Activity Paper

Columbia College: Life Span Psychology

February 21, 2016

Activity Paper

On January 30, 2016 we celebrated my Pastors’ 5th Anniversary/Birthday at a local park. While I help set-up things, this young man caught my attention. As I sat there observing the young adolescent male, I decided that he would use be the person I use to complete my observation on. This male is of African American decent and is approximately 15-16 years old. This young man caught my attention because he was so polite and helpful in assisting a few of our elderly members from their cars and/or church van. I watched him interact and played basketball with an older male that he resembled a great deal, so I am assuming that the older male is his father. The young man started to socialize with and eventually joined the youth from my church as they played a few games. This young man had obviously started puberty, the physical transition to adulthood. He had a shadow of facial hair, his voice was deep and his shoulders were wide and muscular. But his feet and arms still appeared slightly out of proportion which made me think he had not reached his expected adult height. This observation is what led to my guess in his age to be approximately 15-16 years old. I made an educated guess on the fact that his facial hair and wide shoulders indicate that he is in later stages of puberty but his out of proportion feet and arms led me to think he was younger than 17-18 which is the normal age to have reached your adult stature. He was also much taller and bigger then all of the girls in his same age range and older, which is normal after the approximate age of 14-years-old. This young man was very agile and athletic. When I first noticed him, he was playing basketball with the older male that I am assuming is his father. He showed great control of the ball and his movements, his