Reflection on Communication and Cultural Understanding in Psychology

This report provides a detailed reflection on a student's experience in a psychology course, focusing on the development of communication skills and cultural understanding. The student utilizes the Driscoll model to analyze a specific instance where a communication breakdown occurred due to a lack of awareness of cultural perspectives. The report highlights the importance of effective communication in the field of psychology, emphasizing how it influences the ability to understand patients and provide appropriate psychological services. The student discusses how the course improved their ability to empathize, manage challenging situations, and appreciate cultural diversity. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of continuous improvement in communication skills for professional growth and the ability to deliver effective psychological services. The report also references several academic sources to support its claims.

Preparing for success at
university-Knowledge &
Creativity

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PART A ..........................................................................................................................................3
PART B ...........................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge and creativity are the two pillars which helps the organizations to make their
employees competent and thus shape their skills. Knowledge is basically the experience and
learning which the individuals gains and thus affect them both positively and negatively.
Creativity on the other hand, is turning the ideas into innovation and applying it in real life. This
report gives a brief about efficient communication skills and personal reflection.
MAIN BODY
PART A
Driscoll model
Driscoll model of reflection is basically the model which is being used for learning the
various aspects and for triggering a series of question which will result in effective thinking.
What
The participation in the psychology course has been one of the wonderful experience as it
taught me the various theories and concepts which affect the behaviour and social trends. During
course I gained understanding of the various approaches and methods to communicate with the
patients of psychological disorders. On some occasions I also used to find it difficult to acquire
full understanding but support and cooperation from the other class members helped me to
resolve the issue. At once when my tutor was teaching us communication theories to interact
with the people from different cultures I was not able to practically realise or understand the
situation. I used to think that culture creates only linguistic barrier and how it affect or relate with
the psychology of individual.
However during a group discussion in the course I got an opportunity to practically
visualise the concept. One of my classmate was from different culture. Though we used to
communicate in the same language so I thought that there cannot be any communication gap and
as a part of psychological learning I will be able to easily analyse his behaviour. However when
we both were paired in group and I was given task to provide him psychological counselling
considering him patient suffering from depression then I failed to make suitable analysis of his
situation and the suggestions provided by me to him were also found unacceptable and
ineffective for him due because of my negligence to cultural perspective in psychology,
particularly behaviour.
So what

Earlier when I used to found behaviour of people inappropriate then I used to became
very angry or upset from them. However after completion of psychology course I have been able
to understand the factors which affects or control the behaviour of others as well. Instead of
reacting negatively towards others I am now able to feel myself in the place of others and to
effectively understand their situation. When my other team member was not convinced by my
suggestions then I was shocked that we share same language then why despite having good
communication skill and channel we are not able to communicate effectively with each other.
Then I remembered the teaching during the class and I understood that miscommunication is due
to negligence of cultural perspective (Spencer, 2015). I felt that if I will respect his cultural point
of views then as professional I will be able to give more appropriate solutions to him. The
experience made me nervous initially but then it succeeded in underpinning the elements of
communication which can affect the efficiency.
Now what
I believe that for having a good professional growth in the field of psychology it is very
essential that one must have good communication and behavioural understanding of patients. A
wide range of mental processes and behaviours are easy to analyse by the means of proper
communication. Culture plays an important role in influencing the personality of an individual
and is not limited to language only (Del Monte and Pennacchio, 2019). Instead it affect the
thought processing, acceptance of opinion of others as well as professional relations. Through
the learning gained from the experience my practices have become more efficient.
One of the important aspect which I learned from the experience is that in order to build
good communication relations with other I must also respect the cultural diversity. Without
acceptance to the diversifications I may not become successful in developing psychological
assumptions. Communication cannot result in productive outcomes if I will not be able to
properly listen and convey my perspective to the other person (Ahmad, Stufhaut and Johnson,
2016). The experience also helped me to manage the situations when the listener and speaker
does not show any agreement. Such experience will assist me in understanding the patients who
may not agree with my psychological service. In such situations it will depend on me to respect
their decision and to search for an alternative solution to make the communication process more
productive.

PART B
The experience of psychology course and the above described event plays significant role
in improving my individual performance and behaviour. The whole event not only helped me to
increase my individual performance but this also helped me to shape my behaviour towards
various aspects. Due to mentioned interaction, I came to know the cross-cultural differences and
this helped me to understand their view points and perspective. This helped to have a positive
behaviour towards each and every aspect and remain clam in case of any issue or problem.
Although I have good communication skills, but still lack behind in some of the non verbal cues
thus the whole event helped me to increase my experience and made me understand the
significance of non verbal communication. This also increased my experience of communicating
with the patients who need psychological and behavioural counselling and I also came to know
the various tactics for persuading people and influencing them (Unsworth, 2018).
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that the effective communication plays an important role in the
understanding people and psychological learning and thus helps to increase the professional
expertise. Through effective communication, psychology professionals are able to clearly depict
the situation of their patients and hence this enhances their overall performance. Thus it can be
concluded that regular improvement in communication skills also helps to increase the behavior,
attitude, skills as well as experience of psychologists.

REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Ahmad, W., Stufhaut, M. and Johnson, N., 2016. Domain Knowledge and Team Creativity: A
Typological View. Business & Economic Review.8(2). pp.55-66.
Del Monte, A. and Pennacchio, L., 2019. Historical roots of regional entrepreneurship: the role
of knowledge and creativity. Small Business Economics.pp.1-22.
Sigala, M. and Chalkiti, K., 2015. Knowledge management, social media and employee
creativity. International Journal of Hospitality Management.45.pp.44-58.
Spencer, H., 2015. Knowledge, Creativity, and Innovation. A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and
Reasonably Cheap Book About Knowledge Management.p.79.
Unsworth, K., 2018. Creativity in the Context of Multiple Goals. In The Palgrave Handbook of
Creativity at Work (pp. 23-41). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.