DISCOUNT HIERARCHY
The discount hierarchy was developed by Peg Flandreau West in the US as part of a protective behaviours training exercise. The model provides a basis for an understanding of the reasoning behind people’s resistance to recognising the scope and impact of societal problems such as FDV.
It is imperative that workers are aware of their own levels of discounting so that they can reflect on how this might impact on the quality of their service delivery. In addition, recognising the level of discounting on a personal and social basis can provide an opportunity to challenge unhelpful responses to the problem within ourselves, our agencies and the community at large.
Levels of resistance can be influenced by work load, strength of agency supports, beliefs about children and families and our stress levels.
The four basic levels of resistance are:
Existence
There is no problem. A natural and human reluctance to believe that unpleasant and horrible things happen.
Significance
There is a problem but it is not big and not of a high priority.
Solvability
There is a problem, but there is nothing that can be done about it.
Self
There is a problem, but I cannot do anything about it.
EXISTENCE
there is no problem
Sounds like:
"you can prove anything with statistics"
"life isn't always fair"
"I've never been affected by this problem"
SIGNIFICANCE
there is a problem but it is not significant
Sounds like:
"kids tend to exaggerate"
"nothing really happened"
"he was just kidding around, he didn't really mean it"
SOLVABILITY
there is a problem but there is nothing that can be done about it
Sounds like:
"violence is part of human nature"
"maybe we can alleviate it some, but solve it completely...no"
"don't be naive, we have to live in the real world"
SELF
there is a problem but I can't do anything about it
Sounds like:
"well maybe there are solutions.. but there's nothing I can do"
"why me? it's their job"
© Health Department of Western Australia. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: Friday, 20 March 1998 10:28
