I was born in a Hindu family from a suburbia in Bangladesh in 1993. My country was in a political and socioeconomic crisis since its freedom from Pakistani colonizers in the year 1971, although I wouldn't find this out until much later. The effects of such social calamity on my family were surprisingly little however. My father is a true capitalist, and as soon as the opportunity presented itself he started his own business. I prefer to think of this period in my life as the 'caterpillar' period, since I had no real experience of anything other than school and play. A major change come to my life when I got married to my husband at the age of 19 and set out for the United States to live together in 2013. Since this was my first visit to the U.S., the third world country people call it “The Land of Opportunity”, I was surprised that the U.S. believes in equality in every aspects of life from job opportunity, education to comfort and safety, regardless of gender, race, and religion. Since all of those universities and opportunities were waving me to reach out, I decided to pursue my dream career to become a physician. Becoming a physician and a dedicated homemaker at the same time will not be so easy; it will require hard work and interpersonal skill. I believe that the basic understandings of psychology that I learned from my Psychology 101 class would help me better understand the issues in my career and my life.
Diseases and illness can change patients’ state of minds. My knowledge of psychology will help me stand out as a physician in my relationship with patients and people around me because it will help me empathize and evaluate patients’ state of minds. Therefore, I will easily determine the best and effective way to interact with them. However, I had many speculations concerning my career and my future life in which the understanding of psychology can help address. For example, how does my personality fit into my career? How do I handle the stress involved in my career and future life? How do I combine a career in physician with a life of taking care of my family at home? These and many more speculations are what need to be addressed with the knowledge gained from psychology. This essay covers four main psychological concepts that when analyzed and understood, would enhance my career and life.
The first psychological aspect I have learned about myself is that I am a critical thinker. I discovered that, in my daily routine I find myself analyzing information, data, and trying to find out logical conclusions: it could be at home, school, or even my perspective toward life. Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. Also, critical thinkers can communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems. A physician’s job also revolve around thinking critically and find effective solution to different kinds of problems. Therefore, I think, being a critical thinker will definitely help me in my career.
In our psychology text book the writers say in chapter 11 that personality can be defined as an individual inherent personal way of life or way of thinking and doing things (Deborah Licht, 2014). Everybody has their individual personality. Understanding people’s personality is very relevant and important to my career and my future life as it will help me understand people’s pattern of thinking, feelings and behavior in order to be able to deal with everyone without any conflict or clash. My knowledge of the concept of personality will help me to know my patient and be able to interact with them without hurting their feelings. For instance, my knowledge of the personalities of my patients will help me to understand how each patient’s personality is influencing their illness. Eamonn Ferguson, in his paper published in Health Psychology Review Journal, states that “the effect of personality on health and mortality should be seen as a key distal predictor of mortality much as socio-economic status (SES) is” (Ferguson, 2013). Personality traits are distal predictors of health outcomes. The paper shows the correlation between personality traits and health. The paper reported that personality traits are linked to a wide variety of physiological and immune system responses and susceptibility to infection. In regards to doctor-patient communication, there is evidence that those high in neuroticism are less likely to perceive doctor–patient interactions as reassuring. In my little experience with patients, it is advised to always communicate with patients so that they are aware of what you are intending to administer to them, otherwise they could be violent or unresponsive.
Another concept is Stress which is defined as “the response to perceived threat or challenges resulting from stimuli or events that cause strain, analogous to the airplane wing bending because of an applied load” (Deborah Licht, 2014). The physician career is one which involves a lot of stress due to the nature of the job. It involves dealing with a lot of people in need of care, some of who are under tremendous amount of pain. The demands of the job can put a lot of pressure on oneself. My understanding of the psychology of stress will help me learn on to deal with stress experienced in my career as well as the stress in my marital home. For instance, I have learnt that one way to deal with stress
Another psychological concept which is very much relevant to my career and life is the concept of problem-solving, which can be viewed as part of cognition and thinking. Problem-solving can be defined as the means of achieving a desired goal (Deborah Licht, 2014). It was illustrated in the textbook that the concept of problem solving involves the application of a strategy to resolving the problem at hand. One of the strategies identified is the trial-and-error strategy of problem solving. This involves trying different approaches of tackling a problem, until the desired result is achieved. For instance, when faced with a difficult patient who is refusing to accept prescribed treatment (such as eating their meals and taking their medications), the trial-and-error strategy involves trying other means other than the conventional means to make the patient comply. Such means may involve kicking off a conversation with the patient, getting to know their past, in order to make them feel at ease with oneself. In regards to my personal life, I have been able to use the strategies illustrated in the textbook to solve some problems that I have encountered in my personal life.
Lastly, the humanistic perspective of personality is another concept that will help me in my physician career and my personal life. According to our text book, humanistic perspective of personality is the psychology perspective that describes the actions and characteristics of human to free will and personal awareness (Deborah Licht, 2014). I personally agree with Rogers on his view that “caregivers play a vital role in the development of personality and self-concept. Caregivers should show unconditional positive regard.” (Deborah Licht, 2014). This perspective will help me as a caregiver in my physician career to treat all patients and everybody around me with love irrespective of their behavior so they can feel totally accepted and valued for who they are.
To conclude, taking the Psychology 101 class and achieving some psychological knowledge will help me be a better person and succeed in my life and my dream career in a positive way.