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16
THE PANTHER
SENIORS' PSYCHOLOGY CLASS PROJECT
Interests of Adolescents As Revealed in Conversations Overheard:
Boy-Girl, Girl-Boy, Boy-Boy
By Zela Sims, Senior
This stud) was conducted for the
primary purpose of discovering the
interests of adolescents. However,
during the course of research and
gathering data, the writer felt that
there were to he found certain unique
characteristics of the interests of hoys
and girls during adolescence. Thus,
the entire stud) is devoted toward
showing the interests of adolescents
as revealed in conversations.
Several studies of one nature or
another have been conducted for this
same purpose. For this presentation,
the writer has tried to select rela
tively few studies which illustrate the
main trends of adolescent interests.
According to Rothney, during the
adolescent years the outstanding in
terests of hoys are in travel, sports,
movies and the radio. Next came
pets, collections, one’s family, read
ing and school, followed by interest
in painting, writing, music, social
relations, and co-curricular activities.
Interest in church and Sunday
school come last. The same gen
eral order holds for girls, except
that sports have somewhat less fasci
nation for them and home or social
activities more.
Girls tend to rate musical programs
and drama higher than boys do and
rate athletics, science, news, and hu
mor lower.
The extensive study of Dale has
shown that interests in movies rate
above those of the radio.
The studies of the authors men
tioned give some insight into the
interests of adolescents. Large num
bers of subjects were used in the cited
studies. However, due to unavailable
time and a lack of opportunity,
only thirty conversations appear in
the study. Ten boy-girl, girl-girl,
hoy-boy conversations are presented
in the appendix.
The hypothesis underlying this
study may be stated as follows: The
adolescent boy and girl have many
varied interests, many of which are
brought over from childhood and all
of which may be influenced by the
environment. Environment, as used
here, includes the home, school, com
munity— the everyday associates; in
short, the daily contacts in general.
The following procedure was used
in developing the project. First and
foremost, the writer had to effect an
awareness of the fact that conver
sations were to he listened to when
ever and wherever overheard. Bearing
this fact in mind, the following steps
were taken in gathering the data:
1 ) While riding trolleys which high
school students rode to school, spe
cial attention was given to their con
versations: 2) corner drug stores,
cafeterias, restaurants and regular
“hangouts” were visited; 3) tier-
mission was secured to observe with
in the buildings and playgrounds of
high schools.
Notations were made on a tiny
piece of paper in order not to appear
conspicuous. Such notes were just
enough to indicate what the conver
sations were about. Careful notice
was taken so as to remember the
exact words in order to avoid pre
senting distorted material. At some
time during the day the overheard
conversations were entered, as they
w ere heard, in a small notebook. They
were written under three titles accord
ing to their nature. That is. if all
girls were involved in the conver
sation. it was entered under the title
“girl-girl.” Boy-boy and boy-girl
conversations were written in like
manner.
FINDINGS
The complete findings and analyses
appear in the original study. Here,
only the salient features are presented.
The major interests suggested by
the overheard conversations of girls
are 1) personal adornment (hairdo,
clothes, make-up I ; 2) school social
activities and classroom work; 3)
peers (girls and boys; 4) movies
(the charm of certain male actors):
5) radio programs (music); 6) the
future (life after graduation): 7)
sports (track meet) : !!) the future of
the world (“World War III” with
Russia).
Boys’ conversations suggested in
terests are follows: 1 I girls (making
dates); 2) relations with parents
(questions of authority and finance) :
3) sports (basketball, track, wrest
ling): 4) school social activities and
classroom work: 5) music: 6) the
future (war?): 7) comics.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Findings derived from conducting
this study serve to emphasize a num
ber of facts about the interests of
adolescent hoys and girls.
One obvious fact is that along with
the interests of adolescent boys and
girls came certain underlying atti
tudes. These attitudes seem to indi
cate that one’s interests are likely to
be in line with his biosocial needs and
abilities. It is on this premise that
the writer feels that the adolescent hoy
or girl, just as am other individual,
has certain needs to which his in
terests are directed toward satisfying.
From this observation, the need for
status, prestige, self-assertion, secur
ity, adventure or new experience,
all seem to be the underlying goals
toward which such interests are
directed.