Category: Personal Experience

Sociologist Bourdieu’s words were a notable gateway into sociology for me as he demonstrated the ideology of sociology by exposing hidden concepts within society, for instance, the bourgeoisie exploiting the proletariat. His words resonate with me profoundly as sociology has helped me gain insight into lifelong questions I’ve had growing up, which has accelerated my interest in the subject. Sociology is a subject I find genuine fulfillment in, and I’d love to have the privilege of being able to pursue my fascination to a degree, where I can expand and strengthen my knowledge even more. I’m a hardworking individual who strives for excellence in educational and personal endeavors, signifying my suitability for the course.

My current studies consist of sociology, business studies, and history, where all areas fundamentally complement my chosen course of sociology. In sociology I`ve enhanced my ability to use various skills, such as critical and analytical thinking, and discussing contrasting ideologies in class, enabling me to keep an open mind throughout different circumstances. For instance, the concept of welfare dependency is controversial as it is believed to encourage single parenting, resulting in a decline of the desired nuclear family. However, we must not fail to consider how this can be seen as ‘blaming the victim’ for their own poverty and is seen as a more political concept than a sociological one. Moreover, sociology involved producing presentations with peers, which helped me refine my understanding through discussion and giving and receiving feedback on performance. Studying GCSE and A-level history has allowed me to access wider knowledge of sociology, through investigating the past, present and future events which have helped shape society in the way it is today. Furthermore, History coursework facilitated my ability to gain organizational skills as this establishes a sense of professionalism, vital for a course. It has also enabled me to analyze secondary and primary sources, as they complement each other to make a convincing argument. My business-level course has introduced me to mathematical concepts and being able to think logically about a situation and problem-solving promptly.

As my course in sociology deepened, so did my interest in crime, more specifically hate crime. To explore this, I participated in a hate crime conference, with the Mayor present, which signified the overlooked issues of hate crime. Hearing stories of individuals helped me gain sight of how common these prejudice-motivated occurrences are and the corruption of the system is evident due to less than half of people reporting hate crimes. Furthermore, expanding my knowledge of crime to a higher extent, I attended another talk at Coombe Boys School where we listened to a real-life, formal Judge. She explained basic legislation, captivating my attention and so I attended a real-life court case in the Old Bailey. It was truly a memorable event as it gave me a visual understanding.

As well as my academic endeavors. I take part in activities outside school, to contour myself as a person and strive to be the best version of myself possible. My part-time job at the pub has helped me cultivate transferable skills of managing time effectively and being able to work under pressure, which are both essential skills for a degree. Furthermore, to extend my knowledge on cultural differences I pushed myself to attend a Capoeira Martial Arts Club. This matured my understanding of not only gaining an appreciation of different cultures but also helped me reject negative stereotypes and to be more accepting, paving me into an unbiased mindset.

I am a motivated, diligent, and passionate individual who has a genuine fascination with sociology and would love the opportunity to pursue a sociology-based career. I am constantly challenging my resilience by pushing myself to the best of my ability and I believe my attributes have shown my eligibility for the course

In looking at my family history there wasn’t an immediate familial issue that I identified. I then realized that the issue was so prominent in my life, it was a typical family dynamic, one I almost looked past. On my mother’s side of the family, every living child is divorced, including my mother. My father’s side of the family is large and has only had one divorce, which led me to choose this as an issue to frame through a theoretical lens.

Scope of the Issue

In determining how this issue has affected my family, it is critical to see how widespread the issue is. My mother and father divorced after twenty years of marriage and raising three children. My mother was married briefly before my father, lasting about a year and a half. My maternal aunt, Leah, was married for ten years and had five children during her marriage. My maternal aunt, Linda, was married for one year and had one child. My maternal uncle, Eric, was married for five years with no children in that marriage. My grandparents were married for eighteen years; they had four children, separated, reignited their marriage, had my mother, and then divorced. My brother and I are each in marriage, for four years and three years respectively. As someone who is considered relatively new to marriage, it is essential for me to understand why this pattern has persisted, so as to avoid some of these issues within my own marriage.

For this paper, I plan to look at my parents’ marriage specifically and some factors that led to the discourse and how the history of divorce has impacted my personal relationships, both in marriage and with siblings. My parent’s divorce occurred when I was 19 years old and I was not surprised by the news of the divorce, as my parents had fought verbally for most of the previous decade. In describing their relationship, my parents were very independent. My father and mother vacationed with the children separately often the family rarely had outings as one family unit. My parent’s relationship had changed through the years, and one factor that led to conflict within their marriage was my father’s diagnosis of brain cancer. Prior to the diagnosis, my father’s behaviors had changed dramatically, often becoming angry and forgetful, and generally difficult to be around. This impacted the family as a whole and when we learned he had been growing a brain tumor, his doctor explained how without a knowledge of how long it had been growing, they would say that it had some impact on his behaviors. He had surgery and began the recovery process. My mother and father decided together to end their marriage. They remained close friends; my mother was a support to my father financially and emotionally. My father was laid off following his return to work. My mother allowed my father to live in the home to recover and find his own housing. After three years, my father’s tumor had regrown, malignant. He had another surgery before a year of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Following this treatment, my father’s behaviors aligned with that of a traumatic brain injury, as his brain had suffered years of tumor growth, impacting his ability to function as he had in the past.

My mother was beginning to have difficulty with these behaviors. My father was beginning to make rude comments, and anger easily. She deemed this inappropriate for my youngest brother, Chase, to have to live with. She also stated that it was beginning to have an impact on her mental health, at which point she decided to stop all contact with my father unless it related to the children directly. My mother also has no contact with her father, stepmother, or sister.

Theories

Choosing what theories to use to identify needs and interventions for the presenting issue led me to ascertain the root cause of these original conflicts leading to divorce. As infidelity was not the cause of any of the divorces, I classified the leading factor as communication barriers and familial boundaries. As both Structural and Systems theories address communication and boundaries, I felt that it was best to use these interventions.

Systems

Murray Bowen analyzed families through five key concepts, differentiation of self, triangles, multigenerational emotional process, emotional cutoff, and societal emotional processes (as cited in Nichols and Davis, 2017). Using these five concepts to address the issues in my family, the main communication barrier has been a result of emotional cutoff. My maternal grandmother committed suicide when my mother was eleven years old. Following this loss, my mother’s relationship with her stepmother was strained. They maintained communication until my mother was approximately forty years old, at which time my mother, maternal grandfather, and maternal stepmother had a disagreement at which time they stopped talking and have not spoken since. This same pattern occurred between my mother and her sister, as well as my mother and father. In looking at the multigenerational process of my mother’s immediate family, it could be the traumatic and sudden death of her mother that led to a fusion between the members of the family, or an undifferentiated family ego mass (Nichols and Davis, 2017, pg. 72). In looking at this multigenerational process, this fusion may have directed my mother’s fusion in new relationships, with her children and husband. Seeing as this new fusion would be “unstable” it may have been a factor in her divorce as well as the emotional dysfunction between my mother and myself (Nichols and Davis, 2017, p. 72). My mother has acknowledged that her first marriage was an attempt to gain independence, leaving her father and stepmother. Bowen (1978) addressed this very issue:

“the more intense the cut-off with his parents the more he is vulnerable to repeating the same pattern in future relationships. He can have an intense relationship in a marriage which he sees as ideal and permanent at the time, but the physical distance pattern is part of him. When tension mounts in the marriage, he will use the same pattern of running away” (p. 535).

As Bowen (1978) uses the term “stuck togetherness” (p. 529) as a familial attribute that operates in the background of undifferentiated relationships, I have realized how this described my family as a coping mechanism to handle trauma. We are reactive in the opposite of ways. My father clings to the relationships he has, and my mother ends the relationships that cause her stress. This is evident in the ways both families were raised, seeing as there is no divorce or emotional cutoff on my paternal side and limited functioning relationships on my maternal side.

As Bowen writes in Toward the Differentiation of Self in One’s Family of Origin (1978) it is clear that looking at relationships past the immediate marriage and into the family of origin can lead to more successful therapeutic intervention and longer-term solutions. One therapeutic intervention is empowering clients to establish their own identity within the family system; differentiation. Allowing clients to observe their families provides them the opportunity to see certain patterns, triangles, and processes they may not have seen from within the system directly. One way Bowen accomplishes this is through “displacement stories” which give the client the opportunity to remove themselves and look at a parallel family to ascertain these patterns. This allows the client(s) to distance themselves and objectively identify issues without emotional reactivity (Semerod, 2019). Bowen also uses genograms to show patterns of family dynamics. Eva Lim (2008) includes that genograms may show patterns of personal characteristics, physical issues, diseases, and talents, as well as relational patterns (p. 112). As Nichols and Davis (2017) explain, the process of completing a genogram can be therapeutic as families often recognize patterns they had not observed before. This was true in my own experience as I had not seen the very evident pattern and issue of divorce and emotional cutoff.

Structural

Developing a sense of identity through recognizing systems, subsystems, and boundaries is the crux of Salvador Minuchin’s structural model of family therapy. Minuchin relies heavily on the family being assessed through the organization of these systems (Nichols and Davis, 2017, p. 113). As Bowen stresses the differentiation of self outside the family, Minuchin looks at the family structure as a whole to address issues. Minuchin also focuses on the ability to be flexible in the identification of the structure, boundaries, and family roles and rules.

In looking at my family, a lot of the stressors developed from underlying expectations, and relational patterns developed over time. Traditional roles, such as my mother cooking dinner nightly, to larger expectations as to how the children interact with each other and the parents. In looking at my own family, I and my husband, developing “complementary patterns of support” (Nichols and Davis, 2017, p. 114) was crucial as we began our relationship. I worked part-time and finished my undergraduate studies as my husband worked full-time. I then began working full-time and attending graduate school as my husband worked two jobs to ensure financial stability. This was a learned pattern as both of our parents had similar arrangements throughout our childhoods. Both of our mothers were “stay-at-home moms” while our fathers worked full-time. This paved the way for a smooth transition into this complementary pattern of support. The flexibility of these patterns has allowed for this to continue to work well as there is no expectation of each other, but rather an understanding of the support the other person needs. In my parent’s relationship, this pattern remained rigid, so when my father lost his job there was a large disruption in the pattern causing a large issue.

Boundaries, my parents had rigid boundaries, as they both had very independent lives. This was my normal view of relationships as a child until I began dating and observed other relationships. I was the first in my immediate family to complete a bachelor’s degree and the only person in my direct maternal lineage to pursue a graduate degree. I feel that this was one rigid boundary that I subconsciously set myself to remain independent from my husband.

I am continuing to develop boundaries with my family now as a married person. My husband has established boundaries, now considering myself as his primary family, always coming first. This was difficult for us after our one-year marriage anniversary, my youngest brother died suddenly from an unexpected overdose, as he was not in active addiction, but rather a casual user. We were not prepared for the trauma of this loss and my mother leaned heavily on me for support. I believe that this is where the flexibility of systems and boundaries and the ability to adjust in facing adversity is imperative. The subsystem shifted from parents and children to grieving immediate family and in-laws, which was what we all needed at the time. I would identify the boundaries of the parental subsystem to be rigid, although looking at the whole family structure and the boundaries between the subsystems to be clear, which allowed for all “members [to be] able to grow, be nurtured, and be supported” Menendez et al., 2014, p. 170).

Assessing my own family, the issue at hand to be addressed could be the communication issues between myself and my brother, Cole. We do not talk often and when we do, it is usually a disagreement around fundamental differences in the boundaries we set within our own families. Cole believes that his only dedication is to his wife and children, ignoring the needs of his siblings and parents, even in facing trauma. While I do not feel that there would be immediate buy-in with the tool of enactment, I believe it would be helpful when led by a therapist who has joined the family professionally, as is a tenant of Minuchin’s therapy (Nichols and Davis, 2017, p. 121). In focusing on the process rather than the content (Semerod, 2019), there may be an insight into the boundaries and structure of the relationship between myself and my brother me. The main concept I think would be beneficial to the whole family structure would be challenging unproductive assumptions in an effort to change how we view our situations to change our interactions (Nichols and Davis, 2017, p. 127). A lot of the communication barriers in the family stem from the subsystems having their own ideas and assumptions about overall family processes. I personally allow my brother’s actions to define how I interpret his motives and beliefs, which is unhelpful and damaging. As Nichols and Davis state, “In order for family members to hear what is being pointed out they must not feel attacked” (2017). Addressing familial issues, especially surrounding structures that have often been implemented through generational patterns can cause many to become defensive. My family would be able to address issues if they had trust in the clinician, which I believe would happen through a respectful, developed rapport.

Sociocultural Factors

While I had difficulty identifying any societal or cultural factors that caused the high numbers of divorces maternally, I believe there were cultural factors that led to the lack of divorce paternally. My father’s family identifies strongly as Irish Catholic and when asked about divorce, they disagree doctrinally. My father has expressed numerous times that he does not believe in divorce, even after his own. My paternal grandmother has been a widow for 30 years and has never dated since the death of her husband, as she believes in her marriage to her late husband.

My mother’s family has many independent women with rigid boundaries in their relationships. Most of the women on my mother’s side of the family make their money independently, as they had even when married. This may have been a factor in a smoother transition out of a marriage and into single motherhood and life. There is also a pattern of mental health diagnoses maternally with my maternal grandmother having been diagnosed with schizophrenia, my maternal aunt with bipolar disorder, my mother with anxiety and depression, and multiple suicides. While mental health diagnoses in themselves are not a societal factor, the stigmatization of mental health is and may have caused the women to feel as though they were alone and become unable to explain the extent.

These factors continue to impact my life currently as I have struggled with depression and anxiety since a teenager. I was open with my husband about my diagnosis and his support has been a factor I am unsure my maternal relative had.

Strengths

Strengths are often overlooked when not looking through the lens of strengths-based models. Entering therapy, families may feel that they have no strengths, and as social workers, our goal is to help the family identify their own strengths, rather than point them out to the family. As a social worker and a family member, that in itself is a strength. Many of my family’s strengths did not make themselves known until faced with my brother’s death and my parent’s divorce. I am a good communicator and help to define boundaries as they became unclear when my parents were first divorced. I continue to help facilitate discussions defining family roles as they relate to each person. I believe that my family’s biggest strength is resilience. Both of my parents lost their parents at a young age and have lost a child. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child and continuing to be a support to the living children, but they prove their strength daily. We have all been supportive of each other, even when emotional reactivity is high, and we face stress. In continuing to acknowledge this resilience, I hope the members of my family are able to identify this as also a personal strength in themselves.

Life Cycle

All through Nichols and Davis’ (2017) lens of Stages of the Family Life Cycle, I looked at my relationship with my husband as well as the stage my parents are in. In my relationship with my husband, we are currently in the joining stage (p.xiii). We are still new in our marriage and are in the process of continuing to develop expectations and boundaries. This often feels uncomfortable as we are very committed to our relationship and feel established, but without children, I feel stagnant in the life stages cycle. We are currently facing our own struggles with infertility which challenge us to continue committing to the relationship as a family even without children.

My mother and father are currently in the adult stage of later life (p. xiii), although earlier than they expected. My brother and I left home in our early twenties and my mother expected to have many more years with my youngest brother in the home. When he died, my parents were faced with having no one else in their homes and beginning to live alone, no longer having anyone to care for. While they are grandparents, my mother has expressed the difficulty she is having with passing traditions to my brother and me as she does not feel ready to pass those traditions down. This is also a challenge as my parents do not have a relational dyad as they cannot rely on each other for support.

Conclusion

Assessing and examining our own families can be a challenge. This can be triggering, even unintentionally when we are met with unknown history or trauma. Identifying issues within a family can lead individuals to want to address these issues, even without the appropriate framework. Through this task, remembering to reflect on the impact our families have on us, as well as the impact our understanding of our families should be addressed through self-care and counseling when necessary.

References

1. Bowen, M. (1978). Towards the differentiation of self in one’s family of origin. Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York, NY: Aronson, Chapter 22, 529-547.
2. Lim, E. S. (2008). Videography and Genograms as Tools of Social Work Intervention. International Journal of the Humanities, 6(2), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/CGP/v06i02/42370
3. Mendez, N., Quereshi, M.E., Carneiro, R., & Hort, F. (2014). The Intersection of Facebook and structural family therapy volume 1. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 42, 167–174.
4. Nichols, M., & Davis, S. (2017). Family Therapy Concepts and Methods. (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
5. Semerod, M. (2018). Bowen model [Class handout]. SW633 Center for Social Work Education, Widener University, Chester, PA.
6. Semerod, M. (2018). Structural Family Therapy Notes [Class handout]. SW633 Center for Social Work Education, Widener University, Chester, PA.

University education is the sum of the knowledge and skills that enable university graduates to solve problems encountered in industry or to carry out scientific research or preschool work in the field of experience they have acquired (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition (General and Professional 1970 1979). Therefore, universities train us to be disturbed in our field of research in order to improve our life and society. First of all, universities have many courses that can be forced to choose between these alternatives, and to choose specifically One of the subjects is education.

The study of education as a program can help people who are willing to accept the teaching of logic and philosophy at the University to excel within the framework time from college. This helps us get a job in various sectors of education in economics. day. Some career opportunities include working at the following institutions: Ghana Education Services (GES), National Committee for Civic Education (NCCE), and many other educational levels. The training that universities provide us can be reflected in teaching the illiterate in society to read and write and make them understand how formal education combines the rich and the poor in society. Students who have received training in logic at universities can come together to build schools and other facilities to support society. In addition, the courses taught by the university will help you understand the world and its technological achievements. Information research as a college course helps broaden students’ understanding of this technological advance. This program will help you understand how technical machines such as computers and printers work, how this machine works like a human brain, and how fast it works.

The people who follow this course are very lucky. We are in the computer age. These people can quickly find jobs or enter institutions or workplaces that use these fast and fast machines in daily activities. Therefore, students who have been trained in the logic of how to operate this machine at the university will pass on the knowledge to people in society. This will be achieved by teaching society how this machine works faster, saves time, and generates income. Individuals in society, when taught this, fast machines will begin to implement them in the workplace to help them work faster and save time for other purposes. Finally, the university helps to study psychology courses. The university trains its members to study the mind with the help of psychology courses. The program helps to study people’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Logically speaking, universities train students to learn these special skills to study people. When these students can accept the teachings of the university, their bodies, emotions, and spirits will become healthy.

They can be used in psychological institutions. Some people may even become clinical, developmental, and social psychologists, which will help them to be respected and to adapt well to the society in which they find themselves. Society is solving social problems such as emotional, physical, and mental trauma. They can help people who lack self-confidence, self-control, depression, and many other issues related to the human band environment. until These plans not only make people more successful, but they can also affect their health. It helps many people resolve their mental illness so that they can continue to live their lives. Psychological research also contributes to drug development and the ability to diagnose various diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Psychology makes it easier for them to get along with others by learning more about others and dealing with their behavior.

Good Afternoon,

On behalf of the Holmes High School class of 2020, I would like to thank all of the people that make Holmes High School special. To teachers and faculty that come every day and strive to provide us with a tremendous education despite our unwillingness to learn. To the staff who work day in and day out to coordinate our events while also supporting the faculty and us students. We thank you and we love you. Additionally, I would like to thank the people who have personally motivated me and played a crucial role in my success throughout high school. Before I begin I would like to state that in no way am I an advocate for public speaking, so please bear with me. I stand before you as the Valedictorian of the graduating class of 2020. I decided after my junior year that I would do anything and everything to get the position of valedictorian. I worked hard every day, stressed. I got it. It felt so good to get the call that announced I was valedictorian, for a couple of minutes at least. To be honest, I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe I thought that this wave of satisfaction would run through me. Maybe I thought that this would make up for all of my struggles and would validate all of my accomplishments. But it didn’t happen. This is not to say that I regret putting such efforts to accomplish my short-term goal of being valedictorian, but I wonder if putting so much effort into something that is at the expense of my happiness was worth it. I would be lying if I stood before you and said that I was chosen as valedictorian solely for my intellect and hard work, I would only be lying to myself, because I have studied alongside those who were as talented as me, if not more. Because as I said before, while everyone was building relationships, I was climbing the ladder of our ranks.

I would like everyone listening to this speech to take a moment to imagine something that you have strived for, something that you thought over the past 4 years would make you truly happy. This could be academics, sports, social media, or popularity. Maybe it’s getting into your dream school. How do you feel now? I say this because, despite the work I have put into my academics up to this point, I am not truly satisfied. Despite the fact that I am valedictorian and I did get into my dream school when I look back on this time, I realized that my priorities have inhibited me from being a real teenager. While everyone else was hanging out with friends, going to parties, or other social events, I was at school, at home studying, or I was at work. You may see this outlook I have of my life as positive. It is true that throughout my high school career, I have not gotten into any trouble, I’ve had perfect attendance, and I’ve never fallen from an A in any area of study… but to me, this has all been a missed opportunity. I have now realized that this recognition and my 10-minute speech were paid for at the expense of the relationships that I could have built. I know that so far this speech has been utterly downing, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. For many, how we feel about the loss of a true senior year seems frivolous. People are dying, savings are lost, and families are grieving. Maybe it is superficial to be sad about losing our prom, senior dinner dance, senior picnics, our last day of school, yearbook signings, and a true graduation… but I don’t care.

As a generation, we are faced with the weight of many issues, unlike any other. Serious mental stress haunts the daily lives of teenagers today. We are told on a day-to-day basis by society that we do not truly experience mental illnesses but are just dramatic and emotional. This common misconception shows that despite the long-term coverage of mental illness across the globe, adults continue to disregard the health of their children. Health issues may even be caused by biological factors stemming from themselves. Or maybe they’ve stemmed from various psychological or social factors that we’ve come across. No matter the reason that caused these mental illnesses, teenagers today are often alienated and destructive with no help of recovery. We feel that no one cares about our true feelings or our opinions. We are left to take responsibility for the pain that we did not cause. We are pushed away, only to be told that we are at fault. You don’t see the worlds we hide and the emotions that we bury. We are seen as weak if we struggle, which is why many stories are kept quiet. But we are not weak. The wounds that have kept us occupied and this black cloud hanging over our heads have continuously inhibited us from trying to reach our goals, but you know what? Here we are. Graduating class of 2020. Despite all that we come across, we have been able to persevere. Through the success of our efforts, we have been able to rewrite the area of our lives where we believed that we could not flourish. These numerous dimensions truly reflect the identity of the class of 2020. We are beyond the expectations that society has created.

To end my speech I am going to take the graduating class of 2020 back to freshman year, December 8th, 2016. On this day a young life was lost, and his name was Hunter Wade Tomlin. When I was writing this speech, I felt like there was something missing, this is that something. Before we enter another chapter in our lives, I want to commemorate Hunter’s life, because if not for this loss, he would be graduating with us. I think doing so will in a way be a sense of closure, not only for myself but also for this class in general. We all entered high school together, only to finish with missing pieces. I don’t think it would be right to leave this place without bringing him with us.

I will now share the thoughts, memories, and lessons learned by my fellow classmates on Hunter. In order to truly share their stories, they will be anonymous, I want to take this time to make sure that Hunter hears these messages as they are real. The messages read (1) I just want to say that I love you and congratulations because you are a part of the class of 2020. We will hold you in our hearts and throughout our journey’s forever. (2) Never take your friends for granted and enjoy all of the moments you spend together. (3) Hunter was always the one person I looked forward to seeing when I got to school in the morning. Hunter was one of my best friends, seeing his smile always made me so happy. He was so contagious, I loved him more than he could ever imagine. All of the moments we spent together are memories that I will never forget. (4) I miss how we used to hang out and joke around every day. I will never forget you and you’ll always have a special place in my heart. (5) I’ll forever appreciate all of your kind words and love. You knew how to make anyone smile and laugh because you had the sweetest heart. Love you forever Hunter Wade. (6) One thing I remember about Hunter is that he was nosey, but I loved him for it. The last thing I remember him saying to me is that I could always trust him and this always stuck with me. It’s sad that he cannot physically experience this with us but it’s okay because he will always remain with us. No one can take our memories together away. (7) Hunter was always fun to be around. He was a great friend to all of those around him. He made friends with everyone and was truly a good person. (8) Since he couldn’t be here, I named my precious baby boy after him in loving memory. I’m blessed to say that I was friends with such a kind, giving, and passionate soul. (10) His greatest accomplishment was the smile that he would put on everyone’s face and the love that he had for his family and friends. To Hunter’s family, I’m sorry that you couldn’t watch him walk across this stage, and hope that this speech was able to truly commemorate his life. I am truly grateful to be a part of this graduating class. Though today, as valedictorian, I am being glorified, I would like to say to my classmates that even if no one else notices your growth, I see it and I’m proud of each and every one of you. Thank you.

A health and social care worker is able to assess the needs, concerns, and priorities of individuals that are near to end of life in their own homes, a residential care home, a nursing home, a hospital, or a hospice. The assessment that the health and social care worker will do is a continuous process as the needs of the individual will more than likely change as they get closer to the end of life. The health and social worker that is assessing the individual’s needs will need to record and store all the information securely and in line with the data protection act. Within the document, the health and social care worker will need to identify the needs of the individual, make a conclusion of what has been agreed with the individual, make a summary of findings and actions that have been agreed with the individual, and any major disagreements about needs or actions. The health and social care worker can share any of these reports with any healthcare worker that is involved in the individuals care, the individual must consent to this.

There are five main areas that would be identified for assessment. You would need to gather information on the individual’s background information, this would include their basic details such as their name, date of birth, address, family details, any medical information, any allergies, and current medication, any lifestyle information such as their diet, whether they smoke or drink and if they do, how much. Any preferences for the assessment such as wanting a family member there. The individual should also consent to all of this and would be asked for a signature.

Secondly, the individual’s physical well-being would get assessed. The health and social care worker will ask about any sleeping problems, mobility issues, or any medical-related illnesses relating to breathlessness or pain. In this assessment it will need to be documented how these are being managed and if they are being managed successfully.

Thirdly, the health and social care worker will look at and assess the individual’s social and occupational well-being, this is done by looking at how the individual manages at home, this is things like how they would manage to prepare their food, eating, and drinking, how they manage their personal care, their household tasks and how they move around the house. The individual’s needs relating to any work that they do will be assessed as well. Noting the people that are important to the individual is great as well, including any hobbies and interests.

The individual’s psychological well-being will need to be assessed as this will cover the emotional state of the individual, this will include looking at their moods, anxieties, and worries. It will also need to be documented how they are managing it and how they have adjusted to their illness and treatment.

Lastly, the health and social care worker will need to assess the individual’s spiritual well-being and life goals, they will look at any specific needs or considerations that are related to culture, ethnicity, or faith, life goals can include things the individual wishes to achieve before the end of life.

In this self-evaluating essay, the main task is to reflect on how participation changed my approach to teamwork within the workshop. I found the workshop beneficial and exciting. To provide a coherent structure to my essay, I will use Gibbs’ 1988 reflection model.

Description

A team is a small number of individuals associated with some joint activity with a strong, deep-seated, common sense of purpose (Katzenbah & Smith, 1991). In the workshop, we were divided into teams. Each team had participants with different backgrounds and interests. We ensured that there was a clear sense of purpose, clear communication, collaboration, encouraging different opinions, using ideas efficiently, and having fun, all the while maintaining a positive atmosphere. This helped us to make distinctive contributions to the team.

These approaches gave us a sense of belonging and we worked together on different activities. Teamwork allows us to learn from others and about ourselves.

Feelings

Although I was relatively quiet at the start of the workshop however I slowly became comfortable as time went on. I performed better when we collaborated and exchanged ideas. They listened carefully to my ideas, asked questions for clarification, and supported me in developing my creativity. All members had a positive attitude towards the workshop, it was kind of refreshing and helped me focus on the activities.

Evaluation

It was a great experience to work with my team. From this teamwork experience, I strongly feel the importance of teamwork. Teamwork helps to bring quality ideas and goal achievement. The tasks gave me an opportunity to connect with a variety of people.

Analysis

My experience with this group was that we developed good decision-making processes and mutually agreed on the conclusion. In task one, we collectively agreed upon qualities that make good leaders. Furthermore, during task one, I noticed how everyone treated each other with respect. On the other hand, everyone faced trouble understanding each other’s language and/or accent, however, we were able to manage it by listening carefully. Talking about task two, ‘counting squares’, team members individually ended up with wrong answers, however when we counted squares in a team, surprisingly, we came up with the correct answers. “The strength of the team is each individual member” (Jackson, 2018).

Conclusion

In conclusion, any team can achieve its given tasks by maximizing individual strengths and minimizing particular weaknesses. In the future, these teamwork activities and interactions with my team members will help me to coordinate and participate much better.

Action plan

I believe I will be a good team player in the future. For me, teamwork consists of hard work, commitment, sacrifice, and dedication. I want to be a valuable asset to my future team by delivering what I have promised. By being a good team member and working effectively, I feel many new opportunities will open up for me. This will generate a higher level of creativity and productivity. In this way, I feel I will be beneficial to my team in the future.

My life has been sprinkled with a gentle yet impactful sense of euphoria. Every turn and every new interaction poses a subset of greatness within itself. The highs and the lows have molded me into the individual I am, building and breaking and framing my character into a man that operates through wisdom and understanding. However, my foundation of me lies within the movements and changes that certain important events created. These molders range from the ages of beautiful, blissful ignorance to my period of now wise understanding through cognition.

The first event in my life that I felt changed and had a big impact, on me was leaving California and coming to Texas. I moved here to Texas when I was about 8 years old just in time to start middle school. Things in Texas compared to California were so much different. I experienced the weather change which was huge and took some getting used to. My great friends, I had to leave I never got to see them again. Making new friends is not hard for me, but I had some great friends. I, however, met some cool people and shared great times with them. The culture of Houston was also different.

At this point in my life, I started high school. High school was a taste of college in a way now that I look back on it. I faced many challenges in high school but also received some help as well. For example, there were insecurities from being shy to having strict parents and not going out as much as my friends. The drawbacks I previously mentioned also helped, being shy and not going out meant that I could not be blamed for anything because I do not do anything. Being antisocial in a way was not fun very though. I knew how to talk to people, but being open, meeting new people, and initiating conversations with girls I never talked to before was the obstacle. I soon found a solution to my problem I would not have thought of in a thousand years…a job. I started my first job and that helped a lot with my social insecurities and taught me to say hi to people, and have conversations that spark both people’s interest rather than “small talk”. My job itself was not that hard. It was a small retail job in the Galleria where I had to talk to individuals and sell sports merchandise to them. Other than that, it was a simple job. Football also helped me with respect, self-control, and finishing things that I start. My friends in high school grew closer to me and I had seen how they were changing as was I. They looked out for me and helped me when I need, and it taught me the value of friendship and what it means to be a friend. Some of my friends did do narcotics, but I did not participate in those activities with them due to my football player mindset and the risk outweighed the rewards. Looking back this showed that I had the trait of being strong-willed. In high school the work we did was easy (for me) and I did not have much trouble with it compared to other kids. I noticed how the work we do at school could be tied to jobs adults do and realized how it could prepare me for the future. The teachers and I had a good relationship as well and some were even stronger than my friends. And It showed my maturity. In high school, I also experienced…bullying. That whole situation taught me how to control my anger and not be as sensitive to what people say and simply just ignore it plainly. Through all of that and the encounter and problems and great things that happened, it helped me develop and use my mind as a tool to be great. In the seven-psychological development, I think these situations related the most to the cognition approach since I was always thinking about the information I processed and used it to determine my behavior.

In my early adulthood phase, I was just about to start college and lots of changes occurred such as no more high school and everyone looking at and referring to me as an adult. People expected me to do everything independently compared to when my parents were doing everything for me. There was nothing wrong with this new-found independence, but it was a huge shift. College essays, test scores (SAT, ACT), loans, and responsibilities were all considered with this huge leap from senior year in high school to a freshman in college. I finally found a college that even surprised that I got excepted into due to my doubt in myself and my accomplishments. Houston Baptist University accepted me, and this is where I started my first year of college. I was very lucky and blessed to start my first year on campus with the school’s expensive fees. I was away from home and on my own for the first time. It was peaceful at first given that I came from home being the oldest of four and having room to share a room with my sibling and now I have a room all to myself. I got a taste of freedom with some responsibilities of this life called adulthood. I also walked on the football team with hopes in mind and a goal set to get a partial scholarship to help pay for the school. With I juggle school, friends, and football while trying to maintain my 3.3 GPA. Also being me on my own the freedom I had was also new and I was taking advantage of it to the max. this resulted in me going to parties occasionally, with my friends having fun but I had enough control not to do extremely crazy things. People offered me alcohol

All these learning experiences I had in my life growing up taught me how to deal with future obstacles and how to overcome them and achieve what I want. As I sit back and read my essay, out of the seven perspectives on contemporary psychology, I think I relate the most to the cognitive approach. In reading about the cognitive approach to psychology, I see my way of thinking and how I handle the challenges I encounter in everyday life. The way I think my behavior is controlled and how I make decisions is by my mind using memories, perceptions, and images to make choices. For example: how some of my friends did narcotics and I did not. I weighed the options and looked at the outcomes. If I did it there would be a chance of me getting addicted, having bad breath, and having developmental problems because I was still a growing boy.

In the last two centuries, life expectancy has doubled from around 40 years to over 80 years in Canada. This is one of humankind’s most incredible achievements. However; improved longevity also presents us with one of our greatest challenges. These additional years can be a blessing or a burden, depending on how you live your life and what you value. We’re all getting older. I don’t perceive that as a bad thing. Instead, old age now mostly means we have more years on the clock than did our predecessors. A lot more. My personal philosophy on aging is this: getting old is just a continuation of a person’s life and it should not stop one from living his or her life, instead it should enrich it. Every year means more wisdom, more experience, and more practice. Every day is a beautiful day to be alive. The video changed my perception of aging completely. Reflect on the defining moment. What was it about this defining moment that caught your attention? How does what caught your attention link with your personal values about aging?

It was then that I realized something significant about aging and my own approach and values to aging. I was thinking about it abstractly, but the video made it clear to me. As I age, people’s perceptions of me will also change. When I have kids, the way they see me grow older will impact them in many ways. The older I get, the more I will have to deal with how society and also the healthcare community treats the elderly. My personal philosophy on aging has a direct impact on my nursing practice because what I value influences not only my attitude and behavior but also the quality of care that I provide. As such, the personal philosophy of nurses becomes hugely important as it influences the level of care and understanding with the patient. Nursing practice requires that nurses explore their own values so they can be better placed to appreciate and respect the values and beliefs of the communities and individuals they serve. This is why my philosophy on aging is distinct, in that it regards nursing practice from a wider perspective of understanding of values and delivering proper care with respect to those values. Understanding cultural, social, and economic values could become an important element in building relationships with patients in the future. Trust, empathy, and understanding are critical and they significantly impact the welfare and recovery of patients. This is why the three values that are core to my philosophy on aging are maintaining a sense of dignity, treating others and yourself with kindness, and security. In order to age well, I believe that these core values need to be honored. These values will help me to better understand my patients and their needs and also to deliver effective care.

We know that aging has emerged as a crucial factor that impacts the socio-psychological and physical well-being of individuals. The spiritual, mental, and physical well-being of patients is a hugely important factor in the recovery and maintenance of health in the future. The meaning of being an elderly patient in health-promoting care was interpreted as a concern for the patient’s dignity, encompassing dignity of identity, autonomy, and worthiness. This framing of nursing practice goes beyond the biomedical and sociological orientation and shows that enhancing dignity and preventing an undignified situation should be an essential concern in health-promoting care for elderly patients’ health potential. Maintaining dignity incorporates the importance and value that a person has, which makes other people respect them or makes them respect themselves. I also feel like it incorporates some amount of independence, freedom, and autonomy. As I age, I would hope that I age with dignity, because I believe that if you don’t have your dignity, you don’t have anything at all.

The literature states that this may provide a frame of reference in the care and may help shape the understanding of when health-promoting care practices should be a genuine care issue and what goals should be defined. Such knowledge may guide nurses’ interaction with the elderly patient, and its explicit articulation is vital for the quality of nursing practice. To improve the quality of care, the focus should not only be on codes and guidelines for the care providers, but on the entire healthcare system, and how dignity can be protected and enhanced through policies and organizational structures. In order to ensure the elderly patient’s dignity, tasks need to be organized with a focus on the patient’s health needs. The current state of geriatric care provides an obvious basis for giving greater emphasis to dignified care, which will clearly serve to promote the elderly patient’s health.

This has also taught me to treat each elderly person individually, identify their needs and respond to those needs separately without generalization. This will also be an effective way of ensuring that the treatment and care I give during practice.

Caring, kindness- Understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature. Why this value is important for you in relation to your own aging? How does each value link to your approach to nursing practice and the care of older people?

Security- Safety, harmony, and stability of society, relationships, and of self. AGEISM include here This means financially, physically, and emotionally with yourself, your relationships, and society at large. Why this value is important for you in relation to your own aging? How does each value link to your approach to nursing practice and the care of older people?

The elderly population also affects nursing staffing levels. This is because older nurses, especially one’s in leadership roles, are retiring and leaving the healthcare field. The loss of this intellectual asset may be acutely felt in terms of quality of care and patient satisfaction. To withstand this loss, healthcare administrators need help in preparing for the nursing workforce of the future. Fortunately, opportunities abound for nurses to advance their knowledge and skills in the field of geriatric care. Healthcare has already seen a swing toward preventive care and wellness models, and these movements form a solid foundation for geriatric care. As a result, a geriatric care component is often embedded in the final year of undergraduate studies. Formal education, such as an advanced practice degree or certificate in geriatric care, can also help nurses gain the specialized knowledge and skills to care for the aging population. Preparation for leadership, innovation, and coordination will also come from professional development opportunities that stimulate and test critical thinking. Nurse educators are making more courses available that directly address the new skills being demanded of nurses. Formal nursing education programs also prepare nurses for decision-making and leadership roles that combine classroom-based education and real-world experience. The nursing profession will need to place greater emphasis on lifelong learning for individual practitioners. Already, the opportunities for continuing education are flourishing. Not only is this good news for patients, who are much less likely to fall through the gaps, but it’s also good news for nurses, who can advance professionally while still fulfilling the vocation that drew them to the profession in the first place. I might consider enrolling in some such program as I get older because not only will it provide me with advanced knowledge of nursing practice but also prepare me to take on a position with more responsibility within my profession. The elderly population is vulnerable to a variety of health problems. Prevention and control require a multifaceted approach with collaboration of the social welfare, health, and legal sectors. A geriatric healthcare program should contain a comprehensive policy at the start. Any healthcare provision be supported by a strong political will and social action to make the policies efficient and sustainable. Nevertheless, other measures like improving healthcare knowledge and promotion of a healthy lifestyle are also the keys to better elderly care. Many studies attribute high-quality, safe patient care to effective teamwork. Not surprisingly, this means that greater coordination among the healthcare team members must be involved in treating and caring for older adults. The team can include healthcare providers, geriatric nurses, pharmacists, therapists, and social workers. The vital, complex, and challenging role of coordination, will fall to nurses in most cases. As more medical care moves into patients’ homes, nurses of the future will also find themselves as the primary provider of direct patient care and support, and a central contact point for the coordination of care. Because coordination and collaboration will almost certainly take place outside of the acute care setting, nurses will need to rely heavily on autonomous, evidence-based decision-making skills.

Perhaps the most obvious characteristic of nurses of the future is that they’ll become innovators and even technological leaders. Technology can help medical staff provide remote healthcare, but it’s nurses who’ll be encouraging patients, particularly in cases where patients are unfamiliar with technology or reluctant to use it.

Part of the role will also be to reassure families about the continued quality of the healthcare being provided by explaining the effectiveness and advantages that technology in a healthcare setting can provide. These are essential tasks, given that educating patients has been proven to have a significant impact on readmission rates. Finally, nurses of the future can become involved in innovative healthcare awareness and communication strategies that target the wider population. As the emphasis shifts to preventive healthcare and resources for care are spread even more widely, this involvement will become even more important.

During my speech and my retake, I experienced different emotions. I categorized my reflection into three parts; the first is my rehearsal of the speech, the second is for the research, and the third is my struggles with the actual speech.

Before I went to do the first speech, I had rehearsed more than 20 times at my home. I listened to TED talks and tried copying their gestures. There was a long break before we had to do the speech. I also listened to other students doing their speeches to know what positive aspects of their speeches I should copy and what negative points I should avoid. However, there were so many clips and live speeches I watched that it became overwhelming for me. I asked myself if I could do it as well as these people. I rehearsed in front of my teddy bears for the first speech. I thought that it would help me elevate my nervousness, but it failed and I would talk more about it on my third point. During my retake, I tried rehearsing in front of people. I realized that it was better than rehearsing with Teddy Bears cause people could give me feedback on my postures and tone of voice.

Moving on, the topic I had chosen was the Success Factors of a Start-Up. Having a background in Entrepreneurship had made me more well-versed in the topic. I was not confident, however, in communicating with an audience for more than three minutes. As presentations in my degree require us to be direct and fast. Dilly-dallying and prolonging what one wants to say is considered a part of failure in business. That is why I was very uncomfortable with my speech. Aside from the nervousness, I was thinking so much about prolonging the speech that I forgot what to say anymore. I knew how to explain them in a business setting or with a group of people who have an idea of what I was talking about. However, talking in front of an audience that is not from the same field scared me. Because I was worrying that they would get bored during my presentation. I looked for credible sources online that are published not less than three years.

Lastly, I was very nervous during the two speeches I did. Miss Lindsey made us watch the video of us presenting.

In his book Studies in Pessimism, Arthur Schopenhauer argues that life for all humans consists of constant suffering in the chapter “On the Sufferings of the World”. He says that even, “the feeling of satisfaction is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence.” In simple terms, Schopenhauer thinks life is inherently miserable and full of suffering. He thinks pleasure is never as pleasant as we expect, but the pain is more painful than we ever expect. This view is unpleasant to think of for most because typically as humans we see our lives being more pleasurable than painful, otherwise all of us would probably be on the brink of suicide (not like that is far from the truth when you look at the increasing suicide rates). Schopenhauer even goes on to say, “The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself,”. Simply put, the most comforting thing during the hardest part of our lives (for example, grieving over a friend’s suicide) is the fact that some people are living a life with even more suffering (for example, someone living in poverty who has not had food in days).

The word suffering might seem extreme in some cases if you are just worrying about a test coming up you wouldn’t describe yourself as “suffering”. However, to Schopenhauer, this is just one moment in time out of billions and trillions where you worry, overthink, and anticipate things in life, which he argues is really just suffering. In addition, Schopenhauer argues that a brute (non-human animal) is inherently living with less suffering than man. Schopenhauer states that “if the brute is free from care, it is also, in this sense, without hope; in either case, because its consciousness is limited to the present moment, to what it can actually see before it”. The brute does not have hope, desire for luxury goods, or constant worry. Think of a pug, that dog does not worry constantly about the pressures of society to marry “on time”, it does not worry about whether it is contributing enough to its capitalistic society when it rests, and it most certainly does not get involved with philosophy causing it to doubt every choice it makes. Sure, because humans have more complex nervous systems than these creatures, they can feel a greater sense of pleasure. But we must also remember that pleasure is freedom from suffering and with greater feelings of pleasure come greater feelings of pain. With all of this information in mind, what advice does Schopenhauer give that does not involve suicide? He simply says that instead of calling someone your “fellow man”, you should refer to them as your “fellow sufferer”. By understanding that we as humans are all constantly suffering, Schopenhauer emphasizes the need for, “tolerance, patience, regard, and love of neighbor”. I honestly find Schopenhauer’s argument hard to disagree with. However, if we assume life is full of suffering, then most would assume that suicide seems like a perfectly logical answer. However, I think it is safe to live, which he argues is really just suffering. In addition, Schopenhauer argues that a brute (non-human animal) is inherently living with less suffering than man. Schopenhauer states that “if the brute is free from care, it is also, in this sense, without hope; in either case, because its consciousness is limited to the present moment, to what it can actually see before it”.

The brute does not have hope, desire for luxury goods, or constant worry. Think of a pug, that dog does not worry constantly about the pressures of society to marry “on time”, it does not worry about whether it is contributing enough to its capitalistic society when it rests, and it most certainly does not get involved with philosophy causing it to doubt every choice it makes. Sure, because humans have more complex nervous systems than these creatures, they can feel a greater sense of pleasure. But we must also remember that pleasure is freedom from suffering and with greater feelings of pleasure come greater feelings of pain. With all of this information in mind, what advice does Schopenhauer give that does not involve suicide? He simply says that instead of calling someone your “fellow man”, you should refer to them as your “fellow sufferer”. By understanding that we as humans are all constantly suffering, Schopenhauer emphasizes the need for, “tolerance, patience, regard, and love of neighbor”. I honestly find Schopenhauer’s argument hard to disagree with. However, if we assume life is full of suffering, then most would assume that suicide seems like a perfectly logical answer. However, I think it is safe to assume that most people do not believe suicide is a perfectly logical way to end one’s suffering (it is a punishable offense to convince someone to commit suicide in certain states). The fact that there is presumably an “easy way out”, yet people choose to continue living their miserable lives is reason enough to believe that life’s pleasurable moments are pleasurable enough to keep living for. I also believe that Schopenhauer lived a life that obviously shaped his viewpoint of things to an extreme case. For example, the chapter “On Women” in his book is nothing more than an extremely insolent and simplified view of women. Our experiences as humans can change the way we think about things, and it seems to me that Schopenhauer lived a life of nothing but misery. I think it is safe to say that even though many of us live our lives with a great amount of suffering, it is the moments that we do not suffer that we remember most, as it is possible to look upon good memories with a loving acceptance without lusting for those times again.