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Adolescent Interview

Adolescent Interview Observation

Background Information
Person’s age: 18 years old
Fictitious “Nicole” (name has been changed)
Name:
Location: Zoom web meeting
Brief I interviewed “Nicole”, an 18 year old and high school senior
Description:

Biological

Nicole is developing normally for an 18-year-old girl, standing at 5 foot 5 inches, and

weighing 135 pounds. She told me that in the fifth grade, at 10 years old, she was the tallest girl

in her class which she found very embarrassing, but has since evened out amongst her peers,

standing at an average height. This is a typical experience for young girls. “In height, the average

pubescent girl is about two years ahead of the average boy. The female peak height spurt occurs

before menarche; the male peak after spermarche” (Berger, 2018, p. 317).

Speaking with Nicole, she described to me how she experienced menarche in the 7th

grade at the age of 12, and very shorty after began experiences the joys of puberty, which is the

process of the body becoming an adult and capable of reproduction (Berger, 2018). She began to

experience oily skin leading to pimples, darker and coarser growth of her body hair, an increase

in her sweat production, and body odor. “Puberty begins at some point between ages 8 and 14,

with rapid physical growth and sexual maturation continuing for several years. Many hormones

start this cascade, most notably growth and sex hormones. Those hormones include a major rush

of estrogen for girls and testosterone for boys, although both sexes experience both.” (Berger,

2018, p. 311). She discussed with me how her new menstrual hormones affect her in the days

leading up to and including her menstruation. She experiences headaches, back pain, acne on her
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Adolescent Interview
chin, and abdominal cramping. She also experienced a rapid increase in the growth of her breasts

around this time.

Cognitive

Dramatic cognitive growth occurs during adolescence due to brain maturation and life

experiences (Berger, 2018). Nicole, my interview subject, is a senior in a high school where she

arrived sophomore year but already knew many students. Despite this, she felt extreme anxiety.

She claims that while she had friends and good experiences her sophomore year, she did not

“come out of her shell”, as she put it, until later in her high school career. She felt that she didn’t

want to be seen, or “called out” as “the weird new girl”. This displays Nicole’s egocentrism and

the imaginary audience she has created. Egocentrism is a trait among young adolescents in which

they are fixated on themselves and believe their reputation to be far more exaggerated than the

reality. It is often difficult for them to see beyond their own perception. This feeds into the

imaginary audience, in which teens believe that everyone is watching and judging them (Berger,

2018). While Nicole believed all her peers knew she was new and were watching her every

move, this is most likely far from the truth.

Adolescence is the time when the brain begins to shift toward concrete operational

thought. This is Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development, “characterized by more

systematic logical thinking and are able to understand and systematically manipulate abstract

concepts” (Berger, 2018, p. 329.) This may possibly attribute to Nicole’s success at mathematics,

although all adolescents have different skills and talents.

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Adolescent Interview
Psychosocial

During this time, adolescents seek to find who they are (Berger, 2018). Nicole describes

herself as a “social butterfly”, someone who has many friends and easily flits among social

circles. Nicole seems to be attempting to find where she fits in and what activities she enjoys the

best. She expresses many interests, from swimming and soccer, to guitar and songwriting, to her

passion for animals. She is clearly deep in Erik Erikson’s fifth psychosocial crisis, identity vs

role confusion. She is working toward finding her identity, which is a primary task of

adolescence. (Berger, 2018). She seems to currently have the most difficulty with choosing her

vocational identity, having expressed interest in many things. However, the most hopeful thing

Nicole stated was that she would be taking a moratorium over the next few years, which is “an

adolescent’s choice of a socially acceptable way to postpone making identity-achievement

decisions” (Berger, 2018, p. 350). In this case, she will be attending university in the fall. She

hopes to be able to travel throughout college, particularly Greece, Sardinia, and Sicily. She

anticipates finishing school by 25, getting married by 30, and hopefully having 3 children by 38.

This is a laughable example of a personal fable, in which adolescents believe their lives will be

uniquely charmed (Berger, 2018).

Despite being egocentric, peers and family life are a heavy influence. Nicole has a very

large, very close family. Their family enjoys adult beverages on many occasions and due to that,

Nicole felt slightly more confident than her peers when it came to trying alcohol. However, she

claims that she drinks responsibly and knows the dangers of alcohol, which she attributes

gratefully to her family for teaching her. This is not to say Nicole has not experienced peer

pressure. She attributes the close relationship with her parents and “best friend” to having the

courage and willpower to say no when hard drugs were offered in the past.
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Adolescent Interview

References

Berger, K. S. (2018). Invitation to the Life Span (Fourth ed.). Worth Publishers.