Running head: P.E.P.S.

I SCREENING

P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Rachel Whited

College of Southern Nevada

 Abstract

The person I did the P.E.P.S.I Screening on is Brian Israel Cortez-Napoles. Before asking Brian

some questions, I watched how he acts and responds to certain situations. Doing this screening

on Brian gave me a little bit of an insight into how he as a fifteen-year-old reacts to certain

situations and how things that have happened has impacted his everyday life or whole life. I

asked him questions about his physical health, emotions, philosophical views, social abilities,

and even asked him some intellectual questions. This really gave me the opportunity to get to

know Brian. After I asked him a series of questions, I compared some of his answers to what an

average fifteen-year old and how they would act.

 P.E.P.S.I SCREENING

Biography

Brian Cortez-Napoles was born on December 18, 2004 at Pomona Valley Hospital in

Pomona, California. He has three other siblings. He is considered one of two middle children. He

has two older sisters and a younger brother. His oldest sisters are ten and five years older than

him while his younger brother is seven years younger than him. When I asked Brian if he had

ever been on a plane, he stated that he has never been on a plane because his family has always

driven when they have traveled. He also stated that he does not like his family driving

everywhere because he tends to get really antsy in cars if put in them for a long period of time.

To keep him comfortable in cars for long periods of time, he needs to keep himself busy with

either watching something on his phone or listening to music. Brian told me that he began

walking when he was two years old and started talking at the age of one and a half.

Brian told me that he is more of an outdoors person instead of the type to just stay in the

house. He likes to go hiking, ride his bike, or take long walks. Brian said some of his favorite

places to do these things are Mount Charleston, Red Rock, and Zion. He also told me that he

likes sports but his favorite sport of all-time would have to be boxing. Brian said that he loves

boxing so much because he likes the endurance it takes to do the sport and loves how tired

boxing makes him.

Physical

Brian is 5’11” and weighs 230 pounds. He is the tallest in his family. Brian’s height and

weight are higher than the average height and weight for his age. Usually teens his age weigh

123 pounds and their height are 5’7” according to Disabled World (Height and Weight charts).

Brian considers himself to be an active person. He played a few sports when he was a child.
From the ages of seven to eleven, Brian played soccer and did mixed martial arts. He said he

enjoyed doing these sports because they kept him active when he was a child and helped him

control his energy. Brian told me that if he were not outside or playing a sport, he was a hyper

child and would drive his siblings and parents crazy.

Brian claims to take a shower every single day. He even stated that sometimes he will take

two or three showers a day because he gets more dirty than usual some days.

Emotional

After observing Brian for a little bit, I noticed that he was able to display different

emotions. There were times during my observation that Brian went from being happy, to sad, to

back to happy. I asked Brian a series of questions regarding emotions and if he is able to feel

certain emotions.

When asked if Brian does notice when someone else around him is angry, he stated that he

usually can tell when a person is upset if he is with them. I then asked him if he gets upset when

he sees someone else upset. He told me that it all depends on the person that is upset and if he

has a close relationship with the upset person. If someone was upset in his family or close friend

group, then Brian stated that he would of course feel empathy for them.

Brian told me that he does indeed laugh in bad or tough situations. He told me about a time

where he went to a family member’s funeral and in the middle of the funeral, he began to laugh

hysterically while everyone looked at him in shock. Brian then told me about a time that he was

a sore loser and got upset with someone when he lost at a game. He stated that when he loses at

games or anything that involves there being a winner, he will begin to act rude to everyone

involved even if they never did anything to him. He does not take losing very well and will be

rude until he wins at something. Brian told me that his motto for winning is, “You never admit to
defeat. Only when you have to and there is no chance of you winning” When I asked Brian if he

throws fits when he does not get his way, he responded by saying that when he was younger, he

used to get upset and throw a fit if someone would not give him what he wanted. He told me

about a time that him and his parents went to the store and he wanted to go look at the toys for a

bit. His mom had told him that they did not have time to go and that there were not going to.

Brian then began to cry, scream, and stomp around the store until his mom gave in and took him

over to the toy section. Brian also told me that he would get upset with his older sister if she got

something and he did not. He said that he would scream if his sister got something he wanted

and he did not. He would do this until his mom would take the item away from his sister and

give it to him.

Brian has been in trouble in school before. When his family lived in California, Brian

would get into a fight at school almost once a week or so. He told me about a time that he had

gotten into a fight because he was attempting to defend a girl from a boy that was being rude to

her. When Brian was not fighting, he would consider himself to be the class clown of school. He

said that when he gets around his friends, he can be quite funny and make everyone laugh around

him. Brian told me about the time he got in trouble for making jokes during class and making all

his classmates laugh.

All around though, Brian said that he will bottle up his emotions until they overflow one

day. He stated that sometimes it can be easier to bottle everything up than tell people how he

really feels. He said that it all depends on the people he is with or the situation he is in whether

he will bottle his emotions or not.

Philosophical
 After observing Brian, I could see that he knew the difference between right and wrong. I

asked Brian if he saw someone stealing from a store or from someone else, would he step up and

say something or stop the stealing from happening. He told me that if he saw someone stealing,

he would stop the thief by saying something to them to make them aware that someone knows.

He told me that if there was a connection with the person who was stealing, he would probably

not tell on them because why would he tell on his friend or family? Brian did, also tell me that if

he found twenty dollars on the ground, he would pick it up and keep it.

I asked Brian if there was ever an instance where he got caught doing something school

that he was not supposed to be doing and if he got in trouble for it. He told me about this time in

fifth grade where he got caught cheating on a test that was worth a huge portion of his grade. He

said that he was looking over at his friend’s paper to get the answers to a few of the questions

when his teacher caught him. I then asked his what the repercussions were for doing such a

thing. Brian told me that he ended up getting a zero on the whole test and received detention. He

said that there was no making up the test so he in fact did end up not passing the class he was

taking.

Social

Brian tends to be a little shy when you first meet him but after a little time around him, he

begins to warm up to people and become very talkative and active. When it comes to Brian being

friends with people, he told me that he tends to become friends easier with males instead of

females. He feels boys are less problematic and do not care about drama. All boys want to do is

hang out and they never bring their problems to the hang out. Brian did say though, he finds it

easier to create and keep a conversation going with females. He said this is because girls are

easier for boys to talk to than other males because they see them as someone they might possibly
end up with in the end. I then asked Brian why he can talk to girls easier. To this, he responded

by saying, “It can be a little easy if you find the right person to love.” I asked Brian if he tends

to go out with his friends quite a bit and he responded by saying, that him and his friends like

going to parks, on hikes, GameWorks, or the mall.

After Brian and I discussed his social life, I asked him if he has every lied to get out of

trouble or if he would ever consider it. He told me that he has lied to get out of trouble and would

do it again if he really had to. Brian told me a story about a time that him and his older sister

were playing around and he fell and cut his knee wide open. When their mom asked what

happened, to keep himself from getting in trouble, he blamed it all on his sister and got her in

trouble for it.

I then asked Brian about his social life with his family. I asked Brian who in his family he

would consider himself to be the closest to. He replied by saying that he is closest to his older

sister Ashley. He said that he feels like he can tell her anything and that she will be there for him

no matter what happens. Brian also shares a room with this sister so they have always been the

closest. Brian then told me that he is not that close with his other older sister, Karen. He said that

they seem to bump heads when it comes to family matters or everyday things. I then asked him

which of his parents he is closer to. He told me that he is equally close to his parents. He did say

that he talks to his mom in more of a formal matter whereas he talks to his dad as if he is talking

to a friend. He told me that it is easier for him to joke around and interact with his dad because

they relate to some things on certain levels.

Intellectual

Brian would consider himself to be a team player. He believes teamwork does in fact make

the dream work. Brian likes to work in teams and feel more motivated working with others
instead of by himself. Brian thinks that working in teams can at times make things a whole lot

easier. He told me that he likes dividing up the work of things between a group of people instead

of getting overwhelmed by having all the work fall on him. I asked Brian if he would consider

himself to be a people pleaser and if he likes to make others happy. He told that he would not

consider himself to be a people pleaser. He will tell someone how it is regardless of if he hurts

the persons feelings. He told me that he has no problem not sugar coating his words and will say

whatever comes to his mind in the heat of a moment.

Aside from not being a people person, Brian is a very curious individual. He wants to know

everything and be in everyone’s business. While I was observing him, his sister was playing a

game. Brian began to get curious about the game his sister was playing and wanted to be

involved more in that than his interview I was giving him. I had to redirect him a few times so

that we could continue the observation. Brian also has no problem asking questions when he is

curious about something going on. He was asking his family all kinds of questions about other

individuals in his family and what is going on in their personal lives.

While observing Brian, I noticed that although he is almost sixteen years old, he can hold

grown-up conversations with individuals and keep the conversation going. He seems to enjoy

socializing with grown-ups and likes to have smart, interesting conversations with them. Brian

was telling me about the time that he had an 89-year-old friend that he used to hang out with.

The guy lived a few houses down from him and he would go over to the guy’s house just to hang

out with him and talk all day. They would talk about the guy’s war stories or the guy would ask

Brian about school and his family. After Brian told me about this guy he would hang out with, I

asked him if he tends to get bored or annoyed of having conversations with people. He told me

that he only gets bored or annoyed depending on the person or the conversation. If he is having a
conversation about politics or something that he is not interested in, he tends to get bored and

zone off.

Brian is the type to set high standards for himself. According to the Human Sources Blog,

“People who set high standards feel particularly good about themselves and other people. They

tend to operate from a philosophy of abundance and they recognize that there is enough for

everyone and all can win if they choose to”. (Sethi, 2016) When a person sets high standards for

themselves, they typically overthink at times or feel there is always room to do better. Brian told

me that he feels like sometimes his work is not good enough and he tends to be hard on himself

when things do not go according to plan.

I asked Brian if he would consider himself to be street smart or book smart. He told me that

he felt like he was more street smart. He said that a lot of his life experiences and lessons came

from the streets. He told me that at times when it comes to books, he is not as focused on the life

lessons that come from them. He learns more things from the street and the real world. Brian

does not like to read books because he gets quite bored when doing so. He is more of the going

out into the world and experiencing life that way instead of through books.

Brian has not ever played any instruments. Instead of playing instruments he has always

just downloaded music and listened to it. Brian likes every genre of music except for country. He

said that his favorite genre would either be rock or hip-hop. Brian told me that one time he had

over 846 songs downloaded on his phone and he would listen to every single song. According to

Bright Horizons, “Music ignites all areas of child development and helps children with school

readiness”. This means that all the music that Brian listens to, is helping him with his

schoolwork. Music has also been known to help with mental health and well-being.
 Recommendations

Brian is a talkative, smart, and active teenager that loves to go out with his friends and

family when he gets the chance. He loves to be outside and go on adventures with his friends.

This is one of the ways he burns off his energy and gets his work outs in. Brian should continue

to go on hikes or bike rides with his friends. This will help him maintain his weight, strength,

and control his energy.

Emotionally, Brian seems to be on track with how his peers should be emotionally. He

controls his emotions quite well and tends to keep them to himself unless he needs to let them

out. Brian has been in quite a few fights in school though. What I would propose is for Brian to

maybe be put in anger classes to control his anger in tough situations or maybe a boxing class to

take out his pent-up aggression.

Brian knows the difference between right and wrong on certain things. He does think it is

okay to not return a wallet or money if he sees someone drop it. Brian is more likely to pick up

the wallet or money and keep it for himself if he does not know the person. What I would

suggest is for Brian to have someone explain to him why he should return things he finds even if

he does not know the person. What if that person really needed the money they just dropped and

Brian had picked it up off the floor and taken it?