Human Development Across the Lifespan: Reflection
I chose to include the written and creative portions of my Individual
Project and my Social Clock essay for my signature assignments. These three pieces reflect the complete integration and application of the lifespan
development concepts, and how they relate to my own life and my understanding
of myself. As a social work and political science major, I am often caught up in my quest to help individuals in need, understand society, and change the
world-- all the while forgetting the importance of self-care and
self-understanding. My own developmental history defines who I am today, my political
perspectives, and my theoretical orientation in social work practice. The combined written and art
project was a fascinating (and therapeutic) journey through my life, giving
voice to my story, my obstacles and my victories. I have written memoir-type essays before, but the developmental perspective gave a different, and very interesting angle. I particularly enjoyed the
simple, yet profound, art piece that is featured second to last in the PowerPoint
presentation. It contains just three images: a young girl, a young adult woman
(looking professional), and a woman in a wheelchair. In between these three silhouettes
I drew swirling and connecting lines and then created a collage of text-art
with simple descriptive words which describe how I view myself and my life,
past, present, and future. It may not look like much to the outside eye, but it
was a cathartic and powerful artistic experience which made me take a good,
hard, look at myself and challenge many internal assumptions and self-judgments.
The Social Clock essay had a similar effect on me. My life has not followed the
schedule which I’d planned for myself, and addressing that in writing caused me
to challenge my own preconceived notions about where one “should” be in their
life at certain stages. That exercise in particular helped me develop a bit
more self-kindness, which will translate to my future career and to future
social work clients who may be facing similar obstacles and delays in their own
social clocks.
This course has led to a surprising increase in confidence and
understanding concerning my future career. This semester I also took a course
in political ideology and group therapy across the lifespan, and those three
classes intertwined perfectly to provide a multi-dimensional and comprehensive
perspective on my future client base. I was able to apply the psychological,
biological, social, and cultural developmental stages studied in this FHS class
to the exercises in the group therapy course as we walked through sample groups
for different age groups. I was also able to apply psycho-social principles to
my study of political ideology, which fostered greater understanding of the
intrinsic motivation behind political movements and individual sets of values
and principles.
