StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay "Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues concerning the critical consciousness and development of reflexivity. People can energize their lives by making efforts to practice their inner values…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.1% of users find it useful
Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity"

? Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity Question People can energize their lives through making efforts to practice their inner values. The moment people identify values, which are meaningful to them, they develop ways of implementing them (Newberry, 2007). When people choose to follow their determined efforts in practicing these God given virtues, good fortunes are sure to follow them. People who normally practice proper values experience new opportunities, improved income or resources, as well as other forms of psychological or material benefit. Practicing proper values and beliefs brings about cases of life response whereby good fortune suddenly appears to humans (Newberry, 2007). Personally, my own values and beliefs have helped me in relating with others well. I can pride myself for hard work, diversity, equality, charity, self reliance, satisfying others, reliability, integrity, love, accountability, reliability, results-oriented, quality of work, trust, wisdom and well-being. All this are beliefs that have assisted me in relating to others in the society. I can easily understand tough issues, which individuals are enduring, with regards to my beliefs and values (Payson, 2007). Take for instance a value like quality of work. People, in today’s society, are expected to give the best results in their dealings. People overwork themselves just to please others, and this is a challenge to many. It is difficult living to the expectations of others, but that is life. For instance, Christian values dictate that Christians should live to the expectations of their God (Newberry, 2007). I, therefore, try to improve my work quality so as to avoid any wrangles with others and live happily. To me, quality of work is just doing the right thing as I would not like to have any wrangles with others. Therefore, I appreciate how hard it is for a person to struggle working everyday in order to please others. Other values, which help me to understand the problems people go through is diversity. Through diversity, I understand that dealing with diverse people can be a challenge. People need to be diverse in order to deal with this. However, this is not a virtue which every individual has. Question 2 Beliefs and values help people to look at the world around them differently. They help people in looking at others positively. Beliefs and value assist people build attraction to other things. When I am around individuals that make me feel annoyed, troubled, nervous, edgy, and suspicious or in any way uncomfortable, my values cannot allow me to associate anymore with this people. Normally what I see in these individuals is their hidden belief about how they do not care to relate to others. If a person hides his or her insecurities and fears towards another person, then the other person, willingly, will continue to take advantage of the insecure person. This will, therefore, be an uncomfortable relationship. Likewise, when people are around persons who encourage one another to feel appreciated and loved, part of what they are feeling is a reflection of their own values and beliefs. This means that the persons believe that everybody deserves to be appreciated and loved. Psychologists believe that this type of attraction works both ways. Individuals will be attracted to other persons only when the other person reflects beliefs about themselves which correspond to the first person. Nevertheless, if something about a person reminds another of their own insecurities and fears, then that person with fear will tend to keep away from the person that he or she fears. This helped me a lot in building my relationship with others. My beliefs and values taught me that, in order to build strong relationships, factors like honesty and trust are essential. Through trust and honesty, I gain insight on people’s perspectives, and how they want to be treated. People want the best out of everything. I also relate well to people who trust and are honest to me. Through my belief of love, I learnt that I can relate well with people who value love and appreciation. This is how I build my relationship with others. Question 3 If individuals in diverse parts of the world believe conflicting things, then a wide majority of them must be mistaken in their own beliefs (Fine & Teram, 2009). When we believe in what we do, mainly because that is what individuals around us believe, then the odds are rather good that we will be wrong or inaccurate in a lot of scenarios. When people are asked whether they believe in a matter just because everybody else believes in it, extremely few of them would reply yes, even though it is incredibly clear that this is how things function in reality. If people were just told that 90% of citizens believed that touching frogs gave them warts, then they might be perfectly keen to question that belief (Fine & Teram, 2009). However, people are not often told beliefs or presumption as if there is some doubt regarding them. Instead, some people might just tell others, in a straightforward way, that frogs bring about warts, or they might offer some sort of proof, like "Do not touch that frog. Joan got lots of warts due to picking up frogs!" For sure it was the speaker's belief or presumption, based on the cultural presumption, that handling frogs were the reason for Joan’s problem. A majority of what people communicate to others, like "I have an older sister" or "Most supermarkets close at 10 o'clock", are not aimed at deceiving others as they are derived from easily verified information. This is with regards to their cultural beliefs. People acquire such information from their culture (Furman, 2009). People, as a result, are normally told the truth. Even when they are told things that are false, it is very rare that they detect the falsehood in that information. People who tell lies do not tell others things that they could easily disprove (Furman, 2009). Also, individuals making honest mistakes would often not have made that mistake whether or not it was easy to discover otherwise. Therefore, experience tells people that, many times, what people tell them is true. Not unless, statements contradict people current, cultural beliefs, they often accept them without question (Payson, 2007). Therefore, a belief considering various social works to be evil or that some cultures cannot relate well to it is a vital cause of how people work. People will concern themselves in a work which is praised by their culture, and, on the other hand, keep away from works, which their culture does not praise. Question 4 The readings, in class, improved my understating of social work a lot. I can now confirm that social work is an academic discipline and professional, which seeks to enhance the life and welfare of a person, community or group by intervening through various ways. These ways are research, community organizing, direct practice, policy and teaching in support of those affected by poverty or any perceived or real social injustices and breaching of their human rights. In the past, I used to think that social work was mainly to enhance the lives of the social workers more than those who they were helping (Strom-Gottfried, 1999). However, after numerous readings, I came to understand that social workers focus more on assisting other individuals than themselves. Social workers carry out their research while focusing on areas such as social policy, human development, public administration, program evaluation, psychotherapy, and community and international development. They advocate for human justice (Garvin, & Seabury, 2011). I learnt this through the various readings that which gave instances of social workers setting up to assist those who had been socially robbed the human rights. The readings also confirmed to me that social workers go through a lot of challenges, mainly in relation to culture. They encounter challenges relating to people from diverse cultures. They have to practice diverse culture in order to assist others, which is a difficult task. Understanding this made me appreciate social workers even more than before because trying to incorporate yourself to relate with other cultures is not an easy task. With regards to practitioner-activists, I learnt that the roles, which they play, are vital in the society. Every role that these people play is essential in the society (Dean, 2001). The class readings and the films showed me that people who challenge power structures make the social change that is witnessed in a society. The society is in need of individuals who make it easy for the regular citizen to unite with the movement for change (Cohen, 1999). Through the readings, I see practitioner-activists fitting into the role of ordinary citizens. They should be applauded for their crucial tasks in making us being part of a broader social movement. They should be applauded for creating a vision of what citizens from diverse cultures want, not just clarifying what they do not want. Practitioner-activists try to attract people who are not interested in fast social change, but may be willing to reflect on how they can build a resilient society able to respond to the challenges of social relationships and peoples well fare. References Cohen, B. (1999). Intervention and supervision in strengths-based social work practice. Families in Society, 80(5), 460-466. Dean, R. G. (2001). The myth of cross-cultural competence. Families in Society, 82(6), 623-630. Fine, M., & Teram, E. (2009). Believers and skeptics: Where social workers situate themselves regarding the code of ethics. Ethics & Behavior, 19(1), 60-78. Furman, R. (2009). Ethical consideration of evidence-based practice. Social Work, 54(1), 82-84. Garvin, C. D., & Seabury, B. A. (2011). Foundations of interpersonal practice in social work: Promoting competence in generalist practice (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Garvin, C. D., & Seabury, B. A. (2011). Foundations of interpersonal practice in social work: Promoting competence in generalist practice, (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Newberry, J. (2007). Reflexivity in practice: Reflections on an overseas practicum. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 20(2), 50-56. Payson, H. (2007). Plowing: The art of facing an impossible task. New York: Psychotherapy Networker. Strom-Gottfried, K. (1999). Professional boundaries: An analysis of violations by social workers. Families in Society. The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 80(5), 439–449. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Critical Consciousness and the Development of Reflexivity Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/sociology/1457664-critical-consciousness-and-the-development-of
(Critical Consciousness and the Development of Reflexivity Essay)
https://studentshare.org/sociology/1457664-critical-consciousness-and-the-development-of.
“Critical Consciousness and the Development of Reflexivity Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1457664-critical-consciousness-and-the-development-of.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Critical Consciousness and Development of Reflexivity

Practical Consciousness as the Constitution of Society

People's actions are also examined that lead to the development of classical theories.... People's actions are also examined that lead to the development of classical theories.... hellip; Critical Review on the Practical consciousness as the Constitution of Society.... Summary Practical consciousness Giddens highlighted in his book the relevance of practical consciousness.... Practical consciousness is one of the three levels of consciousness that refer to the actors' silent understanding of the consequences of their own action....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Is Reflection in Nursing Worth It for Nurses

According to him, Critical reflectivity is where you can use to analyze your development as a reflective practitioner and to locate the focus of different reflective experiences and it provides the following stages: Reflectivity - having a level of consciousness and being able to examine and describe.... onceptual reflectivity - consciousness and perceptive of the concepts involved in clinical decision making and the identification of the need for further learning....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Sociology: Postmodernism and Modernism

In traditional societies reflexivity is limited to interpreting and applying traditional values -- an instance of the reflexive monitoring of action -- but in modern societies, the producer of action, the agent or the self, becomes the object of reflexivity.... In essence, this term emerged in the background of the development of the capitalist state.... hellip; Self-reflexivity is a feature of modernity where the self becomes a reflexive project....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Sustained Analysis of Literature

hen defining the concept of 'sustained analysis of literature', the phrase encompasses the ability to continue to critically or dialectically discuss, dissect, assess or evaluate yet produce and synthesize new literature – literary works from authors, researchers, theorists, teachers, doctors, sociologist; literary sources and resources; literary issues and collaborations, interpretive thoughts of reflexivity.... From the paper "Sustained Analysis of Literature" it is clear that the purposive 'reflexivity journal' is designed and maintained....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Modernism as a Movement

Among the issues that molded modernism were the advancements of present industrial civilizations and the swift development of cities, trailed then by the fear of World War 1.... onferring to Antliff, (2002), a remarkable feature of modernism is self-consciousness and reflexivity, which frequently steered to tests with form, together with the applications of methods that drew attention to the materials and processes used in creating a building, poem, and painting, among others....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Researching Culture: The Notion of Reflexivity

"Researching Culture: The Notion of reflexivity" paper highlights the notion of reflexivity in ethnographic research and the influence of culture.... nbsp; While relevant for social research in general, issues of reflexivity are particularly significant in ethnographic research, in which the involvement of the researcher in the society and culture of those being studied is particularly close.... Globalization and social change have impacted culture, hence reflexivity has a significant role in making research more comprehensive....
14 Pages (3500 words) Coursework

The Practical Consciousness as the Constitution of Society

This work "The Practical consciousness as the Constitution of Society" describes the book of Giddens "The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration".... The author outlines that practical consciousness connects with the fundamental concept of routinization that requires security and trust from the human agents to avoid the disruption of social order.... nbsp;Giddens highlighted in his book the relevance of practical consciousness....
8 Pages (2000 words) Literature review

The Role of Reflexivity in Research Work

The paper shows how use of reflexivity in research has gone into a stream of idea generation and thus their incorporation in the research.... To analyse and assimilate the role of reflexivity in both the given situations, namely in the Film making and in the Training and selection process.... To feature the importance of reflexivity in research.... But before going to the topic, the role of reflexivity in research work has to be noted....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us