Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SSW FE 803: Field Education 3
  Graduate Prerequisites: Required of all students. - Required of all students in their first semester of the standard second (advanced) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 804: Field Education 4
  Graduate Prerequisites: Required of all students. - Required of all students in their second semester of the standard second (advanced field placement). Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 805: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 1
  First semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 806: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 2
  Second semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 807: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 3
  Third semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 808: Field 4/2 May-May
  FLD 4/2 MAY-MAY
• SSW FE 818: Field Education 3
  FIELD ED 818
• SSW FE 819: Field Education 2
  FIELD ED 819
• SSW FE 820: Field Ed 820
  
• SSW FE 821: Field Ed 821
  
• SSW FE 822: Field Ed 822
  
• SSW FE 823: Field Ed 823
  
• SSW FE 824: Field Ed 824
  
• SSW FE 825: Field Education
  FIELD ED 825
• SSW HB 720: Human Behavior in the Social Environment
  Graduate Corequisites: Graduate Corequisites: HB 735; Or permission of department chair. Requ ired of all students. - Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) is designed to help you chart a knowledgeable course through the complexity of human experience. We will explore a select set of theories that help us understand how individuals and communities develop and interact. Because empathic and skillful interventions with individuals, groups, and communities require understanding ourselves as well as others, the course provides an opportunity for increased self-awareness. At the beginning of the course, we focus on the key theories that help us understand the dimensions and expression of human behavior in the social environment. This discussion is followed by an examination of how dimensions of culture and cultural contexts can shape individuals values, beliefs, worldviews, and identities, all of which play a role in the helping process. Through discussion and analysis, we will explore areas of universality and difference in the context of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, and socioeconomic class, as well as the realities and influence of multiple forms of oppression. Finally, we will examine human development throughout the lifespan, considering the developmental scientific knowledge base regarding opportunities and vulnerabilities during the different stages of the lifecycle, and the biopsychosocial and cultural factors that can influence individual development. HB 720 constitutes the foundation course in the human behavior department and is the underpinning of all courses in the HBSE sequence. The ability to analyze human behavior in the social environment, drawing from theoretically and empirically-grounded evidence bases, is essential for social work practice, whether the primary focus is clinical or macro. Social work has a distinct perspective that emphasizes the interconnection between individuals and their environments. The framework draws from other disciplines, including anthropology, economics, psychology, biology, and sociology. The course will provide an understanding of the interactions among biological, social, and psychological, and cultural systems. Forces that facilitate optimal growth and development will be contrasted with forces that impede development. The course will build on your undergraduate knowledge of basic human behavior theories, adding theoretical breadth, critical contextualization, and professional application.
• SSW HB 723: Assessment and Differential Diagnosis with Adults
  Graduate Prerequisites: SSW HB 720 or permission of department chair. - The goal of this course is to provide students with a framework for understanding human behavior when challenges to healthy adult functioning overwhelm coping mechanisms and resources. A biopsychosocial model of psychopathology is emphasized as we study some of the disorders classified in the DSM-5, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, PTSD, dissociative disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse/addictions. Complex factors in the etiology of various disorders are considered, including genetic, neurochemical, biological, developmental, familial, sociocultural, and political variables that affect the occurrence, presentation, course, and treatment of a problem. While learning the perspective and language of the phenomenological approach outlined in the DSM-5, we also highlight weaknesses and blind spots in the traditional approach to diagnoses. In particular, we explore the impact of oppression and bias on the naming and treatment of mental disorders, including the influences of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability, religion, and ethnicity on the diagnostic process. Students learn to consider the DSM-5 classification system as a social construction that reveals as much about the society and its views of human behavior as it does about the clients with whom social workers have contact.
• SSW HB 727: Assessment and Differential Diagnosis with Children
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWHB720) Or permission of department chair. - This course uses a developmental psychopathological model to explore complex psychological disturbances in children, adolescents, and families with a focus on the urban family experience. It addresses multiple research and theoretical perspectives that promote a way of understanding ?normal? and ?pathological? child and adolescent behaviors that change over time in the context of their genetic make- up, biological processes, interpersonal relationships, culture, and available community resources and support. In this course, developmental, systemic, psychodynamic, neurobiological and behavioral theoretical perspectives inform students? understanding of children and adolescents? adaptive and maladaptive patterns of behavior, which evolve over time in the context of their complex developmental histories and socio-cultural relational experiences. The course promotes the importance of assessing in children and families both the historical and present risks for disturbed behavioral development and the historical and present protective factors that promote healthy and resilient behavioral development.
• SSW HB 735: Racial Justice and Cultural Oppression
  Graduate Corequisites: Graduate Corequisites: HB 720; Or permission of department chair. Requ ired of all students - This course examines the causes and implications of racism as a dynamic force influencing social work, and the Intersectionality of racism with other forms of oppression. The course builds on and integrates concepts presented in foundation courses. It analyzes and evaluates the social, cultural, political, economic and interpersonal contexts of racism that bear on our current policies and institutional arrangements. The course is designed to familiarize students with 1) theoretical overviews of racism and oppression; 2) historical accounts and contemporary experiences of racism, 3) the formation of complex racial identity, 4) multicultural contexts and fundamentals of cultural competency, and 5) effective social change efforts based on organizational analysis.
• SSW HB 743: Social Work Theory and Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Populations
  Social workers and other mental health and social service practitioners in the United States find themselves increasingly called upon to address the needs of immigrants and refugees. In this course, students will gain a deeper understanding of the social forces impacting immigrants and refugees from around the world by using a human rights framework. We will explore the experiences of these populations through the lenses of immigrant and refugee women by centering their narratives and the tenets from Chicana and Latina feminisms. Students will engage in diverse theoretical applications and acquire essential practice skills at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. We will focus on the strengths and liberation of immigrant and refugee communities while critically understanding their needs and experiences with intersectional systemic oppression. This course will rely on current research and the ongoing development of current events that influence forced migration throughout the world and affect immigrants and refugees in the United States.
• SSW HB 744: Spirituality and Social Work Practice
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWHB720) Or permission of department chair. - The goal of this course is to acquaint the student with current theories regarding religion and spirituality and their role in clinical work. Particular attention is given to the function of spirituality and religion in bridging internal and external adaptations throughout the life cycle. Utilizing psychodynamic and narrative frameworks, this course addresses ways of assessing and working with an individual?s spiritual and existential belief systems and attending to the ways in which spiritual beliefs and practices provide a window into a client?s inner world. In addition, the course addresses issues of transference and countertransference as they arise in the exploration of religious and spiritual material in psychotherapy. The course draws heavily on case material, film, and fiction.