The application of interactional analysis to an applied study of social work

Abstract

Social services in urban areas are often delivered by young workers with little training whose backgrounds differ from the client population. Social work supervision and training traditionally rely on self reports by social service workers of their interviews with clients. Differences in cultural style and lack of training make this problematic. Analysis which focuses on the witnessable interactional details of service interviews, as preserved on videotape, shows that different conclusions can be drawn concerning “what happened” from those drawn via self report. The goal of our study was to provide a videotaped record of events to service providers and evaluate their use of the technology in an effort to improve service delivery and training.