Emotional, Psychological and Spiritual Needs - Assignment Example

? Emotional, Psychological and Spiritual Needs This paper provides information acquired from two interviews, where a member of the clergy and an academic counselor, who both interact with college students. The paper then provides strategies for self-management, time management, and learning for college students. The information gained through research on the strategies for time management, self-management and learning for college students is incorporated with the information from the interviews with both the member of the clergy and the academic counselor, in this paper, to create a plan to meet the emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of college students. Most college students face various life challenges, especially when they are fresh in college because college life is a transition phase from dependence to independence. It is during college life that new students have to make independent decisions, manage finance and time, interact with people from various social backgrounds and develop their identity. Therefore, college students face emotional, psychological and spiritual challenges. In the two interviews that involve one member of the clergy and an academic counselor, I will evaluate emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of college students. Information obtained from research on strategies for self-management, time management, and learning for college students will be incorporated with the information obtained from the two interviews to create a plan that will meet the emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of college students. What are the Spiritual Needs of College Students? In an interview with a member of the clergy on the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of college students, it was revealed that college students have various spiritual needs. The clergy, having worked in the institution for several years, has been interacting with college students. As a result, he has sufficient knowledge about the issue of spiritual needs for college students. Therefore, I took opportunity of his knowledge and experience to seek information on spiritual needs of college students and the challenges that they face. On the issue of spiritual needs of college students and some of the challenges that students face, the clergy said that admission into college entails various spiritual concerns for the newly admitted students. He confirmed that freshmen need a place to worship. The clergy further said that the place of worship that most college students need should enable them to connect with people with whom they share their faith. This is because college students need enhance their spiritual growth while in college. Do senior college students also have spiritual needs? The clergy respondent to the question by emphasizing that senior college students also have spiritual needs, only that the location and details about place of worship is not a challenge to them because they have stayed for sometime, and they have sufficient knowledge. Given that most people in college have upgraded their thinking, and have learnt some abstract new concept, as students interact with others and instructors, their previous religious beliefs may be challenged and put on inquiry. As result, these senior college students need a place where they can learn about spiritual truth to enhance their spiritual health and overcome any challenges to their spiritual beliefs that may be misleading. Senior college students also need to know the truth so that they can make right decisions on the spiritual paths to follow, upon getting sufficient information. The clergy further noted that during his long term service in the institution he had made significant observations. During his interactions with college students, the clergy observed that college students need a stable environment and people to explain and show them the love of Jesus so that they feel they have a place to belong, when it comes to spirituality. What are the Emotional Needs of College Students? My main objective was to get information about spiritual, psychological and emotional needs of college students. After having an interview with a member of the clergy, I proceeded to interview an academic counselor who normally, interacts with students. Just like the clergy, the academic counselor has served the institution for a long period of time. Therefore, the academic counselor has a rich experience on the subject. That is the reason that prompted me to seek some information from her. The academic counselor responded to the question about psychological and emotional needs of college students by indicating that there are so many emotional and psychological needs for students in the institution that he felt that all the issues were not addressed by the institution’s academic counselors. The first emotional need that the academic counselor talked about was security. College student require security. This security is associated with their performance in academics. They are also worried about their safety from physical and sexual abuse. College students often worry about grades, and this can cause stress among them. They are also worried about the security of their career and family life. During our discussion, the academic counselor said that there are other emotional issues that she had found disturbing students, during her counseling sessions with some of the students. For instance, she said that college students require attention from fellow students and course instructors. They also require that their issues should be attended to by whoever they interact with. Connectedness is another emotional need that is common among college students. They always want to feel that they have reliable friends and staff members who know and accept them the way they are. The academic counselor emphasized that college students always seek to achieve autonomy ad control in what they do. They want to feel that they also belong to the society. Friendship is a key emotional need for any college student. When they have friends, they are satisfied with their social status. Another emotional requirement is privacy. Also, college students seek to be competent in achieving their goals. They are always worried whether they have the right meaning and purpose in college life. Are there any Psychological Needs of College Students? The academic counselor mentioned that there are numerous psychological needs for college students. For instance, she said that college students are worried about their academic performance. They are also concerned about time management and learning skills. College students need academic motivation, and when it lacks, they become stressed, especially when they are under pressure from parents to succeed. It is during college life that students have to manage finance on their own. Therefore, college students always have financial concerns. Given that college students have to live and interact with new people in their lives, roommate conflicts and romantic partners conflicts become a major issue for many students. In addition college students have psychological concerns about their life style. They have to balance work, school and leisure and are always about achievement in terms of what they are and who do they want to become. College students need support in discovering sexual identity and copying with new life stresses which are associated with the new experience in college. In summary, the academic counselor noted that emotional and psychological needs are linked with students’ family problems, desire for connectivity, and confusion on what to major in, and seeking personal autonomy to make individual decisions. Also, most of them are homesick because they are detaching from their parents to adopt a new culture at college. What are the Strategies for Self-Management, Time Management, and Learning for College Students? Success in college can be achieved, if college students manage themselves and their time properly. They should also have good learning skills that can contribute towards success. As far as self-management is concerned, college students should learn on how to regulate themselves. Self regulation involves monitoring own activities and controlling oneself. College students should assess their knowledge and skills accurately. This will enable them to set specific goals that they can monitor effectively (Santrock & Halonen, 2010). Self-management enables one to control the factors that influence learning by establishing optimum conditions for learning and removing obstacles that may interfere with one’s learning (Dembo, 2013). Therefore, college students need to practice self regulation by monitoring, controlling and monitoring oneself. Students also require strategies of evaluating their achievements and reinforcing wherever there are weaknesses. This requires that college students should have to set objectives or goals, which they should seek to achieve. The key to achievement of goals is proper time management. College students should have time management strategies because the activities in college are many and they need to be planned for appropriately. College students can also develop strategies of own motivation to enhance concentration Time management strategies are crucial in ensuring success in college and meeting most of the psychological and emotional needs. Proper time management among college students will enhance concentration (Wang, 2009). Consequently, academic success will be guaranteed and there will be no more worries about academic performance and grades. Time management strategies include having plans in place. College students should ensure that they prioritize their plan. This means that issues of greater importance and significance such as academic issues should be prioritized. College students should divide their comprehensive plans into work plans that they can manage. They should have goal setting strategies, and be specific about the goals and plans that they want to execute. All time utilization is a key time management strategy because college students can be able to spend all the time that is available to them addressing their emotional, spiritual and psychological needs. Good time management skills keep college students motivated to accomplish the goals that they have created (Blerkom, 2012). This is because there is no structure that defines and structures study time for students in college. Therefore, students should have strategies for time management to be able to address their emotional, psychological and spiritual needs effectively. Strategies for learning for college students are crucial in making the students achieve success in their career endeavors. They include setting of goals, understanding and observing learning principles and test taking strategies. College students should also have stress management strategies. This means that students should employ their critical thinking strategies to develop wise study strategies in understanding and processing learnt information. For instance, college students should prepare short notes for easy understanding of the content that has been learnt. They should study efficiently. Test taking strategies include full and timely preparation for examinations and predicting of test questions (Hopper, 2013). Students should also budget their test taking time properly. This will provide college students with the confidence that they require to tackle examinations and achieve academic success. College students should manage stress that is associated with lifestyle change. Definitely, college students will be able to address their psychological, emotional and spiritual needs appropriately. Which Plan can meet the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Needs of College Students better? College students face various stressors, which range from personal, academic, and social in nature. The stressors arise from situational events, unexpected events, and at times, they can arise from chronic problems. Some colleges are able to cope well with these stressors while other college students do not manage to cope because they are overwhelmed. This means that learning among such college students who fail to cope with stressors is interrupted and may cause them to disrupt other college students (Florida Institute of Technology, 2013). Also, college students experience significant problems on how to separate from parents so that they can have physical and emotional independence (Izaguirre, 2008). Again, most students have deeply felt values of spirituality and religion, but unfortunately, academic work and college programs deviate from such needs (Stuart, 2003). Therefore, there need for colleges to have a suitable plan to meet the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of college students. The plan to meet the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of college students should give priority to meeting spiritual needs. This is because emotional and psychological needs can be addressed better when spiritual needs of college students have been met. First of all, institutions should encourage the establishment of worship centers and encourage fresh college students to attend worship. Once the students are confident that their emotional needs have been met, and they are in the right track of spiritual growth, they will be able to address their psychological and emotional needs. Proper orientation of fresh college students is beneficial. During the orientation process, students should be informed about the new challenges that they are about to face and how to tackle them. Therefore, college students should be informed that their lifestyle ought to change, and this should not worry them. College students should be provided with tutorials on simple survival tactics to meet the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of college students acts in addressing issues like making complex decisions and managing finance on their own. Counseling should be included the plan to the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of college students. Counseling will enable stressed students accept that the challenges they are facing are really and plan a smooth transition. Some students are affected by family issues, which follow them to their college issues. College counselors should offer valid suggestions on how to addresses family issues that face college students to reduce stress levels amongst them. Students who have been physically or sexually abused or those who are afraid of physical and sexual abuse should be counseled to eliminate trauma. Similarly, there are college students who are always worried about their academic achievements, those who have not performed to their expectations or their parents’ expectation academically. These students require counseling too. Those who have been assaulted by other students and those who have been disappointed by their romantic partners require counseling. With proper counseling, addressing various psychological, emotional and spiritual needs for college students will enable students meet these needs. Institutions should allow students to form groups which will function as families. Institution administration will play the main role of formulating such groups. The groups should be composed of college staff, college students of various grades or years and counselors. The role of senior college students will be orienting and advising fresh students in issues to do with change of lifestyle and self management. They will also provide them with learning strategies and problem solving and finance management strategies. Counselors will offer counseling services in extreme cases which senior students cannot manage. This will enable college students to address their emotional, spiritual and psychological needs better. Conflict resolution is crucial in addressing emotional, spiritual and psychological needs. This is because events that may lead to stress and worry are addressed in a timely manner. Conflict resolution centers that will be responsible for resolving issues between roommates and romantic partners may be established. Also, college students should be taught about effective stress management. This will enable students gain insights in stress management such as relaxation exercises, planning better for studies and examinations to avoid last hour rushes that lead to anxiety and panic. Students should also be taught on how make proper time schedules to plan their time properly. Conclusion From the insight obtained from interviews with one member of the clergy and an academic counselor, it has been established that college students have numerous spiritual, psychological and emotional needs that should be addressed. Institutional administration should take responsibility of formulating a plan that will aid in assisting students to meet these needs. Members of the clergy and academic counselors, as well as, students should be involved in the formulation of such programs. Therefore, formulation of a plan like the one outlined in this paper, will be beneficial in enabling college students to address their spiritual, emotional and psychological needs better. References Blerkom, D. L. (2012). College Study Skills: Becoming a Strategic Learner. Boston : Wadsworth/Cengage Learning Press. Dembo, M. H. (2013). Motivation and Learning Strategies for College Success: A Self-Management . New York: Routledge Publishers. Florida Institute of Technology. (2013). Dealing with the Emotional Needs of Students: Tips for Faculty & Staff. Retrieved from http://www.fit.edu/caps/documents/Dealing%20with%20the%20Emotional%20Needs%20of%20Students.pdf Hopper, C. H. (2013). Practicing College Learning Strategies. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Press. Izaguirre, R. (2008). The Relationship Among Emotional Intelligence, Academic Achievement, and Demographic Characteristics in First-year Community College Students. Ann Arbor: ProQuest LLC Press. Santrock, J. W., & Halonen, J. S. (2010). Your Guide to College Success: Strategies for Achieving Your Goals. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Stuart, S. (2003, November 29). Study: College Students' Spiritual Needs Unmet. Retrieved from http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n90yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2v0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2253%2C8604492 Wang, F. L. (2009). Hybrid Learning and Education. New York: Springer Press. Read More