Personal Development Plan - Essay Example

INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY by Part The contention that contemporary social conditions give rise to a crisis of self There has been a contention that contemporary social conditions lead to a crisis of self. What this means that today, most people do not have an identity crisis because of certain social conditions that occur in their everyday life interfering with the process that can help individuals to develop an understanding of the self and, therefore, form an identity. For example, issues of war create an environment where it becomes difficult for a person to form an identity because people live in constant fear and move from one place to the other in search of peace. Such a social condition is not an ideal one for a person to form an identity of self. This paper will discuss the contention that contemporary social conditions give rise to a crisis of self through sociological theories and approaches and examples. In the contemporary world, many social issues affect how individuals relate to others and relate to their own self. it has become difficult for individuals to form an identity of self that will determine how they relate in the world they live in. The youth especially have been affected by the contemporary social conditions that has made them confused and do not understand their own self. According to Elliot and Lemert (2009), globalization as a contemporary social condition has affected the manner in which people form identities to (Elliot & Lemert, 2009:23). The authors point out that high-tech culture of globalization and its associated short-term existence has brought about a new shift of self-making where self-reinvention is important. Society has changed significantly and the change is still on going. These changes have come about through the processes of modernization and the changes have affected the manner in which individuals form and develop their self-identities (Elliot & Lemert, 2009a:37). In the past, individuals behaved according to the rules, regulations and traditions of the land. The family was an important unit in the formation of self-identity because it provided social supervision and guidance on how people should live. However, modernization has changed the living conditions showing an improvement in terms of how people live, their freedoms and choices in life (Giddens, 1994:23). However, issues of stability have decreased in the sense that traditional support systems, such as the family have faded away to the extent that individuals are left to decide how they live and how they should behave. Individualism has come up as an important aspect affecting how people want to live their lives. Today, life is not predetermined by issues such as options that are based on family, gender or location. The scope has become large such that individuals have a wide array of the options on how to lead their lives and have little guidance on the best option to take (Baumeister, Shapiro & Tice, 1985:407). As such, this has made it difficult for people for develop self-identity because the myriad of contemporary social issues pose different kinds of challenges all of which affect how people conceive their strengths and weaknesses. It is difficult for a person to state clearly what his or her identity is (Kochalumchuvattil, 2010). Elliot and Lemert (2009) account on the crisis of the self focuses on the high-tech culture of globalization and the associated short-term characteristics. Here, the culture of reinvention has come up such that it has major effects in terms of how people reorganize their relations between society and self (Elliot & Lemert, 2009:23). The authors state that the world today is an electronic economy characterized by short-term contracts, endless downsizings and multiple careers among others all these factors have made it possible for self-reinvention to occur for people to fit in this demanding environment. Therefore, social practices are driven by flexibility, ever-increasing change and plasticity (Blitz, 2006:242; Bauman, 2005:12). As such, it has led to a crisis of the self because personal and cultural identity is aspect that must keep changing with the changes that occur in the environment. Therefore, the authors observe a fundamental aspect with respect to self-identity and the circumstances that surround this issue. They state that the current social conditions put the unique individuality of people at stake because the social engagement of the self is not assured in the conditions of intensive globalization (Bornman, 2003:419). With the above outline of the crisis of the self, it is clear that contemporary social conditions give rise to a crisis of self. According to the theory of individualization by Ulrich Beck, individualization is seen as a necessary phase in the formation of new forms of social life. In this theory, it is noted that individualization causes a shift in people’s social relations where individual autonomy is valued over issues of social interconnectedness. It recognizes the fact that traditionally socially-imposed models of ethics and lifestyle have been displaced by a standard deviation aspect where people need to establish their own idiosyncrasies. The theory also acknowledges the importance that globalization has played in this shift. An important message of this theory is that the present politics should be developed in a way such that individualization is celebrated and individuals are allowed to have an equal voice in their social development as opposed to the impositions of traditional democracy where people choose what they want but within a narrow sphere (Beck, Giddens & Lash, 1994:32). Considering this theory, it is essential to note that contemporary social conditions have contributed to a crisis of the self. As Beck suggests in his theory, for self-identity of the process of individualization to be successful, individuals must be in an environment that gives them opportunities equally to develop their own individual characteristics and make individual decisions based on what they want in a wide sphere opposed to the traditional one where people had little choices (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2001:5). However, the contemporary social conditions do not give all individuals equal chances of deciding for themselves what direction they want to head or the decisions that they should take. For example, globalization as a contemporary social condition does not give individuals the equal chance to make decisions on what they want to do or who they want to be (Pinnelli, 2002:1). This is because globalization is characterized by an aspect of constant change that forces people to change their ways to fit in the current society. For example, today, one cannot decide not to use the internet or other technological advances brought about by globalization. This is because such aspects do not give individuals a choice. It is necessary for all individuals to use them in the current world if one is to survive. People have to make decisions between the choice of survival versus individualism or self-identity. Generally, the choice of survival outweighs the choice of self-identity, thereby creating a crisis of the self (Vybíral, Smahel, & Divínová, 2004:169). The theory of reflexive self-identity by Anthony Giddens observes that the self is made as opposed to being inherited or being passively existent. The theory states that that in the traditional order, self-identity was not a reflexive project (Biesta & Zhao, 2008:12). However, in the current age, self-identity is a reflexive aspect where individuals constantly work and reflect on. This means that people have to develop, maintain and revise their own biographical narratives, which act as their self-identities. The theory notes that self-identity is not a set of personal traits or characteristics that can be seen in individuals. However, self-identity is an individual’s own reflexive understanding of their biography that they establish, maintain and revise. Giddens (1991) states, “A persons identity is not to be found in behavior, nor - important though this is - in the reactions of others, but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going. The individuals biography, if she is to maintain regular interaction with others in the day-to-day world, cannot be wholly fictive. It must continually integrate events which occur in the external world, and sort them into the ongoing story about the self” (Giddens, 1991:54). From this statement, it is clear that people determine their own self-identity. However, to be able to do so, one must integrate with the occurrences in the external world and develop self-identity with this inclusion. The occurrences in the outside world are in the form of social conditions because these are the issues that affect how people form, maintain and revise their self-identities (Giddens, 1990:12). Indeed, contemporary social conditions give rise to a crisis of self. Considering a social condition such as poverty, it is difficult for people to develop, maintain and revise their own reflexive biographies. In the past, people experienced problems to do with starvation and other calamities of nature (Frosh, 1991:12). However, the modern or contemporary world faces social problems that include poverty and insufficient employment opportunities including other forms of social and economic dependency. To ensure that solutions are found to address such problems, issues of social reorganization must be implemented. Social reorganization affects people directly including removing them from places they consider their homes. How does one develop, maintain or revise his or her own self-identity in the face of a problem such as poverty? This is difficult because whatever one cares about is how to live today, forget the past and hope for a better tomorrow. As such, for such a person, it is difficult for him or her to form a self-identity and maintain it because he or she has to shift positions even in terms of his or her own biographies to survive. This leads to a crisis of self because how one acts today does not have anything to do with how he or she will act tomorrow in an environment where poverty exists (Jenkins, 1996:34). Technology, when considered as a social condition, gives rise to a crisis of self because it acts a driving force in the process of internalization of the economy, science and culture. The nature of information and computer technologies encourage people to take part in the global village or networked society where distance does not prevent people from communicating or meeting. This is a condition that is characterized by interconnectedness of economic, political, social and cultural aspects as well as different regions and individuals (Koc, 2006:2). Therefore, technology as a social condition fundamentally challenges the diverse traditional values, reduces the sense of cultural and social distance between communities and individuals and affects the relationship that people have in terms of time and space. In this view, it is difficult for persons to develop a self-identity that they can hold claim to it because technology changes with time and people are forced to use the current technologies. As such, technology affects people in different ways and at different times through their lifetimes making them develop a crisis of self. The consequence of this is that the technology that one identifies with today and develops self-identity in line with it changes after a few months or years forcing people to change their identities to fit such changes. Technology affects people including how they do different things, how they think and how they behave. This means that technology contributes to the formation of self-identities. For instance, in the contemporary world people have become used to using phones and cannot stay without them because they have formed part of their lives. In the past, phones were not there or were a preserve to a few persons who were wealthy. Considering this example among others, it is clear that when changes become constant, a crisis of the self develops because one cannot identity to one particular aspect of technology (Deaux, 1994:259). Lastly, the changing family structure as a social condition has given rise to the crisis of self. In the past, people formed their self-identity within the family, which acted as an important unit that shaped the character and the behavior of individuals from their childhood to their adulthood. Children as well as adults had roles to play within the family. As such, their self-identities were shaped in line with these roles and expectations. However, in the contemporary society, the family has lost its importance especially because of the loss of cultural values, the pressures and demands of modern life and the changing of people within the family. Therefore, people no longer care what is expected of them in the family as it was in the past. This has brought about the crisis of the self because people do not have a cultural or family background to look up to when they are formation of self-identity (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000:3). Personal Development Plan (PDP) Personal improvement is one of the things that people strive to achieve when engaging in different aspects. Personal development and improvement involves a number of key issues that one must engage in to achieve the desired outcome. For one to achieve improvement and personal development, it is important that he or she understands the particular development or improvement that is required. During my first year, I struggled with structuring my work especially in writing essays. My grammar was bad to the extent that some of the sentences I wrote could not make complete sentences. In addition, sentence formation was a difficult exercises for me especially the complex sentences. This means that I did not have any clarity of expression in my written pieces and communicated poorly. As such, these weaknesses made me score less than I wanted to in tests. However, instead of being frustrated, I considered this as a call to work on my grammar and sentence formation. Since then I have improved considerably in such areas of weaknesses. Although I have not achieved perfection, I have improved significantly in these areas and achieved some form of personal development. These improvements were significant especially in the first semester of my second year. I would like to state that during my first year, I had little skills in terms of preparation and research for written work. When given an essay, I would wait until the last minute and it with the little piece of information that I could find at that moment. I was very poor at this because I did not know that writing essays required preparation and adequate research for one to write informative pieces. However, I have significantly improved in this area. After I noticed that I was getting poor scores, which came with comments showing that I had not done enough research, I sought the help of my personal tutor who taught me how to prepare and research for essays. Currently, I understand that different types of papers require different types of preparation and research. Large papers require more time to prepare and intensive research. Short papers require little time to prepare and also enough research. However, this also depends on the complexity of the paper. I have developed these skills slowly from my first year through to my second year. However, preparation, research and writing skills are not the only skills that are important for an individual. Confidence in analyzing and criticizing course reading material and seeking advice from the appropriate staff is also essential. Confidence has been a major issue for me especially on seeking help from appropriate staff because I have been shy. However, my friends and classmates have been helpful by encouraging me to seek help whenever I need it and also going to an extra mile of taking me to a staff member when I need help. Group work has been essential in helping me develop confidence for assessing and criticizing course material and also seeking help because it has provided a platform for discussion and also developing confidence to talk to people, in front of people and also ask questions. In conclusion, I would state that I have gained important skills in my first and second year of study. When I started my first year, I was weak in terms of grammar and sentence structure, clarity or expression and research skills among others. However, I have improved in these areas and aim at achieving more improvement to ensure that I achieve maximum personal development in all areas. Reference List Bauman, Z., 2005. Liquid Life. Cambridge: Polity Press. Baumeister, R. F., Shapiro, J. P., & Tice, D. M., 1985. Two kinds of identity crisis. Journal of Personality, 53(3), 407-424. Beck, U. & Beck-Gernsheim E., 2001. Individualization. London: Sage. Beck, U., Giddens, A. and Lash, S., 1994. Reflexive Modernization, Cambridge: Polity Press. Biesta, G. J. J., & Zhao, K., 2008. Lifelong learning, identity and the moral dimension: The reflexive project of the self-revisited. Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh in co-operation with The Standing Conference of University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (SCUTREA). Blitz, L. V., 2006. 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