Interviewing and Reflection as a Workshop in Human Development - Essay Example

?Psychology: Human Development Interview Reflection: My first interviewee was a 25 years old girl who is married and has two children. She is a housewife, and spends all the time at home. She has done graduation in psychology but did not practice after marriage because she felt her children needed her attention more than anything else. In a typical day for A, she gets up early in the morning, and prepares the breakfast. Meanwhile the milkman comes and she collects the milk and boil it. She wakes her husband and kids up. Kids take too long to be awaked. She serves the breakfast and makes sure that the kids take a glass of milk before leaving for school. The husband leaves for work. Then the house-maid comes, and washes the dishes, and cleans the house. While she does that, A turns the TV on and watches the morning shows. She says that the guests invited in the shows are both a source of entertainment and information. Just a day before the interview, she had learned about the significance of hiring a tutor for children after their school. She learned that no tutor can be as sincere towards a child as the child’s own parents. A had been considering about hiring a tutor for her children so that their performance in studies would improve, but having seen the show, she spared the idea. From 9 am to 12 am, she keeps watching TV, one program after another. Meanwhile, the housemaid leaves. A gets into the kitchen and prepares lunch for the family. The lunch is normally made till 1 pm. Then the children are dropped at home by the bus. A makes them change their clothes and serves them lunch. Once they are done with the lunch, A washes the dishes. She makes the children go to bed for an hour or two before their dad returns. Once the husband is back, A serves him lunch and washes the dishes later. The husband takes a nap after the lunch. Meanwhile, the children get up and do their homework. A checks their homework and makes them learn the lesson as instructed by the teachers. At 5 pm, her husband wakes up. A makes them tea and snacks. After taking the snacks, children go out for playing. Between 6 pm to 7 pm, A goes to the gym. She takes exercise. After an hour of exercise, her husband comes along with the children and picks her up from the gym. They go to the market for little recreation. They shop and occasionally take an early dinner. Otherwise, they come straight back to the home from the gym and A makes dinner for the family. After the dinner, A washes the dishes and again sits with the children to learn the progress of their work. She listens the lessons from them and guides them on their mistakes. A also makes sure that they have prepared the lesson for the next day in school. At 10 pm, they all go to bed. My second interviewee is a 54 years old married woman. She has two children. She has done graduation in nursing and health care, and did her Masters in Radiology. She works at a hospital and is the head nurse there. She has been in practice for over 30 years now. In a typical day, B gets up at 5 am, and goes out for a walk for about an hour. Once she is back, she prepares gets the house maid up and makes her prepare breakfast for all. While the house maid prepares breakfast, B prepares for the work. She decides which dress to wear and what shoes would perfectly match the dress. She wears the dress and makeup. At 7 am, she wakes the husband and children up. At 7:30 am, the driver comes and picks B up for the hospital where she serves as the head nurse. Before leaving for work, B makes sure that her husband and kids have taken the breakfast. It takes her about half an hour to reach the hospital. The duty begins at 8 am. In the capacity of head nurse, B assigns the rooms to the nurses under her, and makes sure that the nurses are provided with all equipment they might require. Once the nurses have been assigned the rooms, the head nurse meets the admin and discusses the issues reported by nurses on the previous day. She places requests for things that are required in the nursing department, and does the paper work involved therein. After that, B checks the plan for the following week and makes sure that the nursing department is well prepared to tackle every challenge that may arise. At 1 pm, all nurses get back to the staff office for the lunch. B takes lunch with them. They have a good time there. They take lunch, gossip, take tea, and by 2 pm, they all get in B’s office. B takes the progress report from all the nurses and makes a round to the patients’ wards with individual nurses. She addresses their immediate needs and makes notes. At 5 pm, the driver drops B at home. The children have been at home for about four hours when she reaches home, and have done their homework as well. The house maid serves the children lunch while B is at work. B takes tea made by the house maid. At 6 pm, the husband reaches home. The two take rest for about an hour, after which they go for an outing. They usually take dinner in some restaurant. That is the time when the whole family gets together and takes dinner together. The food is necessarily followed by a dessert. At 10 pm, they all go to bed. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been commonly referred to in order to understand the influence of underlying factors behind the individualistic needs of people. Maslow identified certain needs that are commonly felt by all people. The needs include the physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (Abraham Maslow, 2009). Maslow has arranged these basic needs into five levels. Their order can be seen in the figure below: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Abraham Maslow, 2009). The physiological needs are the most basic needs of an individual like food, air and water. Safety needs as the name implies, are the needs to feel safe. It can be financial security, personal security or any kind of security. Social needs are basically the needs to gain love and belongingness among peers, friends and family. Self esteem needs are the needs to be appreciated for hard work, to be rewarded or promoted. The self actualization needs are the needs to explore the inner abilities and enhance the competencies through further study, training and experience. Maslow emphasized that one can not think about a higher level need unless all lower level needs have been completely satisfied. That essentially explains the significance of putting the basic needs into order as well. When a certain need is satisfied, an individual develops the immediately higher need, and does not move up the hierarchy unless the very need at hand has been satisfied. In the cases under consideration, A does not work because she thinks that the more time she would remain away from the children, the more they will be spoiled. She feels unsafe about the future of her children and wants to give them her full attention so that they may score enough to be safely promoted to the next class. Because her safety needs are not satisfied, she does not consider going out without kids. That is also a potential reason why A does not work. While A gives too much time and attention to the kids, she does not go to her friends, and does not get to see her siblings much. This speaks of the fact that A does not feel the need to cultivate love and belongingness in the social circle outside the boundary of her immediate family. A said that her children are too mischievous to be left unsupervised. She said that had her children been prudent about their studies and mannerism, she would have definitely pursued job after the completion of her graduation in Psychology. She said that after getting married, she used to go to her friends and together, they used to go for outing unless her twins were born. After the birth of her twins, they have been the fundamental focus of her attention and she has not been able to give time to her friends. It so seems that A has been over conscious about her twins since their birth. Today, she worries about their studies. Few years ago, she used to be too worried about their appropriate sleep and nourishment. She has always felt insecure and unsafe with respect to her children for different reasons and this insecurity has broken her ties with her peers and friends. On the other hand, B is quite satisfied with the academic performance of her children. She has never taken much pains regarding their studies. She believes that children can not be forced to perform better. They can only be convinced. She has arranged the tutor for the children. In addition to that, she has nothing to feel unsafe about. She together with her husband earn enough to live a happy life. B said that one potential reason behind her resolution to become a working lady was that work provides an individual with the opportunity to meet with friends, colleagues and peers on a regular basis. B said that work has helped a lot in improving her social relations. She also said that had she resolved to stay at home, her social life would have been much different from what it is today. Her social circle would have been much narrower in that case. Having her love and belongingness needs fulfilled, B looks for reward in the job. She appreciates the fact that she is the head nurse, and would like to be granted accommodation near the hospital as a reward. This tells that now B cultivates the esteem needs. Conducting these interviews and writing the reflection upon them was a wonderful means of practicing the concepts that I gained in the class. The interviewing and reflection felt like a workshop that was meant to give me a thorough understanding of the rational way to conduct the interviews and reflect upon my experiences to learn from my mistakes and enhance my competence. References: Abraham Maslow. (2009). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp. Read More