosophy that supports the accumulation of wealth as a reward for hard work and condemns idleness as almost sinful.

Psychiatry - The medical specialty that investigates, diagnoses, and treats mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders.

Psychoanalysis - A school of psychology originated by Freud, and the treatment method derived from his theories. Focuses on bringing the unconscious to the surface (or to the conscious) in order to deal with it.

Psychoanalytic Therapy - A theory of personality development, a philosophy of human nature, and a method of psychotherapy, it focuses on unconscious factors that motivate behaviour. Attention is given to the events of the first six years of life as determinants of the later development of personality. Although the Freudian view of human nature is basically deterministic and focuses on irrational forces, biological and instinctual drives, and unconscious motivation, later developments in psychoanalysis stressed social and cultural factors.

Psycho-social approach - an approach to social work which draws heavily on psychology. It examines a person's personality and social situation and looks at a way of improving coping skills.

Psychotherapy - The treatment of personal, emotional, and behavior problems by psychological means.

Public administration - Provincial health care plans must be publicly administered and operated on a non-profit basis, and subject to public audit.

Public primary education – publicly funded and delivered education began in the 1880s as a solution largely to juvenile delinquency.

Public social welfare - Social welfare programs funded by tax monies or through income obtained from legally mandated programs.

Copyright © 2001 Steven Hick. All rights reserved.