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14
Oct 19

Looking for a Job?

I’m almost positive without research being done, (which is a big no no in my future field to assume, however, I’m going to anyway) that a majority of working individuals have hated at least one job they’ve had. In my own case, I’ve hated about half of every job I’ve ever had. I have worked with children the majority of my life. I love my first job and I was lucky to be there from teenage years up until adulthood. Of course, there were aspects of it I didn’t like such as waking up at the crack of dawn or rude parents, but I loved the environment and the students.
There were many reasons I didn’t like coming to work at other places of employment I had. The majority had to do with leadership. I’ve had hostile managers, that I felt like loved to berate me. I’ve had supervisors that wouldn’t support the team but will take credit for the accomplishments of the group. I also had supervisors that had no idea what they were doing.
One way to avoid those unfortunate environments is to find something you enjoy. Job satisfaction is an important factor in whether or not you’ll stay at a particular place of employment. Job satisfaction according to Gruman, “can be defined as a person’s attitude toward his or her overall job as well as toward various aspects of the job; it is a predisposition to respond to one’s work environment in a favorable or unfavorable manner.” In other words, it is the ways to determine what causes you to like your job.
When it comes to looking for a job you can gather if the work will be mentally challenging from the ad a company puts out for the position. Equitable rewards are usually noticed after working there and sometimes is labeled in the company’s benefits policy which most find out in great detail after being hired. Supportive working conditions and supportive colleagues is what you can figure out before you accept the position by asking some key questions in the interview. You can also get more information about the work’s challenges in the interview as well. Asking these questions could help with your own person-job fit model. The person-job fit model argues that job satisfaction will be higher when there’s a pretty good matchup between your personal characteristics and the nature of the job (Gruman, 2017). The key is to not be too intrusive. Make these question flow into the interview like conversations as to not put off your future employer.
Asking what the companies’ values or mission statement is very important. This let’s you know what environment you will be entering into. A related question is what is the office culture like? These answers will let you know if this organization is something you want to run away from depending on your personality. An eclectic artist would not want to work in an environment where the culture is very strict in appearance and conversation and the organizational values reflect a cutthroat mentality where individuals steal ideas in order to gain success. It’s important to ask upfront instead of finding out later.
To find out more about supportive working conditions, asking about a learning development program or about training will let you know if they support employees learning more. This could also clue you in about how the company supports growth. If you’re the type of person with high growth need strength which can be explained by your job contributing to your personal growth and development, it’s especially important to ask this question.
One question I have learned to ask an interviewer which gives insight to supportive colleagues is “What do you like best about working for this organization?” This would give information on how colleagues support each other when things go wrong. Social influence at work can affect job satisfaction. The answer to this question derives specifically from their social environment at work. Beware when an interviewer gives vague answers and doesn’t answer with some slight enthusiasm. It probably means you should definitely run for the hills.
These are things I wished someone told me once I got into the workforce full time. I would’ve avoided some very unhealthy environments. Please remember, that you add value to your organization by being there. You do have to accomplish getting their attention with impressing them in order for them to offer you the job, but they need to impress you as well. After all you’ll spend the majority of your days working there.

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30
Sep 19

You, Me, We, and Stress

Stress always sounds like a frequently used bad word. If you ask a fellow student, a parent, a family member, or a coworker how they feel, “stressed” is usually one of the common words they might use in description along with sleepy, exhausted, and burnt out.

To get technical, stress results from things that happen in our environment, according to the transactional model of stress. Unfortunately, this model implies almost anything can cause stress, “people, events, and situations” (Gruman, 2017). Those categories mentioned are called stressors and there are many things that fall into those three categories.

In these situations, our brains appraise the situation. Appraisals can happen consciously or subconsciously. When this happens think of fight or flight. Either we can think this situation is threatening to us or it’s something we can conquer or get over. We also have secondary appraisals that evaluate and assess our resources to determine how we handle the stressor.

Appraisals can be different for everybody even if it’s the same situation. For example, if I saw a snake (it could be at PetSmart), I would immediately appraise the situation to be threatening. My secondary appraisal would be my resources, my legs to move away from the aisle or my car keys to escape just in case the snake escaped its cage. My husband on the other hand, would appraise the situation as something he could overcome or may not be stressed by the situation at all. If we were looking at the same snake however, his stress maybe because of my reaction to the snake, not the snake itself. What can stress one person out may not phase another.

Appraisals can also change over time. Another personal example, at one point I used to be terrified of dogs. I had been bitten as a child. If I saw a dog, my subconscious appraisal was that the situation was threatening, and I would cry, scream, and beg to leave whatever place the dog(s) were. About 7 years later my cousin, whom I was very close with, got a dog. His gentle nature and my constant appearance in his home changed my appraisal. I no longer saw the situation as threatening. Later on, I grew to be a dog lover with my own two spoiled puppies.

This is an example of coping. Coping is “thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that people engage in when trying to reduce stress” (Gruman, 2017). In essence this means what do you do to reduce the stress that the event, person, or situation caused.

In my last example, I unknowingly was involved in problem-focused coping which is exactly how it sounds. I faced my problem head on to reduce the power it had to stress me out. Did I consciously think “Hey, you really have got to get over your fear of dogs. It’s ridiculous.” No, I did not, I was 10. But I did think, “I want to be around my older cousin more so if that means dealing with her dog then fine.” Pepper was a gentle lovable dog, he made it easy to start to look forward to his cuddles when I saw him. Pepper himself didn’t make my fear of dogs obsolete, but his nature did help me cope. Eventually he was a point of stress relief and now so are my dogs.

There is another type of coping called emotion-focused coping. It deals with how people try to regulate their own emotions in order to reduce the effects of stress. It’s commonly thought of in terms of things we can not change, however, it’s important to note that this does not mean that we avoid the stress. Avoiding stress can lead down a destructive pathway which could possibly bring on more stress.

I experienced emotion-focused coping when I found out that Pepper died. I do not like to be sad, but I let the emotion come forth and I also thought about all the things Pepper opened me up to. Because of Pepper I have two dogs that I love so much. I learned how to take care of an animal because of him. I also learned how to train a dog and instill obedience. My dogs have a better life because of my own interaction with Pepper.

If you notice my end results in both dog examples was that they lead to a healthy outcome. Using the coping methods appropriately lead to a healthy management of stress. Other coping mechanisms for stress management are relaxation training, expressive writing, and using cognitive behavioral therapy to identify stressors, discuss appraisals, and practice coping strategies (Taylor, 2018). Stress may not cause illness; however, it can greatly exacerbate it. Other factors affect stress like socioeconomic status, negative events. Stress can also impact sleep and the time frame to recover from the physiological effects on stress on the body.

To reduce the likelihood of developing chronic stress or incur any of the negative effects of stress it’s important to also have a support system. Social support according to Taylor is information from others that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and part of a network of communication and mutual obligations. This means that people are better able to cope and have healthier outcomes with social support.

There are difference types of support such as tangible assistance, which is like a monetary gift or someone physically helping you move. Informational support is getting advice or information on situations we’ve never faced before such as getting marital advice as a newlywed. Emotional support is what we receive from people that love and care about us and our well being. Though this doesn’t list all types of support, these are just a few things to possibly reduce our haste to stress out.

Stress is something that can’t be avoided. Our bodies were made to respond to it for our survival, but it can be managed so that it won’t take over our lives and our health. Let’s make use of all of those strategies to keep up healthy and thriving.

 

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.

Taylor, S. E. (2018). Health Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill Education.

 

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04
Feb 17

Cause and Effect of Global Warming

As you may have already known, one of the biggest environmental issues that we are facing is global warming. When an individual hears the words global warming, a few things might come to mind. Naturally we think of seas, forests and natural life that inhabits the wilderness. Have you ever asked yourself the question of what is Global Warming? How does Global Warming affect us and almost every living thing on our planet earth? What are some of the causes of Global Warming?

To answer some of the questions we must first understand how does the earth sustains life through energy. Life on earth depends on energy coming from the sun (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2017). Global warming is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of gases and other pollutants. To further understand the cause(s) of global warming one must understand the science behind it. Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the greenhouse effect — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space (Nasa, 2017). How does heat gets trapped in the atmosphere? Certain gases such as water vapor (H2O), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Methane (CH4) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) are responsible for blocking heat from escaping.

Now that we know a bit about Global Warming and the causes behind it, we must understand how global warming affects us and our environment. The environment is one of three major influences on humans at large. Bandura (1986) devised a theory called Triadic Reciprocal Determinism (or Causation) that states that the environment that people live in both influences human behavior and personal factors. People are both influenced by the environment but also have a certain level of control over the environment so that both can affect each other (Nelson, A. 2017).

We must take responsibility for our actions, and as we mature and become adults most of us do just that. As the population grows so does our need for more resources. You might ask, how does population and resources play a role in global warming. For example, let’s look at one of the factors behind global warming; CO2. As the population grows in any town U.S.A, so does the need for jobs, housing and transportation. Building housing and operating factories requires fuel. Using personal or public transportation to get to work and back, running your day to day errands, all requires fuel. Burning fuel, creates CO2. One of the causes of global warming per NASA is CO2.

Some of the things that we’ve seen because of global warming are; longer and hotter summer season, earth quicks, tsunamis, melting glaciers which has drastic effects on our planet earth and negative effect on the creatures that inhabit our forests, seas and most importantly, us, humans. Per the Guardian the death toll in India’s heatwave has climbed towards 1,500 as the country sweltered in one of the worst bouts of hot weather for several years (The Guardian, 2015).

In conclusion, we, humans are the superior species that have control over all other living things on our green planet earth. It is up to us to educate ourselves on the environment that we live in and understand how does our needs, habits, actions and will to live and to survive is affecting our environments. We are on the right track towards fighting global warming by creating hybrid cars for example, or using solar panels and or windmills to create energy. However, we still have a long road ahead of us to completely and successfully eliminate global warming. We can only try by educating masses and creating more green technology, all to sustain precious lives on our home, the planet earth.

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundation of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Nelson, A. (2017). Lesson 4. Applied social psychology: The Environment. Presented on the PSYCH 424 course content site lecture at the Pennsylvania State University.

Shaftel H., Jackson R., Tenenbaum L., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)., (2017, January 31). A Blanket Around the Earth. Retrieved February 4, 2017, from www.nasa.gov

The Guardian.,(2015, May 28). India heatwave death toll rises as awareness campaigns launch. Retrieved February 4, 2017, from www.theguardian.com

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15
Nov 15

Relationships

I would not consider myself the expert on relationships since I have only ever been in one. My current and only relationship has gone very well for today’s society. My boyfriend and I have been together for 4 years now, and had lived together for two of those years. Eventually we will get married, but obviously not rushing things. Reading the class textbook I found that we have a very comfortable, and trustworthy relationship which obviously has had rocky times, as do all relationships. When I go shopping I always see the women magazines with the raunchy titles for hot sex, how to keep your man, is he cheating on you, can you trust him. These magazines make me laugh because most of the time the authors are middle aged women coming out of a divorce and or a twenty something who has gone through 20 different men in the past year. Now that works for some people, but for serious relationship advise for people who want a committed relationship they are not a good resource.

My boyfriend and I met in high school during junior year. Honestly I thought he was the largest ass in the school. It wasn’t until the last months of senior year when we starting getting along. When we first starting dating the honeymoon phase set in until six months in when things started to get rocky. I was a very strong willed, outgoing, and social while he was very reserved and hated new experiences. Our personality differences caused huge rifts in our relationships, so I brought it up. Communication in relationships is a huge part of their success. With communication comes trust, and security. Not only do you know what is going on in the other person’s head, but you also learn their needs. Each individual has different needs and in a mate those needs should be met.

When my relationship was having problems I became very insecure about if I was doing something wrong, or if he was cheating on me and every other thought that ran through my head. After talking with him about all of my worries things were settled, and I never questioned any other of my insecurities and our attachment style has been strong and secure. There is no need to force a ring on my finger, or buying a house because I have a partner who listens, and makes me a better person.

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