Head and Heart: An Examination of the Relationship between the Intellectual and Interpersonal in Social Work

The interpersonal (heart) and intellectual (head) have long been considered twin pillars of social work. Social workers, it is widely acknowledged, need capabilities in the realms of both the interpersonal and critical thinking. While the relationship between the two is theoretically apparent—both are needed to focus competently on the work of social work—this begs certain empirical questions. To what extent do they form separate domains at all? If they do, are there potential tensions between them (might they form more than two domains)? What, furthermore, would this tell us of the talents we are looking for in social workers, particularly the metaphorical ‘raw material’ of starting students? Drawing on Principle Component Analysis, this study examined quantitatively the relationship between key features of the interpersonal and intellectual in cohorts of beginning social work students showing as factors the two domains of the intellectual and interpersonal in social work, although showing also that matters are more complex than a simple division between ‘head’ and ‘heart’. The implications are discussed: complexity in social work is bestowed not just at one level by the work, but at a more fundamental level by the talents required to perform it.