The Practical Application of Psychology in Social Service Work

Wherever we undertake the task of ministering not only to the body but to the mind, our working basis must be psychology. In social work this psychology must be more particularly social psychology, for we are dealing with human beings as members of society. We are considering the physical welfare of individuals merely as a contributory factor to their social welfare. All social work, then, should be grounded on a social psychology which does not, of course, preclude the apparent necessity of the constant application of an individual psychology; for every human being is different from every other human being, in spite of the fact that there are a good many underlying principles which apply to whole classes of individuals. As Edward A. Ross puts it, "No two persons have just the same endowment. Looking at their heredity, we should