Diane Ocaranza

Professor Franklin
Course HD 497
17 October 2015
Core Description HD 411-Working with Adults
Working with Adults is a course that provides working adults with tools and
systems of coping within working atmospheres that could become challenging at times.
This course speaks on the level of leadership, the type of learning worker methods we
each adhere to, integration of aware or unaware biases while at work, it also presents
strategies that are effective, meaningful and relevant in the workplace, especially in how
we communicate with others at work. Working with Adults lists ways in which adults
experience workforce environments and relationships.
The course first begins by allowing us as adult students analyze our current stance
in life. The class probes into what we are presently facing with ourselves, at work, school,
and home. From this point forward, we then discover the concepts of linear and cyclical
pathological patterns adults live out through most of our lives without realizing it. In
linear pattern adults are consistent with goals, achieving and triumphing in each stage of
human development, as most psychosocial theorists portray in their human development
model. Meanwhile, other adults experience a cyclical pattern, in which a plateauing
process is recurrent in the adults life. That is, the adult experiences four phases, Go for it,
The Doldrums, Cocooning, and getting ready.
The cyclical pattern phases an adult deals with include various types of emotion,
phase is positive, dreamy, reaches goals, sees world as harmonious, and feels empowered,

phase 2 is negative, resistant, tentative, denying, senses decline, sees world as out of
synch, and feels trapped and out of energy. Phase 3 is quiet and introspective, invests in
personal growth, taps core values, becomes filled with new hope, passion, and purpose, it
is spiritual. Phase 4 feels optimistic, creative, experiments, is in training, and networks.
Out these two patterns most of the class including myself found that we fall under
cyclical pattern descriptors. We all related to either 1to 2 cyclical phase in life. We also
acknowledged that a lot of us either began in linear pattern, but for one instance or
another switched over to cyclical patters; and others began cyclical but now find
themselves in linear pattern.
Finding out where I stand in life and realizing my own pathology has made me
more cognizant of my emotional state while pursuing goals, taking on tasks, and
succeeding at work, school, and at home. With that in mind, we can view clearly why
when at work we all experience myriad leadership styles, employee performance, and
professional relationships. This class has helped assess my own supervisors leadership
style while at work.
While learning in class about people in leadership positions at work and how
these leaders adhere to different types of power has urged me to consider which style of
power in leadership I would most likely utilize while becoming a leader myself. Even
though, I do feel that issues arise when individuals have power over others, simply
because if used negatively this power can become damaging for others; on the other
hand, I do believe that each place of work should have a level supervision to have things
run smoothly and justly. Here we rely on different types of power influences, these are
described as Knowledge of power, Position power, Reward power, Coercive power, and

Charismatic power. Here I learned that I am actually aware of how to fairly distribute
each power if needed to. For one, I would mostly rely on two types of power, Knowledge
power and Position power this is because of ones skills and knowledge in our field of
work do not speak volumes in how I would manage a managerial position, this meaning
that if others disregard my knowledge or skills in running a department, in that case, if
needed to I would definitely utilize Position power. Because in most cases when
situations become out of hand, relying in ones Position power in many (urgent) scenarios
at work, could help diffuse adverse situations.