What Is Positive Psychology?

Adolescence is popularly known to be a very tumultuous stage in a person’s life. In the adolescent stage (also coined the identity vs. role confusion stage by theorist Erik Erikson) bodies are changing rapidly, emotions are unfamiliar and unexplainable, and refraining from succumbing to peer pressure is more challenging than ever.

This theory attempts to explain why individuals who have had a rough or neglectful childhood have trouble adjusting in adult life, or why adolescents who had trouble finding and identity have issues later in life (Erikson, 1994). This theory helps therapists to ask more key questions about developmental stages and how the patient adjusted to each one (Mummendey, 1999). For example, If the patient was not able to establish a healthy identity then the therapist can identify what was in the way of the formation (Mummendey, 1999).

“The Perpetual Adolescent” is an observational piece by Joseph Epstein. He suggests that modern adult acts much more childish than the previous generations of middle aged people. A big part of acting like a younger person is dressing like a younger person. According to Epstein, the dressed down adult is the immature adult, which in turn leads to many adults trying to copy the modern and hip youth culture. This in turn created more relaxed environments across all career fields, leaving less “true” adults. He feels that American now want to stay young forever instead of maturing into the adults of their parent's generations. Epstein believes that this mentality is flawed, leaving the people in positions of power striving

1. In the article Denaturalizing Adolescence, Lesko defines adolescence in reference to teens between the ages of 12-17 (p. 156). She talks about the characteristics of adolescence; that we have framed within our society. They are seen as "hormonally driven, peer-oriented, and identity seeking" by the majority of adults (Lesko, 140). According to her adolescence was created in the 19th century during industrialization. Adolescents were ‘coming of age' into this "important, powerful, uncontrollable change" (Lesko, 148) and they needed to be disciplined. It was believed that the characteristics of adulthood were a direct reflection of the society around them; as teens couldn't make a decision for themselves.

Within Sports Coaching Literature, it has been established that reflection is a generic term for intellectual and effective activities, in which individuals examine their experiences, in order to develop new understanding and intrapersonal appreciation (Knowles, et al., 2006). Research in this field has advocated reflective practice as an approach to professional development which positively impacts coaching effectiveness (Cropley, et al., 2012). This reflective report shall discuss, analyse and evaluate my own personal development throughout my first semester spent studying at UCFB, in order to develop new understanding and intrapersonal appreciation, and help explore my decisions and experiences, increasing understanding of

Today as soon as I came in I had already knew where to go. My routine is helping serve breakfast then to the first group session at 10 where we talked about mental health in which I showed Joe. He spoke about how medication in the past was mostly about shutting up clients versus really helping them. I really thought that this session was interested because I saw the truth in what he was saying because back in those days they did not engineer medication to help people but more like trying to keep them quiet. Joe also spoke about the psychoanalysis and I was really surprised to see how much the clients really knew about this. One specific client stood out the most because he spoke on the topic, it seem as if he was teaching us versus Joe teaching him. This specific client new so much and it turns out that he went to Lehman College. This was surprising to me because some of us are grown to think that people who are mentally ill come from no educational background and this is what I was expecting to see coming here at Gateway counseling center.

Learning about the stages of development and the different approaches to therapy was my favorite content to learn about. Piaget’s, Erik Erikson’s, and Kohlberg’s stages of development were interesting and enjoyable to learn about. I liked being able to connect what we were learning in class to the things I observe in everyday life. The three approaches to therapy: Gestalt therapy, Rogerian Therapy, and Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy, were also very exciting to learn about. I liked watching the different responses to the different therapy, as I was unaware that there were multiple kinds of psychotherapy.

I have been at my site for about 14 to 15 weeks and have been feeling more comfortable in my experience. Although at the same time as I need to do some more studying of interventions and learning more about skills for my client’s well-being. After presenting my second case presentation I decided to reread some of the chapters from our process and procedures course again, since it has been a while since I looked at these intervention skills (as I took this course about 1.5 years ago). It was a while ago and I think now I need to brush up on using these approaches now. I think this presentation was useful because it showed me that I need to continue working on my skills as a practicum student. I received a lot of good feedback and I am taking a step in the right direction to think about the skills I need to be a good counselor.

I now have some great tools I saw the leader use that I will continue to use. The meeting somewhat incorporated my goals. One of my goals was to focus on how an admission to the hospital affects a patient’s home life. During this exercise patients touch on how they are trying to change their thinking when it is too emotional or reasonable. They gave examples of what is going on in some of their lives, and how they can use this way of thinking to tackle problems outside of the

According to the psychoanalytic perspective, people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. How these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to get along with others, and cope with anxiety. Erik Erikson has been a very influential contributor to the psychoanalytic perspective (Berk, 2010). Erikson proposed that an individual moves through a series of stages which resolve in either positive or negative outcomes and determine healthy or maladaptive behavior. (Berk, 2010).

The movie thirteen is a raw psychodrama directed by Catherine Hardwicke is based on the life of a young teenage girl, Tracy Freeland whom catapults from pre adolescence/childhood to a wild and rebellious thirteen year old girl. Filmed in Los Angeles, Tracey and her mother’s relationship are put to the test when she befriends Evie. Evie is a popular girl from junior high school who introduces her to the world of sex, drugs and self-mutilation. We see a physical and psychological change in Tracey almost overnight, as her kinship with Evie transforms into a toxic relationship. Tracey’s early traumatic life experiences, manifests into a co-morbidity of depression and borderline personality disorder that affects her ability to cope with an

Applying these four themes- family influences, physical development, cognitive development, and personality development- throughout my lifespan, it has shown me that I have become a stronger individual. Even though, my family is not perfect I have learned the right and wrong this to do if I ever decide to get married and raise a family of my own. Being a "miracle" baby, writing this paper opened my eyes as to how close I was from not existing today, which has shown me to not take like for granted and to live in the present. Furthermore, having an education program like AVID helped me completely turn my life around. It has helped me to push myself into becoming a better individual and to strive to achieve any goals and dreams that I decide to pursue. To continue, my personality I believe that school has helped me in dealing with my parents divorce but, I think that during that time in my life I learned to put a barrier up around certain people at times. I do not think this is a healthy thing for me to keep doing and I am going to make changes in my life to help correct that. Finally, this was my journey into my childhood and how I discovered things about me that helped shape the way I am

People who are nostalgic about childhood, were obviously never children. Few people can remember the truth about adolescence. Their minds "censor" their memories; and have them believe that being a teenager was was one big party, free of cares and responsibilities. Well let me say this, you couldnOt be more wrong if you had a lobotomy. There aren't that many adults around who realise what adolescence was really like. The anguish, the fear, the anxiety, the stress. People don't remember those problems because they want to forget them.

One's dream and aspirations to supersede in life must be stronger and greater than limitations set forth by others. The experience that were bestowed to me during my short life has elevated me to the woman I am today. Please walk with me as I give you the opportunity to see the world from my eyes:

breathe or function at all and would be an empty shell for one cannot operate or function without it.