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[andysdiary]

You Matter

     No matter who you are and no matter what you are made of, you matters. From the very first stage of your life in the womb, you matters. Everyone is special and unique in our own way. The entire course taught me that and helped you discover a lot from myself and the people around me.

     Theoretical perspective in human development helped me realized that there are different ways on how we can understand ourselves and others better. Each approach has its own strength and ways of explaining how we think, act, and behave the way we do. 

     Moreover, our bio-physical development helped me to understand how do our body develop. What shapes the way we are today. Our physical characteristics has its own history and story to tell. That, even before we are born, we are already living in a universe and fought our way here in an even bigger universe. Our physical characteristics are our story of our survival, adaptation, and physical inheritance that can tell us how precious and amazing our body is.

     Furthermore, our cognitive development helped us to understand our minds better. The way it works, and how this affect our behavior and life decisions is an important that we must be really aware of. Our mind is powerful. It influences our every move and its phases and stages is something that we must be mindful of. This way, we can understand why the people around us behave and think the way they do. Thus, this can lead to understanding and accepting each other which is one step towards harmonization.

     In the same sense, our emotions matter too. We must not invalidate that. To be able to fully understand ourselves, it is necessary to understand our socio-emotional processes and its influence on our everyday life. Emotions play a big role on our everyday decisions and we must be aware of that so we can not do something that we will regret later. In addition, emotions matter to remind us that we are humans and we are capable of feeling so many things that conveys something deep within.

     Motivation greatly matters too. Motivation is our drive to do something and to be something. It is what keeps us going and fighting in this complex world. Hence, it helped me to understand the different kinds of motivation in which I could go back to if I’m feeling stuck. That there are various kinds of motivation and that are helpful on keeping us going and fighting. Motivation matters to fuel us as we try to survive this wide and scary world.

     Finally, individual needs, diversities, and exceptionalities matter. This will tell us that the people around us are very different from us. Their needs, wants, drives, development, and motivation shapes the way they are and that makes each one of us unique. However, our differences are our way of fitting the missing pieces of each of us. We are different so that we can help each other. Thus, if we are together, we can create a beautiful image.

     All of these taught us many different lessons that can be really helpful as we interact and make of the world around us. However, this also taught us a great lesson that we matter. We matter despite and in spite. All of us matter, all of you matter.

[andysdiary]

SEEDS FOR REFLECTION 7

     Every one of us has our own uniqueness, our own individuality. We are distinct from each other and that makes us who we are. We have our different goals, different path to take, different personality, different experiences, and different journey. 

     Throughout my life, I have never been told that I was different from others. Looking back, I realized that they gave me praises but never recognized my individuality.

     Since I was younger, I was being compared to those people who can do better in household chores and those who they deemed as hardworking. That is why, growing up, I, too, compared myself with others.

      I was always afraid I will never be enough for them and there is only a matter of time that they will left me. I even tried to change myself and to somehow make them see the side of me that they need. However, because of that, my individual needs were never met.

      Hence, to be able to heal from that, I have learned to repressed my emotions. I have learned to invalidate my feelings. That became my defense mechanism.

     The aforementioned are not healthy though but I am a step forward towards getting healed. This way, I was able to discover a part of myself. In addition, new things resurfaced that I thought was not a problem anymore. 

     I still have a long way to go towards healing but going through this module made me reflect and realized a lot. That, there are things that we thought we already forgot but only slept through. As long as the burden is here, things will continue to resurface. Repression is not even a solution. Thus, being just the way you are step towards healing. You do not have to please anybody every time because we will never enough for them, and that is fine. 

[andysdiary]

SEED FOR REFLECTION 6

Stop and Think and Me, too

Motivation comes with motion. Hoewever, how can we be in motion if we lack motivation?

There are many times in my life that my motivation was nowhere to be found. I always said "I can't", because I was too afraid to try and too demotivated to start. Just like how I want to improve my writing skills yet I was always doubtful.

Furthermore, as I advanced towards my life, Social Perspective of motivation describes my motivation the best. I motivate myself by looking at other people like how they are doing. I am trying hard to keep up with the people around me even though I feel like giving up. In addition, I am also trying to inspire myself by finding an inspiration from others.

I also remember saying to myself that "If they can, I can too". I held unto that for a long time that I exhaust myself in the process. I realized that my self worth is wrong, my view of myself is wrong. Somewhat, that leads me to have a wrong self-determination too, which exhaust me.

My decisions was always based on what others will think about me. My desire is to meet their needs and to be able to cater it. The people around me influences me in many ways but, I guess, I'm fine with it.

My ideal-self or the "other person" somewhat motivates me to be the best person I can be for the people I love. Thus, my motivation responses vary from my idea of the "other person".

With these said, I have realized that we do have our differences. Individual strengths and weaknesses are the way we fill the empty spaces of each other. The way we function and motivate each other are our own way of filling the puzzle pieces of each other.

[andysdiary]

SEEDS FOR REFLECTION 5

     Learning through this module is like learning a lot about myself and the people around me. I somewhat gained some knowledge and understanding about our socio-emotional development which can be helpful for me to arrive at a better ways to understand people and help them grow as well as myself.

     I came to understand that my attachment kind is not entirely secure, but very close to it. I have trust issues, but I am also comfortable having people around me. I am also fine being alone and I adapt really quickly. When I was a child, I easily connect with people since I was bubbly and friendly. However, I cannot guarantee that my attachment is secure all throughout my life. Things changed and will be changing so am I, as well as my attachment.

     My conflict resolution somewhat reflects Erikson’s theory. This stage of my life had been so challenging. I remember having bad decisions just because I am not certain about my identity and my role in the society. I have made impulsive actions that I regretted. As of now, I am trying to fix myself by paying attention to my decisions in my everyday life.

     Furthermore, I came to understand the people around me. I now understand why my little cousins throw tantrums and why they act like that. I now have a prior knowledge that can help me to have longer patience with them. This module also gave me knowledge as to how to handle the people around me and myself better.

     Little by little, I am understanding myself and the people. I have learned not to easily judge anyone because what they are showing has a reason. Our emotions and social life help us to express ourselves and to empathize with others. Moreover, we can be a better version of ourselves if we pay attention to our emotions and learn how to handle them properly. Throughout life, changes occur. Hence, we must pay attention to our emotions and of others to live in harmony together.

[andysdiary]

SEEDS FOR REFLECTION 4

People learn and develop, so am I. Throughout my life, I always love the idea of learning. Hence, looking back, when I was a child, I was so full of questions. I was curious and definitely want to make sense of the world around me. Thus, I tend to asked the people around me which I deemed as More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) from Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory. They will then assist me to the best of their knowledge in my Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

I also remember that I also undergone the process of adaptation from Piaget’s Theory. Back then, I thought that all birds are the same which is assimilation. I called them all birds without knowing that they have differences since I did not see them nearer. As I acquire knowledge, I also came to realized that there are different kinds of birds and that they have a name which is the accommodation. Since, I have learned that they have different appearance and adjusted it, which leads me to reach equilibrium.

My development and learning was explained by a combination of both theories. Hence, they can also help me to optimize my learning further.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory can optimize my learning by knowing that interaction is a great opportunity to learn. This also develops critical thinking and understanding of various views of different people. In addition, this can also help me appreciate my uniqueness and people’s individual differences. In which, people have different learning styles affected by various factors and that our differences can bring various knowledge to the table.

In the same sense, Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory can optimize my learning by understanding that there are stages in our learning namely sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Thus, we don’t have to feel bad if we developed late than others. Moreover, our role as a learner is to explore individually but also we must work with others too to achieve best results.

Optimizing learning needs my active of role as a learner to acquire knowledge. Using both theories as a prior understanding, we can optimize our own learning and the learning of others too.

[andysdiary]

SEEDS FOR REFLECTION 3

     Growing up in a family that are not really open to each other is hard. I find it hard to ask about the changes in me and so as my siblings find it hard to talk about theirs. We rarely ask each other so changes in my physical body was a challenged for me to explore.

     However, as I read through this module, I realized that changes in my physical body is normal. I also come to expect what I will be experiencing when I reach early and late adulthood. I now understand that enable to have a better and healthier future, I must make my lifestyle fit and right. 

     Further, I now understand why teenagers sleep late at night then wake up in the afternoon. My younger sister is like that and I was like that too back then. I thought that it was laziness but this module taught me otherwise. It is a normal sleeping patterns for adolescence and sleep is paramount to having a better cognitive development. 

     In addition,I grew up in a community where people know each other very well. Hence, I saw the bad habits they did while they were pregnant. I didn’t said a thing back then but I now know and I will use this learning to spread awareness to other people. This way, I can contribute to an attempt to reduce numbers of developmental issues.

     Finally, development is continuous and lifelong. It does not stop to one period only. Thus, we must always find a way to develop ourselves better and healthier. That way, we can have the full potential of our lifespan.

[andysdiary]

SEEDS FOR REFLECTION 2

    Development is an achievement. It is a process of changes in our physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domain. It helps us to understand ourselves and others as we grow. Thus, being accountable for our development as we grow is paramount.

    As I grow independently, I am getting more accountable for my personal development. Although my parents still guides me, I now have the capability to decide for my own and to make sense of the world around me. I now have the capability to choose which will I adapt and which will I ignore. However, there are still different factors that shape who I am today. For instance, my physical domain was shaped by my genes. Heredity is the reason why my hair is straight and why my skin color is brown. I didn’t adapt these from my environment. These are the results of heredity.

    On the other hand, when it comes to my cognitive and social domain, external factors had a big role in who I am today. As I observe and make sense of the world, I have learned to adapt and adjust to the people. Interacting with various people made me realized that being kind can bring smiles and that felt great. My healthy environment teaches me various ways of socializing and adapting. Hence, as I adapt new things and improve existing knowledge, my conception of age is developing as well.

    My chronological age, which are the years since I was born is 17 yet people say that my biological age or my appearance and body can compare to those in junior high school. I can agree to that because I can see that my physical appearance is not as mature as people in my age. However, I can say that my psychological age is more mature compared to my chronological age. My adaptive and cognitive capacity can compare to those of in their early adulthood. I am starting to think about bills, investments, and future, which some people in my age would rarely think about. I also think that there is no time to entertain romantic life as I am too busy to surviving life and helping my family somehow. I feel like I am not my age sometimes. Lastly, my social age, which I am glad because it is becoming irrelevant today. My social age and chronological age are somewhat matched because I am in college as what the people traditionally expects from those who are born in 2003.

    Finally, understanding myself is not really as hard as I think it would be. Being able to look using the lens of psychology made me introspect better and made me aware of other aspects of me that I was not aware of back then. Hence, I can finally say that, this is me.

[andysdiary]

SEEDS FOR REFLECTION

EDUCATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

     Change is permanent. Throughout our lifespan, there are various developments and changes that shape who we are today. There are many factors that drastically affect our development and growth in terms of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains. May it be continuous or discontinuous, nature or nurture, one course or many courses, all of these plays a large role in our development and growth, which also shapes our characteristics.

     Many factors influence our development. One of the factors that came to my view is my socioeconomic status. This has become part of my development because I saw the world from the perspective of the underprivileged. As a result, my cognitive domain developed in the perspective of underprivileged and thus, wanting to help others.  Another development that occurs to me is the drastic change in my personality.  When I was younger, I was full of self-esteem. I don’t seem to care what others will say about because what matters to me back then is to make myself and my loved ones happy. However, that young child changed. Although I still want my loved ones to be happy-which is lifelong, the self-esteem is now gone. I also gained in the process of development and one of that is understanding the people and the world around me.

     Moreover, developmental psychology made me understand the people around me better. I came to a realization that who we are was greatly affected by different factors in our past. We are capable of change. Therefore, who we are today or in the past will not define who we are tomorrow. Since development is lifelong, changes are possible and inevitable. My view of the people around me changed because I now able to understand that development occurs at different times to different people. I now know that pressuring my sister to understand things will not help her to develop efficiently. Hence, different people have their own development.

     Understanding self and others are an amazing part of this journey. We have to constantly remind ourselves that every person is different, so we cannot force to like what we like or to hate what we hate. Understanding development, changes, and growth will help us to harmonize with others. This is a key to build an efficient and free of judgement  relationship to others. Developmental psychology not only teaches us the theory, but also helps to be united with one another.