According to psychologists
From this age onwards, you are not an adult at the earliest
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At 18 you are an adult – according to the law. But does that also correspond to the reality of our lives? Psychologists say: no!
As children, we primarily see our parents as the embodiment of adulthood. They teach us what is right and what is wrong, are there for us without requiring us to be there for them in the same way, and they know exactly what to eat and how long to sleep. Adults, so it is in our heads, know the rules, are independent and have a clear view. And most of the time they are between 30 and 40 years old – depending on how old our parents are when we start thinking about such things.
Child’s imagination fits reality
According to Peter Jones, a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at Cambridge University, such a childish assessment of the truth happens to be relatively close. According to him, the transition from child to adult is a process, a “gradual transition that extends over three decades“as the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University put the professor on his Website quoted. Our child’s imagination is obviously closer to a psychologically realistic adult age than, for example, our law – because according to which we are known to be of legal age from 18.
“Systems like education, health, or the legal system make it easy to define them,” Jones told “BBC“But that people switch to adult mode on a certain birthday – from a neurological and psychological point of view – utter nonsense.” There is no childhood and then adulthood, “says Jones. You don’t grow up in one step, you grow up Rather, it takes one route, which is longer for some and a little shorter for others – but only very few complete after 18 or 21 years.
At 18, still in the middle of the maturity phase
According to the “BBC”, various neurological studies show that our brain, or more precisely, our prefrontal cortex, is still in the middle of crucial development processes when we are 18. Therefore, at this age, just as in puberty, we are, for example, relatively susceptible to mental illnesses or self-esteem disorders. At the earliest from 25, but for many not until their 30s, these processes are completed – and we become or feel more psychologically stable.
But does that mean that we have to rethink our statutory age limits and definitions of legal age or can forget about them altogether? Hardly, after all, a psychological-neurological adulthood is not synonymous or the prerequisite for deciding to marry or to deal responsibly with alcohol and cars. And if only people with a mature, stable personality were allowed to vote, there would not be a particularly large number of votes.
In order to order and manage a society, it is probably okay to set certain fixed age limits, even if growing up is a lengthy process with several stages, as Jones and other neurologists say. Finally, we take some of these levels, for example the ability to be caring and considerate, sooner, others, such as self-confidence and determination, later. Well, and some traits that we associated with adulthood as children – invulnerability and absolute freedom or independence – we never achieve. But maybe it is precisely this insight that somehow makes us grown up. Even if we don’t feel like we did in our childhood imagination.