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When Does Maturity Set In?
An anonymous reader writes "Two Dartmouth researchers claim that they are one step closer to discovering at what age human maturity sets in. From the article: 'For the study, Baird and graduate student Craig Bennett looked at the brains of nineteen 18-year-old Dartmouth students who had moved more than 100 miles to attend college. A control group of 17 older students, ranging in age from 25 to 35, were also studied for comparison. The results indicate that significant changes took place in the brains of these individuals. The changes were localized to regions of the brain known to integrate emotion and cognition. Specifically, these are areas that take information from our current body state and apply it for use in navigating the world.'"
Here is a link to and science program in Australia called Catalyst. I actually managed to watch this episode and this reminded me of it and I was bored enough to google for a link.
t m
What it says is that the brain doesnt mature fully until the age of 25.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1424747.h
"I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
I wonder if someone who doesn't move out before a certain age won't have certain brain development, just as someone who hasn't learnt to talk will never talk after a certain age.
;)
In other words, do the experiences of moving out change you or does the brain change naturally?
Also are the effects of alchol and drugs on brain development also taken into account, seeing as these are college freshmen
Once you stop drinking like a fish, you start to mature. People who keep hardcore drinking after their college-era stay at ~18 years old in their maturity.
Sound waves should be free!
A 22 year old with a handle on debt will be more mature than a 34 year old that is a renter in suburbia that is adamant that you can't make money in real estate.
There are many instances where it makes more financial sense to rent than to "own."
That's not to say, of course, that 25 year olds are not often more mature than 18 year olds. At the same time, the mere physical age of ones brain is not the only factor to take into consideration when evaluating someones maturity. Environmental factors, for example, make up a big part of any one persons maturity level, or personality in general.
But what am I saying? We all know that every single 18 year old, without exception, is an immature, boozing, sex-addict. :P
We all know that every single 18 year old, without exception, is an immature, boozing, sex-addict.
I've encountered more immature 18 year olds who are straight-edge sexaphobics than boozing sexaholics. There is a whole segment of our society devoted to making sure children are shielded from any sort of adult social behavior until at least after they graduate college. Are they safe until they finish college? I suppose. Are they prey after that? You betcha.
paintball
It's all a game of semantics, yes. The term "maturity" is a superbly dumb choice for a scientific study, since it has so many conflicting and unclear pop-science (and culture) meanings.
Not that such a pesky fact will stop many on /. from arguing about it as if "maturity" means something concrete.
Personally, I don't even think it's worthwhile to argue about a definition for maturity. Rather than argue about how to categorize, it seems a more fruitful path to directly study the types of psychological/mental changes that actually take place: the quantifiable ways in which the brain responds to various stimuli, what have you. It seems reasonable that these things vary as a function of aging. If that's really what the scientists are up to (I RTFA, but not TFAbstract) then it's not so worthless.
I've seen 20 year olds to drive carelessly, doing various wheelies and other tricks on the road, while at the same time many 40 year olds drive very carefully, respecting road signs etc.
Then again I have seen those 20 year olds voting for those politicians that really care about the environment and the world's state, while those 40 year olds voted for their 'connection' that promised them a better job, a bigger loan, more money, etc.
So who is mature after all?
I'm quipping from personal experience.
Renter in suburbia (to me) implies someone who isn't mobile and is planted within the community with no intention of moving.
There are plenty of times when renting is a sound choice and I'm not knocking renting at all.
The 34 year old I mention is actually a 54 year old that has filed bankruptcy every 10 years, lost money on a house in a booming market because he didn't want to deal with a realtor or pay 6% or negotiate, falls for most 'get rich quick' schemes and has lost a substantial amount of money in one, has flat out told me "I don't know what the fuss is about real estate, you can't make money in it and you always have to pay"
When he did manage to get a house (after he lost money on his original house and rented for 5 years), he got a balloon mortgage and didn't plan for the end of the 5year term where the balloon payment was required so he foreclosed. He got the balloon mortgage becaue the payments were cheaper than a standard 30 year fixed. I guess he didn't know what the hell a balloon mortgage is.
This guy only knows price and not value and I call him a scam victim because he definitely isn't a scam artist even though he thinks he's clever by buying senior citizen movie tickets ans always returns food in a restaurant so he can get a free dessert.
My mortgage is $300 higher than his rent and he claims that he has the better deal because I'd have to pay for maintenance on the building, air conditioning and pay for water on top of a higher monthly payment.
He doesn't get it that I'd rather pay extra when I file for personal income tax than 'get money back' because we all know that that money you 'get back' is extra money that the government gives you.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
I've seen 10 year olds whose had a parent killed with more maturity than a 16 year old.
Indeed. My wife and I adopted two children from russia. Since then, we've done a lot of research into russian children who either spent most of their time in orphanages, or were taken from their russian* parents because of abuse or neglect. There are dozens of cases where a sibling group of three children or so, made up of, say, a 2 year old, 4 year old, and 6 year old, end up with the 6 year old going out and finding food for the younger children, even to the point where the oldest child is starving so that the younger ones can eat. Some of these sibling groups end up adopted by american families. When this happens, the oldest child can't seem to let go of this parental sense of responsability for the younger kids. It's almost like part of their childhood has been lost. So I agree. I think it has to do with the presence of responsability. Nothing makes you grow up faster than having to care for a child of your own.
* Not to single out the russians. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of this sort of bad situation in every other country including the US.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
During WWII there were teenagers flying fighter planes and officers in their 20s commanding warships. In peace time parents are reluctant to let a teenager take the Volvo and what company would routinely entrust someone in their early 20's with an asset as valuable as a destroyer or attack submarine?
Remove the safety net and people mature quickly, taking on incredible responsibility. Knowing Daddy's lawyer and credit cards can bail you out of trouble retards maturity.
In judging when maturity sets in, this experiment automatically assumes it is when a person goes to college? How is this a legitimate study?