When I think of an enabling organization I automatically think of my high school’s Business Academy. This organization is a program where they teach high school students about computers. They teach them how to build a computer, about all the parts and how to type correctly. An organization becomes “enabling” if they share certain features. The feature are purpose, safety, fairness, humanity, and dignity (Finely 2020). Business Academy portrays all of the features that makes an organization “enabling.” It portrays purpose because it had its own mission statement aside from the school’s. It mission statement was for their students to become better students and to provide as many resources to prepare them for their future. They practiced fairness as it was led by students. The student board was in charge or getting students’ feedback to plan events and allowing them to participate in any decisions or any activities the board was allowed to participate in. They treated everyone fair, they did not do anything if the majority of the class did not agree with. The way this organization supported my psychosocial well-being is by having my teacher check in on me. He will call me into his office and just talked to me. He made the environment so welcoming and warm. He really cared about his students, he didn’t see his students as GPAs but as human beings.
What else can be enabling? Family. My parents parenting style was authoritative. Being an authoritative parents means you’re strict but your children act afraid of you because you are also outgoing (Finley 2020). They give their child rules but also want them to be independent. Peterson also states this is the best style of parenting because it has a positive effect on their children. The child has a greater chance of being friendly, socially responsible and self-reliant (Peterson 2006). Although my parents didn’t let me do whatever I want, they let me be independent. I wasn’t allowed to go out all the time, I had a curfew however I was still able to hang out with friends and make my own decisions. They also didn’t compare my brother and I. They knew we were different and didn’t force us to compete with each other, and I think that helped with the relationship I have with my little brother. Their parenting style really affected my psychosocial well-being. They made me be optimistic, until this day I still think I can do whatever I set my mind to.
Business Academy feel short in finding different ways in teaching their topics. They only had one way of teaching and it didn’t accommodate everyone. Although they saw everyone as individuals they didn’t do they when they were teaching. They only taught us from a book and many just couldn’t grasp the information about all the components of a computer. My parents lacked letting be more independent. Although they let us make our own decisions, they didn’t let us make big decisions. They only made us make decisions on things that didn’t really matter.
Resources:
Finley, K. (2020). Positive or “Enabling” Organizations and Institutions [PowerPoint Presentation]. Retrieved from Moodle.
Peterson, C. (2006). A primer in positive psychology. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.
Rebecca Cardenas 