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Running Head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES PROFILE

Individual Differences Profile Essay

Ana M. Corujo

Dr. Tracey J. Meyerhoeffer

EDUC 205 Developmental / Individual Differences

Online, Spring 2017

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Individual Differences Profile Essay

The US is the country that is often described as a melting pot. It brings together people

from all different ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, and cultures. For decades immigrants of

all walks of life have flocked to this land of opportunity. For whatever reason an immigrant

migrates to the US, an open door or opportunity exists.

Below is an individual differences student profile for Ashley. They are results regarding

Ashleys physical development, socio-emotional development, and cognitive development.

Additionally a summary of my findings are included as well as the implications these findings

may have for the classroom.

General Information

Ashley was born in Russia and raised in an orphanage until she was adopted at

approximately eighteen months old. Her adoptive parents immigrated to the United States

from Portugal many years prior to her adoption.

Ashley arrived in the US with limited English proficiency ( LEP). English was foreign

to her, but she quickly developed two new languages: English and Portuguese. Ashley is fifteen

years and eight months old, and is in the tenth grade. Her family configuration consists of both

of her parents and an older brother, who lives on his own. She had an older sister who was killed

in an accident seventeen years ago.

Her normal routine starts by waking up at six each day. She then prepares her breakfast,

gets ready for school, and her mother drives her to school. Ashley is in school until three each

day. Unless she has soccer practice, she usually returns home right after school.

Once she returns home, she does her homework, and then she is free to do what she likes.

This includes practicing soccer, reading or spending time on social media. Additionally she is
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responsible for cleaning her own room. Since she lives in a very rural area, she does not have

friends nearby that she can hang out with. She usually sees her friends at school, or is in

contact with them on social media.

Physical development

Ashley has long brown hair, brown eyes, and is Caucasian. Her maturation is equal to

many of her peers. She is in excellent physical condition. She has worn glasses since she was

four or five years old, is right handed, active, and very athletic. Ashley is an avid soccer

enthusiast and plays on the school varsity team and an outside soccer league, however currently

she currently cannot play soccer due to an injury.

The only medical issue she has experienced was last year when she tore her anterior

cruciate ligament (ACL) during soccer. This is caused from abrupt sudden moves such as those

used in soccer. The ACL is a crucial ligament that gives her knee stability, and it is one of the

most serious types of injury to a knee. When the quadriceps muscles are not strong enough, an

abrupt movement will put a lot of pressure on the knee joint causing the ACL to tear. It is a

painful healing and long rehabilitation process.

Since she is not playing soccer this year, she needs to remain in good physical shape and

continue to maintain her muscle development and strength. To do this, she runs for exercise,

stamina, and strength. She eats healthy home cooked meals (no fast food), takes vitamins, and

maintains excellent exercise habits. For the most part, she is more muscular than her female

peers.
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Cognitive Development

Ashley attends a public high school, and is in general education classrooms. Ashley can

be very shy and quiet, but she will open up as she warms up to a person. At times she has some

difficulty concentrating on her work, but she always completes her assignments. Currently, she

has a B-C grade average.

Weight training and government classes are her favorite classes. She loves to learn about

the both state and federal government processes and likes to keep her body in physical shape.

Her weakness is math, which is also her least favorite class. Ashley has friends in all her

classrooms, is friendly with peers outside her classroom and socializes with all the different

cliques at her school.

During class lecture time, she usually listens attentively and takes notes, but if there is

work time during class, she often talks to her peers and does little work. In addition, she

participates in class discussion when she is asked questions. She always completes her

homework assignments. She can be talkative in class, but shows concern and care regarding the

quality of her work. If she is absent, she makes up any missing homework. Sometimes she

rushes through her work to just get it done, but most of the time, she produces quality work.

Ashley is in the formal operational stage of Piagets stages of cognitive development

(Oswalt, 2016). Not only does she fall into the age bracket of the formal operational stage, she

also thinks independently and is capable of abstract thinking. This is apparent when she refers to

her future plans. For example, she engages in hypothetico-deductive reasoning as she explains

her reasons for not wanting to go straight to college after high school. She believes she isnt

prepared, because she is not sure what she really wants to do in her future, or what is available to

her. However she believes that if she doesnt go straight to college after high school, there will be
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negative consequences and she will have an unsuccessful future. As a result, when she is absent,

she takes initiative to complete any missing assignments, because she knows if she doesnt it

will affect her grades and could affect her ability to get a good college scholarship.

Socio-emotional Development

Ashley is social, and she does well interacting with her peers. Her teacher mentioned she

is liked by many of her peers, and is often seen laughing with them. When interacting with

teachers, she doesnt appear shy or timid, and is able to clearly and easily communicate what

she wants and/or needs. Her favorite teacher is her Spanish teacher. When asked why, she stated

that the teacher is patient and doesnt get frustrated when Ashley has questions or concerns.

At times, Ashley, demonstrates insecurities when speaking to adults she is not familiar

with; she doesnt look at them when she is speaking to them and she speaks extra soft and

cautiously. According to one of her teachers, she is very social, and is always motivated to

complete her assignments. She seems happy, and doesnt report any intense sadness or

depression.

One of her biggest dislikes is spending time with her extended family because she finds

that they meddle in her personal business too much and create useless conflict in her life. She

finds herself being very cautious and quiet around her extended family. Ashley tries to maintain

a happy perspective of life. She reported to me that she has positive self-esteem and it has

improved in the last couple years. Additionally, she stated that the older she gets, the more time

she likes to spend by herself.

While I witnessed one of her family events, she did very little communicating or

engaging with family members; she kept to herself. I wasnt sure if she was upset, sad, or shy.

She appeared out of place at times, and it seemed like she was not sure how to even act. In fact,
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she focused most of her attention on her cell phone. She believes she has positive self-

confidence and esteem, but yet watching her during the family event, her face didnt show this;

in fact, it seemed like she didnt want to interact with anyone.

Overall, I believe she is operating in stage five of Eriksons psychosocial socio emotional

development theory, Identity vs Role Confusion (Berk, 2016). Ashley is very good at the

one thing she loves to do play soccer. She has difficulty accepting that if she works hard and

focuses on her passion, her future can be playing professional soccer. It almost appears that the

reality of it scares her, or she knows that it doesnt satisfy her parents and thus creates some

confusion in her own role as an adolescent, (Cherry, 2016). At times, she becomes

discouraged since she is often told that she has to find something else to do in the future besides

soccer.

Summary, Conclusions, and Implications

Ashley appears to be at the typical developmental level of most of her high school peers.

There are some self-motivation and self-confidence challenges, but she does not seem to have

anything blocking her from moving forward. Ashley is a self-regulated and remarkable young

lady who has many opportunities ahead of her.

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References

Berk, Laura E. (2016). Infants Children and Adolescents. Boston: Pearson.

Cherry, Kendra, (2016). Identify Versus Confusion. Retrieved from URL www.verywell.com

Oswalt, Angela (2010). Jean Pagets Theory of Cognitive Development. Retrieved from URL

www.mentalhelp.net.