My Development
Perry's Theory: Epistemic Cogniton
Epistemic means "of or about knowledge" and epistemic cognition refers to our reflections on how we arrive at facts, beliefs, and ideas.
Dualistic Thinking: Dividing information, values, and authority into right and wrong, good and bad, we and they.
Relativism: Viewing all knowledge as embedded in a framework of thought. Aware of diversity of opinions on many topics, they gave up the possibility of absolute truth in favor of multiple truths, each relative in concept.
Commitment with Relativistic Thinking: Instead of choosing between opposing views, they try to formulate a more personally satisfying perspective that synthesizes contradictions.
(Berk, 2013, p. 358-359)
For me, attending BGSU changed me into an entirely different person. When I entered BGSU, I was one of the few people from my high school that went to BGSU, and I went in not knowing my roommate or anyone that would be living in my building. My freshman year I decided to be a part of the Arts Village Learning community in which I lived among other students who were interested in the arts, and was required to take certain coursework associated with the program. Being in the Arts Village is what prepped me to become a Resident Advisor the following 3 years, a life changing experience.
Being a Resident Advisor gave my experience working with and helping groups of individuals to form communities among their residence hall floors, adhere to rules, but most importantly, make the most our of the academic experience at BGSU. As I continued my time at BGSU, my love for the institution and working with college students also grew which led me to become an orientation leader in the Summer of 2009, one of the best summers of my life
Working in residence life, orientation, and being a part of Dance Marathon has shaped me into who I am today. I absolutely love working with college students because of the immense development that occurs and the enthusiasm many students have. My college experiences have shown me that I want to work in the college environment for the rest of my life.
Many people view the college years as formative and more influential than any other period in adulthood. College serves as a developmental testing ground, a time for devoting full attention to exploring alternative values, roles, and behaviors. To facilitate this exploration, college exposes students to a form of culture shock-- encounters with new ideas and beliefs, new freedoms, and opportunities, and new academic and social demands.
(Berk, 2013, p. 361).
The College Experience
Cognitive Development
Vocational Choice
My Development
Young adults, college bound or not, face a major life decision: the choice of a suitable work role.
RAISEC mode: Describes both people and work environments and people seek environments that suit their personalities.
(Berk, 2013, p. 362).
My Holland Code is IAS and ISA (my score was tied for A and S. This code indicates that I'm investigative, social, and artistic. This means that I would enjoy a scientific occupation that involves interacting with people and has the opportunity for emotional expression. My career counseling course indicated that this code is the code that many counselors and psychologists have.
For me, vocational choice has always centered around the helping professions. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher, and then that aspiration changed to psychology/counseling early into high school. Although I feel I've taken a slow path to get to where I want to be, I now know what I'm looking for in a job and its environment.
I currently aspire to work in the higher education as a clinical mental health counselor or in some area of student affairs. Although I would ideally like to utilize my counseling degree, if I find an academic advising position in an area of interest, I would be willing take on that opportunity if it arrived.
My Development
Early Adulthood
After my education in undergrad and my first graduate program I like to believe that I engage in commitment within relativistic thinking. Instead of choosing between opposing views, I try my best to formulate a more personally satisfying perspective that synthesizes contradictions. I believe this type of thinking is especially important for individuals going into counseling because it allows those individuals to explore alternative theories. I personally believe that there isn't necessarily a counseling theory that is best but I believe that there are counseling theories that are best for certain clients and certain counselor personalities. If I were to accept a certain theory as best just because someone told me it were to be true, I would be ignoring the factors that contribute to making counseling work for the counselor and client.
