PSYC 290N Week 4 Course Project I: My Virtual Life – Raise A Child: Section 3-Adolescence: 15 to 18 years

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PSYC 290N Week 4 Course Project I: My Virtual Life – Raise A Child: Section 3-Adolescence: 15 to 18 years Week four: My Virtual Life Psych290N ... -05:00 WEEK FOUR Set 9: 12 years, 11 months (3 essay questions @ 4 points each = 12 total points) 1. Describe any physical or behavioral signs of incipient puberty. Rocky is definitely showing a lot of behavioral signs of puberty. One example is that he’s easily angered over getting help on his math studies compared to before. He wants to continuously argue over his clothes, bedtime & chores, in which he is usually well mannered. He’s been displaying mood swings, such as being either friendly or cheerful after school, but other times he gets sullen & cranky, while locking himself in his bedroom to play videos games. When you try to go talk to him. He has also shown an interest in girls, especially by wanting a racy video game. 2. How would you characterize your child at this point in terms of the under-controlled, over-controlled or resilient categories? Have there been any changes since the preschool period & why might they have occurred? Rocky has gone from the resilient category over to the under-controlled category in a small way. Although it is not a dramatic change since his preschool period, it still has occurred. My reasoning for believing that this has occurred is due to the fact that he’s about to hit puberty. He is still pretty well mannered, but at the same time has more of a temperament. 3. Using the 7th grade report card & your own observations, summarize your child’s academic skills at this point. What specific activities might promote some of these skills? Rocky has excelled in skills such as his gifted English & Social Studies programs. He also excelled in his arts class & chorus classes. He has also done really well in Spanish, & since his trip to Montréal he’s wanted to learn how to speak French. To increase his skills we could put him into Classes to learn to speak French as well as more Art classes after school like painting or construction like activities. Take him more art museums or concerts. Set 10: Age 15 years, 0 months (3 essay questions @ 4 points each = 12 total points) 4. What activities & experiences at ages 12 & 14 has your teen been involved in that might promote healthy behavioral practices, physical fitness & skill in sports? Rocky has tried out & made his high school’s baseball team. While catching up with his uncle, he was exposed to more activities like playing tennis. Rocky also went camping for the first time, & learned to use a compass. He also getting more involved in listening to religion & different point of view in politics to help promote healthier behavioral activities. He also likes to walk or ride his bike places with his friends. 5. Have there been any changes in your teen’s behavior toward you or your partner? Why are these occurring & how are you responding? He believes that we are more supportive of him than other parents, but at the same time we’re still stricter. He still like to argue occasionally about the typical things such as chores, homework, & even curfew to name a few things. In response to his behaviors, we’ve been trying to talk it out with him & give scenarios of what we have gone through at his age. If he’s too rowdy we tend to leave him alone until he can calm down. 6. Do you see any examples of how cognitive & physical changes in early adolescence (ages 12-14) relate to your teen's social or emotional behavior? During the 1st progress report, Rocky has shown grades that are lower than his abilities. I feel like this has to do with the friends he’s making & the activities they may be up to. Rocky is getting more stressed out with the transition into school to the point he’s acting out & becoming rebellious not only at home, but outside of home. He’s shown more of an interest in girls, & wants to go out to more parties & hang out with girls more. Set 11: Age 16 years, 11 months (3 essay questions @ 4 points each = 12 total points) 7. Think about your teen’s cognitive strengths & weaknesses & how they are reflected in his or her school grades & activities from 14-16 years of age. What careers or courses of study might be best suited to your teen’s abilities & interests? He’s been excelling in almost all areas, especially art, music, social studies, English & even foreign languages. For his abilities & interests, it may be in his best interest to either be a writer & illustrator or even an architect. Also another career choice could be something with writing music, because he does so well with piano, & his singing & b&. Maybe he could even join the school's newspaper or yearbook club his senior year. 8. How important have your teen’s relationships with peers been to his/her social development, emotional well-being & school achievement from 14-16 years of age? Rocky’s always seemed to have a good relationship with his peers, considering he was one of the more popular kids. I feel as though his friendships have made him a more confident & outgoing person, although there has been a few negative effects. The occasional coming home moody because of something somebody has said. Sometimes the peer pressure has gotten to him, & he’s done a few choices that weren’t necessarily correct. Other than that, they’ve had no negative impact on his academic goals, if anything he’s getting stronger & smarter. 9. How has your teen adjusted at 14-16 years of age to typical adolescent issues such as risk-taking, drugs, alcohol, & sexual interests, & how have you responded to your teen? Over those two years Rocky’s interests in girls has peaked to where we’ve found porn & magazines in his room, as well as explicit video games. He claimed he was in love with one of them after two months, & eventually ran off & got matching tattoos. AS his parents we reacted with an open mind, told him the importance of waiting, but that he is able to talk to us about anything. He has gone to party, but was responsible & called for a ride to pick him up. We were upset that he drank, but were happy that he called us to pick him up instead of drinking & driving. We made sure that he had a talk & knew the dangers of it. Set 12: Age 18 years, 1 month – Final Reflections (2 essay questions @ 4 points each = 8 total points) 10. As the program ends, what pathways does your child appear to be on in terms of physical, cognitive, social, emotional & moral development? To what extent could you have predicted these pathways based on what you knew of your child's earlier development? Describe some specific ways in which you think your parenting mattered for your child's development, based on evidence from the course regarding the contributions of parents to child development. Honestly I think Rocky is on great pathways all the way around. Physically he likes to play baseball, but isn’t a fitness junkie. Cognitively he’s smarter than any of his parents have ever been. Morally I feel as though we share similar beliefs & values. Socially, he was very popular, but would occasionally stumble like when he snuck out to get tattoos with his girlfriend, & possible ideas having sex. These acts affected him emotionally at times I feel like a lot of his morals & emotions have been from the way we parented him. He used to get very upset at the sight of his parents fighting, & I believe that transitioned into his relationships with his friends, when he’d get upset over a few things that they did. In regards to the way he behaves & his morals I believe that it helped that we as his parents, were open minded with his decisions & mistakes. It helped that we didn’t always resort to punishment when he’d make a mistake but left it open to a discussion about what is right & wrong, & never pressured him into doing anything, but encouraged him in all aspects of his choices. 11. Describe some specific ways in which your child developed that appeared to be influenced by factors outside your control, such as genes, r&om environmental events or the general influence of contemporary middle-class American culture. One specific thing that I saw right off the bat is that Rocky found his love for music beginning in his preschool class. Since then throughout his years & even into high school he’s play multiple instruments, & has been in choirs & b&s. A few other things is when his little sister was born, he began to take on more responsibility for her & things in his life, which I feel includes in his responsibilities in homework, chores, etcc. Because of Rocky’s friend’s he had, he became more involved in several activities & found a love for playing baseball & improving throughout high school. Although his parents weren’t as smart as he was, he seemed to get his impressive school skills & love for music/art from genetics. Bonus Question = 10 Points 12. Are there any issues you had with your parents, your school work, your friends, or your romantic involvements in the last year of high school that continued to be issues for you in college? Reflect on your own personality, interests & cognitive abilities at the time you graduated high school. How did these personality characteristics & abilities manifest themselves in subsequent years? How have they changed since your high school days, if at all? During my last year of high school is when I think I had the best relationship with my parents. I believe the reason behind this was because one of my friends & potential romantic partner had died halfway through. Earlier that year I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted to do about college, & was losing interest in my classes & school work. I almost didn’t graduate over a couple of books that my teacher had failed to turn in for her students (like she said she would), even though I was an honor student. Because of that friend though he pushed me to be a better person. When he was gone I lost all interest in everything. I think I ruined a few friendships, didn’t care anymore about my grades (although I never really let them slip too far), & had no desire to continue my dance classes outside of school at first. When I got too far down that year emotionally, I remembered all that my friend wanted for me. I got into college that year, but ended up leaving after the first year because of getting pregnant. I feel as though I have become stronger since then, because here I am again, back in school, because I know that’s what he would have wanted me to do. & instead of wanting to be a radiologist I am now getting my degree in nursing. [Show More]

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