Personal Development: Reflective Essay on Community Service Programs

This reflective essay explores the author's experience in community service programs and the outcome of personal and professional development. It analyzes the use of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development and Vyogotsky's Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Human Development.

Running head: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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The respective paper is a reflective essay about one of my experiences in community
service programs and the outcome of my experience. The paper focuses on the incidents that
happened in community service program where I was enrolled in and the outcome which
includes the realization of my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in my personal
and professional development area. The paper has focused on two significant theories on human
development which I have used in order to introspect, analyze and interpret my disposition, code
of conduct and performance throughout the program in order to assess me and my capabilities.
As a community service provider and a social care professional, I had been subjected to
different kinds of pragmatic and practical sessions in my profession where I was supposed to
prove myself and my capabilities in the respective field. Few months ago, I was posted at a
community service center which focused on health issues and worked for the sake of
improvement of the human development index of Australia. I was given the designation of a
volunteer in the respective community service center. One of the significant incidents that
happened with me in the community service center was that I was given the duty and
responsibility of leading an environmental project in the Torres Strait Island of Australia which
was aimed at creating a mass awareness to the Torres Strait Islanders (aboriginals of Australia)
regarding drinking water contamination, health and sanitation problems and the importance of
education. As I was the volunteer as well as the person who was responsible and accountable of
the team, I framed a plan of visiting the villages of Torres Strait Island first in order to have a
direct and informal talk with the villagers to understand their problems more intensely. As I went
into the villages and talked separately with men, women and children, I came to understand and
learn certain problems and facts about them which I was not aware of before. For instance, the
women claimed that they had been subjected to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and

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cardiovascular diseases which are not properly treated even in the aboriginal hospitals due to the
inherent sexism. The men had been complaining about prostrate problems as they were not
accustomed to mainstream diet and lifestyle. The children complained of poor health and
malnutrition due to poverty and inequality regarding gender. Earlier, I did not have a clear idea
of what kind of problem they might be facing. I had generalizations regarding their attitude and
was also prejudiced regarding their ethnicity or race. However, as I came closer to them, I
realized that they had been victims of racism and inequality in much greater magnitude than the
mainstream Australians.
Throughout the duration of my profession, I realized that I have improved myself and
developed into an integrated individual than I was before the work. To analyze my development,
two theories had been used by me that are : Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial development
and Vyogotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive human development.
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial development which revolves around the belief that
personality of an individual develops in certain series and stages of social life, has certain
segments such as ego identity, ego strength and conflict (McLeod, 2013). The ego identity is the
process by which an individual’s perception of self changes with the interaction with new people
and disposition to the new environment (Karkouti, 2014). As far as I am concerned, I had an
upheaval of ego identity as I happened to meet and interact with the Australian aboriginals
informally and personally in their own villages which was completely new to me. I realized my
strength which was my adjusting capability and the capacity of meeting and interacting with new
people in a completely alien environment. As far as ego strength is concerned that focuses on
competency aptitude, can be called apt and appropriate for me because as I enrolled in the
community service center as a volunteer and was given the role of leading the respective team

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towards achieving the objectives, I had been working diligently and making efficient pragmatic
plans to execute the actions, which clearly shows my competitive, enthusiastic and motivating
attitude towards my profession. The last stage is conflict that echoes the fact that through the
conflicting thoughts and ideas, there would be a turning point in the life of an individual which
would ultimately shape his/her personality (Svetina, 2014). The conflict stage can be aligned
with my experience because through the course of my work, I had been having conflicts
regarding the inherent racism and prejudice that I had towards the Australian aboriginals.
Throughout the experience, I had been shedding my prejudices and de-classing myself in order
to put myself in their place, understand their problems and provide them with the solutions. The
experience has helped me immensely in becoming a perfect and rational individual.
Vyogotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive human development is a theory which
is based on the belief that individuals learn from their interaction with society and culture and
there are opportunities to learn even more when they are put into an alien or an unfamiliar
societal condition (Scott & Palincsar, 2013). The components of the theory include social,
historical and cultural mediation, social interaction with others, thoughts and language and
proximal development (Aimin, 2013). According to Holzman (2016), As far as social, historical
and cultural mediation is concerned about, which states that social, historical and cultural
amalgamation is a necessity for development I have been trying my level best to amalgamate our
team’s social and cultural values and dispositions with the aboriginal people in their villages with
the help of efficient interpersonal communication. In the stage of social interaction, I had been
successful in socially interacting with them in an amicable way so that they do not feel hesitant
or reluctant towards us. Through such social interaction, I had realized that I have developed my
socialization skills even with the communities that are completely differentiated. As far as

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thoughts and languages are concerned, I had been trying to understand and learn their local
languages in order to communicate efficiently. I had developed myself in terms of learning new
language and communication with different ethnicities which is an important trait of a
community service professional. Lastly, according to proximal development, through a plethora
of different kinds of socio-cultural and linguistic amalgamation, I had been successful in
developing myself proximally and holistically in terms of psychosocial, psychosexual and
cognitive development. As I had volunteered in an area which is completely alien and different
from what I usually see, I have got the opportunity to carry out multidimensional thinking and
performance which has helped me immensely to grow my cognition. The experience has helped
me immensely in becoming a perfect and rational individual.
The respective paper concludes to be a reflective essay about one of my experiences in
community service programs and the outcome of my experience. The paper has focused on the
incidents that happened in community service program where I was enrolled in and the outcome
which includes the realization of my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in my
personal and professional development area. The paper has focused on two significant theories
on human development which are Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development and
Vyogotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive human development in order to introspect, analyze
and interpret my disposition, code of conduct and performance throughout the program in order
to assess me and my capabilities.

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References:
Aimin, L. (2013). The study of second language acquisition under socio-cultural theory.
American journal of educational research, 1(5), 162-167.
Holzman, L. (2016). Vygotsky at work and play. Routledge.
Karkouti, I. M. (2014). Examining psychosocial identity development theories: A guideline for
professional practice. Education, 135(2), 257-263.
McLeod, S. (2013). Erik erikson. Retrieved August, 9, 2013.
Scott, S., & Palincsar, A. (2013). Sociocultural theory. Education. com.
Svetina, M. (2014). Resilience in the context of Erikson’s theory of human development.
Current Psychology, 33(3), 393-404.