Adolescence and School Essay

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Adolescence, School, and Social Life
Lina Bui
University of California, San Diego

Psychology 180
Dr. Beck-Ellsworth
June 3, 2013

Adolescence, School, and Social Life Adolescence is an age of discovery for teens and young adults. It is a transitional stage in a person’s life when they begin to feel the desire to become independent and self-reliant. An adolescent’s experience can vary widely between cultures, but there are general principles that most adolescents are able to relate to during this time period. An interview was held with an adolescent of age fifteen who goes to Oxnard High School to investigate this trend. Verbal permission was granted from both parents of the adolescent and the adolescent was notified that the interview was going to be transcribed, but that everything said in the interview would remain anonymous. For the purpose of keeping the adolescent anonymous, her name has been changed to Stephanie in this text. She agreed to participate in this interview, where she was asked ten questions pertaining to the aspects of her school and social life. Ever since the Age of Adolescence, teens were required to complete secondary school. I thought it would be interesting to find out Stephanie’s thoughts and views about school. As a starting point, I asked her what she liked least about school and what she liked most. She replied that she disliked the amount of work that was given in school, since it always seem to end up being a lot no matter how many classes she was taking. Her favorite part about school was that she got to be around her friends. She felt that school would be “such a boring place” without them. School can be a place where a lot of stress is concentrated, and where teachers and staff put a lot of pressure upon their students to do well. School can also resemble a second home for adolescents, where they are able to meet and associate themselves with peers of the same age group. Next, I was curious as to what types of people or groups were considered popular at her school and the qualities about them that made them stand out among other students. She claimed that the most popular students at her school tended to be the ones who played sports. She believed that they received their popular standing in the school because of their good looks and the achievements that they have made in school and sports, such as being able to compete in the California Interscholastic Federation championships (CIF). As discussed in lecture, one of the most important domains that affect an adolescent’s self image is physical appearance. Since this is such an important aspect, it is not surprising that popularity is partly based upon looks. The third question I had for her was related to bullying and her experience with it. She admitted that she had been bullied by a girl at the beginning of her adolescent years because of how academically competent she was. She discussed her success in stopping the bullying by going to her teacher for help. She explained that she did not talk to her parents about the situation because she felt that they would have taken it too far for her own liking and she did not want “to make a big deal about it”. Unlike the discussion in lecture where it was identified that teachers and staff are ignorant about bullying, the administration at Stephanie’s school actually played a big part in protecting their students. This confirms that it is definitely part of the staff’s job to make sure there is the least amount of bullying occurring. The fourth question I had for the interviewee was whether she felt safe in school or not overall. She felt that school is a safe place for her, since the “teachers and staff will do everything to make school a safer place”. This was also a different opinion from what was discussed in lecture, since the situations that came up in lecture consisted of the facts that students did not feel safe in the schools because the
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