Ellie Osterberger

12/10/21
Psychology-focused Paper

In reflecting on these past four years as a Loras College Psychology student, I can

confidently say that I have grown so much in who I am and all that I aspire to be. As I look

ahead five years in hopes of where I am, I see myself graduating with my Master’s in Social

Work and ideally working in a healthcare setting, specifically with children and families.

Looking back, I can see how majoring in psychology has helped me prepare for my future as a

social worker. The two fields overlap in so many ways when looking at content, ethics, and the

diversity of populations worked with.

The first place where I clearly identify overlap is across cultures. Time and time again

cultural competence was expressed in classes pertaining to both of my majors. It is crucial to

understand the population that one is working with. This goes beyond the stereotypes of culture.

Culture is deeply rooted, and it makes people extremely unique. I was challenged to look beyond

surface level culture in my Cross-Cultural Psychology class. I was taught that culture isn’t the

touristy things that make all these places around the world seem glamorous. In fact, it’s the exact

opposite. To get to know a culture is to understand various religions, work worlds, family

structures, gender roles, and so much more. Knowing aspects of another culture can help you get

to know an individual on a deeper, intimate level as well as develop an overall sense of cultural

competence. Becoming culturally competent about another individual’s background can create a

better sense of security and trust for a client-social worker relationship. It’s important to

recognize that everyone’s background is different, and people think and act the way that they do
based on their background. In the future, I will encounter a variety of people with different

cultural backgrounds. I will have experiences where my culture and background are very

different than those of my clients. In order to build the best professional relationship with a

client, the social worker must understand where that client is coming from, how they were raised,

and the individual’s values and morals.

Another aspect of psychology content that relates to social work is development across

the lifespan. It is crucial to understand the stages of healthy development and when they occur,

especially when working with children. Within the first years of life children develop at

extremely fast rates, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Many psychologists have developed

theories that explain the stages of development and what age they should take place. Over time,

children develop physical and sensory motor skills, linguistic skills, cognitive skills, and

emotional and social skills. In my future career, it will be important to recognize if these skills

are or aren’t progressing at the rate in which they should be. Recognizing developmental delays

would lead to asking questions like; why might this child not be developing at a normal rate? Is

there a health concern? What outside factors could be affecting this child? What’s going on at

home? All of these questions contain factors that can play a significant role in healthy

development. If there is a developmental delay, I as a social worker can also help develop a form

of therapy that is specialized to the child’s needs.

The last piece of psychology content that I chose to relate to the social work profession to

is the clinical aspect. As a social worker, I would not be able to diagnose a client with a

particular disorder, but that doesn’t mean I would not be able to recognize the symptoms of one.

One major symptom for any disorder is the time frame of the habits or the feelings and how long

they have existed. That’s something that I could be able to identify in talking to a client. So, after
recognizing the warning signs, I would be able to refer a client on to someone that could

diagnose the disorder. A clinical psychologist has to ability to diagnose someone based on if that

person meets the diagnostic criteria for a specific disorder.

As a future social worker, I must abide by the Code of Ethics. This code is typically

referred to as the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. The purpose

of the code is to set forth basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards to guide social

workers’ conduct. By no means does it have a solution for every circumstance but considering

the code when making decisions in a professional environment is the intended purpose. A social

worker aspires to act based on the ethical principles of service, social justice, dignity and worth

of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence.

Social workers are called to perform acts of service, placing others’ needs above their

own, and volunteering to help the greater community. Next, social workers advocate for change

in the justice system. Advocacy often takes place on behalf of vulnerable populations who find

difficulty in doing it for themselves, such as those experiencing poverty, unemployment, or

discrimination. Social workers respect the dignity and worth of each person, regardless of

cultural and ethnics differences. They empower clients to recognize opportunities for change and

to address their own needs. Social workers also recognize that there is a central importance of

human relationships. They seek to help ways to create healthy relationships for their clients in

family, groups, organizations, and community settings. Social workers also behave in a

trustworthy manner, staying aware of the profession’s mission, values, ethical principles, and

ethical standards. Lastly, social workers practice within their areas of competence and

continuously learn to gain knowledge about skills and to apply them in practice.
 Over the past four years, I have done multiple internships where I have been given a

glimpse of what my future could look like in working with a variety of populations. My

sophomore year I visited a nursing home once a week, for an hour at a time to visit with someone

living there. I was first paired with a couple and later one I was paired with a woman named Bea.

Both the couple and Bea exposed me to variety of people that I could work with even within the

same age range. The differences between the two were that the couple struggled with memory

issues, so it was extremely difficult to carry on a conversation or to pick up from where we left

off because they never remembered me or anything that we talked about. Yet, they could

remember things from their childhood, or when they got married and started their own family.

Every memory from years ago seemed as if it had never faded, whereas the most recent ones

were hard for them to remember. Bea on the other hand remembered everything and even had

her schedule packed full where it became hard for us to meet with one another because she was

doing so much. In both of these experiences I developed patience and a sense of understanding

for the elderly population.

Another experience that comes to mind is working with St. Mark’s Youth Enrichment

Program. Here I developed skills to successfully work with an organization, as well as other

paraprofessionals and teachers, and children. When I interned with St. Mark’s everything was

done virtually, so the internship also enhanced my skills in operating and communicating over

Zoom. The following summer I also worked at the YMCA’s summer camp. These experiences

were very similar. I was working with children that came from a variety of socioeconomic

backgrounds. I learned that kids have no filter, and they will say anything and everything that

pops into their heads. It was a learning curve for me to adjust and react to some of the things that

kids would casually say just because it’s a part of their everyday lives. This often led to asking
more questions but not trying to pry answers out of them. The conversations with kids also led to

an increased communication among the camp counselors because if a child told us something

that raised concern, we would give the other counselors a heads up just to keep their eyes out as

well. The experiences at the nursing home, St. Mark’s, and as a camp counselor have helped

guide me in the path that I want to pursue. There were things that I liked and didn’t like about

both experiences that ultimately led me down the path to pursue my MSW.

Throughout my psychology career at Loras I have been taught about the importance of

cultural competence, lifespan development, and the clinical diagnosis process and disorders. All

of these aspects are things that translate over to the social work profession in all scenarios. To

ensure that a social worker acts ethically, we must follow NASW Code of Ethics. Lastly, my

undergraduate courses have given me the experiences that I need through internships and courses

to prepare myself to work with diverse populations. Going forward, I will be able to use my

psychology background to benefit me in future endeavors like graduate courses and my career

setting.