Adolescent interview: A Qualitative Study in Adolescent Psychology

Running head: ADOLESCENT INTERVIEW1

Adolescent interview: A Qualitative Study in Adolescent

Psychology

Roosevelt Nickelberry, Jr.

The University of Memphis


INTRODUCTION

K. G. M was born June 6, 1998. As of this date he is now

aged fourteen (14). His parents are M. D. and Marilyn Morris,

aged 42, and 36. He is of African-American descent and has one

sibling, Ke G. M, aged 19. Both of K’s parents are gainfully

employed; M, a graphic designer-printer and M, a sales

representative-manager. K’s parents are considered middle-class

earners, are buying their own home and both drive their own

vehicles. His sister, Ke is presently a sophomore at Tennessee

State University, a historical black college, and is earning her

bachelor’s degree in audio engineering technology. The primary

premise of my interview is to ascertain if K is motivated to

succeed because of, or in spite of his current socioeconomic

status, which is not constrictive of his activities, but rather

is very conducive with him obtaining upwardly mobile adult career

and lifestyle. It is my theory that children who are not

underprivileged, are motivated, but lack some urgency in

obtaining a competitive spirit by realizing that the “pursuit of

happiness” is no guaranteed victory. Their main motivational


obstacle to achievement is usually procrastination. Also, since

their faith in a higher power has not yet been thoroughly tested,

a child in this environment will quickly adopt the views of their

family and peers as their own without question. As the minister

of music at Living Waters Community Church, I observed K on many

occasion since his father is a singer in the male vocal group

Image, a group that I am producing a C.D. on. M often has K

accompanying him to rehearsal, and I felt he would be a

compelling interviewee. K attends Evangelical Christian School.

I interviewed K at Living Waters on Friday November 16, 2012 at

6:00 p.m. I taped the interview on a Sony digital recorder

administered a written test. For his participation, I gave K a

payment of $10 for his time and efforts. I also recently received

written permission from K’s father, M in the form of an informed

consent letter. I will include this letter as an addendum to this

assignment.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT: PHYSICAL

This case study will primarily focus on three areas of

development: physical, cognitive-moral, and social development.


This study will emphasize the social development aspects of

expansion more in-depth than the other areas because this

aspect is the most important in promoting my hypothesis. The

first questions I asked were about his vital statistics:

1. What is your full name?

2. How old are you?

3. What is your weight and height?

4. What are your parents full names

5. Who are your siblings?

K’s physical development appears to be a bit slower than boys

his own age. According to the Center of Disease Control and

Prevention, “A 15-year-old boy weighed 135.5 pounds on average

in 1966; by 2002 the average weight of a boy that age increased

to 150.3 pounds” (CDC). At age 14 K is small on average at 107

pounds. As for height, “In 1966, the average height of a 15-

year-old boy was 67.5 inches or almost 5-7½; by 2002 the

average height of a 15-year-old boy was 68.4 or almost 5-8½” K

is 5ft-3in. Again, he is slightly smaller in statue. One

unusual thing is that K’s feet are large for his size—he wears


a size 10-½ shoe which is normal for his age. The pains of

puberty are very apparent in K as his big feet and small statue

makes his gait very clumsy and gangly. Other than that, his

bodily and facial features are very symmetrical, his skin and

eyes are very clear, he has little or no acne—his mood every

time I see him is very relaxed and has an even temperament. If

I perform a longitudinal study on K spanning a few more years,

I am sure that his height will eventually catch up with his

feet.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT’

I first wanted to see where K ranked on the Piaget’s

cognitive development stages. I administered K a written test,

some of which I extracted from a study on stages of development

by Steve Reedy, PHD. In Steve’s study, he posted these two

pictures and asked a series of questions to test his subjects

cognitive functioning, morality, gender awareness, and faith. I

felt that this test along with some questions that I personally

developed would answer some of the issues I felt were necessary

in answering my hypothesis.


1. How many smiles are in these two pictures?

2. How many pictures do you see?

3. Are there more smiles or are there more pictures?

4. How many sunglasses do you see?

5. Are there more pictures or more sunglasses?

Kalieb answered all of these questions correctly which seemed

to agree with the age range Piaget placed on a person’s

capacity to form rational thought, which is seven years and

up.


The gender questions from Dr. Reedy were as follows: he

hoped to determine if his interviewees would base their answer

on predefined gender roles.

6. Who would wear pink and who would wear blue?

7. Which one would take care of a baby when they grow up?

8. Which one will make a lot of money?

9. Which one will grow up to be a fireman?

10. Which one will grow up to be a nurse?

11. Which one will shop for groceries?

12. Which one has a toy truck?

13. Which one has a toy doll?

14. Which one is a bully?

15. Which one is strong?

16. Which one would you play with?

What was interesting in K’s answers was that he didn’t possess

a strictly defined gender association. For example, he answers

traditionally questions 7,9,10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 16; but he

answered 6, 8, and 15 nontraditionally. I was especially

surprised that he said that the girl was strong. I think that


Kalieb has strong female role models in his mother and sister.

In fact he is on the track team at his school, he’s following

in his mother’s footsteps –his father played football. The

next set of questions were designed to test if K had reached

Piaget’s formal operational stage some of which were developed

by Dr. Reedy and some by me. First, Dr. Reedy:

17. What do you like most about yourself?

18. What do you dislike about yourself?

This is the first time that K displays any egocentrism because he

answers “his rapping skills” which may be good to him but his

abilities are not refined. He expressed his discomfort with his

body weight probably because he is smaller than average but he

also thinks that people like him in spite of his “shortcomings.”

1. What do you believe others think about you?

2. How do you think people react to the way you look

The answers to these questions seem to suggest that K’s personal

fable is that everyone has good thoughts of him and react very

favorably at the way he looks. It may be a little presumptuous


on his part because he doesn’t have a girlfriend yet. Great looks

are a pre-requisite for a girl to want a boy at this age.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

As I before stated K is being raised in a Christian

household and attends a Christian school. Christian beliefs are

supposedly God’s law but it also perpetuates social injustice.

They persecute gay people, alienate themselves as the only true

religion, and tell you if you’re not a Christian, you will burn

in hell. In reality, moral development has very little to do with

being a Christian and a wealth to do with being a moral human

being. True morality possesses instantaneously the simplest

possible fundamental structure and the richest possible

singularities. Unfortunately, this thought process is seldom

reach by many adults, and almost never reached by adolescents who

generally mimic what they are taught. According to Dr. James

Flower, very few, even intellectual people have a detached but

passionate view of life; identify with the whole of humanity,

regardless of tradition or in-group; have selfless compassion for


all others; characterized by a unitive experience with their own

being.

On K’s written questionnaire in wrote a scenario very

similar to Kohlberg’s Moral Dilemma. I changed the event form a

sick wife who needs medicine, to a sick wife who needs an

operation: the scenario went like this:

Bobby is in a dire predicament –his wife is sick and needs a heart transplant. The operation and new heart costs $20,000 dollars and Bobby’s life savings is only $5000. He first goes to the bank and asks for a loan of $15,000 dollars, but loan officer tells him in a cold and indifferent voice, “you have no collateral and your credit rating is very low; I have no choice but to reject your loanapplications at this time…”Bobby goes home dejected and finds more bad news—his wife has left in an ambulance because her conditions worsens. He calls the hospital and her doctor informs him that if she doesn’t have the operation within a week, she will probably die. But he also has good news—“We found her a compatible heart and if it is transplanted in time, she has a great chance for a full recovery and long life expectancy. Bobby feels he has no other choice, so he goes out and purchases an advanced German assault rifle, goes into the bank masked to hide his identity and robs the bank of $100,000 dollars; he now has more than enough money to pay for his wife’s transplant operation (adapted from Kohlberg’s Moral Dilemma).


The weapon Booby used to rob the bank…The HK G36 assault rifle (standard German armyversion with dual sight system) with 40mm AG36 under barrel grenade launcher

Image: Heckler-Koch

a) Should Bobby have robbed the bank?

b) Was taking the money right or wrong?

c) Is it a husband’s duty to do whatever is

necessary if he can’t get the money in other way?

d) Would a good husband endanger his life and

others in order to save his wife’s life

e) What if it had been his son or daughter? How

about one of his parents or best friends?

f) What if a security guard challenged Booby with a

weapon of his own and Booby had to kill him in

order to get away with the robbery?

http://world.guns.ru/userfiles/images/1289119164.jpg


g) Booby got away with $100,000 dollars, what should

he do with the rest of the money?

In all cases, K stayed in the conventional level of moral reasoning.

In answers (a) and (b), K tries to exhibit stage four moralities

which are authority and social order obedience driven, but he is

more confortable only rationalizing his moral standings with

interpersonal accord and remains conformity driven. He tries very

had to be the “good boy” who is very receptive to approval or

disapproval from others as it reflects society's accordance with

the perceived role. At one point during the written test in this

section, he shook his head very belligerently and remarked, “This

is hard….” It was as if he didn’t want to think on his own, he

just want to give the answer that would please everyone else.

This is also very apparent when he was asked what he should do

with the rest of the money. Kalieb, smugly remarked, “Donate it

to the church…” This would justify all the wrong that was

perpetrated and wash his sins away. This action would have been

perfect in the medieval Catholic Church that sold Indulgences to

forgive your sins.


COGNITVE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FROM PERSONAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

The next portions of the interview were questions I asked

him personally and were created by me using some dichotomous

questions and some open end questions. Many were designed to

determine Kalieb’s identity development, self-esteem indicators,

and critical thinking aptitude; and social aptitude. The

following are questions I asked and the psychological background

1. Do you like your parents and sibling? Social Influences on Gender

2. What do you like most about them? Social Influences on Gender

3. What do you like least about them? Do you believe in God? Why?

4. If you could ask god a question, what would it be?Moral Development

5. What are you most proud about yourself? Self-esteem indicator

6. What are you least proud? Self-esteem indicator7. Do you have a best friend? Who is he/she? Social

Influences on Gender8. Do you tease people; call them names gossip,

bully? Self-esteem—self Concept9. Is it most important to be most liked by your

parents, peers or teachers? Social Influences on gender

10. Do you spend more time watching TV or being on the Internet performing tasks unrelated to schoolwork? Social Influences on Gender


11. Would you rather read a book, or go see a movie if you had to do a report on the subject? Social Influences on Gender

12. How much of what you see on TV do you believe, or do you think it promotes stereotypes and caricatures of real people? Social Influences on Gender

13. Do you believe Sports are real? 14. If you could be anyone other than yourself,

who would you be?15. Would you rather be smart or handsome? Self –

esteem indicator16. If I had one money bill in my pocket could I

have a five and ten dollar bill? Cognitive Development.

17. If I gave you a cookie recipe and the cookiesend up burning up, what would you do? Cognitive Development.

18. How well are you doing academically? Self-efficacy

19. Who is your favorite teacher? Social Influences on Gender

20. What subject do you not do well in academically? Self-efficacy

21. How many quarters will you get in return for 60 dimes? Convergent Thinking

22. Can you think of some unique uses for a paperclip?

23. What do you plan on being when you grow up? Self-efficacy

24. How do you plan to accomplish this goal? Self-efficacy

25. Do you know all the steps in obtaining this career choice? Self-efficacy

26. Do you think a lot about who you are? Self-awareness

27. How much are you motivated to be successful? Self-efficacy


28. Do you think people like you? How important is it for you to be liked, or would you rather be respected?

29. Where did you learn about sex? Social Influences on Gender

30. Do you like girls? Why? Developmental Construction of Relationships

31. Are you attracted sexually to boys? Self-Identity

32. What do you define yourself as GLBS? Self-Identity

33. If you were Gay, when would you tell your parents? Self-Identity

34. Do you think it’s wrong for a person to be part of a sexual minority? Moral Reasoning

35. Have you ever had any sexual experiences withanyone? Sexual Script

36. Where did you learn about sex? Sexual Script37. Has anyone solicited you for sex or made

undesirable sexual contact with you? Forcible Sexual Behavior

38. How many children do you plan on having when you start a family? Reciprocal Socialization.

39. What do you think affects your personal gender identity the most—the view or you parents, siblings, peers teachers, society or mass media? Social Influences on Gender

40. Are you more imaginative or practical? Personality Openness

41. Independent or conforming? Personality Openness

42. Organized or disorganized? Personality Conscientious

43. Disciplined or Impulsive? Personality Conscientious

44. Social or retiring? Personality Extraversion45. Fun loving or somber? Personality

Extraversion


46. Affectionate of reserved? Personality Extraversion

47. Softhearted or Ruthless? Personality Agreeability

48. Trusting or suspicious? Personality Agreeability

49. Helpful or Uncooperative? Personality Agreeability

50. Calm or Anxious? Personality Neuroticism51. Secure or Insecure? Personality Neuroticism52. Self-satisfied or self-pitying Personality

Neuroticism

FINDINGS

This being a qualitative analysis of one test subject, I

attempted to ask a number of questions that would lend themselves

to a certain amount of unpredictability. That being said, perhaps

the easiest predictor is Piaget’s cognitive development stage.

Kalieb exhibited great aptitude in the concrete operational stage and

some ability in the formal operational stage. He knew one money bill

in my pocket could not be a $5dollor bill and a $10 concurrently

(Question# 16); he displayed formal operational skill in his

cookie recipe by his suggestions to change recipe or cooking

temperatures (Question #17). K had a problem with the convergent

thinking question# 21, but Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive

theory explain how he was quick to catch on how to solve the


problem when I assisted him using a scaffolding technique. First,

going to a dime to dollar ratio 10:1 and a quarter to dollar

ratio of 4:1, he determined that there were 6 dollars to 60 dimes

and 6 times 4 = 24 quarters. K’s pattern of thinking to produce

one answer is not as strong as his ability to produce many

answers for the same question. This is a point that I found very

interesting in the interviewee. In question 22, he thought of

many creative uses for a paper clip, including using it for a

tool to open boxes, as a handle and a book mark. He seems to

possess remarkable abilities as a divergent thinker.

K’s upbringing seems to have a great effect on his social

development as well as on his gender. Social cognitive theory

emphasizes that children’s and adolescent gender development is

influenced by their observation and imitation of others gender

behavior, as well as the rewards and punishments they experience

for gender appropriate behavior. Siblings, peers, schools,

teachers and mass media also affect gender. In K’s case, mass

media also affected his sexual script as he learned about sex,

not from his parents, but from internet pornography. I wasn’t


surprised that he places so much emphasis on peer relationships.

I think that his parents are more authoritarian and restrictive

so K finds refuge in his relationships with his peers. On

question # 9 he answered that it was most important that he is

liked by his peers. Peer relationships to him are very important.

Because of religious background, K appears very shy when

speaking on having a relationship with the opposite sex. In fact,

he seemed more at ease talking about sexual minorities than he

did heterosexual relationships. Perhaps, his parents strongly

stress abstinence and other types of relationships are not

mentioned. Still, K had no definitive answer for question# 34,

even though if halfheartedly remarked that it was against God’s

laws, then he quickly added, “No comment.” K seems most

comfortable when talking about his relationships with his peers.

There also seems to be no forcible sexual incidents in his life

and he claims that he has not been sexually initiated. When ask

when he would tell his parents that he was a sexual minority,

Kalieb quickly replied, “Immediately after I turned Gay,” which

indicates that Kalieb respects his parents very much and would


never keep such an important secret from their knowledge. The

media has some control over Kalieb, but he is on the internet and

reads books much more than he watches television. Does this mean

that network media is losing ground to video on demand and the

Internet? It would appear so, but the scope of this paper does

not lend itself to that premise.

K’s self-efficacy shows inconsistency. On one hand he, seems

very motivated to do well in school; while, on the other, he

exhibits a lackadaisical attitude when he is asked how is his

work ethic academically, he answers on question# 27 that he is

about 50% motivated to be successful, but he will step up his

game when he gets in high school. I got the impression that he is

not very self-motivated in school and is doing only enough to

please his parents but could do better if he asserts himself.

Since he has no low socioeconomic status, he is like a lion in a

cage, waiting for his next meal, because he doesn’t have to hunt

anymore. What possibly could motivate him is the outcome of his

sister, Ke. If she graduates college and starts a successful

career in the music industry as an audio engineer, K is likely to


feel sibling rivalry and work much harder to become the lawyer that

he claims he wants to be, instead of just giving it lip-service.

When I asked him what skill set that he should possess to become

a litigator, he had very sketchy answers which display his lack

of knowledge on this subject. Finally, I gave him personality

tests which were open-ended on a scale from 1 to 5 to determine

the big 5 personality traits of Openness, Conscientious,

Extraversion, Agreeability, and Neuroticism. The results showed

characteristics consistent with a healthy personality profile.

Also, by scoring low on his conscientious profile, K exhibits the

normal adolescent male propensity of disorganization,

carelessness, and impulsiveness.

CONCLUSION

In summation, this case study was taken to ascertain

particular aspects of K Ms’ adolescent development. His physical

development adheres to the determinants of puberty in which hormones

do not always perform uniformly in adolescent physical

development. At age 14, K has not yet experienced a growth spurt

which may not occur until late puberty for boys. His cognitive


development is normal for his age as he performs strongly in the

concrete operational stage, and is beginning to exercise much aptitude

in the formal operational stage. His critical thinking skills show that

he is more talented in divergent thinking than he is in

convergent thinking, but this is strengthened by sociocultural

interaction and there is a high ceiling in K’s zone of proximal

development.

K’s moral development is Stage Three Conventional Level As he

struggles to please parents, peers, and teachers by holding views

that he has be taught by his Christian upbringing. Though his

conviction is strong, he is forced to contend with his

strengthening logical mind that defies conventional wisdom.

Interestingly, I think that K’s primary developmental

restrictions come in his social development as he tries to

establish his identity. Erikson’s psychosocial theory suggests

that people go through eight stages and K is operating in Identity

vs. Identity Confusion. I don’t feel that he is having an identity

crisis, but confusion exists on whether he will continue to try

to please everyone else, or break away and establish his own


unique identity, which incorporates his own views, as well as

others. Finally, according to our text many studies have found

that socioeconomic status predicts achievement better than does

ethnicity. Regardless of their ethnic background, students from

middle- and upper middle income families fare better than their

counterparts in lower income backgrounds in a host of achievement

situation—expectations for success, achievement aspirations and

recognition for the importance of effort. In K’s case I feel his

total social environment is one of expectations. Presently, K’s

primary motivational obstacle to achievement is procrastination which is

linked to his aforementioned low self-efficacy and conscientiousness.

It is vital for K to establish his own identity if he hopes to

increase his personal achievement aspirations through his own

tireless efforts. I do not see him having these desires at this

time. I wouldn’t write him off just yet. As he matures and

establishes dyadic romantic bonds, a more serious K is bound to

emerge that is dedicated and motivated to increase his efforts to

obtain success for his own future, regardless of the sometimes

inflexible wishes of others. As one matures, the seriousness of

life becomes all the more apparent.


References

Center of Disease Control. (2004, October 27). Americans slightly

taller, much heavier than 40 years ago. Retrieved from

http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/r041027.htm

Reedy, S. (2006, November 13). Testing stages of development Retrieved

from

http://www.renewedspirit.com/journals/stages_of_human_develo

pmentdevelopment.htm

Flowers, J. (1995).Stages of faith: The psychology of human development and

the quest for meaning. New edition Boston: HarperOne.

http://www.renewedspirit.com/journals/stages_of_human_developmentdevelopment.htm

http://www.renewedspirit.com/journals/stages_of_human_developmentdevelopment.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/r041027.htm


Santrock, J. W., (2012). Adolescence. (14th Ed.) New York: McGraw-

Hill.


Adolescent interview: A Qualitative Study in Adolescent Psychology

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