Transcriber’s note On Page 87 the line: “Settlement work, educational and vocational guidance.” is missing a corresponding number. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA A DEFINITION OF SOCIAL WORK ALICE S. CHEYNEY A THESIS IN SOCIOLOGY PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PHILADELPHIA 1923 COPYRIGHT 1923 BY ALICE S. CHEYNEY CONTENTS Chapter Page I. WHY THIS DEFINITION IS ATTEMPTED 5 II. THE CHARITABLE ELEMENT IN SOCIAL WORK 8 III. THE SCIENTIFIC ELEMENT IN SOCIAL WORK 16 IV. THE TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF SOCIAL WORK 27 V. THE TESTIMONY OF THE TRAINING SCHOOLS FOR PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORKERS 47 VI. THE ANSWER TO ITS CRITICS 55 APPENDIX 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY 89 CHAPTER I WHY THIS DEFINITION IS ATTEMPTED What social worker has not been asked to define social work and found himself at a loss? It is easy to describe his own particular tasks but it is not easy to characterize the profession as a whole or to say why its very diverse phases are identified with one another. Why should we apply the term “social work” to hospital social service and probation, but not to nursing and interpreting, services which seem to stand in a similar relation to medicine and the courts? Definitions of social work are not yet to be found in dictionaries or encyclopedias. A certain amount of characterization appears in current literature, by implication or by mention of one feature here and another there. Some general descriptions say of it things which, though true, do not distinguish it.[1] Probably no strict definition is possible. The field of social work is constantly extending; its functions are multiplying by geometric progression; its means are undergoing continuous adaptation and in all its phases it shades off into other kinds of work or attracts allied work to its own likeness. The inconvenience of this state of affairs is a constant subject of complaint and for at least three reasons we badly need some sort of definition.