Social Observation Report on the Thirteenth-Year-Old Girl

Introduction

I’m observing Gaby Estrada who is a 13 year old young women. She is about 5’3 tall and weighs approximately 112 pounds. She has light skin with big hazel brown eyes, she has immensely long curly lashes, thick eyebrows, freckles, and braces. She has long, thick, wavy, light brown hair that is very neat in appearance. She was dressed casually in black leggings and t-shirt. She has a pair of small hoop earrings on her earlobe. She is medium weight slim waist and has thick legs. Her ethnicity is Mexican American. I observed her in her middle school in Sun Valley CA. The time was 2:00 pm on a Friday. I observed her for a hour and a half. When I arrived she was smiling and interacting with 5 of her friends as she was eating chips. During the hour And a half I observed Gaby in different situations that demonstrated her particular development level. She was very talkative throughout the hour.

Areas of Development

When I began observing Gaby she was hanging out with her peers outside in the school field. As they were walking and interacting with each other this handsome young boy passes by and I assume Gaby has some sort of a crush on him for the reason she appeared to be fixing her hair asking her girlfriends “How do I look? do I look okay?” this was a sign of her physical development. She was concerned of her appearance. As the boy passed by he smiled and asked them if they wanted to go to hang out at Mountasia later on. Gaby instantly got excited that he noticed her. Her and girlfriends started expressing themselves by making these hand gestures of excitement and flailing their arms over their head after he left. But they had totally forgot they had a project due tonight. So one of Gaby’s girlfriends was like “ Ugh damn we cannot go we need to start working on this project guys, it’s due tonight.” Gaby was like “ OMG you are right ugh” her other girlfriends did not seem to care and were like we can work on it later on tonight after we go with that cute boy. But Gaby did not like the sound of that and knew she had to put her education first. This was a sign of her cognitive development. It demonstrated Gaby’s responsibility and own decision making. Her friend asked her if she really was going to blow the guy off and gaby responded with “No jacky I’m going to hang out with him and just fail the class no big deal right.” This was a sign of her language development. It demonstrated her sarcasm towards her friend. For the remainder of the time Gaby decided to work on her project and decided to find the boy and tell him she will not be able to go because she has responsibilities to take care of. Although she seemed in fear that the boy would not ask her out again and hurt his feelings. Finally this was a sign of social emotional development. She was self conscious of what his response was. Around 3:30 I ended my observation.

Course Concepts

A physical developmental concept I noticed was self esteem when Gaby started to be concerned about how she looked. She had to make sure her hair and face looked fine before she encountered the boy. “Previous studies suggest that adolescents who are dissatisfied with their bodies are more likely to perceive their health as fair or poor and more likely to show depression, low self-esteem and low social functioning.” She also showed the concept gonadarche when the boy she had a crush on passed by, smiled at her and she instantly got excited once he left. This refers to the earliest gonadal changes of puberty. A cognitive development concept I observed was competent decision making where Gaby had to choose in between going out with friends or her education in completing her project. She identified the two options assessed the risks and evaluated her best choice. Another concept I noticed was life roles when it was obvious that she knew school has to come first before anything else. An emotional concept she showed was identity development. When she was self conscious about what the boy was going to think of her or what he was going to say which goes back to her personal characteristics. She also demonstrated identity achieved. By knowing her crush was okay with her not being able to go and knew they can go another day. Finally a language concept she displayed was sarcasm when she was communicating with her friend about bailing on the boy or not. This shows the usage of language in hypothetical situations.

Reflection

I learned a lot observing a 13 year old. During my observation of Gaby I witnessed a great deal of developmental stages and accomplishments. Gaby was advanced in her social development which allowed her to become easily accepted by other peers around her. Throughout the time I had I believe it was effective in displaying her different levels of development.