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PEPSI Screening for Alexis Scott

Allison K. Scott

College of Southern Nevada

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PEPSI Screening for Alexis Scott

Biography

This PEPSI screening will be about Alexis Scott. Alexis is a thirteen-year-old female.

She is currently in the eighth grade and moving onto high school soon. Alexis was born in

Seattle, Washington in May of 2005. She lived in Seattle with her family for about two years

before moving to Bogota, Colombia for her father’s job when she was two. She lived in Bogota

for about three years before moving to Las Vegas. Since then, she and her family have lived in

Las Vegas for almost nine years.

Alexis has five members in her family. She has two sisters, her mother and her father,

though not all of them live in the same place. Both of Alexis’s sisters are older than she is. One is

nineteen, attending college to become a teacher and the other is twenty-one and was recently

married. Her mother is named Kimberly Scott and her father is Jeremy Scott. She also has a dog,

Sadie, that she includes in her family as well. All members of her family except her oldest sister

who is married still live at home.

Alexis has many hobbies and pastimes. She enjoys participating in her school choir group

and competing in choral competitions with her school. She recently got to perform at the Smith

Center, a huge dream for most performers that are local to Las Vegas. She has also developed a

talent for video editing. She enjoys watching her favorite shows and movies and taking clips of

those movies and other videos and adding them all together with music to make compilations

and post them on her social media. As well as editing movies, she also enjoys editing her favorite
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video games as well. Overall, Alexis is a fun and bright student with great potential to apply her

talents and skills to her archenemies.

Physical Development

Alexis’s physical body and development are about average as far as what you would

expect for a thirteen-year-old female. According to an article by healthychildren.org, for females

“rapid growth occurs around age eleven and a half, but it can begin as early as eight or as late as

fourteen.” This statement holds true to Alexis quite well. She describes being very average size

until she turned twelve years old, at which point she began to get very tall very fast. Alexis

claims she will soon outgrow her sisters and is nearly the same height as her eighteen-year-old

sister.

As far as other physical developments, girls should begin to develop breasts in the early

stages of puberty. According to an article on physical changes by mentalhealth.net, “Girls will

also experience significant changes to their body shape while boys will experience a deepening

of their voices. Girls may feel uncomfortable during puberty as their body shape changes to

accommodate the future growth and development of a baby. These changes include a widening

of the pelvic bones (or hips), an increase in body fat percentage, and the development of

breasts.” This is certainly true in regard to Alexis. Her hips have widened by a couple inches in

recent years, as well as feelings of self-consciousness due to the “small” size of her breasts in

comparison to her friends. Lumenlearning.com says Early maturing girls may be teased or

overtly admired, which can cause them to feel self-conscious about their developing bodies.”

Alexis does not engage in much physical activity on a regular basis, other than Physical

Education at school. As mentioned previously, she much enjoys her video games and time spent
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editing videos on her laptop. This causes her to eat poorly and not get as much exercise as she

should.

Overall, Alexis is in right where she should be as far as expectations for the physical

development of an adolescent female. Her hips have begun to widen, as well as her legs to grow

and rapidly add height. She has also begun puberty, affecting both her hormones and physical

appearance.

Emotional Development

When it comes to emotional development, Alexis is a tough case. At this age, many teens

will struggle to figure out who they are and where they fit in at school and with friends. As stated

by HealthyFamilies BC, “young people are busy working out who they are and where they fit in

the world. This search can be influenced by gender, peer group, cultural background, media,

school and family expectations.” This statement definitely reflects many aspects and struggles

that Alexis is currently facing. She is continuously moving between friends and groups at school.

Family expectations are a large factor in Alexis’s emotional development. Her father in

particular is a very difficult and closed-minded person, making it difficult for Alexis to express

her feelings and struggles comfortably. This, among other expectations from family and peers

have led to Alexis being a very closed off and antisocial type.

As many other teens at her age, Alexis seems to be very moody. One such explanation for

the increased irritability and mood swings is the change in your sleep schedule during puberty.

Mentalhelp.net states that “the body's sleep-wake cycle is dependent upon a "circadian rhythm"

which in turn, is influenced by hormones. During puberty, a natural shift occurs in a teen's

circadian rhythm that causes them to feel more fully alert later at night. Unfortunately, they must

still rise early for school and other activities. As a result, they get less sleep than they require.
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This occurs just as their educational, extracurricular, and social schedules become more

demanding.” I have personally observed this problem with Alexis. She tends to stay up far too

late on school nights because she becomes distracted by her phone or a video she is watching or

creating. She also has begun to skip school quite often due to being tired. Aside from being tired,

Alexis does experience many conflicting emotions throughout the week. Many of these emotions

and situations are overwhelming to her at this age because they are all new experiences that she

needs to learn to control. Things like discipline and respect are a big struggle for Alexis. She gets

very emotional when she is getting in trouble, often times crying and lashing out at her parents

claiming that she is treated unfairly and things like that.

One thing that Alexis seems quite proficient in as far as emotional development would be

empathy. Teens at her age are still trying to understand their own emotions and struggle to

empathize with others. according g to the American Psychological Association, “recognizing

their own emotions lays the groundwork but does not ensure that youth will recognize that others

have feelings and that they need to take these feelings into account.” it seems that in this area,

Alexis doesn’t miss a beat. She is very in tune with the emotions of others and can always tell

when someone is having a hard time. She also is especially good and understanding and feeling

the emotions of others, yet still is struggling to understand her own.

Overall, Alexis seems about average in her emotional development. It seems that she has

a very good understanding of emotions. It seems her weak point comes when it’s time to deal

with her own emotions. She struggles to remain calm in situations that don’t require an

emotional outburst and doesn’t seem to fully be able to dissect and control her own emotions.

This level of emotional intelligence appears to be normal during puberty and adolescents.

Social Development
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Alexis has a very complicated social life, yet it is not the strongest. As I mentioned earlier,

Alexis has a knack for video editing. This means that Alexis spends every second that she can

spare, in her room alone on her computer. This is where the problem arises. Alexis chooses to

remain alone and isolated, even from family while she plays on her laptop, while she watches a

movie or plays video games. This is not good for her social life, and in fact, most of her social

life is over the phone. She doesn’t go out with friends often, and when she does, they play video

games together or watch videos. According to havenwoodacademy.org, “Until adolescence, the

focus of children’s social activities is typically the family and a few close friends. During the

next phase, that focus shifts away from the family and to peer groups and romantic interests,

which begin to take center stage.” strangely it seems that Alexis is the opposite of this statement.

She still focuses her social activities on a few close friends, due to the fact that she doesn’t get

out of the house or make an effort to make more friends. It seems that her social development

has fallen slightly behind in comparison to other adolescents her age.

One thing that seems to be right on track socially for Alexis is her desire for independence.

According to DSD.org, “They begin to long for independence from their parents. It is common at

this age for children to start to pull themselves back from their families in search of

independence and identities of their own. It is also common for early adolescents to be

embarrassed to be seen in public with their families. Even in your own house, you may find your

child telling you he wants more space and time alone.” as discussed above, Alexis quite enjoys

her alone time and prefers to keep to herself for the majority of the time. She also has a strong

inclination to be more independent. She always wants to go places and do things on her own

when she is far too young to do so. She also is highly embarrassed in public not only because of

being with her family, but she constantly worries she is going to see someone that she knows
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when she “doesn’t look good”. This goes hand in hand with this statement from study.com, “The

drastic changes that often accompany puberty can lead to the development of low-self-esteem.

As young teens struggle with adjusting to their new bodies and mindsets, they often start to

become highly critical of themselves.” This comes to show that Alexis is not the only one at her

age that fears being seen. Many if not all teens struggle with their self-image and self-esteem,

including Alexis.

Alexis seems to be generally where she should be as far as social development, but she still has

many areas of growth and development, such as branching out and meeting new friends and

getting over her antisocial tendencies.

Intellectual Development

Although Alexis seems to be doing well when it comes to intellectual development, it seems that

she doesn’t devote the necessary time to the things that will improve her cognitive development.

Alexis takes as little time as possible on her schoolwork, often turning in assignments late. She

seems to lack the reasoning and logic that is normal for her age. She seems to handle many

things without thinking of the consequences that she may deal with because of those actions.

According to Stanford, “During adolescence (between 12 and 18 years of age), the developing

teenager acquires the ability to think systematically about all logical relationships within a

problem. The transition from concrete thinking to formal logical operations occurs over time.” It

seems Alexis is still struggling in this area and needs to devote more time to things that will

improve her intellectual development.

One aspect of Alexis’s personality that does indicate further intellectual development is her love

for history. Alexis has a great love of American history. According to the University of

Rochester, a child in middle adolescence will typically “Use complex thinking to focus on less
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self-centered concepts and personal decision-making and increased thoughts about more global

concepts, such as justice, history, politics, and patriotism.” She took a trip to Washington DC

with her parents to see all the historic and significant sites throughout the city. She not only likes

to learn about history, but she loves to talk about it as well.

“Adolescence is a time of much physical, emotional, and intellectual growth in a person's life.

In early adolescence, children begin to leave behind their child-like thinking and think more

often like adults. They often think about abstract ideas, relationships, and their lives.” As stated

by the DSD guidelines, many adolescents being to think more about relationships. Alexis

certainly fits into this statement. She seems to think that to fit it, she needs to have a boyfriend,

or a crush or someone to be in a relationship in, because everyone else does. This shift in

hormones at this age brings on new sexual desires and periods of arousal, which can lead to the

desire to have an intimate relationship. Overall Alexis seems to be doing well intellectually but

could spare some time on more beneficial activities.

Philosophical development

Alexis seems to be about average in her area of philosophical development. According to

Medicine Plus, “During adolescence, children develop the ability to understand abstract ideas.

These include grasping higher math concepts, and developing moral philosophies, including

rights and privileges.” Alexis seems to have strong moral philosophies. She tends to speak up

about political issues such as oppression and LGBTQ rights. This shows a higher level of

empathy and strong philosophical development.

According to J’anne Ellsworth, “The ideological pursuit for personal belief system is littered

with parental parameters and demands, peer belief and a sense of powerlessness to change life.”

Alexis certainly seems as though she wants to disregard the rules and values of her parents that
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she was raised with and experiment with values of her own. This is a good sign of strong

philosophical development.

In a paper published by Questia, it states that “Virtually all humans in every clime believe in

some sort of the sacredness and dignity of human life, and this is why the instinct of self-

protection and the desire for the promotion of self-comfort is almost natural in all human

beings.” Alexis is a great example of this statement. She loves every type of living creature and

has a great respect for people of from all walks of life. She is always asking questions and trying

to further her philosophies of life. Overall, she is doing very average n her philosophical

development and could focus more on certain traits and improve.

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Graph

*level 5 was used as “average” for her age*

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Recommendations

Although Alexis seems to be in very good health physically, it is still important to exercise and

be active and keep your body engaged. For this reason, I would recommend a more structured

activity instead of her usual computer games or video editing that she would prefer. Encourage

Alexis to be active and specially to get outside and enjoy it.

Mu biggest recommendation in regard to her emotional development is to create a more

structured sleep schedule. It appears that Alexis goes to bed but doesn’t fall asleep when she

should due to outside distractions such as talking to friends on the phone or editing her videos.

Sleep is one of the most crucial aspects of your health and its very important to get enough sleep.

With that being said, I would suggest limiting her screen time in order to discourage being on her

phone or computer at night. Not only will this force her to sleep sooner, but it will also help with

mood swings and irritability.

Alexis’s social development is one of her weakest sections. She has a great bright and attractive

personality yet doesn’t make the effort to seek out friends or try new things. Alexis has

developed a lot of antisocial habits, such as not speaking to people in public, not leaving the

house, fearing someone knocking on the door and having to socialize, etc. She seems to be in a

strange mindset where she believes that no one likes her, as many teens do at her age. For this

reason, I would recommend encouraging her confidence when she speaks and socialized. Trying

things like gently introducing her to conversations and helping her open up in public could be

highly beneficial for her social development.

Alexis is not the strongest in her intellectual abilities. She lacks the tolerance and patience for

schoolwork and often disregards it entirely. Alexis needs to learn to devote her time to things

that are more important and beneficial to her cognitive development instead of spending her time
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on computers and paying videogames with strangers. She needs to learn to put her academics

before her hobbies.

Alexis does have strong opinions on many moral issues such as LGBTQ rights, oppression and

sexism which shows a greater level of philosophical understanding. Although she is doing great

in this area, always encourage her to explore her own beliefs and discover new things.
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References

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17, 2019, from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002003.htm

America Psychological Association. (2002). Developing Adolescents. Retrieved from

https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/develop.pdf

I. (2006, March 25). DSD Guidelines. Retrieved March 16, 2019, from

http://www.dsdguidelines.org/htdocs/parents/adolescence.html

Ellsworth, J. (1998). Early Adolescents. Retrieved March 17, 2019, from

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

Kowell-Conelly, S. (2016, April 13). Effects of Puberty on Sports Performance: What Parents

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living/sports/Pages/Teens-and-Sports.aspx

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Mental/Emotional/Social Changes Through Puberty. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2019, from

https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/mental-emotional-social-changes-through-puberty/
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Physical Development: What's Normal? What's Not? (n.d.). Retrieved from

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Development-Whats-Normal-Whats-Not.aspx

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