PEPSI SCREENING PROJECT

PEPSI Screening

EDU 220-2001

Gisel Gonzalez

College of Southern Nevada

May 2 , 2018
nd

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Abstract

This paper is written as a PEPSI screening for Jessica Fabian. She is a seventeen-year-old high

school senior. I went into her home, talked to her and her parents, and observed her behavior.

The point of the paper is to assess how different parts of her life (physical, emotional,

philosophical, social, and intellectual) compare to other people her age and to better understand

her ability. By the end of the paper, you will see that for the most part, she is developing

normally, and I will have suggestions at the end on areas she can improve.

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PEPSI Screening

Jessica Fabian is a seventeen-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada. She lives with her

brother and parents. She currently is a senior in high school and describes herself as fairly

introverted, but an all-around normal teen. Her social circle is small, and she is currently in a

relationship. Her health is good, her grades are great, and her mother doesn’t have many

complaints about her. The real reason I picked her for this PEPSI Screening is because she

wanted to be put under a microscope. Jessica excited about self-improvement and this paper aims

to uncover how she can enhance her life.

Physical Development

Jessica’s physical development is on track compared to other teens. She is 5’1” and

weighs 127lbs, which means her BMI is 24. According to an article written on Healthline.com,

experts in exercise science and health promotion, recommend that a 5’1” girl at her age should

weigh from 106-140lbs (Marcin 2017). From this information, I learned she is in the 85 th

percentile among other 17-year old’s (Marcin 2017). The textbook Psychology Applied to

Teaching, asserts “Physical development during the high school years is marked by physical

maturity for most students and by puberty for virtually all. Sexual activity increases” (Snowman

& McCown, 2015). She is at physical maturity, has passed most of puberty since her freshman

year. She recently started dating someone for the first time, and they are engaging sexually (no

STD’s). Snowman & McCown (2015) also say that in 2011, 52% of Hispanics and 47% of

females in high school were having sexual intercourse. For her ethnicity and her gender, she is

about average

She used to be involved in soccer before high school, but now as a senior, she lives a

more sedentary life. She now spends most of her free time at band practice or at work. I asked

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her if she wanted to go on a walk at the park, and she said that she has not been to a park in a

while and would rather sit and have lunch. In an article about adolescent girls and physical

activity, the authors stated, “half of U.S. adolescents (ages 11-21) are not active at recommended

levels, defined as 60 minutes or more of moderate intensity activity everyday” (Toscos, Faber,

Connelly & Upoma, 2008). Jessica told me that she drinks plenty of water and considers herself

healthy despite knowing that she probably should do more cardiovascular activity. Her mother

also noticed that whenever she goes out with friends, the most cardio she ever gets is walking

around the mall. Her mother notes that diabetes type-2 runs in her family, but she is not afraid of

Jessica getting it because she is in a good BMI and eats well. Jessica, on the other hand, is a bit

more concerned about the possibility but copes with it by watching what she eats. However, she

does not have a history of eating disorders. Overall, she has good spatial awareness as she knows

how to drive and has no trouble with fine motor skills like doing things with her hands.

Jessica explained to me that growing up, she had no issue with physical affection but as

of lately, she tends to shy away from public displays of affection. She prefers to show her

physical connection with her parents and her boyfriend in private settings and not in public.

Jessica’s friends are not very touchy people, and that affects how she interacts with the people

she loves. She also revealed to me that another reason she is not so affectionate with her

boyfriend in public is because she is embarrassed about his weight. There is a physical

disconnect here. I found this interesting considering that a study done in the Journal of Social

Science and Medicine found that teens usually have negative perceptions of their own weight but

“were rarely supportive of friends or family who attempted to lose weight and frequently

disagreed with others’ perceptions of fatness.” (Wills, Backett, Gregory, & Lawton, 2006). I

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have noticed that the youth currently are more accepting of people with different body shapes,

but Jessica still is not. For this reason, she stays away from physical contact with him in public.

PHYSICAL

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Jessica
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AVERAGES

4 Other Teens

3 3

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PUBERTY IS BMI NEED FOR SEXUAL PHSYICALLY
COMPLETE AFFECTION ACTIVITY ACTIVE
CHARACTERISTICS

Emotional Development

In the textbook Psychology Applied to Teaching, it explains that Latinos report having

suicidal thoughts more than White or Black kids, and that girls are more likely to be depressed

than boys (Snowden & McCown, 2015). While Jessica does in fact have some self-esteem

issues, she has not been depressed since middle school. In her high school career, she never got

bullied, did not abuse substances, did not have an eating disorder, and had a good group of

friends that kept her out of trouble. She recounts that her favorite memory is having a friend in

Physical Education that was popular and healthy, and it motivated her to push herself physically

in that class and be on the “same level” socially. The real pressure she felt was during her band

classes where she was challenged to learn how to play music and also learn how to march in

sequence with her band members. This did not stress her out to an extreme.

One issue I do see with Jessica is how aggressive and defensive she becomes when

someone attacks her. Instead of letting things go, she has a tendency to bite back quickly and this

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has caused her to get a little bit of a mean reputation among her friends. According to the article

Seven Pillars of Defense Mechanism Theory, “the use of immature defenses will be related to

less successful functioning” (Cramer, 2008). Since she is a teen, this is the time for her to learn

how to control her emotions, and she is making a conscious effort to better herself. Jessica tells

me that now she tends to isolate herself when she’s upset or angry because she does not want to

lash out anymore. This shows her self-awareness of her need to improve. She does not want to be

remembered as someone who is sassy, but in contrast, a person who is welcoming and respectful

to the people around her.

Her pet peeve is when people ask her if anything is wrong and she says that nothing is,

and they keep pestering her about it. When I saw her brother, Nestor interacting with her this

way, she responded by saying “Even if something is wrong, it will be okay later, so just leave me

alone now.” This has now become a habit for her. In the article Adolescent Anger Control, the

author talks about the different ways of expressing anger: exploding approach, stuffing approach,

ventilating approach, and the problem-solving approach (Tamaki, 1994). I would consider this

the stuffing approach, where she is trying to choke down how she feels and move on. Tamaki

(1994) explains that the problem-solving approach is usually the best way of dealing with anger,

but Jessica may have to practice the ventilating approach first before she gets to that. She

confides in her mother a lot, and that would probably be the best person to talk to about her

anger.

Jessica is very sensitive about the way people see her, even though that is not the

impression you first get from her. Tamaki (1994) explains that “Adolescents exhibit… a strong

need for adult approval. They desire to make their own decisions, like adults, but have not yet

acquired the skills nor discipline necessary for effective and appropriate decision-making”. In

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this way, she is like a lot other teen that seek approval from older people, especially from Nestor.

While she is quick to defend herself against most people, she never does against Nestor’s

criticism. I have observed that when she gets negative comments from Nestor, she tends to get

outwardly emotional and sad. This is in contrast to how she normally is. She describes her

brother as responsible and smart, and that her self-esteem is affected by his opinions on her. I

feel this happens because she is still young and figuring out her own identity.

EMOTIONAL

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9

8 8 8
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5 5 Jessica
AVERAGES

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4 Other Teens

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SELF ESTEEM CARE O DEPRESSION FEELINGS DEFENSIVENESS
FITTING IN FOR LOVE

CHARACTERISTICS

Philosophical Development

According to Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning, as described by Snowman and

McCown (2015), people 9 to 21 years of age are at level Two, conventional morality. Jessica fits

into this level and into stage four: law and order orientation. This means that she believes fixed

rules are essential and should be obeyed. When we were talking, she said that she describes

herself as a pretty liberal person, but sometimes the left goes too far. Overall, she believes in the

government’s rules and thinks of them to be fair. Her mother also told me that she never was a

problematic child. She always has been one to follow the rules. I then asked Jessica if she ever

has thought of being a rebel and breaking the rules, and to that she said, “Rules keep you safe,

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there is a reason why I’m not allowed to do certain things”. This self-awareness was shocking to

me because I assumed high schoolers go through a phase where they explore and push

boundaries.

The day that I met with her was the same morning that President Trump legally deployed

airstrikes to Syria, and I could see this affected her. She expressed concern for civilians who

were dying because of our country’s military. Her interest in the conflicts in the Middle East

began when her school made her watch CNN Student News. Since then, she has also researched

more on sex trafficking and discrimination in the US. Jessica is an incredibly empathetic person

when it comes to injustice. According to Ellsworth (1999) from Northern Arizona University,

late adolescents “may begin to identify beyond adolescence and peerage to member of

community. If so, then moral reasoning will focus on protecting the society and following

community guidelines.” She definitely is starting to identify as a citizen of not just the

community, but of the world. She has done community service, but most of it has been done in

her church and for credit at school.

Jessica also says that her philosophies come from her Catholicism. In a study done in

Social Indicators Research, “79.1 percent of the 18-year-old respondents reported religion to be

important, while 86.7 percent of 15-year-old respondents reported religion as important” (Cnaan,

Gelles, & Sinha 2004). Maybe it’s because of teenage perceptions in America, but this also really

surprised me. Jessica is turning 18 this year and is still very religious. She does not even like it

when people say, “I swear to God”. She says that God is always listening and watching her, and

that fact filters her decisions. Cnaan et al. (2004), states “religious adolescents report consistently

higher number of developmental assets associated with increased restraint and decreased risk

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behavior”. She already is okay with following rules in her religion and respecting authority. I can

see how this affects how she sees authority outside of religion, like government and her parents.

PHILOSOPHICALLY

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Jessica
AVERAGES

4 Other Teens

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LAW AND LIBERAL CITIZEN OF RELIGIOUS
ORDER THE WORLD
CHARACTERISTICS

Social Development

According to Snowman & McCown (2015), three characteristics that describe high

schoolers social tendencies are; “parents and adults are likely to influence long range plans while

peers are likely to influence immediate status… girls seem to experience greater anxiety about

friendships… [and] many high school students are employed after school”. Jessica seems to be

on par with two out of three.

To start, Jessica is influenced by her parents and other adults a lot. To her, peer approval

is not that important. She wants people to have a good impression of her, but she will only give

into peer pressure if it involves people she trusts and that are adults. She only drinks alcohol with

adults in her family. Rarely has she gotten drunk with people in her own age group. She tells me

she likes to learn from her older friends and her family on what to do and what not to do and this

has helped her avoid peer pressure. I also noticed that she is a lot like her mother and has similar

habits. I can tell she respects her mother a lot and looks up to her.

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Jessica does not seem to have anxiety about friendships like other girls her age do. She

tells me she only has about three friends and they met early in high school when one needed

advice and Jessica was there to comfort her. The only anxiety Jessica feels is when people

around her give off negative or mean “vibes” because she wants nothing to do with those kinds

of people.

Jessica does have a job outside of school. She just started working for Dominos in her

senior year. Before this, band as an extracurricular activity took up most of her time outside of

school. She now does both but has less of a class load in her senior year. An article from the

Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration analyzed adolescents who were in afterschool

clubs and jobs and saw that these activities had a huge impact on the girl’s self-efficacy

(Carruthers, 2006). The study claims “through a process of exploration and goal setting,

development of a perception of competence, support and encouragement, and interaction with

positive role models, the girls acquired the idea that they had the ability to create a positive

future for themselves” (Carruthers, 2006). This attitude that she’s acquired makes her a positive

role model to her friends. She knows who she is through these programs. The same journal also

notes that these programs were parallel to Bandura’s concepts of the Self Efficacy and Social

Cognitive Theory (Carruthers, 2006). As I said before, she has higher self-esteem and is

incredibly self-reliant, coming from activities and her mom’s example of being a strong woman

who always was working two jobs.

When it comes to the need for intimacy, Weinstein and Rosenhaft (1991) claim that there

are three stages for adolescents: Who am I, who are you, and Who are we. For Who am I

(relating to the search of sexual self), she has always been straight, never doubted or had internal

conflicts about it and has been comfortable with her body. For Who are you (interest in others as

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sexual partners), the article suggests she should socially be on the hunt for “first partners and

early sexual exploration with a need to understand the other’s sexual experience in relation to

one’s own” (Weinstein & Rosenhaft, 1991). Jessica is a late bloomer in this respect. The only

boyfriend she has ever had is the new relationship she is in now.

I asked her what kept her away from being in a relationship for so long, and she said that

the need for intimacy was never really a big deal for her. Also, she saw her friends get into

relationships early and have sex early which lead to them being heartbroken or in drama. Jessica

noticed the issues and did not want to be part of it. The next stage, who are we (understanding of

couple interactions), for Jessica and her boyfriend include less shame about sexuality,

responsibility of taking steps in preventing unwanted pregnancy, and a sense of comfortability

with each other. All of these steps are in line with what adolescent teens are supposed to feel

during this time (Weinstein & Rosenhaft, 1991). These factors are allowing her to mature

socially and prepare her for intimacy in her adult life.

SOCIAL

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Jessica
AVERAGES

4 Other Teens

3 3

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1

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PARENT PEER EMPLOYMENT ANXIETY IN INTAMCY
INFLUENCE INFLUENCE FRIENDS

CHARACTERISTICS

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Intellectual Development

Snowman and McCown (2015) explain two cognitive changes in high school students.

The first is that they “become increasingly capable of engaging in formal thought”. Formal

operations in Jessica’s thinking is definitely developing. I made her take an online quiz on

personalitymax.com that tested her abstract thinking, logical thinking, deductive reasoning, and

planning skills all in accordance with her age group according to Piaget. Her results when it

came to intuition was 42% while other females scored 41%. When it came to perception, she

scored a 16% while other females scored 48%. This says she is able to think just as theoretically

and abstract as other people in her demographic but is not very adaptable and has a very narrow

focus compared to other teen girls. I talked to her mom about her grades and she noted that she’s

done very well in school. Her report cards are mostly A’s and B’s since her sophomore year. She

has always been good in English but struggled a lot in math. She never got a C. It just took her

longer to understand the content.

Knowing that she has always done band, I assumed her to have very high musical

intelligence from Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. The same quiz also

supported that idea. Her highest intelligences were musical, naturalist, and visual intelligence.

An investigation done by Sener and Çokçaliskan (2018) suggested that most students are “tactile

and auditory learners” and that “naturalistic, visual, and kinesthetic intelligence types received

the highest score”. According to this journal, she is on par with her peers, except for the fact she

is more musically inclined than kinesthetic.

This also made me wonder what learning style fit her the most. She scored a 90/100 on

kinesthetic, and 85/100 on both visual and auditory. This was shocking because so much of

music is auditory but then I remembered that you have to have good control of your finger and

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fine motor skills to be good at playing instruments. This could also explain why she was better at

hands on science than math classes that were more about visually learning the material. In the

Journal of Visual Literacy, they broke down learning styles for adolescents into visual, auditory,

kinesthetic, visual-auditory, visual-kinesthetic, and auditory-kinesthetic (Andreou & Vlachos,

2013). Out of the six, the highest one was kinesthetic at 27 percent and auditory-kinesthetic at

26%. For Jessica, this means her learning styles are on average with her other classmates.

Conclusion

Physically, Jessica is in great health. I want to see her take some time for 30 minutes of

activity each day. I also want her to be more open to physical affection. She understands that

there’s nothing wrong with being physically close to people, but she’s holding herself back from

actually showing it to her boyfriend and her parents. I think it would be a good idea to get used

to hand holding with her boyfriend in public and confront what it is she is scared of. If she

cannot be herself, her partner will perceive that she is changing.

Emotionally, it is a good thing that she is aware of her own anger. Jessica should work on

the ventilation approach when she’s upset. She is quick to lash out, and I think she could benefit

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from practicing how to take a step back and vent. She is very close to her mother and I know she

is the type of person that would hear her out. So instead of blowing up, I recommend that she

learns how to effectively deal with her issues and then to talk it out with someone she trusts like

her mother.

Another thing she should consider is that Nestor is not perfect. While his image should

still be good in her mind, she should not take everything he says personally. I know that being

the younger sibling, you want to look cool in the eyes of your older sibling. Part of her maturing

into an adult has to be about knowing herself past who her brother thinks she is.

Philosophically, I recommend that she takes her empathetic energy for politics and

activism to the street. She is on par with other people her age, but the next step is to actually get

up and do something about it. She is turning eighteen soon and will be driving, so nothing should

hold her back form protesting, voting, and being an active member of her community.

Socially, Jessica is doing well. As I write this she and her friends are on a trip to

California to have some fun before finals. She fits in well, has no trouble making friends in new

settings, and is sure of her own self and where she fits into the world. However, she should

rethink how she sees her boyfriend’s social currency and consider if she may be being mean or

unreasonable.

Intellectually, I would recommend Jessica take classes or jobs that have emphasis on

hands on experiences since that is how she learns best. She should keep doing music even after

high school because she is so naturally talented at it. I would also recommend she push herself to

not be so organized and uptight and learn how to multitask more.

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Development Graph

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References

Physical Development References

Marcin, A. (2017). Average Weight for Women: By Age, Height, and More. Retrieved April 09,
2018, from https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/average-weight-for-
women#weightmanagement

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage
Learning, 101-102

Toscos, T., Faber, A., Connelly, K., & Upoma, A. M. (2008). Encouraging Physical Activity in
Teens Can technology help reduce barriers to physical activity in adolescent girls? The
Proceedings of the Second ICST International Conference on Pervasive Computing
Technologies for Healthcare. doi:10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth2008.2782

Wills, W., Backett-Millburn, K., Gregory, S., & Lawton, J. (2006). Young teenagers’ perceptions
of their own and others’ bodies: A qualitative study of obese, overweight and ‘normal’
weight young people in Scotland. Social Science & Medicine,62(2), 396. Retrieved April
8, 2018.

Emotional Development References

Cramer, P. (2008). Seven Pillars of Defense Mechanism Theory. Social and Personality
Psychology Compass,2(5), 1963-1981. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00135.

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage
Learning, 104-105

Tamaki, S. (1994). Adolescent Anger Control. Saskatchewan School Trustees Association.

Retrieved April 8, 2018.

Philosophical Development References

Cnaan, R. A., Gelles, R. J., & Sinha, J. W. (2004). YOUTH AND RELIGION: THE
GAMEBOY GENERATION GOES TO "CHURCH". Social Indicators Research, 68(2),
175-200. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.library.csn.edu/docview/197660977?accountid=27953

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Ellsworth, J. (1991). Late Adolescence. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/reading2-1-2.html

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage
Learning, 61

Social Development References

Carruthers, C (2006). Processes and Outcomes of an After-School Program for Adolescent Girls.
Journal of Park & Recreation Administration, 24(4), 127-152

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage
Learning, 103

Weinstein, E., & Rosenhaft, E. (1991). The development of adolescent sexual intimacy:
Implications for counseling. Adolescence, 26(102), 331.

Intellectual Development References

Andreou, E., & Vlachos, F. (2013). Learning Styles of Typical Readers and Dyslexic
Adolescents. Journal of Visual Literacy, 32(2), 1-13.

Sener, S., & Çokçaliskan, A. (2018). An Investigation between Multiple Intelligences and
Learning Styles. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 6(2), 125-132.

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Australia: Cengage
Learning, 106

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