Personal values and experiences will always impact a career path in psychology. Personal principles like resilience, empathy, compassion, and a commitment to social justice guide the professional aspirations and emotional growth of such individuals in their journey toward such a career. Therefore, these ethos are part of the core values that fuel a person’s development and continue to shape a trajectory in psychology by developing writing skills, future vision, and unique experiences and skills.
My ethos revolves around resilience, empathy, compassion, social justice, and a commitment to meaningfully impact other people’s lives. These values accompany my pursuit of a career in psychology, as they align with my professional aspirations and core beliefs and values (Chan et al., 2020). They help me understand and remember the importance of empathy in understanding and supporting others and resilience in facing and overcoming challenges. I have constantly demonstrated resilience, especially when I persevered through complex academic, material, and personal trials with the help of my firm determination to succeed in my pursuit of psychology. Therefore, resilience is essential, especially when facing challenging parts of life and overcoming waves and adversity. Empathy is the foundational value of my ethics. Through empathy, I can express a deep understanding of others’ struggles and victories and form connections and relationships with them (Chan et al., 2020).
Additionally, through my lifetime experiences, I have developed compassion as part of my central tent in my ethos, as personal loss has helped me identify with others and, therefore, be compassionate towards them. This trait drives me to desire to make a positive impact in the lives of others through my career in psychology and outside. I am also committed to social justice and making a difference in society. Therefore, my psychology learning is a means of addressing societal issues and thus promoting changes, specifically in the mental health and social justice areas. By intertwining these traits, I commit to making a meaningful impact in the lives of others. My career in psychology matches my professional aspirations with my core values and beliefs, making my ultimate goal of positively impacting individuals and society as a whole achievable.
Since week 2, my writing skills have tremendously developed and improved. Using rich language and imagery to convey experiences and emotions is now easy. Since then, drawing and evoking powerful imagery has been easy, which helps engage the relaxers and entice them to the works I could do in the future. Additionally, identifying with my personal and professional values allows me to delve into personal experiences and emotions, which helps me add depth and authenticity to my writing. Therefore, in a subsequent journey of self-discovery and growth, it is easy to effectively communicate the profound impacts of personal loss and create an identity with the audience by enhancing self-reflection.
Additionally, the maintenance of clarity in the message has improved tremendously, making it easy to navigate the complexities of any subject matter without losing focus or being too emotionally involved (Süğümlü, 2019). I can intertwine my personal beliefs and professional pursuits while maintaining professionalism, especially while dealing with others, as my writing skills have helped me articulate my beliefs, values, and aspirations without forcing them to be what others identify with. However, I face challenges in smoothly transitioning between ideas to enhance an overflow as most of my ideas intertwine, creating complex descriptions of my essays. Therefore, I am working on constantly improving shifts between different topics and themes with clear transitions so as to not disturb and disrupt the coherence of my works. Maintaining consistency in the focus theme through my writings will help develop and strengthen the impacts and effectiveness.
Understanding personal ethos plays a significant role in enhancing one’s professional and personal lives. Therefore, throughout the course, they have played an essential role in fueling my growth opportunities and contributing to my development of cultural competency. My sense of resilience helped me develop the ability to persevere through challenges and setbacks and, therefore, fueled my power, which helped me overcome obstacles encountered throughout the course. It has helped me navigate the complicated concepts and theories and address the possible diversity of future clients. It has helped me develop persistence in my studies, even when faced with challenging coursework and unfamiliar materials (Monforte, 2019).
Additionally, empathy and compassion directed toward others based on my ethos have facilitated understanding diverse perspectives and experiences. These qualities helped me engage with my classmates from diverse backgrounds. I was able to come up with and show a sensibility to their individual personalities and requirements, especially in the course of the discussions and class contributions. Hence, the empathy and compassion that I developed with my classmates helped me to be equipped with culturally competent care characteristics and also support the diverse population from different communities despite the different opinions and course approaches.
Moreover, my commitment to social justice led me to advocate for equitable access to the course materials and to address the systemic barriers that affect most communities, thus improving the quality of the lives of my fellow coursemates. This integration allowed me to develop the capacity to stimulate positive change in my area of specialization and also in the society I may serve as a whole. These personal values aid in the acquisition of a growth mindset, which involves the desire to learn and the ability to adapt when encountering any obstacles. My interactions with my culturally diverse classmates helped me to expand my mind and realize that cultural competency is a continuous learning process that requires lifelong learning and self-reflection. Therefore, it enabled me to confront biases and stereotypes while seeking opportunities for skill-building.
Developing writing skills, especially for applications in the psychology field, demands a comprehensive plan that includes targeted strategies and resources. The first step is the assessment of current writing strengths and weaknesses by reviewing past writing assignments and seeking feedback from my professors and peers. This will help identify areas that need improvement. Then, I will establish a clear set of achievable goals for improving my writing skills, such as improving my ability to articulate complex psychological concepts in writing within a specific timeframe (Süğümlü, 2020). Additionally, it is stipulated that writing is a skill that improves with practice, so I will dedicate time to writing exercises and assignments. For example, I can save time journaling or drafting responses to hypothetical case studies and set aside time each week to practice these writings, gradually increasing the complexity of writing tasks. Additionally, in the future, it is possible to be asked to develop peer reviews for particular articles; therefore, I would start peer review sessions with classmates, which will help me receive feedback on written work and create the skill of providing feedback to others. These reviews offer valuable perspectives on a person’s weaknesses in writing and provide opportunities for collaborative learning.
In five years, I envision myself as a respected and influential figure in psychology through research, practice, and advocacy. I will advance my clinical skills through practical experiences and ongoing professional development. The experiences of navigating personal challenges and promoting and practicing resilience will have informed my approach to therapy, enabling the building of solid therapeutic alliances that enhance positive outcomes for clients. Also, my passion for social justice and commitment to making a meaningful impact will push me to pursue research initiatives that address disparities in mental health care. Therefore, my writing skills will have developed, honed, and improved through continuous, rigorous academic coursework and practical applications (Süğümlü, 2020). This will thus enable me to publish scholarly articles and present them at conferences, significantly contributing to advancing intellectual knowledge.
In contrast, an empathetic understanding of others will inform the design and implementation of these research projects and ensure they are focused on promoting equity. Also, I will significantly advocate for improving mental health policy and access to care services. My empathic and compassionate traits will drive the efforts to amplify the voices of marginalized communities while creating awareness of the need for access to mental health care in these communities and, therefore, advocating for policies that promote social justice and equity (Montiel et al., 2021). Collaborations between these communities’s organizations and policymakers will help support the needs of underserved populations and address systemic barriers.
The intersection and collaboration of personal ethos and professional pursuits in psychology is a transformative and demanding journey throughout a course and future career. Resilience, empathy, compassion, and commitment to social justice have been my guiding powers in shaping my path and fueling my growth. Additionally, through continuous self-reflection, practice, and dedication, I have helped develop my writing skills that will help shape my future, and a clear vision of the future has helped ground my values and experiences, which will help me have a significant impact in the field of psychology and beyond.
References
Chan, K. K. S., Lee, J. C.-K., Yu, E. K. W., Chan, A. W. Y., Leung, A. N. M., Cheung, R. Y. M., Li, C. W., Kong, R. H.-M., Chen, J., Wan, S. L. Y., Tang, C. H. Y., Yum, Y. N., Jiang, D., Wang, L., & Tse, C. Y. (2022). The Impact of Compassion from Others and Self-compassion on Psychological Distress, Flourishing, and Meaning in Life Among University Students. Mindfulness, 13(6), 1490–1498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-022-01891-x
Monforte, P. (2019). From compassion to critical resilience: Volunteering in the context of austerity. The Sociological Review, 003802611985822. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026119858220
Montiel, C., Radziszewski, S., Prilleltensky, I., & Houle, J. (2021). Fostering Positive Communities: A Scoping Review of Community-Level Positive Psychology Interventions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720793
Süğümlü, Ü. (2020). An Action Research on the Improvement of Writing Skill in Teacher Training. Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, 15(1), 137–162. https://doi.org/10.29329/epasr.2020.236.8
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