Eportfolio Reflection

Thomas E. Altizer
Psychology 1010-Kwan
Salt Lake Community College
This psychology course in conjuncture with the rest of the courses I have taken thus far at SLCC
has been completely complementary, well except for math, nothing is similar to math. Even right
down to the assignments I have chosen for my English 1010 and 2010 classes as well. My goal is
to eventually be a Licensed Clinical Social Worker working in the drug and alcohol field, and
therefore my major at SLCC is Social Work (A.A.). I have thus far taken three social work
courses, and each have had some aspect of psychology intertwined, since individual
psychotherapy is such an integral part of the career. Past that, however, I have also taken two
English classes, and for each semesters work, we choose a social justice issue to write various
assignments about all semester. Both issues I explored in this semester referred to mental health.
Even my Political Science class had some psychological overtones as well.
The majority of the connections between this class and others I have taken occurred in
My Social Work 1010, 2100, and 2650 classes. In 1010, we learn the very basics of social work
practice. While some of the things we learned dealt with macro level practice, more than half of
the semester dealt with mental health, and the different roles social workers play in that space. In
2100 we learned much more concerning psychological concepts. We visited much that had to do
with Eriksens childhood studies, Maslows hierarchy of needs concept, as well as each chapter
diving into a different aspect of human development, and giving the bio-psych-social-spiritual
aspects of that specific area of life, from prenatal life to old age and death. This semester, I took
Social Work 2650, which focused specifically on Social Work in the drug and alcohol addiction
field. Here we learned the exact same thing we learned in the chapter concerning the biology of
the brain, and the chemistry behind addiction. We even watched Pleasure Unwoven which
dealt very intensely in the subject. Whats more, the week we covered this was the same exact
week we covered this same subject in this class, which I thought was a very awesome
coincidence.
The other classes I have taken have not had a direct a connection, but there have
definitely been obvious things which connect the subject matter to psychology. For instance, in
political science, when learning the different fallacies used in political debates, the thinking
errors involved in Red Herring and Begging the Question and Ad Hominem mirror
concepts learned when learning of heuristics and overconfidence in the learning chapter. Last
semester, in English 1010, I did all of my projects on the problem of addiction in America. As
such, I used information contained in the biology of the mind chapter, direct correlations. This
semester, my project was the depression and stress caused by the financial crisis in America. I
used a lot of information contained in the stress section of the text.
All in all, whether if one is to become a therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist, or the like or
becoming something completely different, I certainly have realized that the concepts of

psychology can be applied to every facet of life, because psychology is in play in every activity
involving organic living organisms with a brain. Knowing these concepts has given me a greater
understanding of the wide array of problems and people surrounding us, as well as the vast
genius and creativity that have surrounded every facet of industry, religion, art, and culture over
millennia. Psychology continues to be one of the most fascinating subjects to me, and since
taking this course, my goal to one day be an LCSW is only strengthened by taking this course.