Customer Reviews

Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Shifting Paradigms in Essential Knowledge for Social Work Practice (5th Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book is as clear as mud. I read this book to better understand alternative paradigms that are all too often missing from others on this subject. Unfortunately, the author focused more on including everyone's perspective than making any idea clear.

This is a required text for one of my BSW classes and I wish I hadn't wasted my money purchasing it. The book is not constructed in a clear way, topics run together with no clear transitions, and is poorly written. The author will introduce a theory or define a term by quoting other authors' definitions. Not just one per term, but many for each new term explained. By the time you finish reading that paragraph you have multiple views on a definition, and none of them are clear. I have read over 40 college textbooks and this is by far the worst I have ever had the misfortune to read. The writing style of the author is so atrocious it appears to be a research paper gathered by a fifth-grader!

This book was extremely difficult to understand. Full of big complicated terms that could have been said in simply easy to understand words. If all my texts had been like this, I'd never have made it through school. Not at all appropriate for undergrad work. It's the only text I sold back, and was glad to get rid of it. A total waste of money. I had to buy another HBSE book just to figure out what this one was trying to say.

Arguably, this is one of the worst textbooks I've ever had the displeasure of having to read. For the life of me, I can't understand why my instructor would select such a terrible book when there are others that are much better. Schriver uses an annoying technique of citing other people's work to try and explain terms when he should simply define them himself. In fact the book is rife with citations that attempt to explain theories, methods and research but instead of clarifying points, this method makes it more confusing. Somebody forgot to tell Schriver that citations are meant to support his points, not make them for him. All in all, it's an extremely choppy read that ends up saying nothing. He also uses multiple paragraphs to explain what he is about to explain and when done reading, I couldn't help but wonder what point he was trying to make. I have no idea how Schriver got this book published, but it's a crime that a qualified editor allowed such tripe to make it into the hands of students that are actually trying to learn. You won't get much out of this book; take a pass unless you are required to buy this book for a class.

Schriver's is a text whose reach exceeds its grasp. The theoretical premise and the structure for the text are good. Schriver argues that there are biases in traditional approaches to various systems and that alternative paradigms exist. However, the writing is often dense. The classification of some theories as "traditional" vs "alternative" can be disputed. Many theories seem to have characteristics of both. On a positive note, many of the readings included in the text are very interesting.

As a faculty member who has used the book in a BSW course, I find that I need to guide students through this text. I distribute a guide to each chapter. Essentially I "translate" Schriver with more concrete examples. Other texts I have use require fewer translations. Schriver's focus is perhaps too sophisticated for the average undergraduate.

Great HBSE Book.... solid social work foundational info and theories brought to light. I would imagine this book is a staple in most Schools of SW.

In reading the reviews of this book prior to purchase I saw some comments to the effect that this was going to be a difficult read. I think perhaps that it may be a little detailed for those who's profession and education focus are not Social Work. The text is full of interesting and useful information that a student of Social Work would find compelling. Because the field is so dynamic, I would hope that this particular text would update it's editions regularly. Since this is the 5th, I'm guessing the authors know something of this already.

this is a text for grad school I had to buy. I wish I didn't sell it off, as much of the information will be helpful for other courses throughout grad school. Very helpful for social workers, describes theories, models, etc that is reviewed over and over in college for social workers, as well as a helpful review for your exam.

I bought this product because it is required for school, and it is very informative. I enjoyed reading this text book and have learned alot from this material. I would recommend this to any Msw students.

I had to purchase this book for my MSW program. Unfortunately, since the book was just released this year, there were no "used" copies available. This book is AWFUL!! By far the worst textbook I have ever had the misfortune of owning. It's so bad I can't even force myself to read it. Schriver (repeatedly) talks about the origins of words [who cares] and lists 3-4 definitions for each one. "Smith says it's this.... whereas Jones defines it as..." and so on. Pick one already! Rent it if you can. Not worth owning.