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Each of us has several ages, if only because the word “age” itself has several meanings. We have a calendar (passport) age that records our number of years of life from birth to the present. The other is biological age, which is the degree of youth or old age of our body. Biological age depends both on genes and on a healthy (or vice versa) lifestyle, and sometimes it is very different from the calendar in any direction. In addition to passport and biological, each of us has his own psychological age. Psychological age can be measured by self-awareness — how young, adult or old a person feels and evaluates himself, and by external assessment, as an objective indicator of the degree of human development.
If an elderly person feels young, this is wonderful, but if the age of a seemingly adult person is estimated by others as the age of a child, this is sad.
Indeed, the girl is already twenty years old, and she thinks at the level of the patterns of a 4-year-old child: she throws tantrums and stamps her feet — but because he was the first to start!
Psychological age is determined by many factors. The main difference between an adult and a child is the awareness and acceptance of responsibility for themselves and their lives. An adult person builds himself, laying out his future with his own hands.
An interesting view is offered by T.V. Gagin:
On the line from “youth” to “old age”, a person thinks (to himself, not out loud, not in front of other people) consistently like this: “I can do everything” — this is when everything is still ahead; “I can already do everything, just give me a deadline” — when “I’m not a wizard yet, I’m just learning”, but I’m already learning and I want to be “the coolest of all” as soon as possible; “I can do anything” is usually in that young age when the complexity of tasks is greatly underestimated due to lack of knowledge and experience, and one’s strength seems limitless; “I can’t do everything, but I can do what I can” — when knowledge and experience allow you to assess the complexity of tasks and your strengths much more adequately; “I can do less and less” — when the peak has already been passed, and even what was recently quite accessible is already given by exertion of strength or is not given at all; “and less and less and less” is just the period about which they say “if old age could”: experience and knowledge allow you to soberly assess the required forces, the complexity of the task, outline an action plan, but there is nothing to implement it.
Here is such a scale. Of course, the “peak” can be skipped by going from “I can’t yet” to “I can’t anymore” directly.
With age, people change… All children are born against a bright background of positive: there are so many new, cool, unknown things around! But age changes our perception of life, and most older people perceive the world as hostile, if not scary. Young people are more often romantic and radical, older people are skeptics and conservatives. Each age has its own psychological characteristics, and sometimes its own crises.
There are many age classifications developed by experts from different areas of human knowledge (and for different reasons). For example, according to the ancient Chinese classification, maturity is divided into 4 periods: from 20 to 30 years old — the age of marriage; from 30 to 40 — the age of performing public duties; from 40 to 50 — knowledge of one’s own delusions; from 50 to 60 — the last period of creative life. Pythagoras compared ages with the seasons and, accordingly, maturity covered the periods of summer (20–40) and autumn (40–60).
Age periodization D.B. Bromley (1966) refers maturity to the fourth cycle and divides them into four stages: 1) early adulthood 21-25 years; 2) average adulthood 25–40 years; 3) late adulthood 40–55 years; 4) pre-retirement age of 55–65 years.
The stages of personality development according to E. Erickson include: early adulthood (from 20 to 40-45 years old), middle adulthood (from 40-45 to 60 years old) and late adulthood (over 60 years old).
The scheme of periodization of individual development (BB Bunak, 1965) refers maturity to the second (stable) stage of development, which includes two periods, subdivided into two ages. Adult period: the first age — 22-28 years for men, 21-26 for women and the second age — 29-35 years for men, 27-32 for women. Mature period: the first age is 36-45 years for men, 33-40 years for women and the second age is 46-55 years for men, 41-50 for women.
Radicalism is inherent in youth, older people are more likely to be conservatives. Each age has its own psychological characteristics, and sometimes its own crises. On the characteristics of the psychology of a child, adolescent, adults and the elderly, see the relevant articles.
Child psychology
Children from 2 to 5 are self-centered, focused on their own desires and needs, remaining completely indifferent to how inconsiderate they are to others. Some preschoolers also go through the «possessive» stage, interfering in their parents’ affairs without hesitation because they want absolute parental attention. See →
Psychology of a younger student
Junior schoolchildren are children aged 7 to 9 years, that is, from the 1st to the 3rd (4th) grades of the school. The child becomes a schoolboy, which means that he now has new duties and new rights. He can claim serious attitude on the part of adults to his educational work; he has the right to his workplace, to the time necessary for his studies, to teaching aids, etc. On the other hand, he faces new development tasks, primarily the task of developing diligence skills, being able to decompose a complex task into components, being able to see the connection between efforts and the result achieved, to be able to accept the challenge of situations with determination and courage, to be able to adequately assess oneself, to be able to respect the boundaries — one’s own and those of others. See →
Psychology of adolescence
Adolescence is 12-15 years old, and children at this time develop new features, their own different psychology. You can already talk to teenagers like adults, turning to their minds, but at the same time you have to repeat the same thing several times, as in communicating with children. See →
Psychology of middle age
The average age is 25-60 years. A period that combines the possibility of development and stability. The «middle life» of a person can go according to one of two options: either he will be satisfied with the results of his life and will strive for harmony with himself and others, or he will live for years in a state of psychological «mid-life crisis», worrying about missed opportunities and plunging into negative emotions of yourself and those around you. See →
Psychology of the elderly
What can be said about the changes in the personality of an elderly person, especially an old person? What can be attributed to typical manifestations? Most often, negative, negative characteristics are named, from which such a psychological “portrait” of an old person could turn out. Decreased self-esteem, self-doubt, dissatisfaction with oneself; fear of loneliness, helplessness, impoverishment, death; gloom, irritability, pessimism; a decrease in interest in the new — hence the grumbling, grouchiness; locking interests on oneself — selfishness, self-centeredness, increased attention to one’s body; uncertainty about the future — all this makes old people petty, stingy, overcautious, pedantic, conservative, lacking initiative, etc. Fortunately, this portrait is neither accurate nor fair. See →