ABSTRACT
Social workers share preferences regarding theory and theorizing activity. These preferences are expressed through our professional language including our declarations of core values and ethical guidelines (Bloom, Wood, & Chambon, 1991). All social workers must confront value and ethical issues during knowledge application, research, and practice processes. Professional values and ethics are very relevant to theorizing and theory use. Theorists create theoretical products with explicit or implicit attention to value issues, and theories include explicit or implicit directives for practical use; these directives have ethical implications (Meleis, 1985). Social workers can learn to take a critical approach to theory and inquire about the consistency of a theory with social work values and ethics (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 1998).
