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PEPSI Screening

Emma Harding

College of Southern Nevada

EDU 220: Educational Psychology

Vincent Richardson

May 1, 2022
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Biography:

The subject is an 11-year-old boy who was born and lived in Las Vegas, Nevada before

moving to Moapa Valley with his family at the age of two. His mom and dad are both white in

their late 40s and 50s. Both are working outside of the home. He is the youngest of 4 children

with a 5-year gap between him and his closest sibling in age. His family is middle class with no

perceivable current issues financially. His past shows no issues with financial stability before

either. The subject does not play any athletic sports but is deeply interested in electronics. One of

his favorite pastimes is playing video games and learning to code. His favorite subject is history,

and he plays the piano and trumpet. He is very close with his family, especially his older brother

whom he idolizes.

Physical development:
The student is advanced in his physical development. Rather tall and heavy for his age.

He is more mature than his peers in choosing not to experiment with drugs and other such

substances. As stated by J'Anne Ellsworth “A fair number of youngsters will try substances that

are illegal - alcohol, gas sniffing, smoking, snuff, even hard drugs.” (Ellsworth, 2014,p. 4).

While he seems willing to push the limits with the rules that are set for him, he knows the

limitations set by authority figures and seems only willing to push rules that he feels he has a fair

chance to get away with. As explained by J’Anne Ellsworth “The push to seem adult and to try

prohibited "adult" action leads to an increase in accidents, and self inflicted injuries.” (Ellsworth,

2014,p. 4).
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His face is beginning to break out in blemishes like many in his age group, meeting the

normal development stages for his age. “Blemishes begin at this point for some youngsters and

are often a source of grief.” (Ellsworth, 2014,p. 4)

Emotional development:
While the student at times has extremely high emotions such as anger or frustration, this

does not seem unnormal for his age. Nor is it unnormal for children in this age group to switch

from one extreme emotion such as happiness to another extreme emotion, such as anger. He does

not show any signs of emotional delays states in the textbook ‘Psychology applied to teaching’

written by Snowman and McCown which says, “They therefore conclude that ascribing poor

performance to low ability rather than to low effort will result in expressions of sympathy rather

than contempt” (Snowman and McCrown, 2014, page 97). Students who exhibit such actions

towards work they feel they are not up to task with show a desire to avoid unwanted ridicule.

Students in this age group often can exhibit such actions which are not unnormal. However, the

student appears willing to try on difficult tasks and is willing to ask for support when it is

needed. However, there are times when the student is willing to slack off on tasks that he does

not find desirable or worthwhile.

To suppress high emotions, the student at times ‘shuts down’ refusing to look the teacher

in the eye or acknowledge wrongdoing has been done. Which for his culture is a sign of

disrespect when refusing not to look an adult in the eye. When an adult asked him why his

homework was not finished, he simply folded his arms and stared blankly at the wall, refusing to

answer. However, when threatened by the teacher, he did comply.

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His emotional need to be accepted and paid attention to is a bit above average, wanting to

constantly be the center of attention seems to be his driving motive in school and play. When he

feels desired attention is not being met, he simply chooses to stop participating and refuses to be

part of the group for the rest of the duration of the class activities. Often staying in a foul mood

for the rest of the day. He gives off an ‘all or nothing’ attitude at times. Believing that if he does

not get what he wants, the way he wants, then he refuses to be a part of the activity. He seems to

act as though he ‘knows it all’ and should have his ideas treated as such

At times, the student makes sarcastic comments that lead others to question his emotional

stability such as, ‘what’s the point in me finishing this assignment anyways, its not like I’m

going to finish school anyways. Hahahaha’. Some of these comments are made in the hopes of

getting his peers' attention, although it is often received as negative attention or his peers

laughing at him. While he acts as though he is unable to understand the information his teachers

present to him in class, such as math, his grades show that he is doing well and can complete the

assignments given to him. As stated in ‘Psychology Applied to teaching’, “Although emotional

turmoil during adolescence is not universal, some students do find this to be a difficult time and

suffer from feelings of anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. A major contributor to these

debilitating emotions is the transition from the elementary to the middle school grades”

(Snowman and McCrown, 2014, Page 97). The student is quick to become angry or frustrated

with an assignment, with peers or family when unable to understand what is being asked of him.

“Hormones provide some explanation for the mood swings and unsettled feelings.” states Jane

Elsworth's explanation on evaluating children (Ellsworth, 2014,p. 4).

Philosophical development:
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From my observations the student is part of an all-white, mostly middle-class

socioeconomic group of children with little opportunity to be around others of a different

ethnicity, culture or socioeconomic status than that of his own while at school. Due to the

adherence of strict social groupings as I observed, students of different backgrounds tend to stick

together, leaving little room for interactions with others outside of their own culture and

backgrounds. Due to this, there is little opportunity for him to develop philosophically. As stated

in the textbook ‘Psychology applied in teaching’, in America,

“More than most other countries, the United States is made up of numerous ethnic

groups with widely diverse histories, cultural backgrounds, and values. In addition to the

hundreds of thousands of Blacks who were brought to the United States as slaves, the United

States was peopled by many waves of immigrants, mostly from Europe but also from Asia and

Latin America. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the United States needed

large numbers of people to settle its western frontier, build its railroads, harvest its natural

resources, and work in its growing factories. …. approximately 33 million people immigrated to

the United States between 1820 and 1920. Throughout this period, the basic view of American

society toward immigrants was that they should divest themselves of their old customs, views,

allegiances, and rivalries as soon as possible and adopt English as their primary language, along

with mainstream American ideals, values, and customs” (Snowman and McCrown, 2014. Page

152).

The student seems to have a similar philosophy to earlier American days where those

who are different from him should change their ways to that of his own.

The student does not have a very good since of multiculturalism in life or in school.

Believing that people should and are, like himself. Differences seem to offset him, choosing not
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to embrace them. While it is true as stated in ‘Psychology Applied to teaching’, “The United

States is becoming more culturally diverse because of changes in immigration, birth rates.”

(Snowman and McCrown, 2014, P.g 154), this has no effect on him or his monotone school

population. Made up of kids who are mostly from similar backgrounds. Leading to the

conclusion that he lives in an ethnocentric world all his own making. “Students who subscribe to

different value systems and exhibit different communication patterns, time orientations, learning

modes, motives, and aspirations should not be viewed as incapable” (Snowman and McCrown,

2014, P.g 154). While the student does not seem to view others from different cultural

backgrounds not of his own as incapable, he simply chooses not to interact with them. Perhaps

from a fear of the unknown, wishing to stay with those like himself.

Social development:
The student seems to be delayed in their social development. Instead of being interested

or worried about the opinions of his peers, which is a common characteristic of children in his

age group, he seems not to care. “The desire to conform reaches a peak during the middle school

years.” as stated in Psychology Applied to teaching (Snowman and McCrown, 2014, p.g 96). He

seems to not be interested in trying to conform with what others around him do, dress and act

like. He tends to want to spend his free time playing videogames rather than interacting with

others. Outside of forced classroom discussion, he mainly stays to himself, rarely interacting

with others voluntarily. Rather, he seems to have no interest in people at all and would rather be

left alone. Whether this comes from fear of not being accepted or general disliking of others is to

be determined.
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When asked to socialize with peers, he flat out refuses to participate or initiate any

interactions. While he seems interested in dressing according to social norms, at other times he

seems not to care in the least bit, even being ok to wear dirty clothes to school. Often times even

wearing the exact same clothes from one day to the next. "Early adolescents find it reassuring to

dress and behave like others, and they are likely to alter their own opinions to coincide with

those of a group” states Jack Snowman and Rick McCown (Snowman and McCrown, 2014, p.g

96). While the way he dresses does not appear unnormal, it also does not show an intended

desire to dress the way he sees his peers dress. It is my belief that his attitude towards his peers

comes more from his fear of rejection rather than genuine disliking of them. “They therefore

conclude that ascribing poor performance to low ability rather than to low effort will result in

expressions of sympathy rather than contempt” (Snowman and McCrown, 2014, P.G 97). He

appears to believe that if he acts like he does not care how he dresses and what his peers say

about it, then he can avoid ridicule.

Intellectual development
The student appears to be of average intellectual development. His grades indicate that he

is able to handle his workload and understands the information that is being presented to him for

the most part. “Students who have below-average IQ scores follow the same general

developmental pattern as their peers with higher IQ scores, but they differ in the rate and degree

of development. Accordingly, students with low IQ scores may possess social and practical skills

typical of students with average IQ scores who are younger than they are. One general

characteristic of such students, therefore, is that they often appear immature compared with their

age-mates. Immature students are likely to experience frustration frequently when they find they
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are unable to do things their classmates can do, and many students with intellectual disability

tend to have a low tolerance for frustration and a tendency toward low self-esteem, low

confidence, and low motivation.” (Snowman and McCrown, 2014, p.g 208). As the student does

not display any of these tendencies, it is believed that he is of average intelligence. While at

times he does seem frustrated with classes such as math and science, with proper support from

teachers and parents he is able to complete the given assignments with decent grades.

The student in question does not suffer from these issues and is able to keep up with his

peers in their academic demands. “The cognitive characteristics of children with intellectual

disability include a tendency to oversimplify concepts, limited ability to generalize, smaller

memory capacity, shorter attention span, the inclination to concentrate on only one aspect of a

learning situation and to ignore other relevant features, the inability to formulate learning

strategies that fit particular situations, and delayed language development.” (Snowman and

McCrown, 2014, P.G. 209). The student does not display these difficulties in the classroom and

is able to process information and then proceed to explain his thinking and reasoning for the

conclusion he comes up with for the question at hand. Showing that he has a high ability for

metacognition, contemplating how he thinks and why he thinks the way he does. While

“Children with intellectual disability are prone to devalue themselves because they are aware that

they are less capable than their classmates at doing many things” (Snowman and McCrown,

2014, P.g 210), the student does not have this issue. Rather, he is sure of his abilities to succeed

in class and feels up to the ability to take on the challenges his other peer mates do.
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Graph of students development:

Recommendations for parents/ teachers:

The student has a very strong moral character that should be fostered in his social interactions,

allowing him to grow in his social development through his good decision-making skills. His

emotional needs are normal for children his age, but parents can foster understanding when he
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becomes frustrated, and teachers should give support when he becomes upset at tasks given to

him that are greater than his current ability to complete. Teachers can help foster his

philosophical development by creating group activities where the teacher picks the groups.

Forcing him to interact with others that are not like himself. Such interactions should be positive

and allow him to feel comfortable getting to know new people in a safe environment such as the

classroom. Group activities are also suggested to improve his social development as well. While

he is more than capable of interacting with peers his age, he simply is not motivated to do so. By

creating group activities for the class to complete, it provides him with motivation to interact

with others. He is more than capable in the classroom and should continue to be provided with

support to complete his assignment. Both in the classroom and in the home.
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Reference page

Ellsworth, J. A. (n.d.). Teaching and learning fairness. 11th year. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from
https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/PEPSIObserv/year11.html
Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2014). Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th Edition). Cengage

Learning US. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781305176881