Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment - Essay Example

Part A According to Halstead (2000), the daily lives of human service professionals are filled with people and relationships and these relationships are supposed to be reciprocal. As such, this paper seeks to reflect on different elements of the relationship between Steve and the counselor from the article entitled “From tragedy to triumph: Counselor as companion on the hero’s journey” by the above mentioned author. From this article, it can be noted that the counselor learned mainly two things from Steve.

He discovered that perseverance and self determination are essential elements to success. Steve suffered from physical and psychological impairments which traumatized him after being attacked by an unknown assailant but he fought hard to overcome the challenges posed by the injuries which were described by health care professionals as permanent. In other words, Steve wanted to prove that he was normal which proved to be quite a challenging and long journey which ultimately yielded success. The counselor also realised that he may not be in a position to determine the destination for all clients but it was important to become a companion to such people and he should be willing to share their experiences.

The counselor’s behaviour that may have changed as a result of working with Steve is related to the fact that it is very important to be a very good listener when dealing with different people who have various challenges in their lives. He also learned to treat the views of other people as important rather than behave as if he knows everything. He also realizes that people take different journeys to reach their anticipated goals. To a larger extent, I think that most of the people we come into contact with change us in some way.

In my own opinion, I believe that individuals have their own views of the world around us. Some people view things in a different way and their ideas may positively contribute towards changing the behaviour of other persons. Some people are inspirational and they are also good listeners to the views of other people. These people motivate us to behave in a certain way so that we can share their same world view. This can help us to achieve challenging goals. 2. Steve has significantly changed as a result of this relationship because he came to terms with some of the things he has been denying for a long period of time.

Steve learned to accept some of the impairments which were affecting his desire to achieve the set goals. By accepting who you are, great achievements can be made as shown by the behaviour of Steve. To a larger extent, I think that Steve has benefited from this relationship given that he has managed to accept some of the problems affecting his journey to success. This helped him to refine his career path so that it can be manageable. At the end, he managed to accomplish his goal after successfully accepting that the ideas of other people are helpful in as far as goal accomplishment is concerned.

In most cases, people fail to accomplish their goals as a result of self denial. Steve realised this problem and it helped him to pursue his goal with renewed interest. Part B Ethics are loosely defined as moral principles that attempt to distinguish between something that is good from bad and these morals shape the behaviour of people in a given society (Zastrow, Charles & Karen, 2010). The Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals developed by the National Organization of Human Services (1996) posits to the effect that there are certain standards that should guide the operations of people who work in this field.

However, the professionals in this area often encounter some ethical dilemmas which require a holistic approach given that there are many challenges that are likely to be encountered when dealing with human beings. One ethical issue that can lead me as a human service professional to review the ethical standards is related to confidentiality of personal information. It seems that it is unethical to divulge personal information of a client to the other part according to the Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals.

In the given case, it can be noted that the psychiatrist did not get information about Steve though she diagnosed the same problem identified by other doctors. This information should be shared by the people involved so that they can work out the best plan to help the affected person. In order to solve these ethical concerns, it is imperative to engage the client in a meaningful way so that there is maximum cooperation between the parties involved. The National Organization of Human Service ethical standards is important to follow as you begin to work with individuals, families, groups, and communities given that they outline a framework which guides the operations of the professionals in the dispensation of their duties.

People working in this field should display certain behaviour given that they would be working with people with different needs. For instance, confidentiality should be upheld at all costs in order to protect the interests of the clients. It is also important to be patient and listen carefully to different people since they have varying needs. This helps the professional to diligently deal with different situations he may encounter in his operations. References Halstead, R. A. (2000, January).

“From tragedy to triumph: Counselor as companion on the hero’s journey.” Counseling & Values, 44(2), 100. Zastrow, Charles and Kirst-Ashman, Karen. (2010). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Development. Brooks/Cole. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. National Organization for Human Services (1996). Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals. Retrieved from: .