Evidence 2: Sexuality Development Paper

The Social Work curriculum requires that students take a minimum of three workshops to

complete their credits to graduate. The purpose of these workshops are supposed to immerse

students in a three day class to equip them with knowledge of the field outside of their classes’

curriculum. I had the opportunity of taking one of these workshops on the study of human

sexuality. Sexuality and identity are important to understand in the profession of social work

because it is central to the ethical principle of recognizing the dignity of a client. In this

workshop we explored the spectrum of identity and sexuality. Subsequent to the class I was

assigned to research a topic regarding human sexuality and identity development. The topic of

my investigation regarded, hypermasculinity, its development and effect on society.

In this investigation I completed competency ten’s third learning behavior in which my

paper made effort to recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and values may

oppress, marginalize, alienate, or create or enhance privilege and power. I performed this

learning behavior in the form of assessing our cultural structure for masculinity and femininity

and their inscribed roles. However centralizing on masculinity I wrote about the male sex’s strict

gender roles and the impact that this behavior has on society. These roles constitute as being the

breadwinner and the leader of society. Any resemblance to femininity undermines this role and

the man faces being ostracized from society. This includes showing emotional or suffering.

Because emotions are perceived as something exclusive to woman and related to femininity, it is

met with disdain by public for men to exert this behavior. This piece of cultural competence

guides me in my contemporary environment when conducting mental health assessments on

refugees. For example before asking them whether or not they cry, if I am asking a male I will

provide him with the disclaimer that it is a question I ask everyone. I utilize strategy to avoid
offending their dignity. Competence in societal expectations for men has impacted my

intervention with this population in regard to what language I use. Therefore this is a competency

that I developed that I plan to utilize career-long.

As competency ten’s final learning behavior suggests to respond to contexts that shape

practice by attending to changing locales, populations, scientific and technological

developments, and emerging societal trends to provide relevant services, it is important to

consider the cultural environment and how it develops. Social workers must be competent in

their contemporary environment, as well as have an understanding of sociological trends such as

the development of sex inscribed roles. This knowledge impacts the worker’s engagement with

the client as well as the determination of service. Therefore as competency ten explains one must

be aware of the contemporary social environment. The cultural understanding of identity and

sexuality has evolved, and because of sociological nature it evolves continuously. Therefore

social workers must be up to date on societal trends to inform their practice. Society

understanding of sex roles will continue to evolve and social workers make a commitment to

competency ten in which they will constantly aware themselves and learn from their

environment to inform their practice. This is the commitment to lifelong learning in one’s career

and it is crucial to firstly implement effective intervention as well as maintain it.