What Is Emotional Maturity? 16 Key Traits and Tips for Development

Decision making in these contexts is not purely cognitive, of course. Being a defendant in a legal proceeding or deciding whether to undergo a medical procedure may instill concern or fear. However, given that knowledgeable adults (e.g., doctors and lawyers) typically surround adolescents in these situations, there is opportunity to diminish the emotional intensity of the decision in favor of reflection. Ideally, individuals considering a plea bargain have time to contemplate their choices, consult with their attorney about the offer, and deliberate on what is in their best interest.

1. They allow us to see that there’s a better way to manage our emotions and how we can respond to distressing events.
2. Are 16-year-old boys and girls who have been convicted of murder less blameworthy than adults because of their developmental immaturity?
3. During this time, the mother’s absence will cause anguish in the child.
4. Thus, if our laws were more closely aligned with developmental science, age boundaries for matters involving cold cognition might be lower than those involving hot cognition, because effective hot cognition requires both cognitive capacity and psychosocial maturity (e.g., self-restraint).
5. Further, of the few cross-national studies of cognitive capacity or psychosocial development that do exist, most suffer at least one major limitation.

Both mental and emotional maturity improve with biological maturation. This means having an open mind, including being respectful of differences (mental) and having patience (a strong sign of emotional maturity). Emotional maturity is defined as the way we respond to that emotion or feeling.

Key Behaviors That Show Maturity

These specific measures were chosen both because they tap aspects of development frequently cited in legal debates, and because they are behavioral, not self-report, assessments. By using behavioral measures of both psychosocial maturity and cognitive capacity, we are able to determine whether previously-reported divergent age patterns of the two are merely a reflection of measurement type. Although our measures, like those used by Steinberg and colleagues (2009), reflect multiple domains of psychosocial functioning, we create an aggregate for two main reasons. Conceptually, these measures are related; each is undergirded by self-restraint (which manifests in different ways). Second, it is important to produce scientific research that meaningfully guides the legal field. Practically speaking, the courts and policymakers require simple explanations to complicated questions (Steinberg et al., 2009b).

Here is where children begin to see biological maturation through entering puberty. Mental maturity is characterized by having a good understanding of who you are. Emotional maturity is managing your emotions so that your behavior remains appropriate in difficult situations. Both of these allow a person to operate effectively within societal and cultural contexts. They are able to progress beyond merely reacting to life’s options, and be proactive as they live their life.

Similar to those restrictions placed on children, persons with mental disabilities also have freedoms restricted and have their rights assigned to parental guardians. Cultural variations in self-regulation also extend to the management of positive emotions. Americans, for example, are less likely to dampen positive emotions than are people from East Asian countries (Ma, Tamir, & Miyamoto, 2018; Miyamoto & Ma, 2011). This cultural difference has particular implications for sensation seeking, which often involves a lack of regulation of positive affect (e.g., the thrill or excitement of doing something fun, but dangerous, with friends).

“Ineffective or weak brain connections are pruned in much the same way a gardener would prune a tree or bush, giving the plant a desired shape,” says Alison Gopnik, professor of child development at UC Berkley. Being aware of your children’s maturity levels in each area of development can help you to find the balance between expecting too much and expecting too little from your children. In other situations, children may be physically capable of using the toilet but they are not interested in doing so. Both components, capability and motivation, need to be in place for the achievement of potty learning. For example, children may understand the importance of giving to others in need (moral maturity) but still not be willing to share with their friends a toy they just purchased (social and emotional maturity).

The National Institute on Aging’s Luigi Ferrucci took a GrimAge test and says he was happy with his biological age estimate. He exercises regularly, eats a Mediterranean-style diet, prioritizes sleep and keeps up healthy social connections. Doctors currently can’t give prescriptions based on an individual patient’s results beyond healthy lifestyle habits that are already recommended.

More from Merriam-Webster on maturity

Eight countries followed qualitatively similar patterns of cognitive capacity (i.e., increasing from childhood to adolescence, then plateauing), while seven countries followed qualitatively similar patterns of psychosocial maturity (i.e., increasing linearly with age). Thus, it does not appear that age patterns are more similar in one domain than the other, at least with respect to the measures employed maturity level by age in this study. In the current study, the self-report measure of resistance to peer influence, which was the only non-behavioral measure used in the present analyses, evinced low reliability in some countries. To ensure that including this variable did not fundamentally change the observed age patterns, we computed the psychosocial maturity composite without the RPI scale, and reran all analyses.

Signs of Maturity

More generally, the reliability and validity of some of our measures in non-Western societies are not known. For example, although some of our measures have been used cross-culturally (e.g., executive functioning measures in Kenya; Alcock et al., 2008), others have not (e.g., the Stoplight task). Lastly, despite our wide age range, this study relies on cross-sectional data, which limits our ability to draw conclusions about developmental changes. That is, we are able to study age differences, but cannot directly study development and maturity. A second reason for the present replication concerns the measurement of psychosocial maturity. Steinberg and colleagues (2009) employed behavioral tasks to assess cognitive capacity and self-report measures to assess psychosocial maturity.

Age patterns in cognitive capacity (top) and psychosocial maturity (bottom) in the aggregated sample. Grey lines denote estimated marginal means for each age group (error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals). Analyses focused on a demographic questionnaire, a measure of intellectual ability, three measures of cognitive capacity, and five measures of psychosocial maturity. This stage lasts from approximately the mid-20s until one’s children become adolescents. Tasks such as building or buying a home, establishing boundaries with others, and an orderly and safe environment, and networking with peers are common during this stage. As parents, humans teach their children how to respond appropriately to given situations, thus perpetuating the cycle of maturity.

Our results also align with neuroscientific evidence indicating that the brain continues to develop during the early 20s, especially with regard to connectivity among brain regions in ways that improve self-regulation (Casey, 2015). The relative immaturity in functional connectivity in late adolescence, compared to the mid-20s, is reflected in part in the findings on psychosocial maturity, of which self-restraint is a part. The age of majority, https://1investing.in/ when citizens become legal adults, is set at 18 in most countries, but this boundary is an imperfect divider separating mature from immature individuals. Rather, research suggests that some aspects of psychological development reaches adult levels prior to 18, whereas others reach adult levels later. That these constructs reach adult levels on different timetables suggests a “maturity gap” between these elements of psychological development.

With these caveats in mind, we can draw several conclusions from our findings. In agreement with Steinberg and colleagues (2009), the clear answer to the question, “When do individuals become mature? Our findings provide evidence that basic cognitive processes undergirding higher-order, goal-directed behavior (cold cognition) reach adult levels relatively early—around age 16. To the extent that a situation lends itself to deliberation, 16 might be a reasonable age of majority. Voting (Steinberg, 2014), making decisions in medical contexts (Weithorn & Campbell, 1982), consenting to participate in research (Hein et al., 2015), and participating in legal proceedings (Grisso et al. 2003) constitute situations in which adolescents may be competent. Although all 16-year-olds would not necessarily make “good” decisions in the voting booth or doctor’s office, their decisions in these contexts, on average, would be as logical as adults’ decisions.

We suggest that a conceptual framework that situates brain science in the broader context of adolescent developmental research would help to facilitate research-to-policy translation. Furthermore, although contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and the brain often use a deficit-based approach, there is enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the great strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that promote adolescent health and well-being. Third, contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find more consistency in age patterns of cognitive capacity compared to psychosocial maturity across countries.

You can refer to the lesson, but try to recall as many from memory as you can. At the top of your list, provide the definition of emotional maturity. Neural connections that survive the pruning process become more adept at transmitting information through myelination.

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