Social and Cultural Influences Example Paper

The focus of this paper is on the social and cultural influences in your life. The student will submit a paper which describes the social and cultural influences having shaped his/her lifestyle and career choices. Implications of those influences for the student’s role as an advanced practice nurse should be identified. This paper should be appropriately cited and APA format is required. This paper should be no longer than 6 typed pages (excluding title page and reference page).

Social and cultural influences
Lifestyle and career choices are subjects that have attracted much attention owing to its multifaceted nature. That is because they are the results of the interplay between individuals within social and cultural structures. It is important to comprehend the choices are not based on any one factor, and that they are subject to many influences. The interaction and combination of the various influences on decision-making (from collectivistic and individualistic perspectives) are unique to each individual and the situation. The number of choices that are available to an individual and the number of choices that the individual is aware of may differ in reality. Besides that, there is a possibility that the individual may not be aware of some of the choices or could be structurally constrained from recognizing the choices. The lack of awareness of the full range of available choices could result in individual making use of a limited range of lifestyle and career opportunity structures or alternative. The initial choice has an impact on future relative status and plays a role in outcomes of lifestyle and career such as salary progression, transfer, and promotion (Thomas et al., 2016). As such, there is a need to under to understand the impact of the choices since this is instrumental in the design and delivery of better-informed lifestyle and career decisions.

To one degree or another, my social and cultural environments have influenced my life choices. Through reviewing these environments, I have identified eight main influences. The first influence is my family. As a child, the most influential persons in my life were my parents and grandparents. These are the persons who first shaped my ideas about life, money, values and ethics. To be more precise, my family was instrumental in guiding my emotional development through learning to trust, communicate with others, and engage in acceptable interactions with others. In addition, they helped me to understand and define hierarchical structures. This was particularly important in understand how to engage with the different members of the family based on age and generation. Furthermore, my family (particularly my parents) instilled discipline in me through applauding me for the right behavior and punishments for misbehavior (Crago, 2017). Besides that, my family has had much interaction with the health care industry (as medical personnel or patients) and this has made me feel obligated to carry on my family tradition of pursuing a career in the health care industry. I anticipated that this would allow me to join the entire social network of family members in the health care industry.  Social and Cultural Influences Example Paper Additionally, the comfort provided by my family and the level at which it was provided influenced my perceptions of what is normal, promoting me to maintain that perception through my lifestyle and career choices. Moreover, my family has also pressured me to excel at work and school, causing me to be passionate about the activities I engage in as an adult. In fact, I have turned into a workaholic and have been keen on pursuing higher education owing to my family expectation and pressure to excel. The family obligation has acted as protection since the nurse career path is filtered to a relatively ‘safe’ direction where role models and networking has been established in the family system (White, Livesey & Hayes, 2013).

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The second influence is interactions with the school fraternity, particularly teachers and faculty members, that molded my worldviews. In fact, teachers have had much influence in my life, second to my family’s influence. Over the years, my teachers have counseled me on thought processes and how to think. In addition, the new knowledge they provided as part of the education process formed the construct of what I believed as correct in the world at the time. Currently as a student in college, I have placed my professors’ opinions in career matters over the opinions of my friends and family. However, the opinions of my family and friends still hold the greatest sway in lifestyle matters. School has also influenced my ideas in historical issues and government systems, causing be to develop passion in certain subjects. I particularly remember that a review of Florence Nightingale as a historical figure inspired me to develop a fascination with biology subjects. The interest in Nightingale started in grade school and developed all the way through tertiary education, and has led me into a nurse career in a bid to emulate her (Thomas et al., 2016).
The third influence is mentors. As an ambitious and introspective individual, I have typically sought out my mentors from among more experienced nurse personnel in my workplace. I identify my mentors from among the nurses who are already professionally doing what I aspire to do, and consider their ideas and opinions as carrying a lot of weight. In fact, my intention to enroll in a Master’s nursing education program and become an advanced practice nurse was influenced by my mentors who advised me to get this qualification in order to acquire more skills and knowledge, and take on more responsibilities. I consider the mentorship relationships I have had successful since they coached and helped me to develop as a nurse professional. I have kept most of these mentorship relationships active and believe that they will serve me well throughout my professional career as a nurse. Besides that, my mentors serve as my qualified references in the resume, offering testimony concerning my character as an individual and professional work quality (Thomas et al., 2016).
The fourth influence is the media. The media has served as a powerful force to shape how I perceive the world. Through news reports and emphasis on certain topics, the media has exposed me to global social and political events, persons from different backgrounds, and personal resources and items. The television shows and movies in particular tend to focus specific careers through their shows thus helping to shape my ideas about the different careers. To be more precise, the media made me apprehensive of armed forces and police careers since those who work in such careers will usually risk their lives in the course of completing their duties. While I consider myself a selfless person and seek to help others, I am not ready to risk my life for others thus causing my apprehension of armed forces and police careers that would cause me to routinely risk my life. Medical television shows, movies and other entertainment options turned the nursing into a trendy career option through glamorizing nurses as noble persons who provide much needed medical care in the time of need. This glamorous view of the nursing profession increased my interest in a nursing career (Peterson, 2014).

The fifth influence is my abilities and skills. At an early age, I considered my abilities, interests, personality type, and skills, and solicited the services of a career counselor who encouraged me to pursue a career in the health care industry. The counselor specifically helped me in creating an occupational profile for specific careers and noted that I would be suitable for a nursing career since I had a high level of competence. The sixth influence is culture with a focus on ethnic and racial background as well as the culture of my regional area. My culture has an inherent respect for the nursing profession, looking at nurses as givers of life who do God’s work in maintaining health and wellness. They have a unique understanding of life that allows them to adapt the environment to improve the quality of life (Peterson, 2014). My culture has shaped my expectations and values as they related to many parts of my life, including career and lifestyle. Although I cannot attribute the predomination characteristics of my culture to either my paternal or maternal side of the family, still having an awareness of the expectations and values of my culture has helped me to make my career and lifestyle choices. Overall, the occupational prestige associated with a nursing career have caused me to be more committed to this career as an enterprising and social related occupation that is helpful to the needs of my community (Plomin, 2018).

The seventh influence is the prevailing social and economic conditions. My choices occur within the context of the economy and society. My capacity to pay for the nursing education through personal funds, loans, donations, scholarships and grants determined my ability to attend nursing school. In addition, changes to the economy and resultant job market have affected how my nursing career developed. The strong economy and shortage of nurses have influenced me to advance in my nursing career. Besides that, the events that have taken place in my life have affected the choices available to me and even dictated these choices to a certain extent. Stories from my family members, personally receiving care, and watching my friends receiving medical care all showed me that nursing is a desirable profession (Plomin, 2018). The final influence is my childhood fantasies. I have always answered that I want to be a nurse when asked what I want to be when I grow up. This was a childhood fantasy that I held on to and it helped shape how I thought about careers (Crago, 2017).
One must accept that the social and cultural influences in my lifestyle and career choices have been profound. In fact, I perceive these influences as critical in my decision to pursue a nursing career even though the influences are difficult to measure. These influences are an intricate part of my environment and influence my decisions in terms of career outlook, education and training required, and job description. In addition one must acknowledge that my nursing career choice and decision to be an advanced practice nurse was subject to may influences. The interaction and combination of these influences on my decision-making are unique to me. Keeping in mind that as I change, experiencing and learning new things, I will continue to fine-tune and revise my career and lifestyle choices. Overall, there are many choices to consider, but I do not have to figure them all at once since there are many social and cultural influences in my life.

References
Crago, H. (2017). The stages of life: personalities and patters in human emotional development. New York, NY: Routledge.
Peterson, C. (2014). Looking forward through the lifespan: developmental psychology (6th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Plomin, R. (2018). Blue print: how DNA makes us who we are. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Thomas, P., Kern, D., Hughes, M. & Chen, B. (2016). Curriculum development for medical education: a six-step approach (3rd ed.). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
White, F., Livesey, D. & Hayes, B. (2013). Developmental psychology: from infancy to development (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.  Social and Cultural Influences Example Paper