Psychology offers various concepts and theories that are significant in explaining the behaviors of individuals in their day to day activities. These concepts apply differently in people’s lives, depending on their traits and environment. This study is interested in finding out how these concepts and theories can apply to my life as an individual. Some of the concepts that I chose to find how they apply to my life include motivation and emotion, health psychology, stress, and coping strategies, concepts of interpersonal relationships, and personality. These four areas of psychology affect my life in different ways, as highlighted in the paper.
For a long time, people have believed that emotions are drawn automatically from people’s minds without any control. As such, people could assume that certain emotions depicted by some people were inborn and only controlled by their own bodies. However, Nauert (2019) has changed this notion through recent research, which reveals that people’s emotions are influenced by their motivations towards certain things, as well as the environment. This portrays that without an underlying motivation, then the emotions of an individual would remain unchanged (Nauert, 2019). Consequently, the environment also affects emotions. As such, an environment with aspects that trigger certain emotions would enable such emotions to manifest in an individual. I have noted that this aspect of motivation and emotion applies in my life in various ways.
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Firstly, I noted that when in social media, I get angry if something displeasing is negatively commented by many other angry individuals. For instance, when I read posts about racism in any place and find people commenting angrily on such posts, I also get angry and post harshly on such posts. This portrays that I am motivated by the other angry people on social media to become angry about some posts that are not pleasing to me. Also, the fact that such posts are not pleasing to me motivates my emotions; thus, I get angry. Lastly, there were instances when we used to have wrangles with my husband sometime back early in our marriage. However, at one point, I decided that I will always remain calm and not quarrel with my husband. After this decision, I have managed to remain calm at all times that we have disagreements with my husband. These instances indicate, truly that emotions are highly influenced by motivations of an individual, as well as the environment.
In health psychology, stress is defined as the reaction of the body to any changes that require responses while anxiety is the intense worrying and fear of situations that occur on a daily basis. The course has also enlightened me about approaches to coping and controlling stress and anxiety in life. These coping strategies have been significant in ensuring that I am able to get out of stress situations that occur in most times. Martin (2018) highlights various stress coping strategies that include social support, relaxation training and biofeedback, optimistic thinking, and the power of humor. The most commonly applied coping strategy is social support, as it involves support from friends and family. Social support entails sharing one’s stressful situations with friends or family to get relief from the same (Martin, 2018). These coping strategies have been helpful in my life when I am faced with situations that trigger stress. For instance, when I was a stay-home mum, I was occasionally stressed by the fact that I could not continue with my education, which would enable my career progression. After stress and anxiety attacks, I decided to adapt the copping strategy of remaining optimistic because I knew that one day, I would join the nursing school. The optimism greatly helped in relieving the stress, and I was able to live normally. Consequently, I also employed social support because I could talk to my husband regarding my stay-home situation, and he would assure me that one day, I will be able to progress my career. These two coping strategies have been instrumental in ensuring that I get out of any stressful situation.
The psychology concept of interpersonal relationships has been significant in shedding more light regarding relationships and associations among individuals in society. The course depicts that interpersonal relationships shape our lives from an early age based on the types of relationships that someone has. For instance, it is common knowledge that interpersonal relationships influence the personality and development of individuals. I have learned that interpersonal relationships affect the health and wellbeing of individuals in society. Pietromonaco & Collins (2017) depict that interpersonal relationships have an impact on the health of individuals. According to the study, the health of individuals is highly affected by interpersonal dynamics. The interpersonal dynamics include social connection and social disconnection, which affect some intrapersonal factors of health. Some of the intrapersonal factors of health include psychosocial pathways, biological pathways, and health and lifestyle pathways.
On the other hand, social connection is the growth of interpersonal relations and is characterized by aspects such as secure support base, intimacy, love, and affection (Pietromonaco & Collins, 2017). As such, social connection affects the intrapersonal factors in a positive way that also enhances the health of individuals. However, social disconnection, which is an end to interpersonal relationships, is characterized by negativity, hostility, and rejection. Social disconnection affects intrapersonal factors, and it can lead to mental health issues, high blood pressure, inflammation, and reduced immunity. In one instance, when my daughter left home for college, there was some disconnection in our relationship, given that she was a bit far from me. This disconnection affected my health in a way I could not understand, for instance, my blood pressure went up, and I also had some depression. It took me sometime before I got used to her absence. This can be explained by the influence of interpersonal relationships on health.
Personality is the individual differences in patterns and feature of behaving, thinking, and feeling. Personality develops from inborn traits, as well as the influences of the environments where individuals grow. Various personality theories and types have been coined by various scholars based on different psychological elements. Dweck (2017) seeks to explain where personality comes from and how it is used. She proposes that the personalities of individuals are hinged on the basic needs, which include the need of acceptance from others, the need to forecast our world, and the need to build competence to act on our world. As such, from the time people are born, they form their beliefs upon these three basic needs. According to Dweck (2017), there are visible and invisible parts of the personality, with the invisible comprising of needs, beliefs, emotions, and action tendencies, what she refers to as (BEATs). On the other hand, the visible part of the personality is created when individuals formulate the goals they want to achieve from the BEATs and needs. This has been relevant in enhancing my understanding of personalities. For instance, my personality is based on openness and agreeableness. As such, these traits have been borne from my belief that one needs to be open and also kind at the same time. These personalities enable me to do things in a certain type of way. My parents also believed in these traits and could, therefore, have influenced or motivated my personality.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2017). From needs to goals and representations: Foundations for a unified theory of motivation, personality, and development. Psychological Review, 124 (6), 689–719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000082
Martin, B. (2018). Strategies to Reduce Anxiety and Stress. Psych Central . Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/strategies-to-reduce-anxiety-and-stress/
Nauert PhD, R. (2019). Underlying Motivations Influence Expression of Emotions. Psych Central . Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/news/2019/07/05/underlying- motivations-influence- expression-of-emotions/148185.html
Pietromonaco, P. R., & Collins, N. L. (2017). Interpersonal mechanisms linking close relationships to health. American Psychologist , 72 (6), 531.
