Discuss The Social Roles We Acquire Throughout Our Lives
Discuss The Social Roles We Acquire Throughout Our Lives
Spirituality encompasses the search for a purpose or meaning of life found beyond physical reality. Often, spirituality will include religious beliefs and values that an individual adheres. To add on, one way that this conception of spirituality would influence the way in which I care for patients is by understanding the patient’s spirituality to help them develop healthy coping mechanisms. According to a scholarly study, more than 80% of parents reported finding comfort and using religion as a coping mechanism to help overcome the loss of a child (Puchalski 2001). This is sometimes the sad reality that a nurse will have to face; hence, it becomes important for nurses to have a way or method to direct parents to handle grief. Moreover, I do believe in spiritual power and God’s existence. I use my beliefs with morals and manners to enhance nursing care I provide to my patients. Spiritual care improves people’s spiritual well-being and performance as well as the quality of their spiritual life. Spiritual care has positive effects on individuals’ stress responses, spiritual well-being such as the balance between physical, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects of self), sense of integrity and excellence, and interpersonal relationships (Zehtab & Adib-Hajbaghery, 2014).
Discussion Prompt 1: How do the concepts of role, role
conflict, culture, and subculture apply to those who work in the healthcare
field? Support your response with evidence from your readings or other sources.
Discussion Prompt 2: Discuss the social roles we acquire
throughout our lives; be sure to differentiate between role conflict, role
strain, and role exit. Explain how status relates to social roles and discuss
the role examples you give in terms of ascribed, achieved, and master status.
There are many ways that people can influence our behavior, but perhaps one of the most important is that the presence of others seems to set up expectations
We do not expect people to behave randomly but to behave in certain ways in particular situations. Each social situation entails its own particular set of expectations about the “proper” way to behave. Such expectations can vary from group to group.
One way in which these expectations become apparent is when we look at the roles that people play in society.
Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. With each social role you adopt, your behavior changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role.
In the words of William Shakespeare:
All the worlds a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits, and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
These lines capture the essence of social roles. Think of how many roles you play in a single day, e.g. son, daughter, sister, brother, students, worker, friend etc. Each social role carries expected behaviors called norms.
Social Norms
Social norms are the unwritten rules of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that are considered acceptable in a particular social group or culture. Norms provide us with an expected idea of how to behave, and function to provide order and predictability in society. For example, we expect students to arrive to a lesson on time and complete their work.
The idea of norms provides a key to understanding social influence in general and conformity in particular. Social norms are the accepted standards of behavior of social groups.
These groups range from friendship and workgroups to nation-states. behavior which fulfills these norms is called conformity, and most of the time roles and norms are powerful ways of understanding and predicting what people will do.
There are norms defining appropriate behavior for every social group. For example, students, neighbors and patients in a hospital are all aware of the norms governing behavior. And as the individual moves from one group to another, their behavior changes accordingly.
Norms provide order in society. It is difficult to see how human society could operate without social norms. Human beings need norms to guide and direct their behavior, to provide order and predictability in social relationships and to make sense of and understanding of each other’s actions. These are some of the reasons why most people, most of the time, conform to social norms.
Conclusion
There is considerable pressure to conform to social roles. Social roles provide an example of social influence in general and conformity in particular. Most of us, most of the time, conform to the guidelines provided by the roles we perform.
We conform to the expectations of others, we respond to their approval when we play our roles well, and to their disapproval when we play our roles badly. But how far will conformity go? Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment illustrates the power of social roles in relation to conformity.
Topic 1 DQ 1
Oct 3-5, 2022
What would spirituality be according to your own worldview? How do you believe that your conception of spirituality would influence the way in which you care for patients?
In essence, spirituality is the quest for the meaning of life (Bogue and Hogan, 2020). This vague term takes on many meanings depending on who is asked. Worldviews have a large impact on what path spirituality takes for someone. Personally, my worldview aligns with realism and optimism. Realism in the fact that what I can perceive and what is tangible in this world is what creates the majority of my experience. My optimistic worldview allows me to rely on such ideas as faith in order to maintain a positive view of my future. These play into my spirituality by allowing me to stay grounded in the present and accepting that the future is still unknown but has so much potential to be better than what I can comprehend now. My worldview allows my spirituality to be fluid and less of a daily burden mentally. The combination of my worldview and spirituality allow me to be present for my patients in their times of need, maintain positivity, be open to external experiences and worldviews, all while maintaining a tangible awareness of the physical ailments they are experiencing. Faith without realism does not benefit the patient because even if a grim prognosis exists, realism allows us to deal with the now and continue to move forward. Even if moving forward towards a terminal diagnosis, solace can be found in working through the physical realm to eventually be at peace in faith; knowing all that can be done in the now has been addressed.
Reference
Bogue, D. W. and Hogan, M. (2020). Foundational Issues in Christian Spirituality and Ethics. Practicing dignity: An introduction to Christian values and decision making in health care. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi413v/practicing-dignity-an-introduction-to-christian-values-and-decision-making-in-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/1
Gaining an understanding of one’s spirituality in the context of one’s own worldview is an integral part of providing holistic care with the ability to appreciate a patient with a differing worldview. In accordance with my own theistic worldview, spirituality consists of maintaining a personal relationship with God. This includes frequent prayer and reflection on His word. As a nurse caring for people with differing belief systems, I try my best to incorporate my spirituality into my practice without imposing or interfering with the beliefs of others. This is achieved by following God’s commandments to “…love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39). A significant amount of research supports the importance that nurses place on understanding and providing spiritual care as part of a holistic practice. A study by Bogue & Hogan suggests that there might also be an association between place of employment and years of experience that influences a nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. For example, those in palliative care have been found to have higher perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care than others. It is suggested to be related to additional training provided in these settings. Spiritual interventions have been shown to have positive effects on the mental, emotional, and physical health of patients (Bogue & Hogan, 2022). Therefore, it is imperative to increase training and education along with resources available at the bedside to address the spiritual needs, regardless of religious affiliation, of our patients. In my own facility, we have one chaplain. Not only is a singular chaplain unable to meet the volume of need, but also lacks the individualized expertise in more nuanced religions. Just as we are to provide interpretation and communication in the patient’s preferred language, so too should we have the resources to provide individualized spiritual care.
References
Bogue, D.W. & Hogan, M. (2022) Foundational issues in Christian spirituality and ethics. In Grand Canyon University (Ed.) Practicing dignity: An introduction to Christian values and decision making in health care (Ch.1). https://bibliu.com/app/#/view/books/1000000000591/epub/Chapter1.html#page_7
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). YouVersion. https://www.bible.com/bible/59/MAT.22.E