PEPSI SCREENING

Physical – Emotional – Philosophical – Social- Intellectual

Student: Jaynie Reyes (age 16)

Observation by:

Lauren Comeau

04.11.2021
EDU 220
Principles of Educational Psychology
BIOGRAPHY

Jaynie Reyes is a 16 year old Junior student at Valley High School. She is enrolled in my

Algebra II course and also participates in my Mind Body Awareness club every Wednesday. She

lives in a single story, 3 bedroom home with her mother and three siblings; two older sisters and

a younger brother. Jaynie’s biological father left the family before she was born. Her younger

brother has a different father who is currently incarcerated but will return to being the father

figure during her senior year. The family has three dogs and she considers one of the dogs to be

her own and shares responsibilities for caring for them. Caring for animals can be extremely

important and beneficial for adolescents. (2014) She has been an average student when it comes

to grades but a very involved student when it comes to extracurricular activities. She is currently

in 5 different clubs and hopes to return to the Theatre department when school resumes. She

suffers from depression and anxiety which have been magnified during the pandemic and she

actively tries to cope with her behavioral issues with therapy and therapeutic activities. Her

ethnic background is Chinese American and is currently the target of many racially charged

comments regarding Coronavirus. She regularly participates in Stop the Hate and Black Lives

Matter protests with her entire family.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Jaynie Reyes went through puberty prior to entering high school and focuses a lot of time and

energy on improving her body for health and vanity reasons. She has admitted to being sexually

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active since the age of 15 with both males and females. “Many adolescents become sexually

active, although the long-term trend is down.” (3-5a, Snowman) She is very understanding of the

sexuality spectrum and currently does not define herself has straight, queer, transgender etc.

Jaynie claims to understand the consequences to being sexually active and has yet not

experienced any STDs or pregnancy even though she has had personal friends experience both.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009), in the United States STDs

occur more frequently among adolescents than in any other age group. (3-5a Snowman)

According to Gardner and Sternburg’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, Jaynie would be classified

as a Interpersonal, Musical and Linguistic learner. So her learning style would skew heavily

toward musical and group activities. “A learning style can be defined as a consistent preference

over time and subject matter for perceiving, thinking about, and organizing information in a

particular way” (4-3, Snowman, 2015) Being able to identify one’s own intelligences is a great

way of learning how to understand one’s self.

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

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EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

While talking with Jaynie about different topics such as school, politics and the mind-body

connection I was able to notice her level of maturity surrounding certain issues. She has a strong

desire to learn more about the mind-body connection and the ability to tune in with herself and

surroundings. “Many psychiatric disorders either appear or become prominent during

adolescence. Included among these are eating disorders, substance abuse, schizophrenia,

depression, and suicide.” (3-5c Snowman) Jaynie is firmly aware that her depression and anxiety

has magnified during the pandemic and actively takes steps to reduce it. “Depressed mood is

primarily characterized by feelings of sadness or unhappiness, although emotions such as

anxiety, fear, guilt, anger, and contempt. (Peterson, 1993). In 2007, 35.8% of high school

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females and 21.2% of high school males reported feeling so sad and hopeless almost every day

for two or more weeks in a row that they stopped engaging in some usual activities.” (3-5c

Snowman) While she seems interested in politics, there is a clear disengagement to the subject

due to her inability to vote and the current party representatives. During the last election, and

events that preceded and succeeded it, she felt very hopeless and was contemplating sucide more

often than she wanted to admit. The book states that, “If depression becomes severe, suicide

may be contemplated.” (3-5c Snowman) While this may be common in severe depression, she

understands the severity of attempting sucide.

Photo 3–8

Many high school students, girls in particular, experience periods of

depression, loneliness, and anxiety. Because severe depression often precedes

a suicide attempt, teachers should refer students they believe to be depressed

to the school counselor.

PHILOSOPHICAL DEVELOPMENT

Jaynie Reyes is one of only three students that regularly attends Mind Body Awareness

every Wednesday in interest of finding out more about the mind-body-soul connection.

She is also within the top 10% of students that attend class regularly and though her

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background knowledge in core subjects is not up to her grade level, she still continues to

show ambition and confidence. Jaynie struggles with current gender bias issues in school

and in extracurricular activities. She hopes to work in a field that can lead the way in

addressing gender biases so that she can live in a more gender neutral world. “Exposure

to gender bias apparently begins early in a child’s school life. Most preschool programs

stress the importance of following directions and rules (impulse control) and contain

many activities that facilitate small-muscle development and language skills. Because

girls are typically better than boys in these areas before they go to preschool, the typical

preschool experience does not help girls acquire new academically related skills and

attitudes.” (4-4c Snowman)

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

While schools in Clark County have made in-person learning optional, Jaynie and her family

decided to stay at home and continue remote learning. While she is excited to see her friends

again, most of her close friends agree that staying home is the right choice and she takes her

friend’s advice to heart. Parents and other adults are likely to influence long-range plans; peers

are likely to influence immediate status. (3-5b, Snowman) She does not currently have a job but

she received her license earlier this year and will start applying for summer jobs soon. For any

number of reasons, a fair percentage of high school students have part-time jobs during the

school year. (3-5b Snowman) Jaynie, like many other high school students, is very involved with

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social media. “In recent years, new options for encouraging the decline of egocentrism and the

growth of interpersonal reasoning have emerged. These options include such tools as blogs,

podcasts, and videos, and such social networking websites as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus,

My Space, and LinkedIn (Bull, Hammond, & Ferster, 2008; Rosen & Nelson, 2008). These tools

and websites allow individuals who share a common interest to work together to create, discuss,

and modify a particular product, such as fiction or nonfiction stories, without having to purchase

expensive software.” (3-6a Snowman) I believe Jaynie to have a rather strong understanding of

herself with strong motivation to improve herself. “The relationship between motivation and

identity is seen as the link between a person’s goal-directed behavior and that person’s

perception of who she or he is or may become (Kaplan & Flum, 2009)(11-5b Snowman).

The book suggested four areas where young adolescents change the most and Adelson concluded

that the most significant changes among adolescents were in the following areas: (3-5d

Snowman 2015)

1. an increase in the ability to deal with such abstractions as freedom of speech, equal

justice under law, and the concept of community;

2. a decline in authoritarian views;

3. an increase in the ability to imagine the consequences of current actions; and

4. an increase in political knowledge.

Jaynie Reyes also identified with each of these four areas of change that Adleson specified,

though had hesitations about admitting to a decline in authoritarian views.

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INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Jaynie Reyes is extremely interested in emotional development, however she is severely less

interested in intellectual development regarding the core subjects such as; math, science, reading

& english. Her focus is on human growth and I believe her views fall in line with the book’s

definition of intelligence, “Wechsler defined intelligence as the global capacity of the individual

to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment.” (4-1e Snowman)

She claims math to be her favorite subject yet only completes about 20% of her required

homework. I do not believe this is due to being lazy, I believe it is due to her not understanding

the material. She wants to understand the material, however she believes it is too late and does

not have the motivation to learn past principles so she instead focuses on making sure she

appears to understand the material. “Despite the constant attempts of adolescents to appear

totally self-sufficient and independent, they still view parents and teachers as knowledgeable

authority figures when it comes to school achievement.”(3-5d, Snowman 2015) She is within the

top 10% of students that attend class regularly and has no issues with emailing her teachers with

questions and concerns; however, her participation in class and homework completion rate is are

very low. She believes in popular political movements such as Black Lives Matter and Stop the

Hate. “Political thinking becomes more abstract, less authoritarian, more knowledgeable” (3-5d,

Snowman 2015)

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GRAPH

RECOMMENDATIONS

I personally recommend that Jaynie Reyes focuses more on what she truly knows versus what

she wants to appear to know. I understand the desire to want to want to be enlightened and in

tune with oneself but that only works if you are honest with yourself about who you are and what

you want out of the situation. You can want to learn math because you enjoy the idea of being a

top mathematician, however if you do not actually practice the problems or understand the

procedure then your desire to learn is just desire and nothing more. Having the ambition to

improve oneself is so important but if there is no follow through then there is no true

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improvement on the subject. The younger generations were raised in an immediately gratifying

world so not only does everyone expect quick answers, they also expect quick training. Students

that also suffer from mental illnesses have to work so hard to overcome certain issues that they

believe they have a firm understanding of the material just because they succeeded in step one.

Whether that means they read the book or watched a video explanation etc; they feel that with

that step completed, they are done and prepared to be assessed on the material.

REFERENCES

Feldman, R. S. (2014). Child development: A topical approach. Boston: Pearson.

Kaplan, A., Karabenick, S. A., & Groot, E. D. (2009). Culture, Self, and, Motivation:

Essays in honor of Martin L. Maehr. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub.

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. R. (2015). Psychology applied to teaching. In Psychology

applied to teaching (pp. Ch1-Ch13). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.