The task-centered approach is addressed to the resolution of psychosocial problems. These are problems that arise in people's interactions with their environments. They are defined by people's internal discomforts that relate to events in their external worlds. A psychosocial problem, as Gordon Hamilton (1951) said many years ago, has both inner and outer aspects. To be sure, inner aspects may be in the forefront in some problems, such as anxiety or depression, but if the problem is psychosocial, the anxiety or depression is an outgrowth of interaction with the environment. In problems centered on environmental conditions such as homelessness or unemployment, outer aspects may be salient but there is always an inner side of cognitive-emotional processes that causes the condition to be seen as undesirable.
In our theory, problems reflect wants that all people have -- for peace of mind, satisfying relationships with others, adequate resources, and so on (Goldman 1970). When these wants are denied, problems arise. A father who reports that his child has a behavior problem wants his child to behave differently, a want that he cannot realize. This view is similar to Kahney's (1986) notion of a problem as a "blocked goal". The term "unsatisfied want" better conveys the frustration characterizing psychosocial problems presented to social workers. Similarly once can view problems as unmet needs. I prefer the term "want" to "need," which is often used to state what professionals think clients should have, as in "Mrs. Moore needs to work through her grief over her husband's death." (If we looked at what Mrs. Moore wants, we might find that she did her grief work during her husband's illness and now would like help in finding a job.) Wants not only define problems, but provide the essential motivation for their resolution. If the client's wants have been misidentified or lose force, there will be little client effort directed at problem resolution.
Wants are informed by beliefs (Goldman l97l). In this formulation beliefs provide the means by which people construe themselves and their worlds. Belief systems comprise, or at least determine, a person's knowledge, appraisals, perceptions, expectations, attitudes, attributions and values. As I use the term, belief system corresonds closely to Frank's (l974) assumptive world. Mr. and Mrs. DiLorenzo see their problem as their son Tony's poor performance at school. That they want him to do better defines the problem and motivates their actions, but their reason for wanting him to do better is based on their beliefs about the importance of education and the capabilities of their son. Other parents with sons performing at the same level might not be concerned.
The outer side of psychosocial problems consists of environmental conditions or events. Although these conditions or events sometimes occur only in the physical environment, they are likely to be social, e.g. involving interpersonal relations or human organization, so that the term psychosocial problem is appropriate. Environments precipitate problems through the creation of stressors -- conditions or events that people find stressful. Stressors cover a wide range of phenomena from such major life events as divorce and illness, chronic strains related to an individual's major roles (spouse, parent, employee, and so forth) and microstressors, or the daily hassles of living (Pearlman and Schooler l978). Accumulation of stressors over time can result in particular events becoming precipitants to problems for which help may be sought -- the "last straw" phenomenon.
Although stressors are lodged in the environment, no event or condition is inherently stressful. Like beauty, stress is in the eye of the beholder. The process of defining something as stressful or not is referred to as appraisal (Lazarus l989). In appraising an event, according to Lazarus and Folkman (l984), a person makes two evaluations. One is to decide if the event is a threat to his or her well being (primary appraisal) and the other is to consider what can be done about it (secondary appraisal). To translate into our framework, a stressor occurs when one defines something as counter to what one wants. This primary appraisal, a form of transient belief, then triggers beliefs about what can be done. Whatever terms are used, stress is, as Lazarus and Folkman (l984:l9) suggest, "a particular relationship betwen person and environment."
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