Adolescent Observation

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FHS 1500-Sp15
Tawnda Littlewood
Observation 4 Adolescent

Background
Childs age:
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Information
13
Jacob
Jacobs home, Taylorsville, Utah
I am interviewing Jacob in his living room on his couch. He
seems pretty relaxed but his 6yo brother keeps coming in to
see what hes doing.

Physical Development
According to Berger (pg. 325) often times depression in adolescent males
shows up as anger. Jacob when asked how he handles the changes of puberty
stated that often times he just wants to get a big rock to handle it He refers often
throughout the interview to using violence to handle problems. This could be a
potential sign of depression.
The text book describes adolescent growth spurt (Berger pg. 326) as a
proximodistal reversal and averages around age 13 Jacob states that he didnt
really notice his hands and feet growing before he got taller it all happened about
the same time not long after he turned 13 which would put him in an average
category as far as timing of his growth spurt and that the only thing he has noticed
is that one of his ears is larger than the other. This is also further backed by his
mention of growing at about the same time as most boys his age. Therefore Jacob
seems to be a normally growing 13 year-old.
Berger (pg. 322) describes circadian rhythms as possibly affecting
adolescences sleep patterns, Jacob is either does not fall into the normal category
of a normal teenager or something else, his typical schedule is that he falls
asleep between 9 or 10 and is woken up by his mother around 6-6:30am for
school, he did not go into much detail about his sleep patterns on the weekends.
He states he feels he gets enough sleep and even if he doesnt hes just fine and
functions fine.
Cognitive Development

The textbook describes prefrontal cortex and adolescence is a time that

caution is needed adolescence are more likely to take risks and not think before
they do things. (Berger pg. 331) When Jacob is asked if he thinks his friends and/or
himself take more risks than they did a few years ago his response is he thinks
people his age are becoming increasingly less logical and are losing their
intelligence. He denies taking risks, but states he used to but has gotten wiser.
Jacobs personal fable (Berger pg. 333) is that he is stupid, crazy, weird and
idiotic, he states thats the way Ive always been and people like me so Im good
with that. The invincibility fable (Berger 333) as the textbook describes it, that the
teen can do anything and/or accomplish anything. Jacob believes he can beat
anyone up if need be, as long as hes got a really big rock or a hammer, he
believes that these two items can solve any problem whether it be his or a friends
personal problem or a social problem.
Jacob is in the 7th grade the text book describes how he feels about math
would relate to the incremental approach to intelligence (Berger pg. 341), Jacob
says he is horrible at math and always has been but holds hope that someday
there will either be a computer to do it for him, which he states is pretty unlikely
and he entertains the idea that maybe with a tutor or some extra help he could
finally get it.
Social/Emotional Development
The textbook explains that family closeness has 4 parts, communication,
support, connectedness, and control. (Berger pg. 363) Jacob explains his family as
close, he gets along well with his parents and his younger siblings most of the
time. In relation to the communication aspect he states that he does not keep
secrets from his or any of his friends parents and that kids should talk to their
parents even if theyre afraid to do so which would suggest his family has good
communication among them. He refers to his parents as very supportive of him
and his younger siblings stating that his dad is a truck driver and is as supportive
as he can be but is only home a few nights a week. In the area of connectedness
and control he states is he allowed a lot of freedom to do as he pleases when he
pleases, which would lead me to assume there may not need to be a lot of parental
monitoring (Berger pg. 363) possibly there is that there is a lot of trust with the
communication being so open.
The textbook states peer power (Berger pg.364) as an adolescent doing
whatever their peers do, when I asked Jacob about his friends he stated that he
had 8 close friends that every day at lunch the only thing they did was get
together an play a certain game on their phone that hed paid money for to have in
order to participate with his friends. He then proceeded to tell me that I should get
this same game for my son because it was the new game to play and thing to do.

Peer pressure (Berger pg.364-365) is described as peers pushing an

individual to try drugs, break the law or do things theyd never do on their own.
Jacob told me about a time one of his former friends had stolen something
expensive and wanted Jacobs help to cover it up or frame someone he put it,
he states that he walked away and has not had any interaction with this friend
since.
Jacob states that he does not know of any friends that are romantically
involved and denies having a girlfriend or any relationships outside of boys his age
and his family. He also looks around the room as he answers as if to see if anyone
is looking or listening. This is normal according to the textbook in that most
romance relationships begin as group setting, as friendships which is
developmentally appropriate for his age. (Berger pg. 368)

Reference List
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the Life Span (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.