Running head: RATIONALE ESSAY Page 1

Applied Human Behavior Rationale Essay

Jose Martinez

Northern Arizona University

Professor: Dr. Nate Velez

 RATIONALE ESSAY: PART 1 WITH ARTIFACT TABLE

Program Learning Outcome Corresponding Course Session

Assignment Number

Ex: AHB340

1. Human Systems & Diversity Learning Outcome

1.2 (subsection) Understand multiple perspectives S.W.O.T. AHB 390 Spring 1

on diversity and implement strategies to
encourage multicultural environments that
support clients, communities, and professional
environments.

1.3 (subsection) Recognize current ethics and Website Analysis AHB 390 Spring 1
laws related to primary and secondary
characteristics of diversity.

2. Practice & Intervention Learning Outcome

2.7 (subsection) Develop urban and rural Community AHB 375 Fall 2
community planning skills that use interpersonal Planning
communication and advocacy to empower
stakeholders to create sustainable, successful
community systems.

2.3(subsection) Explain aspects of human Creation of AHB 450 Fall 2

development, the life cycle, familial and genogram
relationship dynamics and how they affect
individual growth and success.

3. Community Engagement & Responsibility learning

Outcome

3.1 (subsection) Identify the impact that Mini-Grant AHB 375 Spring 1
socioeconomics, public policy, community Request
development, and global issues have on
individuals and community’s ability to resolve
psychological or social issues and develop new
strategies for success.

3.2 (subsection) Understand how globalization Citizenship AHB 350 Spring 1

and internationalism impact citizenship, Presentation Slide
participation, and social responsibility in mezzo
and macro environments and apply this
Project
knowledge to resolving issues of social
 responsibility and citizenship.

4. Professional Preparedness Learning Outcome

4.1 (subsection) Develop professional process Treatment AHB 420 Spring 1

skills including documentation, assessment, care Evaluation
planning, administrative documentation and
personal communication to apply in a variety of
human behavior career settings.

4.3(subsection) Understand the importance of Research AHB 305 Fall 2

Social Science research and apply research to Proposal
select solutions or implement best practices.

5. Personal Values and Development Learning

Outcome

5.1 (subsection) Explore personal and Reflection Paper AHB 375 Spring 1
professional values, ethics and career driven
dilemmas through participation in self-reflection
and professional exploration exercises, self-
critique, discussion and group activities.

5.2 (subsection) Develop personal experiences, Theoretical AHB 340 Fall 1

critical thinking skills and challenge current Perspectives on
worldviews through teamwork, self-assessment, Deviance Discussion
course projects, service learning and community Boards
internship experience.

.
 Intro

Growing up in a Hispanic house, I got the same baggage that I’m sure many others have. The
phrase “we came to this country for a better future, so that our children get an education, so you better
get a degree”. At the time I didn’t realize how much that affects people. It is expected for you to know
what you want to do at a young age and get your degree, because if you don’t, you either failed or will
work in a labor job. I laugh at it now, but that’s one example that got me into mental health. The
purpose of this rationale paper is to show the skills I have learned through this journey and how it has
helped me. The chart above will be used as a guide and I will give a small overview of what I took from
each course. All these courses not only can get you a Bachelors in NAU but it helps you understand
different perspectives and new ideas that others implement. There are five topics that will be covered
which are Human Systems & Diversity, Practice & Intervention, Community Engagement &
Responsibility, Professional Preparedness, and Personal Values and Development.

.
 Human Systems & Diversity

The first assignment that touched on diversity and the human system is described as

Understanding multiple perspectives on diversity and implement strategies to encourage multicultural

environments that support clients, communities, and professional environments. This goal was achieved

through the S.W.O.T. analysis. So, what is a S.W.O.T. analysis? It is basically a tool to help you develop

your business strategy, whether you’re building a startup or guiding an existing company. It focuses on

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths are things that your business does good.

Weaknesses focus on your people, resources, systems, and procedures. It is basically somewhere you

could improve, and what you should avoid. Opportunities are openings or chances for something positive

to happen. Keeping an eye out for new things, such as new ways of transportation or even new policies.

Threats are basically anything that affect your business from the outside, such as supply chain problems,

shifts in market requirements, or a shortage of recruits.

For my business I chose to do Fedex. Fedex is a competitor to Amazon, UPS and other package

delivery services. The advantage of this company is its name and service. They have great insurances and

therefore motivate the drivers and handler to do their job well. Weakness, I will try to be as honest as I

can. Although Fedex is an amazing delivery services that has the option for either dame day or next day

delivery, their employees may not be as happy. I remember working for them and feeling unappreciated.

You have to remember, its based-on time, if you’re a minute late, you’ll get a talking too, however if your

early, you’ll never be praised for it. The opportunity’s that were seen where different vehicles being used,

the time I was there, we only drove those huge trucks that made it harder to deliver packages to small

neighborhood. They introduced smaller and faster vehicles, that was a game changer. The most threats I

seen for Fedex was being understaff during the winter peak season. The way to avoid that was to hire on

new recruits early on.

 2. Practice & Intervention Learning Outcome
The first for practice & intervention is developing urban and rural community planning skills

that use interpersonal communication and advocacy to empower stakeholders to create sustainable,

successful community systems. This was a project for AHB 375, “Community meeting analysis” we were

able to describe and analyze the core functions of a community planner and his or her role in the planning

process through completion of the community meeting analysis assignment. Students will use his or her

experience attending the community council meetings. I did a PowerPoint on “The Places where

Everything Changes.” This project focuses on the slums, immigration, and how towns changes to city.

The impact it gives on people of color.

The second outcome is Explaining the aspects of human development, the life cycle, familiar and

relationship dynamics and how they affect individual growth and success. For this assignment I did a

genogram for AHB 450. A genogram is a pictorial display of a person's family relationships and medical

history. Some therapist in personal and family therapy uses genograms for records and to explain either

the individual or their families. A major problem with therapist is having their “grey area”. A lot of

therapist and people in general will have lack of insight and self-awareness because they choose to not

look into themselves. The genogram help realize that we all have issues and if we can’t see them, then

how can we “fix” them. It’s a helpful way to understand, help others and what can be done to prevent

some traumatic factors.

 . 3. Community Engagement & Responsibility learning Outcome
The first outcome for community engagement & responsibility is identifying the impact that

socioeconomics, public policy, community development, and global issues have on individuals and

community’s ability to resolve psychological or social issues and develop new strategies for success. This

was touched upon in course AHB 375. The assignment that helped me understand the community better

was the mini grant. The mini grant is intended to serve as examples of previously funded proposals and

provide information about the types of projects that have been funded in the past. I chose a recreation

center that was self-funded. “La Mente Sana” was a nonprofit whose primary target is the youth. Coming

from a Latin family, I was raised with one parent working while the other took care of the children and

the house. The community has grown since then. Stronger and have a more open mind, equality.

However, because both parents are working, the children are either left with other family members, day

care centers or simply fend for themselves. My goal is to provide a home away from home. Showing kids,

a safer a nonviolent path and giving them a head start with education. Understanding and implementing

leadership skills, goals and showing diversity. It’s a new era where one meets a person through the phone,

internet or gaming, this will be a great way to show interactions and better communication skills.

The second outcome was understanding how globalization and internationalism impact

citizenship, participation, and social responsibility in mezzo and macro environments and apply this

knowledge to resolving issues of social responsibility and citizenship. This goal was achieved in course

AHB 350. The project was simple, the goal was basically to evaluate the success or efforts to create a

humane and responsible living, working and productive global society through identifying an issue of

global citizenship and creating a group VoiceThread presentation on a citizenship topic that shows

comprehension of theory, contemporary issues, challenges and solutions. I partner up with a fellow

classmate and we discussed the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue was how it affected the kids, how
marriages were being put to the test and how zoom was introduced. We came together and finally gave

suggestion that marriages should be healthy from the beginning. Seek help if

4. Professional Preparedness Learning Outcome

Learning objective developing professional process skills including documentation, assessment,

care planning, administrative documentation and personal communication to apply in a variety of human

behavior career settings. The course that I can associate this outcome with is in AHB 420. This was

achieved through treatment planning. Treatment planning is a process in which the therapist makes a

custom plan in which the application of available treatment resources to each client's individual goals and

needs. The assignment was for Students to use this project to apply theory and research to understanding

the challenges of addiction, relapse, resiliency, and adaptation. Giving examples and talking to one

another in the class we, discuss the reasons why someone would relapse and what are the triggers.

The second learning objective is understanding the importance of Social Science research and

apply research to select solutions or implement best practices. This outcome was achieved in AHB 305.

Research Methods was created to help understand the potential uses and limitations of social science

research. I did my research paper on men in the mental health community. I wanted to show how men

with trauma will rather suffer from there traumatic events than actually reach out for help. I gave graphs

and factual research that showed the suicide rate in men were higher. The difference in culture also took

part of why men were not reaching out to seek help. An example is “machismo”. In the Hispanic

community, one is looked as weak if he reaches out to talk about their emotions and discomforts.
 5. Personal Values and Development Learning Outcome
The objective 5.1 is Exploring personal and professional values, ethics and career driven dilemmas
through participation in self-reflection and professional exploration exercises, self-critique, discussion and group activities.

This assignment was achieved in AHB 375 through a reflection paper. In this course we learned how our community and

everyone in there has their own part in it. My self-reflection was about how I realized the world is viewed by many eyes.

Coming into the class I was focusing on one way or “tunnel vision”, which was my own thoughts on how the community

should be. The way the class presented it self was definitely a great way to see different point of views. Every student had to

present their own presentation on different chapters in the book. The goal was to read the chapter and the other student would

present the highlights of that chapter. It was great to see other student perspective and give you their opinion.

The second objective was about developing personal experiences, critical thinking skills and challenge current

worldviews through teamwork, self-assessment, course projects, service learning and community internship experience. I was

able to reach this objective through the course of AHB 340. The assignment was basically understanding and the ability

to deconstruct theories and analyze ethical and cultural issues of deviance with weekly discussions. I like the way

this course was set up as well. There were many discussions and theories that were presented and we would have

to give out opinions and our own theories. You would present yours and get feedback from other students. We

also discussed deviance and how a person who understand and is aware, may just agree with the rules of

society and will not be deviant.

Conclusion

I get a little emotional still going back and actually reflecting on how much work we have

accomplished. The pandemic has made it difficult to actually stay aware of what we have been doing in

real time, remembering every single project, assignments and discussion has made proud. This degree the

Applied Human Behavior has really thought me new things that I can take on to the next chapter in my

life.
 This degree has helped me see and learned new skills that I never knew existed. I am lucky

enough to work at a trauma agency now, the fact that I get to see clients and know some of theirs stories

and while that’s going on, I’m learning about why they feel this way through our courses and how we can

help. The exciting part is that my journey has only begun and sky is not the limit its just a view.