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on:
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Name:
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t:

FHS 1500
Brenda Lopez
Observation 4

Background
Childs age:
Fictitious
name:
Location:
Brief
Description:

Information
16 years old
Jane
West Jordan High School
After school. There were about 20 kids still hanging out
throughout the front and parking lot.

Physical Development
Kathleen Berger describes puberty as, The years of rapid physical growth
and sexual maturation that end childhood, producing a person of adult size,
shape, and sexuality (p.319). During this stage, adolescences experience
rapid weight and height growth. For a female, the most obvious sign of
puberty is the start of their menarche, commonly known as their period. The
common age for girls to begin their menarche is 12 , Jane however begun
at the age of 11. Most of Janes friends began during seventh grade.
Although she started a year before most of her friends she said it was not
important to her and she did not really care. The average ages for girls to
start puberty is between the ages of 8 to 14. Jane is right in the middle of
these two ages which is good because starting to early could potentially
cause a lot of problems for her and she matured.
Another crucial part of physical development is sleep. Humans run on a
Circadian rhythm, which is, Some biorhythms are on a day-night cycle of
biological activity that occurs approximately every 24 hours (p. 322). Berger
states, Hormones of the HPA axis at puberty cause a phase delay in sleepwake cycles, making many teens wide awake and hungry at midnight by half
asleep with little appetite or energy all morning (p.322). Teen should be
getting on average, 7 to 10 hours of sleep. For the average teenager, it
should be 8, however some may need more or less. Jane gets on average 8
hours of sleep. She is in bed by 9:30 p.m. and does not wake up until 5:30.
This is great for a teenager of her age.
Cognitive Development
Most teenagers have two ways of thinking for motivation. First is the entity
approach to intelligence, Berger defines this approach as, An approach to

understanding intelligence that sees ability as innate, a fixed quantity

present at birth; those who hold this view do not believe that effort enhances
achievement (p.341). In other words, if the struggle with math, they believe
that no matter what they do, they cannot get any better. Jane falls into this
approach. She believed that she was just good as some things and bad at
others. She believed that she couldnt change that. The other is the
incremental approach to intelligence. This intelligence approach is defined
as, An approach to understanding intelligence that hold that intelligence can
be directly increased by effort; those who subscribe to this view believe they
can master whatever they seek to learn if the pay attention, participate in
class, study, complete their homework, and so on (p.341). This means that
if the put in enough effort they can master anything.
Middle school is really tough on adolescences, their grades go down and they
lose their motivation to study and learn. Berger states, It is ironic that just
when egocentrism leads young people to feelings of shame or fantasies of
stardom, many middle schools require them to change rooms, teacher and
classmates ever 40 minutes or so (p.341). When Jane was asked what she
noticed that was different in Middle school than in Elementary, she said,
There were a lot more kids, and a lot of exposure to bad things. This shows
that there was less ability for teachers to protect their students from bad
things. ON top of the fact that there were many kids, kids had more influence
amongst themselves.
Social/Emotional Development
Identity is crucial in adolescences. Figuring out who you are is a confusing
and difficult time for teenagers. Berger states that the end of this identity
crisis is called identity achievement, defined as, When adolescents have
reconsidered the goals and values of their parents and culture, and accepting
some and discarding others, discerning their own identity (p.356). There are
four different areas where their identity is formed. Religion is big in
adolescences because it is almost completely attached to their parents. Most
teenagers attend the church that their parents attend simply because it is
where their parents are and its what theyve done their whole life. Jane said
she was religious, when asked whether this was due to her parents or if she
had chosen for herself, she replied, It started with my parents but I slowly
began to believe for myself and decided on my own. Berger states, Few
adolescents totally reject religion if theyve grown up following a particular
faith, partly because religion provides meaning as well as coping skills
(p.357).
Teenagers and their peers have a one of the greatest impacts on social
development. Within school, adolescents have their crowd. A crowd is, A
larger group of adolescents who have something in common but who are not

necessarily friends (p.365). Jane said that her crowd was the preppy kids.
However her clique only consisted of two other members. A clique is, a
group of adolescents made up of close friends who are loyal to one another
while excluding outsiders (p.365). This common for most adolescents, the
crowd is everybody who sits at your lunch table but your clique is those who
leave the lunch table with you and walk around.
Reference List
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.