Social Work/Counseling

Sociology is the ideal training program for entering social work or counseling. Although it is possible to obtain employment as a social worker with only a B.A., we strongly advise our students in social work and counseling to plan to obtain a Masters in Social Work. (M.S.W.) There are two reasons for this: 1) if the student wishes to work in the public sector, a Masters of Social Work is the preferred credential for obtaining employment in many key areas. Notably most employment in the areas of mental health, corrections or youth at risk will require an M.S.W. 2) The M.S.W. is also important if the student wishes to start their own private counseling practice. While technically anybody can open up a business and sell advice, the M.S.W. is an important credential in demonstrating to potential clients that one is a qualified counselor.

Because of the central role of the M.S.W. in social work practice, the sociology training program for pre-social work is oriented towards preparing the student for entering a high quality M.S.W. program. Keeping in line with this orientation, we do not provide "clinical" courses. Most social work programs prefer that a student obtain their "clinical" training with professional social workers under the school's particular preparatory regime. We instead provide the background that most social work schools want their students to have before entering their clinical training. This involves:

a) Training in the causes and origins of social and personal problems
b) Preparation for dealing with a diverse client base
c) Preparation in the organizational and statistical skills necessary for managing an agency or a caseload
d) Hands-on field experience in an agency providing social services

The Sociology Department offers a wide range of courses dealing with the causes of problems. These can vary from micro-oriented courses which discuss individual and family dynamics to more macro-oriented courses identifying social and environmental factors that can produce personal pathologies. These courses include:

SOCI 314: Social Problems
SOCI 411: Social Psychology
SOCI 315: The Marriage Institution
SOCI 207: Gender and Society
SOCI 316: Sociology of Gender
SOCI 304: Criminology
SOCI 404: Sociology of the Community
SOCI 321: Urban Sociology
SOCI 407: Rural Sociology
SOCI 419: Social Class in Contemporary Society

A social worker is expected to be able to deal with the intimate needs of people of a wide variety of backgrounds. No matter what your social origin ethnicity is, as a social worker, you will be expected to earn the trust of highly stressed people who are ethnically and culturally different from you. Understanding the subtleties of different groups' feelings and their ways of expressing themselves is essential to breaking barriers between yourself and your clients. Here are some courses that can increase your effectiveness in this regard:

SOCI 317: Minority Groups
SOCI 323: Sociology of Black Americans
SOCI 403: Sociology of Mexican Americans
SOCI 337: International Migration

The need to communicate with people with many backgrounds is one reason why the Sociology Department recommends that students preparing for a career in social work or counseling seriously consider studying a foreign language. In the contemporary counseling environment, the most useful language to know is Spanish.

Preparation in the organizational and statistical skills is also necessary for managing an agency or a caseload.

Social Work is not only about counseling distressed people. Finding solutions for your clients' problems often means negotiating with bureaucracies. Social workers have to spend a lot of time "in the back room", struggling to expedite a check, obtain an entry into a crowded treatment program or speed up an overdue and critical home inspection. Managing organizational dynamics is just as important as managing client dynamics. A social worker who can not handle the bureaucracy around themselves can be effectively neutralized.

As the social worker's career develops, statistics begin to play a greater and greater role. At the beginning, one is a front-line worker with relatively little autonomy or control. However, as one obtains experience and vision, it becomes possible to think about managing an agency, teaching dozens or hundreds of social workers to use effective techniques to solve problems rather than just using these techniques yourself.

At this level of responsibility, success is predicated on quantitative skills. Having your agency survive is dependent on budgets. Budgets are based on quantitative assessments of needs and effectiveness. Whoever controls the estimates of needs and effectiveness determines who gets funded and who closes. It is routine for agencies whose heads mismanage the numbers, to be cut back or closed down at the state level. Social workers who can do their own needs assessments, measures of effectiveness and budgeting are rewarded with growing programs that make a lasting impact on their community.

Here are some courses that will help you on the administrative side:

SOCI 335: Sociology of Organizations
SOCI 220: Methods of Social Research
SOCI 420: Advanced Methods of Social Research

We strongly recommend that students get field experience while they are undergraduates. This allows the student to observe first-hand the actual problems of real clients. Furthermore, the field experience allows the student to work closely with professional social workers, learning the job through daily practice. The student can also observe the obstacles faced by these agencies, including both the standard problems that are central to the Texas environment, and the unique challenges that are specific to certain types of practice. Internships can be done independently, or they can taken for course credit. The relevant course is:

SOCI 484: Field Practicum

In some cases, a Certificate in Sociology of Gender or the Certificate in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity can be a useful complement to training for Social Work/Counseling.

Students pursuing careers in the Social Work and Counseling Areas will also find helpful coursework outside the department. These include:

PSYC 306: Abnormal Psychology
PSYC 307: Developmental Psychology (for children and the elderly)
PSYC 335: Physiological Psychology (for medical and serious mental illness)
PSYC 345: Human Cognitive Processes (for people working in schools)

and selected courses offered as part of the Business Minor:

ACCT 209: Survey of Accounting Principles
INFO 209: Business Information Systems Concepts
MGMT 209: Business, Government, and Society
FINC 309: Survey of Finance Principles
MGMT 309: Survey of Management
MKTG 309: Introduction to Marketing