Running head: PEPSI SCREENING CASE STUDY

PEPSI Screening Case Study: Education Psychology

Makanani Keomaka
College of Southern NevadaPEPSI Screening Case Study: Education
Psychology
For my case study, I decided to do it on my 14-year-old half
sister, Kacy-Lyn Navarro-Laumatia. She was born on February 8, 1999
so that makes her seven years younger than I am. We were born and
raised on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Like many children out there,
Kacy-Lyn grew up distant from her father who lives on the island of
Oahu. Kacy-Lyn and I have different dads and we both know what it is
like to be raised by a single mother. My older sister, Alea, and I have
been helping my mom take care of Kacy-Lyn growing up. Kacy-Lyn
grew up in a town called Kahului which is in the center of Maui. It is a
small town with schools, shopping centers, and parks, all nearby. As
Kacy-lyns gotten older; she would walk to school along with her

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cousin, who is the same age as her. Kacy-Lyn and her cousin Kaeana
are really close and do got to school together and play on the same
sports teams. Kacy-Lyn is currently finishing her 8th grade year at Maui
Waena Intermediate School and will be attending Baldwin High School
next year.

Physical Development
I would say that my little sister is a very outstanding athlete. In
her short 14 years, she has participated in soccer, wrestling,
cheerleading, and track and field. She was one of the best for each
sport. She is 57 and weighs about 112 pounds. In high school, she is
looking forward to playing on the varsity soccer team, wrestling team
and run track for varsity as a freshman.
A new sport that she will try out is volleyball. Kacy-Lyn is very
much looking forward to high school. She stands out amongst most of
her friends because she is very tall. When you look at her for the first
time, you can immediately see that she is an athlete.
In JAnne Ellsworths PEPSI chart, she mentions that, a slim body
is a national mental picture and many girls embark upon poor eating
practices interchanged with crash diet pills. Diet wise, she is always
eating. I noticed that she could eat any type of food she wants, when
she wants, and she will not gain a pound. The reason for this is not
because she is trying to stay slim, it is because she is constantly so

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active. From the age Kacy-Lyn could walk, she was always hyperactive.
She always had so much energy and it benefits her now because she is
very active in sports and extremely athletic. As an athlete so far she
has won championships in wrestling and soccer. For wrestling this past
year she has won the Maui Intermediate Wrestling title against some
pretty stiff competition. The summer going into eighth grade she
helped her club soccer team win a regional soccer tournament in
Thousand Oaks, California. Kacy-Lyn was the forward and scored most
of her teams goals on the way to the championship. She is a very
driven girl with high expectations, and we all believe in her
expectations. Although she is only in the 8th grade, her goal for college
is to get a scholarship in one of the sports she participates in. Not only
because she is my sister, but because I know her athletic abilities, I,
along with the rest of her family, knows she will succeed in this goal.

Emotional Development
According to JAnne Ellsworth, early adolescences start thinking
about their future and their goals. As I mentioned earlier, Kacy-Lyn has
already started thinking about attending college on an athletic
scholarship. Ellsworth also noted that Hazelton said that early
adolescence do not like to be bossed so, they tend to argue with their
parents. They define themselves as independent, even though they are
not. They feel like they have the right to be free and do what ever they

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want to. Also, they define themselves and their identity. At this time,
children this age realize who they want to be, not caring what others
think.
When it comes to Kacy-Lyn, I see that she obviously does not like
to be bossed. But I feel like her mother has done a good job in raising
her because she does not disrespect her at all. For example, when my
mom would tell her to do her chores, it is obvious that she does not
want to do it, but she continues to do it with no attitude towards my
mom.
There is a few times where Kacy-Lyn and her mother would get
into small arguments but it would be fixed right away because that is
the way Kacy-Lyn is. For example, Kacy-Lyn would ask to stay over her
friends house on a weekday, obviously the answer would be a no
because there is school the next day. Kacy-Lyn would argue with her
mother because she really wants to go but later acts as if nothing
happened and converses with her mom. I feel that Kacy-Lyn is always
happy and I have never really seen a downside of her, which is great
because she is always positive. It is very fortunate for Kacy-Lyn
because she mentioned that she notices some of her peers that are
surrounded with negative things, like drugs. She is very fortunate
because she is surrounded with much family who love her and support
her in everything she does.

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Philosophical/Moral Development
For Kacy-Lyns philosophical development, she would be placed
in stage 4: Law and Order orientation. According to Kohlberg,
children in this stage are able to know what is right from wrong. Also,
showing the right thing is showing respect for authority. Children in this
age are able to maintain the given social order for its own sake. Stage
4 is under the conventional level and Kohlberg also mentions that
children in this stage are able to put themselves in others shoes so
they believe in the phrase, do unto others as you would have them do
unto you.
The reason I placed Kacy-Lyn in stage 4 is because she is a very
respectful teenager. The main reason I think she is respectful is
because of my family and how my mom , grandparetns, and all our
aunties and uncles try to teach her to live life happy and not to get
frustrated with people and just show respect to people and theyll give
you respect. There are other teenagers that can be very disrespectful
and rebel against every little thing, but she is always respectful and
knows the right thing to do. As mentioned earlier, she hardly if ever
disrespects her mother or any elders.
Using Kohlbergs moral reasoning exercise, I asked her, if you
had no food to eat, would you steal food from a grocery store? she
answered, no I would try to sell some of my clothes or toys so I can
make money and then buy food. I was very pleased with her answer.

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This showed me how mature she became in her moral development.

Kacy-Lyn has grown to learn right from wrong. I think that the school
she attends also hold their students to show respect for everyone.

Social Development
In JAnne Ellsworths PEPSI chart, she states that in childrens
social development, they tend to compare themselves to their peers.
They try to impress their peers so that they feel like they are
accepted. Also, Ellsworth mentions that children will tend to get
comfortable running away or escaping.
Kacy-Lyns social life is very positive. From when she first started
going to school in kindergarten, she always knew how to make friends.
She was always the social butterfly and became friends with almost
everyone in her class. I noticed that wherever she would go, within the
first 5 minutes of her destination, she is already playing with a new
friend. For example, we would go to the beach and we would be there
for only 5-10 minutes, and she would already be building sand castles
with another friend. On top of her personality, as stated before, she is
involved with a lot of extra-curricular activities so, she meets a lot
more people whether it is her competitors or her teammates.
Kacy-Lyn has never really needed to impress any one of her
peers because she was always making new friends here and there. She
never needed to feel accepted. I think that one of the main reasons

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why she doesnt have to feel accepted is because she is positive and
is confident with who she is. She is confident and social so she makes
everyone feel comfortable or really knows how make someone feel
welcomed. She tends to make a lot of friends because she has good
communication skills and knows how to talk to people and find
common interests to become close friends. Kacy-Lyn has learned to be
a positive and self-less person which is why she befriends all types of
people.

Intellectual/Cognitive Development
According to Piagets cognitive stages of development, Kacy-Lyn
would be considered to be in the formal operational stage. This is the
stage where the child is able to deal wit potential or hypothetical
situations. I noticed that in every situation, Kacy-Lyn always has a way
to work around things.
Next year, she will be placed in Algebra 1, which is average for
her age. Although she is not in any AP classes, she has the ability to
think like a student who is. According to Kacy-Lyns mom the reason
she is not placed in AP classes is because of her laziness. I understand
because Kacy-Lyn is too caught up in sports. Although it is a great
thing that she is excellent in sports but she does need to pay attention
to her academics as well. She needs to learn how to balance it out. She

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does not get any grades lower than a C but even a C is considered too
low for her mothers requirements.
When it comes to sports, her intellectuality is very high. When
she is new to any sport, she learns the sport very quickly. Once KacyLyn gets the hang of the sport, it could get quite scary for her
opponents. She comes up with strategies and techniques on her own.
For example, in soccer she was able to figure out specific routes and
passes that would end up in a goal. Her soccer coach constantly
speaks about Kacy-Lyn saying she always does and performs the plays
that the coach is already thinking of in his head. The same goes for
wrestling, she just started about six months ago, and she is currently
undefeated. She wrestled girls with much more experience than her;
Im talking about 2 years. She is able to use her cognitive mind to do
certain moves that ends the tournament in a pin.

Recommendations
My recommendations for Kacy-Lyn would probably be to balance
her extra-curricular activities with her academics. Kacy-Lyn reminds me
very much of myself when I was her age.
Physically, she is tall, athletic, and very strong for her size. She is
able to use her size as an advantage in sports. Emotionally, she is
always a positive person. I would not recommend anything to her
because I feel like she is always happy and when I am around her she

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makes me happy as well. For her morals, I feel like she has got them
down. Growing up, Ive been taught the same morals as Kacy-Lyn and I
think she has succeeded in getting them in line. Socially, I can see
Kacy-Lyn kind of getting out of line in class because she does love to
talk. But, there has not been any kind of complaint from the instructor.
For Kacy-Lyns intellectual development, I think she just needs to
balance her focus. She is a smart and intellectual individual; its just
that she needs to put her mind to what is important. I think in
intermediate and high school students can get distracted by their
peers because everyone is starting become social with one another.
Kacy-Lyn needs to just apply herself and learn to finish her
assignments on time and not turn them in late because she forgets to
turn it in at the beginning of class. I think that if she just focuses a little
more she will slowly get better with all academics. If there is one thing
she needs to get her priorities straight which is school and family
always comes first. Overall, I humbly say that my sister is an
outstanding individual in all aspects.

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Kacy-Lyn's Development

Kacy-Lyn's Development

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References
Ellsworth, J. (1999). Early Adolescence: Being Aware of Being "Real". In
ESE 504.
Retrieved May 1, 2013, from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/
%7Ejde7/ese504/class/pepsi/reading2-1-1.html
Slavin, R. E. (2012). Educational Psychologoy (Student Value ed., Vol.
10). Boston,
MA: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.