Psychology Assignment: Reflection On Personal & Professional Development

Question

Task:
In this psychology assignment you will be required to relate the psychological concepts and theories to personal and/or professional experiences. You will need to provide a written reflection on each topic. You will use the DIEP Strategy as a framework for examining the theories/concepts and your experiences

Answer

Resilience
Describe
I would like to mention in this psychology assignment that I have learnt the importance of coping from stress. One thing that I realised from this week’s content material is that self-efficacy is an important aspect. Living without electricity for more than two days in the current lockdown situation made me realise that having a perception of being in control is needed as it prevents stress. Understanding the rat experiment made me understand the importance of self- efficacy. I had the tendency to blame others and avoid addressing the issue of solving the problem.

Interpret
I leant to value challenges as it helped me to hone my optimistic attitude. Resilience is associated with adapting to adverse changes in the face of trauma or tragedy (Schwarz, 2018). This learning has made me realise that it is important to be more aware of situations, as the loss of power initially led to tremendous frustration. There were hardly any thoughts associated with handling the situation and I was only hoping that someone will resolve the issue for me. Initial lack of self- efficacy in dealing with the issue stems from maladaptive attitude (Luthar, Lyman & Crossman 2014). My initial response was to seek emotion Focused coping of wishful thinking and denial of the fact that something had to be done by me.

Evaluate
My learnings from this experience are that coping mechanisms and a sense of problem focus coping is very important. I learnt to be a resilient individual who is problem focused, who may crave emotional and social support but will have to try and resolve the issue in hand.

Plan
I will apply this learning in future by ensuring that I do not blame others and try to resolve my problems in my personal life such as the logistical issue I faced. In my professional life also, I will seek social support from my fellow colleagues in times of need in the form of help and guidance but will try to resolve the issue myself. I will ensure that I am resilient and will always try to gain an adaptive attitude towards professional growth.

Stress Management
Describe
Stress is related to burnout in any professional and disruption in the cognitive function due to the stress often leads to lowered productivity (Bianchi, Schonfeld & Laurent 2019). I have experienced this whenever I have procrastinated in my preparation before exams my efforts at answering my paper have been dismal. I have significantly faced poor memory function and have become tensed this has led to a burn out like situation. Tension regarding results have not only led to my poor academic performance but have also caused insomnia and sleep disturbances.

Interpret
This insight has made me realise that stress from procrastination and has made me go through a fight-or-flight response thus weakening me further. I was going through a cycle of continuous stressors through the cycle of procrastination, poor time, and task management and this had become chronic. I also realised that lack of control over my own actions led to so much stress and it also led to my lowered self- efficacy and reduced productivity.

Evaluate
I have attained a deeper understanding of the contributors of stress and I have realised that it is essential that one is able to aim at problem focused approach will make me more resilient in handling any situational factors that are potential stressors. This understanding was valuable to me as the value of emotional and informational support in the form of affection, concern and advice and suggestions are invaluable (Kassymova et al. 2018). I realised through my own experience the importance of listening and having a place to vent one’s emotional pain.

Plan
This learning will help me in my personal life and professional career in future, as I will always be looking out for signs of burnout in me and in my loved ones. I will ensure that I seek social support or give social support to any friend, relative or colleague who may be in a situation where it is essential that deal with stress and cope with it’s through an assertive approach. I shall refrain from procrastination inducing stress to rule my life when I shall target to grow in a job role in some multinational in future.

Time management
Describe
I learned this week about the effectiveness of time management, which is associated with academic success. The most interesting thing I learned this week about the different strategies and tips on effectively time management. This week materials are going to be useful for increasing my ability to accomplish any project on time.

Interpret
The realisation related to time management is having a significant relevance due to diverse reasons. First, it implies the possible time requirement and utilizing the time so that any project or working activity can be accomplished on time (Khan et al. 2019). Secondly, time management is one of the skills for students and organizational employees or managers. So, these implications are not only going to help me gain personal experience but also professional experience as well. Thirdly, effective time management will provide certain tricks so that organizing the time gets easier and helping me by which I can create a better work/life balance.

Evaluate
The concept of this time management is valuable for managing the time and getting more time for utilizing them in a more productive way (Gallardo-Lolandes et al. 2020). This insight relates to the theoretical approaches of motivation and performance enhancement. The understanding is important in a different way for providing the necessary strategies for effectively handling any project or working activities so that no errors can be formed. I intend to develop effective time management skills along with accurate metacognition for improving academic success.

Plan
The time management will be useful in this course, in my program and my future career as it provides a clear pathway to capture the short-term and medium-term goals. In this course, the time management along with metacognitive awareness not only enhances my knowledge level but also enhances my cognitive level in three areas including conditional, procedural, and declarative knowledge, which are going to be useful for fulfilling my dream of becoming a successful manager in a MNC by 8 years.

Positive Psychology
Describe
I learned this week about the effectiveness of positive psychology, which can provide me better social, psychological, and emotional well-being and lower down the mental illness. The most interesting thing I learned this week about the different strategies and tips on increasing the positive psychology for positive institutions, positive subjective experience and positive individual traits like virtues and character strengths.

Interpret
The realisation related to positive psychology is having a significant relevance due to diverse reasons. First, it implies the effectiveness in managing the negative traits by either controlling them or managing them with positive psychology. Secondly, positive subjective experiences including happiness, love and good moods can enhance academic success and professional life as well. Thirdly, having the intention of being considered under the Flourishing quadrant can provide low levels of mental illness and higher well-being levels (Phan & Ngu, 2017). So, these implications are not only going to help me gain personal experience but also professional experience as well.

Evaluate
The concept of this positive psychology is significant for maintaining a positive mental aspect for enhancing the responsibilities and fulfilling all the responsibilities with higher productivity and knowledge level (Wong & Roy 2018). This insight relates to the theoretical approaches of self-motivation and skill enhancement. I intend to develop positive psychology with flourishing for improving academic success.

Plan
Positive psychology will be useful in this course, in my program and my future career as it provides a clear pathway to maintain the discipline of psychology, which is highly focused on the human strengths for capturing the short-term and medium-term goals. In this course, different ways of flourishing myself and its effectiveness is described for enhancing the positive psychology through the positive institutions, positive subjective experience, and positive individual traits. These are going to be useful for fulfilling my dream of becoming a successful manager in a MNC by 8 years along with enhancing the academic success.

References
Bianchi, R., Schonfeld, I. S., & Laurent, E. (2019). Burnout: Moving beyond the status quo. International journal of stress management, 26(1), 36. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1609&context=gc_pubs

Gallardo-Lolandes, Y., Alcas-Zapata, N., Flores, J. E. A., & Ocaña-Fernández, Y. (2020). Time Management and Academic Stress in Lima University Students. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(9), 32-40. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1281218.pdf

Kassymova, K., Kosherbayeva, N., Sangilbayev, S., & Schachl, H. (2018). Stress management techniques for students. https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/ictppfms-18/25902973

Khan, I. A., Zeb, A., Ahmad, S., & Ullah, R. (2019). Relationship Between University Students Time Management Skills and Their Academic Performance. Review of Economics and Development Studies, 5(4), 853-858. http://reads.spcrd.org/index.php/reads/article/download/173/166

Luthar, S. S., Lyman, E. L., & Crossman, E. J. (2014). Resilience and positive psychology. In Handbook of developmental psychopathology (pp. 125-140). Springer, Boston, MA. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/SuniyaLuthar/publication/286526146_Resilience_and_Positive_Psychology/links/56719bca08aed8f3115cd68c/Resilience-and-Positive-Psychology.pdf

Phan, H. P., & Ngu, B. H. (2017). Positive psychology: the use of the Framework of Achievement Bests to facilitate personal flourishing. Well-being and Quality of Life, 19-33. https://www.intechopen.com/books/quality-of-life-and-quality-of-working-life/positive-psychology-the-use-of-the-framework-of-achievement-bests-to-facilitate-personal-flourishing

Schwarz, S. (2018). Resilience in psychology: A critical analysis of the concept. Theory & Psychology, 28(4), 528-541. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959354318783584

Wong, P. T., & Roy, S. (2018). Critique of positive psychology and positive interventions. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-42568-010