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Prism III
Yolanda Nega
College of Southern Nevada

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Introduction I had the opportunity to observe Yonathan, a 17 year old young mixedraced male. His dad was born in Axum, Ethiopia. He is a cook and works full-time and owns a
preschool where he also works part-time. Yonathans mom was born in Mexico City. She is a
part-time college student and works in the family preschool business full-time. Since this family
has a business, their socio-economic status is middle class. Yonathans parents are married and
live with him. Yonathan is the older child; he has a sibling named Diego. They are a family of
four individuals. Yonathan speaks and understands Spanish due to his moms first language.
Since his dad is Orthodox, Yonathan was baptized Orthodox, but he attends Catholic Church
with his mom because she is Catholic. Due to his parents ethnicities and living in a diverse
society, he has a positive acceptance to all individuals and likes to socialize with other cultures.
For example, one thing that had helped Yonathan is that he had attended cultural events from his
dads side and moms side that had helped him to learn more about other cultures and he has
acceptance and respect for other cultures outside the United States. Yonathans acceptance of
different cultures supports Snowman/McCowns view in that, The United States is becoming an
increasing multicultural society and students thus need to understand and know how to work
with people of cultures different from their own (Snowman, & McCown, 2013, p. 107). In
addition, it supports Vygotskys theory of cognitive development which is often referred to as a
sociocultural theory, Its maintain that how we think is a function of both social and cultural
forces (Snowman, 2013, p. 40). Yonathans behavior is kind and his tone of voice is low. He
never screams or is rude to others; this can be the genetic influence of his dad. In Ethiopia most
people speak with a soft tone and show kindness. Ethiopians work as A cooperative society
helping one another as community. To get to know Yonathan, I observed him for three months,
once a week for 1 hour in his home, and I also interviewed him twice to get to know more about

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him. I noticed in my observations when Snowman compares Maslows Hierarchy of Needs on
page 52, these were met in Yonathans case. For example, in the physiological phase Yonathans
gets the basic needs that an individual requires such as food, water, oxygen. Water and food is
provided to him by his parents he gets oxygen from the natural environment. When it comes to
Maslows second phase of safety, his parents nurture him. I noticed his mom kissed him on his
cheek, and his dad gave him hugs when he entered to their home. Due to their financial stability,
Yonathan gets money from both parents to spend and to save for college, and his family does not
suffer economic hardship. In addition, Maslows phase of belongingness and love is met too,
because his mom and dad, as I mentioned, hug him, kiss him and motivate him to finish his high
school and to finish college. Moreover, Maslows fourth phase, esteem is also met. Yonathan
seems to be a self-driven individual. He had already decided what career he will study in
college, and he already applied for admission to the Art Institute. Yonathan told me that he is
committed to graduate from high school and enter college. His self-esteem does not look low.
He acts as any normal adolescent of his age. On Maslows final phase of self-actualization,
Yonathan is working on meeting this stage. He is studying hard to graduate from high school and
start college. Yonathan writes comic books as a hobby because he wishes that one day these
books would be published. Moreover, part of the observations made of him consist of the
following areas: physical, emotional, intellectual, cognitive, social, psychosocial, and moral
these are my findings:

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Physical/General Yonathan is tall, medium complexion and has a good muscle tone. He
weighs 163 pounds and measures 57 tall. At the age of 11, Yonathan was overweight, but when
he started middle school he lost weight due to his Physical Education class. At that time, he
weighed 135 pounds. His loss of weight is support by Snowmans view, Significantly and large
changes in physical and development occurred during adolescence. The peak years for boys is
about 14, during which they can add 16 to 17 pounds and about 4 inches (Snowman, 2013, p.
65). When we compare Snowmans description at this age with Yonathans physical
characteristics, we can agree that Snowman was correct in the physical changes that young males
reflect at this age.
Another thing that could positively affect Yonathan physical characteristics could be that
he does not eat a lot. He eats two meals per day, one lunch at school, and one afternoon meal at
home that helps to keep his weight in balance. Snowman argues, 16% of students are
considered to be overweight; 13% are obese (Snowman, 2013, p. 65). Due to Yonathans low
diet, low calorie consumption, and drinking lots of water throughout the day, he has maintained a
good weight since he lost all those extra pounds. This supports what I already mentioned about
how Yonathan meets Maslows first phase of basic necessities because he eats food and drinks
water at least two times a day.
Emotional When it comes to describing Yonathan emotionally, he is a well, self-centered
person. He does not like to argue with others. He has always a good tone of voice and
approaches people with good manners, as I mentioned in my introduction. I have never seen him
angry and I have known him since birth. He never complains about things or people. In
addition, he likes to help others and do volunteer community work such as helping in the church
and helping at foster children events. Snowmans states, As a result of the continued influence

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of egocentric though, middle schools students are typically self-conscious and self-centered
(Snowman, 2013, p. 62). In this case, Yonathan has shown that he is a self- centered individual
regardless of the different changes that can occur in adolescents, and Snowman describes this as
The traditional view of adolescent, which is still widely held among nonpsychologists, is a dark
one. Feeling of confusion, anxiety, and depression; extreme mood swings; and low levels of selfconfidence are felt to be typical of this age group (Snowman, 2013, p.61). Snowmans
emotional characteristics described for young adults in his book do not apply to Yonathan
because of the self- centered personality he has. Yonathan has always live with his parents, who
nurture him, and this could possibly contribute to his emotional stability, and he is able to meet
Maslows Hierarchy of Safety that a person needs.
Intellectual/Cognitive- Yonathan has many positive cognitive skills. At the age of eight,
he started to write comic books and continues to do so at the present time. In addition, he draws
the characters and settings. He has written over a dozen comic books, which he wishes he can
published one day. Yonathans comic stories attached to the moral notion of being fair and
helping the world to be a better place. In this case psychologists Piaget and Vygotsky believed
that people use physical, mental and social experiences to construct personal conception
(schemes) of what the world is like (Snowman, 2013, p. 38). Not only that, he writes scripts
based on his comic books and makes costumes of the characters with recycled materials, such as
boxes and old clothing. In addition, he films You Tube videos with his friend showing how the
main character saves the world.
Keeping up with Yonathans intellectual and cognitive abilities and due to his creative
mind, he can be placed on Robert Sternbergs diagram of his Triarchic theory, which is divided
into practical ability, creative ability, and analytical ability. Sternberg believes, most of the

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research evidence support the view of intelligence has many facets, or dimensions, and that
traditional mental abilities tests measure, just a few of these facets (Snowman, 2013, p. 74).
Based on Sternbergs theory, Yonathan fits in this theory and it is recommended that a language
art curriculum be incorporated for Yonathan. This will be beneficial for him, and it will help him
expand his creativity.
Social/Psychosocial- Yonathan gets along with everyone. He loves to socialize, attend
parties, go to his friends houses and chat with them through Skype. He also likes dining out
with his friends and playing video games at their homes. When it comes to expanding his ideas
about his comic books and editing them, he looks for suggestions from his friends. In this case,
Snowman point of view states, adolescents look for models and advice on such social matters
as dress, hairstyle, and speech pattern, friendship and leisure activities. The peer group is likely
to have the greatest influence (Snowman, 2013, p. 99).
Furthermore, Elkind support this and believes, adolescents egocentrism also explains
why the peer view group becomes such a potent force in high school (Snowman, 2013, p. 29).
Having these views, no one can argue that Yonathan falls under this category because he seeks
social interaction and peer approval, as any other adolescent, according to Snowman and Elkind.
Moral- Yonathans morals are high. He thinks about what is right and wrong and knows
that those actions, whether they are good or bad, have consequences. For example, at the age of
9, he read in the newspaper that in Nevada dog owners will be mandated to neuter them.
Immediately, he wrote a letter to President Obama and requested that he reconsider this decision.
Yonathan argued in his letter that if dogs gets neutered they may become extinct and we need to
let nature follow its own cycle. If Yonathan could be placed in a moral theory he fits into
Nodding and Gilligans theory because they suggest, caring orientation to social and moral

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development is an alternative to the orientation of justice, fairness, and individual rights that has
have merged from Kohlbergs theory, and one that may lead to more socially just practices and
policies (Snowman, 2013, p. 44). Overall, Yonathans comic books reflect his moral values and
personal beliefs, because the moral of each book is to care for and protect the Earth, and thats
what, Yonathan always believes in.

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References
Snowman, J., & McCown, R.R. (2013). Ed Psych. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

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