Interviews in Developmental Psychology
Part I
1. Yes, I attended to high school when I was a teenager. Since I was a little kid I remember my parents telling me how important was to study if I wanted a better life and future so yes, I wanted to go to high school, those words motivated me all my life. I studied Math, Spanish, Science and some others subjects that I don’t really remember but those were the most important. We had some different kinds of projects and questions about our lessons. Just some of the adolescents in my neighborhood went to high school; they started working in a really young age to help to support their family, thanks to the effort of my parents I didn’t have to leave school to work.
2. I don’t remember exactly how many hours per week I worked, maybe 64 or more, I had to help my mom in the house doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning the house and, I also worked for my aunt doing pretty much the same but she gave me some money for it, it wasn’t that much but with that I could buy some of the things my brother and I needed and my parents didn’t have to worry too much about it. At that age no adolescent wants to go to work but they had to, I wanted to go out with my friends and have some fun but I knew I couldn’t because my family needed my help.
3. My clothes were nothing the same as the ones adolescents use today, the fabric of the clothes was really bad and they covered the majority of my body. I was concerned about fashion but personally I didn’t really care about it, I remember cutting my hair really short because that was what girls of my age were doing that time but not much more than that.
4. I was allowed to date by my parents in my last year of high school. Dates were different than how they are now, parents had to know the boy first of all, boys at that time wrote letters and sent flowers with friends to the girl they liked to make her fall in love with them, most of my dates were long walks in the park or go to the fair, innocent things like that.
5. My friends and I loved to go to the park as a group and just spend our free time talking, we also used to meet in one house and play different table games.
6. My most nagging problem as a teenager was time, I didn’t have that much time to myself with school and work, I was young I wanted to have fun and more free time but I knew I couldn’t so it was really frustrating for me.
- In relation to the parents nowadays I think my parents were much stricter when it comes to my social life, study, relationships, etc.
- To me, adolescents of today are not as bad as society makes them look like; they are just another generation with different thoughts and beliefs.
- I do not agree with young adolescents working so early in their lives, this release them from their study assuming adult responsibilities.
7. When I was a teenager I was really focused in what I wanted and whatever the effort didn’t matter to me, even when there weren’t as much possibilities as nowadays, instead I think teenagers today have a lot of unfocused energy. Full of life, and possibilities, and optimism, but unfocused. There is a kind of realistic human detachment with a lot of them. Facebook, status updates, twitter, social networking…they are mostly addicted, as are many others. However I can also say that the upcoming generation of teens is cognitively superior to mine of course. It’s mainly because of the kind of exposure they get during early age with the help of technology and they are more open towards any change which is rationally acceptable to them.

Part II
1. Prepubescent child (8 years old)
The response was that