J. Behav. Thu. dr Exp. Psychial. Vol. 12, No. I, pp. 43-47, 1981 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCB Printed m Great Britain. m5-7908/81/010043-05 $02.00/O 0 1981 Pergamon Press Ltd. zyxwvutsrqp BEHAVIORAL TRAINING IN SOCIAL WORK: AN UPDATE AND A PROGRAM DESCRIPTION BRUCE A. THYER and DENISE BRONSON The University of Michigan, Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTS Summary-The growth of behavior therapy during the past two decades has had a significant impact upon the education and training of professional social workers. Behavioral approaches are now well represented in the practice of clinical social work, and this trend is seen as likely to continue to expand. A description is provided of the behavioral training and research op- portunities found at the masters and doctoral level in the School of Social Work at The University of Michigan. Historically, the profession of social work has had a focus upon the social and environmental determinants of client behavior (Richmond, 1922). This has rendered behavioral approaches to individual and community intervention partic- ularly appropriate for incorporation into social work educational and practice activities. A major impetus to the application of behavioral techniques to social work occurred in 1967, when the Council on Social Work Education established a task force investigating the rele- vance of socio-behavioral procedures to the field of social work. This resulted in an edited text by Thomas (1967) which reviewed state of-the-art technology of behavioral procedures in the areas of individual and group therapy, community change and administrative practice. Since that initial task force, behavioral pro- cedures have expanded to the point where they now form one of the major schools of social work theory and practice (Thomas, 1970, 1973). The Directory of Graduate Study in Behavior Therapy (Barlow, 1978) found 15 masters and doctoral social work programs whose behavior therapy training opportunities met the criteria which justified inclusion into the Directory. This represents a degree of growth which seems proportional to the expansion of behavior therapy training opportunities seen in the allied professions of clinical/counseling psychology and psychiatry. Social workers have been in- volved in the conduct of behavioral research and therapy since the earliest years of the field and are well represented in the rosters of be- havioral organizations. In recent years, numerous social work text- books have been published which present the application of behavioral procedures to various fields of practice (Jehu et al., 1972; Thomas, 1974; Arkava, 1974; Schwartz and Goldiamond, 1975; Fischer and Gochros, 1975; Rose, 1977; Fischer, 1978; Wodarski and Bagarozzi, 1979; Jayaratne and Levy, 1979), and the increase in the sophistication and comprehensiveness of these texts has paralleled that seen in the broader field of behavior therapy. In addition to finding many applications in practice settings, behavioral theory is having a significant impact on the content of graduate training curricula (Clark and Comanor, 1973), and behavior therapy procedures are now disseminated through social work continuing education programs and in-service training institutes (Thomas, Etcheverry and Keller, 1975). The influence of behavioral Requests for reprints should be addressed to Bruce A. Thyer, M.S.W., A.M., Doctoral Program, Social Work and Social Science, 2550a Frieze Building, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, U.S.A. 43