Aa Mooney Case Study

1260 Words3 Pages

This case study was undertaken to measure the formal operational thought capacity of AA Mooney (Not his real name). This participant is a twelve year old African American male in the seventh grade who attends middle school in Macon Georgia where he currently lives, but he is originally from Los Angles California. His parents are both educated and they are both in the home and are part of the middle socioeconomic class. This case study has one sibling who is one year younger. During his free time, on weekends or after school, my Case Study enjoys playing video games on his x-box, and shooting hoops at the basketball court with his brother. Overall, my Case Study is a very sociable person who gets along well with almost anyone. He is very considerate …show more content…

Truth tellers always tell the truth and liars always lie. You hail the first two people you meet and say, “Are you truth tellers or liars?” The first person mumbles something you cannot hear. The second says, “He is a truth teller. He is a truth teller and so am I.” AA was asked “Can you trust the directions that these two may give you?” AA answered “no”, he said “he would just ask someone else.” AA was able to approach the problem somewhat like a formal operational thought, but did not come up with a clear reason for his answer. A characteristic of someone in formal operational thought is to recognize and examine associations and then test them systematically. So, a person in formal operational thought would consider each situation for the “truth teller and liar,” and then come up with an answer that does not involve contradictions or impossible conditions, meaning, the recognition of which represents characteristics of formal operational thought. However, when I asked AA another formal operational thought question where he might put a ‘third-eye’ if he had the opportunity, he did mention other places than what the concrete operational thought children always say at age nine; “between their eyes.” However, adolescents 11 year or older were more imaginative, for example, AA suggesting that if he had an third eye he would place it on the back of his neck or on the backs of his arms so that he could always see when his little brother was approaching from behind to steal the basketball. So, I would say that AA shows sign of operational thought, but has not reached the highest

Open Document