Maturity (psychological)

Maturity is a psychological term used to indicate how a person responds to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate and adaptive manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive, and is not determined by one's age. Maturity also encompasses being aware of the correct time and place to behave and knowing when to act appropriately, according to the situation and the culture of the society one lives in.

[edit]Age

See also: Age of majority

While it has been shown that older persons are generally more mature, psychological maturity is not determined by one's age.^[1] However, for legal purposes, people are not considered psychologically mature enough to perform certain tasks (such as driving, consenting to sex, signing a binding contract or making medical decisions) until they have reached a certain age. In fact, judge Julian Mack, who helped create the juvenile court system in the United States, said that juvenile justice was based on the belief that young people do not always make good decisions because they are not mature, but this means that they can be reformed more easily than adults.^[2] However, the relationship between psychological maturity and age is a difficult one, and there has been much debate over how to tell if someone is mature, especially regarding social issues such as religion, politics, human stem-cell research, genetic engineering and abortion.

Mental age is a concept in relation to intelligence, expressed as the age at which a child is performing intellectually. The mental age of the child that is tested is the same as the average age at which normal children achieve a particular score.^[1]

However, a mental age result on an intelligence test does not mean that children function at their "mental age level" in all aspects of life. For instance, a gifted six-year-old child can still in some ways function as a three-year-old child.^[2] Mental age was once considered a controversial concept.

[edit]Mental age and IQ

Originally, the differences between mental age and chronological age were used to compute the intelligence quotient, or IQ. This was computed using the ratio method, with the following formula: mental age/chronological age * 100 = IQ. No matter what the child's chronological age, if the mental age is the same as the chronological age, then the IQ will equal 100.

An IQ of 100 thus indicates a child of average intellectual development. For a gifted child, the mental age is above the chronological age, and the IQ is higher than 100; for a retarded child, the mental age is below the chronological age, and the IQ is below 100.