Sidney Thorne

Social Work 2100 Human Behavior

Mequette Sorensen
November 7, 2016

Ethnographic Experience

I used a series of events over the course of a week to make my

observations including a group of teen girls planning a party (my daughter
and her friends), several conversations with various teenagers who are
childhood friends of my daughter and have always come to me for advice or
support, and a swim practice for both high school and a private club practice
for middle school aged children.

Biophysical

Looking back and forth between two groups of swimmers, one being a

high school team and the other being a US Swimming (or club) team which

was comprised of mostly middle-schoolers as the high school swim season is

underway so the high school aged swimmers do not practice on the club

teams for the time being, I compared the physical differences between the

groups. Right along the lines of the book, and what was listed in a report by

the University of Maryland describing the physical changes made during

adolescence, the older boys had more hair on their bodies, a few even

having heavy facial hair and wearing beards, their swim suits also showed

evidence of growth in the genital area as well.

The girls did not have the same characteristics described by the book.

Swimmers being leaner do not always develop the same way. However, when

taking body type and using muscle definition to judge dedication to the

sport, it was a little easier to find a baseline to judge from. The few
overweight girls on the high school team showed more breast development

then the middle-school girls of similar body shape right along in accordance

to the book. Few of the middle school girls had the muscle definition of the

high school girls implying they were new to the sport, however this might

have been a simple matter of youth, as a few long term swimmers I knew on

the club team did not gain any intense muscle development until they went

through puberty, and I have watched them for the last 6 years.

The coaches I observed also coached the middle-schoolers differently

than the high schoolers. The high school coaches encouraged their

swimmers to try to take on personal time for weight training and dryland

cardiovascular activities. While the coaches of the younger swimmers (ages

10-14) encouraged them to try to run a little but not to work on muscle

development citing it is damaging before the full onset of growth. This

reflects the list from the state of Oregon with the stages of physical growth.

With the two groups of swimmers, I noticed the average height of the

girls on the club team was taller in comparison to the average height of the

boys compared to the swimmers on the high school team. This coincides with

the data given by the University of Maryland which gives that boys peak rate

of growth starting at age 13 which only overlaps with the girls by three years

as their rate of growth slows to a snail's pace after the age of 16 if not stops

altogether.

Psychological
 In a conversation I had with an elementary friend of my daughter's who

is also a co-worker with her and also competes with her on the same US

Swimming swim team, I experienced a change and growth in the boy. I was

speaking to him about the changes in his life since we last talked. He had

been known to have intense arrogance in elementary school and middle

school (a developmental marker in adolescents between the ages of 15-17

according to a list put out by the state of Oregon) which has changed. The

young man is towards the end of his 17th year and admitted to having been

very depressed and was going to therapy for it. He was quite philosophical

about the experience (a developmental marker for those 18-20 listed in the

report from Oregon state.) And theorized that the reason he had been as

arrogant as a younger person was to hide the depressions he experienced.

Listening in on a conversation had by my daughter and a few of her

friends (all under the age of 18, the youngest having just turned 17) about

colleges, each were talking the pros and cons of each choice showing a grasp

of the abstract concept of being Future oriented; able to understand, plan

and pursue long range goals (as stated in the list posted by the state of

Oregon to be a physiological milestone in the age of 18-21). Further

cementing their demonstration of their grasp of the concepts, they ruled out

colleges that would have too many distractions such as schools known to be

party schools (the concept of cause and effect, listed by the state of Oregon

to happen during the period of 15-17 years of age).

 Also in the above mentioned conversation and before they called me

over for my own experience and advice on the subject, was the stress of the

ACT tests. The way they described having their brains "shut down" under

pressure during the test correlated with the developmental milestone listed

by the state of Oregon for ages 17-15 where "Growth in abstract thought;

reverts to concrete thought under stress."

Also while not mentioned anywhere in the text or in research but from

conversations held with older adults in my family, it was considered to be a

milestone of late adolescence when a teen could go to an adult for advice

based on experience, learning from others. These teens did that when they

called me over asking for advice, a sign of maturity and readiness to take on

the task of adulthood. (There is a possibility that this could be a milestone in

Young Adulthood which I have not read yet)

Social

The week started off with a conversation with my daughter that was

screaming with markers for age-development including becoming more

independent as she spoke of her future plans to get an apartment with

friends after graduation in order to live next to her chosen college. According

to the state of Oregon, between the ages of 15-17 "Conflict with family

predominates due to ambivalence about emerging independence" which has

not occurred with our 17 year old but HAS occurred with our 21 year old son,
which by observation may have influenced our 17 year old to work with us

towards her own independence.

This conversation also brought up a change in speech patterns

influenced by her spending more time with her peers then her family (we

have less of a local accent then her peers). This is a reflection of what the

textbooks lists on exhibit 9.19, a list of developmental considerations for

adolescence, as increased influence from peers.

Overhearing a conversation between my daughter and a different set

of friends then mentioned previously, it was mentioned that my daughter

was good influence on them, as they were able to learn they did not need

alcohol to let loose and have fun, and they were grateful for her positive role-

modeling they felt gave them permission to resist negative peer pressure

from others, including boyfriends. This shows examples of Peer support,

Increased influence of peers, increased resilience and assistance to block the

risk sign of negative peer influence as listed in exhibit 9.19 of the textbook.

(Yes this surprised my teen, she just has her father's outlook on life and

temperament as well as no need for approval from anyone but himself,

something his friends talked with me about when we were first married, he

was that same kind of role-model and support for them, this could be a

genetic component to create this kind of mindset, according to her she

decided this on her own in about third grade when she looked at the

"popular" kids of which she was one and realized they were mean and she
did not want to be popular if it meant she had to be mean, which led to a

stage of loneliness then a new resiliency)

Citations

"Developmental Milestones, Stages." SpringerReference (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 5 Nov.

2016.

<https://public.health.oregon.gov/HealthyPeopleFamilies/Youth/AdolescentGrowthDe
v elopment/Documents/adoldevstages.pdf>.

"Adolescent Development." University of Maryland Medical Center. University of

Maryland Medical Center, 05 Feb. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.
<http://umm.edu/health/medical/ency/articles/adolescent-development>.