Athena Rodriguez

11/22/2016

PSY 2237

Professor Thill

Application Paper

During this semester in psychology class, I was able to use the concepts that I learned in

class and apply the them in the real world. I used those concepts while I was volunteering in

CAN. The volunteer work helped me understand the concepts better because I was able to

connect the concepts and volunteer work together. In this paper, I will talk about Vygotsky theory

scaffolding, Piagets stage of development: preoperational period (2-7 years old)

egocentrism, authoritative parenting style, naturalistic observation, languages rule systems

syntax and pragmatic, and temperament.

The agency that I volunteer for is Community Access Naperville (CAN). CAN is a non-

profit organization that empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to work

in, contribute to, and enjoy their community (About Us). In CAN, we help people with

disability by making them be part of the community. CAN is partnered up with multiple local

businesses that they can help out with. CAN meets five days a week and meet two Saturdays a

month. During the week days, we usually work. The first part of CAN volunteering, we make

crayons and rosaries. CAN sells those products that are made by the participants. The volunteers

help the participants making those products. The second part of CAN volunteering, we go out for

lunch. After lunch, we go somewhere near by First Congregational Church to do an activity with

the partnered local businesses. During Saturdays, CAN go out on outings instead of doing work.

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 The first concept that I noticed during my service learning was Vygotsky theory

scaffolding. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian developmental psychologist, believe that a childs cognitive

development is influence by social interactions (Feldman, 2015). One of his theory was

scaffolding. Scaffolding is when an older person supports the learning of a child that encourages

independence and growth (Feldman, 2015). During the first part of my volunteer session, the

participants and volunteers would work on CAN projects such as making crayons, shredding

paper or making rosaries. The participants would always get paired up with a volunteer to work

on one of the projects. I always helped with the crayons. The crayon project is using the donated

crayons and making them into a different shaped crayons. I would give the crayons to the

participant. Then the participant would break the crayon into smaller pieces and put them in one

of the crayon molds. After they filled up one mold, I would tell them good job to encourage

them that theyre doing good on the project. This experience is related to the concept because

Im helping the participant to finish the project. I give them compliments such as good job or

nice job to motivate them to finish the project before we go to lunch or go to our next activity.

The next concept that I noticed during my service learning was Piagets stage of

development: preoperational period (2-7 years old) egocentrism. Egocentrism is when a child

is having difficulty to understand another persons viewpoint (Thill, 2016). One of the

participants was showing egocentrism while he was talking with a volunteer. Luke, the

participant, was having a conversation with Jeannine, the volunteer, about the elections. Luke

doesnt understand why Donald Trump was running for president and why people would vote for

him. Luke thinks that Trump is not fit to become the next president of the United States. He

started listing the reasons why Trump should not be the president. While he was talking about

Trump, he was getting frustrated why people would vote him. Jeannine had to calm him down

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and had explain him why people would him. Jeannine had to explained to him that some people

think that Trump is a good person because they think that he can help make the country better

after Obama steps down as the president. After the explanation, Luke was still frustrated; he still

didnt understand why people would vote for him. Then Jeannine told him that he has to respect

other peoples decisions because not everyone can agree to his opinion about Trump. That ended

their conversation. This conversation is related to the concept because Luke was having a hard

time to understand why people would vote for Trump. Lukes perspective of Trump is that he is a

bad person.

The third concept that I noticed during my service learning was one of the parenting

style, authoritative. Authoritative parenting style is when parents show to their child that they

care about them and at the same time they have rules for them to follow (Thill, 2016). Jeannine,

one of the volunteer, shows this type of parenting style of to the participants. She gives a lot of

warmth to the participants by having a nice conversation with the participants. She really enjoys

talking to Jessica, one of the participants. Jeannine treats Jessica like she is her daughter and

Jessica seems to like Jeannine too. Also, Jeannine shows some moderate control to the

participants too. In the previous paragraph, I mention that Jeannine had to tell Luke that he needs

to respect other peoples decisions because not everyone can agree his opinion. Luke was getting

frustrated during their conversation about the elections. So Jeannine had to calm Luke down by

explaining to him that people have different perspective about Trump and that people cant agree

with him. Jeannine relates to the authoritative parenting style concept because she is a mother.

Since most of the participants have some type of a disability, she knows how to interact with

them. She treats the participants like theyre her own children. She gives them a lot of warmth.

Also, if one of them acts up, she would calm them down and talk to them about it.

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 Another concept I noticed during the service learning was naturalistic observation.

Naturalistic observation is when a scientist observes the naturally occurring behaviors of

something or someone that doesnt have any interventions (Thill, 2016). During at the end of my

volunteer sessions, the program leaders and the interns would talk about who would write the

summary. The summary is telling the parents of the participants about what they did during the

day. One of the program leaders or the interns would write a summary what to participants did

during the day. Then they would email the summary to the parents. The program leaders or the

interns have to pay attention to everyone in order to know what to write on the summary. The

summary relates to naturalistic observation because some of the participants cant talk and arent

able to tell their parents what they did. The summary is very helpful to the parents because they

would know what the participants did for the day.

One of the concepts that I saw during the service learning was the languages rule

systems. The language rules I saw that most was syntax and pragmatics. Syntax are words that

can form acceptable phases and sentences (Thill, 2016). Pragmatics are the use of appropriate

conversation tool (Thill, 2016). Most of the participants are able to speak and communicate with

other people. They understand what people are saying to them. They reply to other people in

phases or in one or two sentences. Some participants arent able to speak. They use their IPad in

order to communicate with other people. They would type the phases or sentences into their IPad

and the IPad would speak to them. As you can see, the participants are able to understand and

communicate with other people. They understand how language works even though they have

some type of a disability. It probably took them a while to understand how language works but

now they are able to communicate with other people.

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 The last concept that I saw during my service learning was temperament. Temperament is

the pattern if arousal and emotionally that represent consistent and enduring characteristics in

an individual (Feldman, 2015, 49). The participants showed that they have an easy

temperament. Easy temperament means that the child has a positive mood, always curious, and

changes mood from moderate to low intensity (Thill, 2016). When I first started volunteering, I

thought the participants would have a hard time accepting me because I dont know how they

would react to a new volunteer. When I met the Monday group, they were friendly especially

Jessica. When I met Jessica, she greeted me warmly and I felt very welcome to the group. The

Monday participants were curious of me so I had to tell about myself. Then when we started

working on the CAN projects that day, Jessica kept staring at me. I felt a little intimidate when

she was staring at me. So I started to talk to her to make her and I feel comfortable with each

other. After my first volunteer session that day, I felt that Im part of their group. Then when I

met the Saturday group, they were also friendly, especially Ryan. When I first met Ryan, he is a

bubbly and energetic person. When we were working on the CAN projects, Ryan would always

raise his hand and point to himself after doing a task. Everyone would complement him for doing

after doing the task. He would stare at you until you gave him a compliment. That made me feel

uncomfortable at first, then I got used to it because after he filled up one of the crayon molds, he

would repeat his actions after each mold. As you can see, some with people with a disability

have an easy temperament. The participants that I met during my service learning has an easy

temperament because they all welcomed me into their group. Most people think that people with

a disability have a hard time opening up to people. The participants that I worked with had an

easy time opening up to me.

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 As you can see, psychology class helped me understand the material better by applying to

the real world. I used the material while doing service learning in CAN. I was able connect the

material and volunteer work together because I understand the material better. After doing this

project, I will use the material I learned from classes and apply it to the real world in order to

understand the material better.

During my service learning, I noticed that society still has a stigma on people with a

disability. There were multiple incidents that made people stare at us. The first incident that

happened was in McDonalds. Waqas wanted to do get away from his aide to play with the soda

machine. Waqas aide had to physically stop him to play with the soda machine. While this was

happening, people were staring at us and some people even gave a mean stare. This shows that

society wants people with a disability to stay inside instead of them going outside. People think

that people with a disability act like theyre little kids. If society dont want them to go outside,

then little shouldnt go outside too. We need to treat everyone equal in order for society to accept

them. Another incident was with Noel. Faryal, a volunteer, and I were the last people to leave at

our table. Before we left the restaurant, we decided to get mints on hosts podium. When we got

our mints, we noticed Noel coming back inside. I think he saw us getting the mints and he

wanted some too. Noel was only allowed to get one mint. However, there was a costume by the

hosts podium and she was encouraging him to get multiple mints. So Noel listened to get to the

costumer. Faryal had to physically stop Noel from getting multiple mints. When we got out of

the restaurant, Faryal got frustrated with the costumer because the costumer shouldnt have

interfered. The costumer doesnt know the things that Noel is allowed to have. This shows that

people interfered into peoples business unless they know what the situation is.

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 References

About Us. Community Access Naperville Integrating Differently-Abled Adults into Our

Community. Web. 20 November 2016.

Feldman, R.S. (2015). Discovering the Life Span. Boston: Pearson.

Thill, A.W. (2016). Cognitive Development in Preschool Years [Power Point Slides].

Thill, A.W. (2016). Research Methods [Power Point Slides].

Thill, A.W. (2016). Social Development in Infancy [Power Point Slides].

Thill, A.W. (2016). Social Development in Preschool Years [Power Point Slides].