CASE STUDY

Case Study of Katia Munoz-Avila

Nancy Munoz-Avila

College of Southern Nevada

Education 220

Dr. Rochelle Hooks

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Biography

Katia was born in Santa Barbara, California in the year of 2000. She has and lives with a

mother, father, and an older sister. Katia stands at 4’11” and weighs 98 pounds. Her older sister

stands at 4’ 8”, her mother stands at 5’1”, and father stands at 5’5”. She is sixteen years old. Both

parents are from ​Nochistlán, Zacatecas, Mexico. ​As she grew up, she was thought to be quite

reckless in the house. For example, she would bring outside items and bring them inside the

house to keep.

As time passed, she first became heavily influenced and inspired by video games such as

The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon, then, currently, Xenoblade Chronicles and Fire Emblem.

Katia said that videogames have taught her more about the real world despite the worlds she

learnt from being a fantasy. It taught her about morals, friends & family relationships, the

importance of loyalty and trust, and many more things about life. She thanks video games for

guiding her to her current friends, who have the same interests as her. She felt that she has gotten

along with people better and became more social through the subject. Katia stated that she

believes video games are what shaped her to be the person that she is now.
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Physical

Katia stands at 4’11” and weighs 98 pounds. She currently struggles to gain weight, for it

took her two years to gain nine pounds. Katia drinks one nutritional shake every night in order to

obtain her required nutrients and more calories. In her freshman year of high school, she had an

incident where her family was brought to the attention about her disinterest in food and how

underweight she was for her age.

According to J’anne Ellsworth, girls have a change in food consumption. However, her

claim is because girls have a mental goal in their heads to reach a body that they hope will be

satisfactory to society. Although this may be the case to many girls out there, unfortunately for

them, it is not for Katia. In most cases, when it comes to their physical development, the only

couple of evident changes in the teen’s body is a growth spurt and weight gain. Katia shows to

be a completely opposite case.

When it came to seeking professional help, doctors recommended the parents to send

Katia to therapy. They believed that it was some sort of mental thoughts that may be causing

Katia’s lack of food consumption. In addition, Silverthorne, from Jewish News, recommends to

have an appetite stimulant in order to give the proper amount of nutrients to the patient. A sign

from low body weight is hair loss (Family Doctor). Katia, at one point, had been shedding hair

mysteriously. This is what helped bring attention to the parents and started taking Katia to the

doctors. However, the mother believes that Katia simply does not have an interest in food and

would feed her as much as Katia allows herself to eat.

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Emotional

Katia says that she believes she has found herself as a person. However, she feels that she

is still a child. When finding out about herself, she did feel that her discovery was interrupted

and change through experiences in the classroom. Her classmates have misbehaved in the

classroom, displaying an authoritative teacher. The teacher, and the way they disciplined Katia’s

students, showed her how not everybody behaves the same.

This opened Katia’s eyes, and made her think that she needs to behave and improve

herself more in order to avoid being the people her classmates were. As said by Richard Stevens,

“The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others.” In this case, Katia did care

about what her instructor thought of her. When having to come to the conclusion about how she

is as a person, she did not have to think twice whether or not an emotion was part of her

characteristics.

According to Erikson's stage five in emotional development, development depends on

what is done to a person and what the person does. This shows how Katia feels about a certain

situation and which side she would stand by with. “An adolescent must struggle to discover and

find his or her own identity” (Identity vs. Role Confusion), again, Katia claims to have not

struggled finding out her identity. Her past influences have shaped her to believe in what she

believes from an early age, advancing her from this stage.

“Many dimensions of our identity intersect to form our sense of self and cannot be

separated from one another.” (ACT for Youth Center). To interpret this, Katia shows the

example of how some topics differentiate from how her character reacts. Her identity as a

person reflects how she feels about a certain topic and another, it does not separate.
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Philosophical

Katia explains that she needs to behave in order to please others because they represent

yourself and personality. For example, if employers notice how the student received straight O’s

(Outstanding) in their citizenship section of the student’s report card, it shows the characteristics

of the person. She also states that her morals come from influences. For example, she read stories

online and from her friends that influenced her to believe in what she believes in now.

Most of her beliefs come from influences through others, but for a small portion of her

beliefs, they come from the way she was raised. When asked if she believes that it is your part as

a citizen or to be a good person when it comes to obeying the law, she responded that she

believes one should obey what they feel is right. If they believe that the law is correct and obey

it, then there will be no problem. However, if they believe that the law is wrong and do what they

think is right, then they will be doing justice to themselves, but they will have a more difficult

time.

According to Kohlberg’s theory, the second level of moral thinking is generally found in

society. Stage three is characterized by an attitude which seeks to do what will gain the approval

of others, whereas, the second stage is oriented to abiding by the law. This supports how Katia

gained the majority of her morals, through what she has seen and heard from others. In order to

encourage moral development to see reasonableness, Kohlberg suggested that it was important to

present them with moral dilemmas so that they will be encouraged to think through the situation.

As said by Angela Oswalt, “parents may find this process of moral development difficult

or challenging, it is important to remember that this developmental step is essential to their

children’s well-being and ultimate success in life.” When asked to the parents regarding any sort
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of worry towards Katia’s morality, there was no worrying. If anything, they were simply worried

on Katia’s career path and what she wanted to study for. “As parents and mentors, it's vital to see

ourselves not as static role models but as imperfect human beings, continually developing, in our

dynamic relationships with our children, our own moral and mentoring capacities.” (Psychology

Today) this shows an example on how parents should think. It is a reminder that not all parents

are perfect, and that their morality is developing, too.

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Social

Katia’s friends are mostly male dominated, because she feels that it is easier to befriend

males than females. Her best friend is named Juan, who she met in 2013. Katia likes to have time

by herself but also enjoys her time with others. She only enjoys her time with others if they are

her friends or immediate family. Katia also stated that she feels it is easier to continue a

conversation in person rather than through text or social, because you are forced to continue a

conversation, Whereas, through a screen, the responses are not as immediate and the person can

walk off and end a conversation easily.

When it comes to choosing after school clubs or going to a party with friends, she chose

to go to the party, She did claim, however, that an after school club almost acts as a party, so it

would be the same to her. As for making new friends, it is incredibly difficult for her to make a

new one and have a conversation with someone completely new to her. She has stated that she

has standards when it comes to the people that she will hang out with, such as, the interest in

playing Nintendo video games.

According to J’anne Ellsworth, belonging and being accepted is a large part of this stage.

Katia did not seem to struggle finding where she belonged since she found others that are just

like her. It is also mentions that at this stage, “mood swings and goals may appear to be erratic

and out of control” which did not occur for Katia. According to her parents, Katia was always a

quiet and shy teen. She never lashed out or argued much against the parents. This may be due to

the parents allowing her to freely express herself, causing Katia to keep a calm character.

However, because she is shy, her parents did become quite concerned over her social

development and her ability to make relationships. As suggested by Patti Richards from Live
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Strong, parents should “choose activities that encourage communication so your teen will

understand her opinions are valued and respected”. On their first couple of attempts, Katia stayed

silent during these activities. When asked to respond how she felt or if she was having fun, she

would not give a proper answer but instead make a monotone sound. Later, it was revealed that

Katia did not express her emotions very well and would simply make sounds. As of now, she has

grown out of that and can now express her emotions rather well.

“Friends can influence a child’s thinking and behavior” (Cleveland Clinic), in Katia’s

case, she claims to have never been peer pressured or influenced to do something that she did not

want to be part of. There was never a time where she felt pressured to do something she did not

feel prepared for. Which, to many parents, is what many would be grateful for.
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Intellectual

Katia had quite a struggle comprehending symbolism, and finding the meaning behind a

subject or item. From Piaget’s stages of intellectual development, in the formal operational stage,

adolescents are able to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts. In Katia’s case, many

symbols that are used in poems and books are confusing to her. She did not, however, struggle in

math or science. Katia prefers to contemplate about concepts in justice. She often likes to think

about her life, and about her future.

Because of her thought process, she feels mentally stronger and self motivated to do her

best in school for her future. “​An intelligent adolescent who is self aware and intrinsically

motivated will definitely have very high academic performance.” (Dr. Beena Johnson). This

explains​ how most teens, just like Katia, are motivated to reach a goal and in order to do so, they

must gain good grades. When Katia gets home from school, she would claim that it was done

during school thanks to study hall.

Continuing with her intelligence, Katia’s passion for video games shows how she needs

to think intellectually in order to pass through the many puzzles the games have. From my own

experience, I cannot manage to finish a single game due to those puzzles. Katia surpasses and

figures them out without much of a struggle, finishing every video game she owns. As stated by

Jason Faulkner, “While playing ​The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild​, it became apparent that

Nintendo crafted a game that has broken the mold when it comes to problem and puzzle solving

and interaction with the environment.” This shows that many people, including myself, find it

difficult to solve some of the puzzles in the games but Katia has proven to solve them after a

while and continues her virtual journey.

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Graph

(NNCC. Lagoni, L. S., Martin, D. H., Maslin-Cole, C., Cook, A., MacIsaac, K., Parrill, G.,

Bigner, J., Coker, E., & Sheie, S. (1989). Good times with toddlers. In *Good times with child

care* (pp. 14-27). Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.)
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Recommendations

For Katia’s physical development, I recommend that she tries a series of different

nutritionals foods and see which ones she likes best. This way, she does not bore herself with

drinking the same nutritional shakes and she can actually chew on something. This will also give

her a variety of different choices to eat from if she does not crave the taste of the nutritional

shake.

On the topic of Katia’s emotional development, I would say that she is right where she

needs to be. She has figured out her emotions well. If anything, I would say that she should

express her emotions to her family more, but as of right now, she seems to be doing just fine.

When it comes to Katia’s philosophical development, I would also say that she has

developed well into that category. The influence from video games is a huge part of her

philosophical development, and despite it to be a fantasy world, it has proven to help her morals

develop and her mind to mature. Her parents have also provided enough real life examples and

views on the real world to open her eyes from a different perspective.

In regards to Katia’s social development, I recommend that she expresses her passions

and interests more with other people. If she enjoys something so much, she should go to an event

that focuses on her passion. For example, if there was to be a video game tournament, she should

go and enter. That way, she realizes how many other people there are that share her interests and

her social life can grow. If anything, I recommend that she hangs out with her friends more to

places that they would all enjoy and simply enjoy each other’s company.

As for Katia’s intellectual development, I would say that she is right where she needs to

be as well. She is an incredibly intelligent girl, to be able to solve puzzles that stop a lot of
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people from playing because a lot of players cannot solve them is incredible. As for her

academics, she does well on every subject and would always request for help when truly needed,

She has grown well into her intellectual development.

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References

Adolescent Identity Development. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

http://www.actforyouth.net/adolescence/identity/

Barger, R. N. (2000). A SUMMARY OF LAWRENCE KOHLBERG'S STAGES OF MORAL

DEVELOPMENT. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

https://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/kohlberg01bk.htm

Cleveland Clinic (n.d.). Social & Teenage Development Information. Retrieved April 20,

2017,

from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/adolescent-social-development

Ellsworth, J. (1998). PEPSI Early Adolescence, from

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/reading2-1-1.html

Erikson's Stages of Development. (2016, September 30). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

https://www.learning-theories.com/eriksons-stages-of-development.html

Family Doctor. (2017, March 27). Healthy Ways to Gain Weight If You're Underweight.

Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

https://familydoctor.org/healthy-ways-to-gain-weight-if-youre-underweight/

Faulkner, J. (2017, March 20). How Puzzles in Zelda: Breath of the Wild Reward Breaking the

System. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

http://www.shacknews.com/article/99474/how-puzzles-in-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-rewar

d-breaking-the-system

Help your loved one eat well for optimal health. (2011, Oct 27). ​Jewish News​ Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/904664835?
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accountid=27953

Johnson, B. (2009, February 8). Emotional intelligence and adolescents. Retrieved April 20,

2017, from

http://www.beenajohnson.com/2009/02/emotional-intelligence-and-adolescents.html

Mason, A. (2011, April 10). Self Identity Development. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

https://studentdevelopmenttheory.wordpress.com/self-identity/

NNCC. Lagoni, L. S., Martin, D. H., Maslin-Cole, C., Cook, A., MacIsaac, K., Parrill, G.,

Bigner, J., Coker, E., & Sheie, S. (1989). Good times with toddlers. In *Good times with

child care* (pp. 14-27). Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University Cooperative

Extension.

Oswalt, A. (2010, November 17). Adolescent Moral Development. Retrieved April 20, 2017,

from https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/adolescent-moral-development/

Piaget Stages of Development. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development#1

Richards, P. (2013, May 17). The Importance of Belonging in Teenagers. Retrieved April 20,

2017, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/1002787-importance-belonging-teenagers/