Introduction
Studying psychology can be fascinating because one can fully understand mental processes and human behavior. A deeper comprehension of human conditions is always a key objective for psychologists. However, the concepts taught in classes can also have an impact on the learner’s development as a person. The focus of this paper is to explore how the concepts learned have affected my development in life. The concepts are learning, stress, memory, consciousness, and motivation. The argument presented is that with the gained knowledge, I have tended to apply the concepts to my own life and try to overcome certain life challenges.
Learning
Learning is what every student does when going through the class and course instructional materials. A person’s life development may depend on how much learning one does through daily experiences. Personally, learning has made a great impact on my life development due to the improved capability to process information and take lessons from multiple sources. Scholars have defined learning as the process through which people acquire new and enduring behaviors and information that allow individuals to adapt to their environments (Myers & DeWall, 2016).
Without disputing the essence of this definition, my lived experiences indicate that I struggle to adapt to environments that I do not desire and prefer to find means of making them better. From a theoretical perspective, associative learning has been critical to my development because every life experience has a lesson attached to it. I make deliberate efforts to reflect on each meaningful encounter and end up thinking of ways that my own life can be made better.
Therefore, the ability to learn from different sources means that I can make better decisions in life. For example, deciding that spending too much time on social media was detrimental was the result of a series of uncompleted assignments and visible declines in my grades. Additionally, news and studies of the detriments of social media helped with the decision, which means that learning was successful and that it made a major impact on my life.
My social life has also been impacted by learning, especially with key lessons from psychology class. Understanding people’s behavior becomes critical because one knows what to say to people when displaying certain characteristics. Additionally, I have learned lessons on how best to approach people, which means that I have eliminated the possibility of developing such problems as social anxiety. Therefore, healthy social life is among the most visible outcomes of my learning process.
Stress
Stress can sometimes be detrimental to personal development, especially when allowed to become chronic. As a student, I have often found myself under stress, mostly due to high-pressure situations. For example, I have found myself in a situation where I have to study and pass a challenging course, and the fear of failure becomes extremely stressful. I would dedicate more time to studying and revising course materials, which means sleeping less and later.
The pressure to succeed was such that nothing else mattered to the momentum until after the exams. However, remaining stressed about such incidences has not been helpful, as manifested by the many times that control of the situation was lost. According to Myers and DeWall (2016), appraising events is the main source of stress. Therefore, the fear of failure and the pressure I mounted on myself caused me immense stress that had significant implications on my health.
However, I have also experienced other forms of stress that have driven me to great accomplishments. However, such a turn of events has come after I have gained an understanding of how to deal with stress. Eustress has often prompted actions that have changed my life positively. Growing up is a process where one gets more responsibilities, and how an individual manages them determines multiple aspects of their lives. For example, I have learned to set goals and maintain the discipline required to achieve them. The reason for using this example is that stress can come from the pressure that people exert upon themselves. Setting goals is one such instance, but the appraisal of the situation means that I only experience positive stress. The ambitions in the goals determine the level of stress experienced. With earlier encounters with stress, I have learned to only subject myself to the stress level that I can handle. That way, my health, development, and overall well-being are not under threat of chronic stress.
Memory
Throughout a person’s life, memories are formed from multiple experiences. Today, I can remember many good encounters when I was young, while others have faded with time. Therefore, the description of memory by Myers and DeWall (2016) as learning that persists is both valid and accurate. Memory may be a result of learning, which seems to apply most commonly in my education. My academic achievement can be regarded as a function of memory because passing tests requires that one recalls what has been learned. In this case, memory seems to be deliberately imparted to the brain by feeding it the information selected by the individual.
Therefore, the most obvious way that memory has helped my development in life is in my education. This can be described as the working memory since the active processing takes place in the short-term memory stage. I can also make a case that in education, I have had to practice several techniques for improving my memory to help achieve better academic performance. For example, I tend to rehearse and visualize concepts, focus my attention, or even relate new information to what I already know.
However, I can argue that my fondest memories are from those encounters I have experienced in life, both good and bad. I have made some mistakes that have served as life lessons of things I should never do again. As part of development, such memories play a critical role because actions and decisions can be made on relatable events. For example, past failures in tests as a result of failing to study reminded me that I could not do that again if I cared about my grades. Similarly, the good times I have had have always reminded me to remain optimistic and enjoy life as much as I can. Past accomplishments and their rewards give me confidence when faced with similar challenges. Memories are also a means of improving my happiness, especially when they are shared with my peers.
Consciousness
Consciousness is an interesting subject to apply to one’s life. It would require a critical reflection of events that have taken place due to a person’s consciousness. However, an individual’s development in life can be determined by one’s consciousness and the events that result from it. If consciousness is to be defined as the awareness of ourselves and what surrounds us, then many decisions are the result of one’s consciousness. I can regard myself as a healthy individual, and much of that can be attributed to conscious choices. For example, I try as much as possible to avoid eating foods with high amounts of sugar and calories.
As a result, my weight has never been a problem, which means that suffering such conditions as obesity no longer concerns me. However, it can be argued that these conscious choices are the result of the awareness of what happens to people who do not watch what they eat. Being wary of obesity and being overweight forms part of the reasons I eat healthily. Other decisions I have made, including regular exercise, can be described as the result of my consciousness of my health.
My consciousness has also had significant effects on other aspects of my development in life. I have learned to pay attention to what is going on around me and to make critical decisions to avoid conceivable threats. In other words, I have learned to appreciate situations and the risks associated with them. The world is currently going through a pandemic, and people whose consciousness has made them take precautions have remained safe. I have done everything possible to protect myself due to the conscious desire to remain healthy. In my education, consciousness has guided me through the system where constructive activities, including studying, are undertaken consciously.
Motivation
The subject of motivation has become a mainstay for many scholars in such areas as psychology and organizational behavior. From a personal perspective, I believe that all the concepts of motivation have applied to my life’s development on more than one occasion. Many of my accomplishments have been driven by a certain need or desire, which are the basic drivers of motivation. My education achievements can be attributed to motivation because there is a pressing need to be successful academically and even after school. The idea of success that appeals to me is that of a person who has a well-paying job, a fulfilling career, and a life where such struggles as finances are eliminated. Due to the perception that education will bring all these benefits, I become motivated to study more and improve my grades as much as possible.
Drives and incentives in my life are mostly unique to me. As mentioned earlier, I tend to set life goals and strive to work towards them. Therefore, the need to achieve the set objectives become the main source of motivation. Even my drive for academic success is facilitated by my perceived achievements in life. I have accomplished several things in my life this way, which means that motivation has been critical to my development. Other instances may be the result of curiosity, especially when I have to do something to find out the outcomes.
Conclusion
Several concepts in philosophy have been explored in light of how they apply to me or how they influence my development. Learning is seen as critical to my academic achievement, while consciousness results in paying attention to my surroundings before making critical life decisions. Stress has had both positive and negative effects on my life, but it has depended on how I appraised the events in my life. Working memory is critical to my academic journey, while motivation drives me towards major achievements.
Reference
Myers, D., & DeWall, N. (2016). Exploring psychology (10th ed.). Worth Publishing.