An Analysis of the Relationship Between Personality Characteristics of Social Work Students and Choice of Social Work Practice Area

Due to curiosity about the individual vs. social intervention argument in the profession of social work, the authors of this study attempted to answer the question, “Do personality characteristics of Social Work Graduate Students influence their choice of social work practice? Our hypothesis was that Introverts would be more inclined to focus on the individual in social work practice as opposed to Extraverts who would see societal change as a more pressing practice issue. Although our study identified no correlation between Introversion and Extraversion and social work practice orientation, there were some suggestions for further study. There appeared to be some indication that Intuition and Feeling might be more important variables. The idea was also raised that the conflict among social workers might be more a result of the nature of their personality type than a real dichotomy in the field