Human behavior and the social environment is a major section on both the LMSW and LCSW exams. Whether you’re a case manager, therapist, or a community organizer/policy-worker, knowing human behavior and systems is a major aspect of social work’s central focus on the PIE (person-in-environment) perspective. In addition to knowing the different stages of human development, social workers are tasked with know how developmental needs interact with clients’ individual, community, and sociopolitical environments.

Give this question a try:

A social worker in a high school setting is meeting with a 15-year-old student referred for recent behavioral changes. The student reports feeling distant from their parents, arguing more frequently over rules and expectations, and spending significantly more time with peers whose values sometimes conflict with their family’s. The student states, “My friends just get me more than my parents do right now.” From an ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner), the tension the student is experiencing MOST accurately reflects an interaction within which system level?

(A) Microsystem
(B) Mesosystem
(C) Macrosystem

Know the answer? The answer (KEY) for this question is: (B) (highlight)

If we go all the way back to Erikson’s psychosocial stages, we know that adolescents are in the identity vs. role confusion stage: it involves a differentiation from parents, branching out to peer groups, and the development of formal operations thinking (abstract thought–this is Piaget). In this example, the teen’s connection to his peers represents his attempt to individuate/differentiate by expanding beyond the Microsystem (home life) to a Mesosystem (peers, school, community). The tension between family values, peer values, and internal identity development is happening in the middle of all of this.

In summary, some essential theories to study for the Human Behavior and Social Environment section:

• Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development
• Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
• Margaret Mahler and John Bowlby (attachment theory and separation individuation)
• Brofenbrenner’s ecological theory (systems)

For more practice, check out Social Work Test Prep for practice tests.

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