- Which of the development theories can you use to describe a particular significant event in your life? Illustrate how you can use this theory to describe a developmental milestone in your life.
I personally think that the Psychosocial Theory of Erik Erikson is by far the most elaborate theory under the psychoanalytic perspective. It covers all phases of development starting from early ages to later years. Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social experiences across the whole lifespan. Unlike Sigmund Freud who only focused on the psychosexual aspect of an individual, Erikson leaned towards a greater balance between biological and social factors (Schiamberg and Smith, 1982).
Erikson’s theory describes the eight stages of human development on a psychosocial perspective. All individuals who pass through these stages are confronted with psychosocial issues that should be resolved before progressing to another developmental stage. These issues are turning point in the ego development of an individual. These are the times where opportunities for personal growth are at its peak and so is failure. If an individual is successful in handling these issues, he may develop psychological strengths needed in his life. Failure to resolve these issues however, will cause recurrence of these conflicts in the future. The needed skills for a strong self-identity may not develop.
In line with this thought, I can say that the Psychosocial Theory of Erikson is the most appropriate development theory that can best describe significant events in my life. Whoever the person that I am today is due to the experiences and interactions that I have undergone with the people, society and the environment around me. They molded my personality and values and shaped my identity into something more defined. I may have experienced several crises in some points of my life, but it made me know myself better, it helped me realize what I really want in life and basically honed me to become a more functional individual.
One significant event in my life that has also been a major turning point is passing the Nurse Licensure Examination (NLE) and being a Registered Nurse (RN). This has been the time when all of my dreams started to materialize. I landed a good paying job in a local government hospital and worked overseas after a few years. I was able to support my family and extended help to some relatives and friends. I took and passed some other qualifying exams, aiming for better opportunities. At the age of 27, I did not just grow in the profession, but the experiences along the way also enriched my personality even more.
I can correlate all of this to a successful crisis resolution in Erikson’s Identity vs. Role Confusion stage in his Psychosocial Theory of Development. Identity vs. role confusion is the fifth stage of psychosocial development characterized by a person’s desire to determine his identity. Questions such as “who am I?”, “what career do I want?”, “what do I believe in?”, “how should I look?”, “who will I hang out with?” predominate this stage. Identity formation begins to develop as individuals in this stage explore greater independence, testing limits, and making their own choice about a career, values, beliefs and goals (Myers, 2014).
I am glad to have passed this stage with resolved psychosocial issues. After a period of confusion, rebelliousness, over independence and power struggle, I came to know myself better, know my real identity, how I want my life to be, know what I want to become. Above any other things, I wanted to become a NURSE. And just a couple years after, guided by my acquired strength of self-identity, I became a NURSE. And this has been one of my life’s defining moments.
- Identify a learning need in your workplace or community. Using any of the learning theories, plan for a health teaching in your workplace or community to address the identified learning need. The teaching plan should reflect the concepts of the learning theory.
On September 9, 2013, the city of Zamboanga had experienced a humanitarian crisis brought about by the clash between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). The crisis erupted after the MNLF attempted to raise a flag of their self-proclaimed “Bangsamoro Republic” in the heart of the city – the city hall. In the city’s defense, local and national defense forces had been mobilized to counteract the siege. This brought about crossfires between the national defense and the insurgents, primarily affecting residents of three barangays closest to clash. The twenty-day siege resulted to burning of these three barangays leaving over a hundred thousand refugees homeless on makeshifts evacuation sites. One of this sites had a close proximity to where I live so I have been a witness to the poor living condition that these evacuees had. However, the national government partnered with the local government units and some non-government organizations (NGO) conducted programs to support the immediate needs of these evacuees prioritizing health above anything else. Despite these humongous efforts to keep the evacuees in our barangay healthy, there had still been a high number of morbidities associated to sanitation issues, poor hygiene and malnourishment. There had also been a high number of mortalities due to community acquired pneumonia and gastroenteritis according to the City Health Office (CHO). Though most of the evacuees had already been transferred on newly built bunk houses in some relocation sites, some of them had stayed and gradually became part of our community. Community-Acquired Pneumonia, on the other hand, has never been eradicated. It became number one in the list of morbidities in our barangay for the first two quarters of 2015 according to the records of the health center. Thus, I deemed this as a pressing issue in our community and a salient learning need. I would want to focus my health teaching plan on gaining and improving preventive health behavior against Community-Acquired Pneumonia.