What is the psychological age of a person? This is the level of mental and mental development characteristic of a certain age of a person. In this article you will find information on how to find out the psychological age, what its features exist and whether it can be changed.
Heavy load
One person at 20 can be weighed down by a load of problems so much that his mental development goes far ahead. He himself feels too old for his age and behaves as if he was thirty years old: he takes care of his younger brother or earns money for the treatment of his sick mother instead of having fun in nightclubs.
In this case, the psychological age of a person is clearly ahead of the biological. Another person, at forty, plays computer games, can “break loose” and suddenly go on a trip, does not seek to have a family and children, believes that this will limit his freedom. His psychological age, on the contrary, is lagging behind (or late).
What does it depend on?
Your psychological age depends on how you feel about life. This comes with experience, with experienced problems, or, conversely, with their absence. But everything can be changed, so do not despair ahead of time!
Stages of psychological age
Many domestic and foreign psychologists tried to systematize the stages and highlight the psychological characteristics of age, based on any one criterion, therefore, there are many different periodizations. Understanding scientific terms is the lot of scientists, we will take one of the descriptions compiled by Erickson.
He identified 8 steps, on the basis of which the psychological characteristic of age can be distinguished:
- Infancy. In this important period, the basis for further relations with the world is created - trust or distrust in it. The more successfully this period passes, the more open to everything new will be the person in later life.
- Early childhood spanning the second and third years of life. The first attempts at independence and autonomy. Future prospects are being laid: how much a person will be independent in the future, or how much he will depend on others. Confidence or doubt in your abilities is the main lesson of this age.
- Preschool age. The ability to take the initiative or to be passive, leading or led, the concept of morality and guilt - all these qualities come from preschool age.
- Younger school age (up to about 12 years old). Awareness of their need and value in the eyes of parents, friends, society as a whole, as well as hard work are laid at this age. The opposite effect under adverse living conditions is a sense of uselessness and own insignificance, lack of love for work.
- Youth (13-19 years). A person defines himself in the world around him, compares, tries to find his place in social groups that he considers suitable. This is a very important process, at this time the formation of the personality, its individuality takes place. During this period, a person can partially or completely merge with the category of people that he considers an example to follow, and lose his own personality, or stand out from the "crowd" and gain his "I".
- Youth - this period covers the age of 20-30 years and is characterized by a desire for intimacy and intimacy in relationships or alienation and even fear of close relationships.
- Maturity (30-40 years). Search for yourself in creativity or a period of stagnation (which some people call "stability"). Expressing your personality through creativity is the natural aspiration of a given period, and stagnation is the path to stagnation. This period is also characterized by a growing sense of responsibility for loved ones.
- Senior age and old age (from 40 years). To this period, a person approaches either with a sense of integrity of his own personality, or with a sense of despair as a result of bifurcation. What does all this mean? This means that each psychological age has its own characteristics. A person can go through one period successfully, but "get stuck" in another.
On examples
Based on the foregoing, it is possible to determine the psychological age of a forty-year-old man who can’t part with one social group (rock music) and tries to connect himself with it in every possible way (wears appropriate clothes, attends rock concerts) - as “19 years old”. But not everything is so simple. If the same man started a family, takes care of his wife, children and parents, his age is already “30 years old” (taking into account his youthful passion for rock music).
How to find out the psychological age?
In magazines you can often find many tests to determine the psychological age. They come up with questions like "Do you run to a stop if you see that the bus you need is suitable?" or "What do you usually spend your money on?" The results of different tests for the same person may vary. You can go through several tests and calculate the arithmetic mean of the results.
If interest in one's own psychological age does not come from idle motives, then a psychologist will help to understand oneself. After all, this is not just a test that determines your age by the check marks in the answers, but a person who evaluates your personality as a whole: your look, posture, gestures, voice, phrases, your attitude to yourself and others, your goals and aspirations. All of this matters.
Can I change my psychological age?
So, the tests are passed, the age is determined. If the psychological age is not very different from the biological, there is no cause for concern. But what if the difference is significant? A significant lag in mental development is infantilism, lack of independence, inability to take responsibility for the deed, dulled guilt, the eternal search for destiny and fear of close, trusting relationships. Strong lead is also bad. This is a premature "aging of the soul." A person feels morally tired, he is little interested in creative self-expression, he stepped over the period of creating a family. There was only a feeling of annoyance from a life lived in a psychological, but not lived in real age.
How to do it?
How do you know the psychological age, you already understand, but how to change it? You can do it. But that means changing yourself. First you need to realize your weaknesses: exactly where, in what period of life you are stuck, why you can’t leave this period in the past, what prevents you from moving on, or why you “jumped” through significant periods of your life before you could live them. After analyzing all this, you can begin to correct problems. But sometimes habits are stronger than the desire to change something. In this case, a psychologist will help. He will direct your thoughts and actions in the right direction.
Conclusion
We hope that from this article you have gathered new information on how to find out the psychological age, what its main features and characteristics are, whether it can be changed. We advise you to pass only tested tests, and not created by lay people. That is why an appeal to a psychologist will be the most successful idea. If this is not possible, look at least a few available tests and select the one that is most known about. Good luck and harmony in your soul and body!