How do you know the psychological age, does it fit your age?

What is the psychological age of the 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 are its features and whether it can be changed.

Heavy cargo

One person can be burdened by the burden of problems in 20 years so that his mental development goes far ahead. He feels himself too grown up for his years and behaves as if he was about thirty: takes care of a younger brother or earns money for the treatment of a sick mother instead of having fun in nightclubs.

In this case, the psychological age of a person is clearly ahead of the biological one. Another person in forty years playing computer games, can "break" and suddenly go on a trip, does not seek to acquire a family and children, believes that this will limit his freedom. His psychological age, on the contrary, lags behind (or lags).

What does it depend on?

Your psychological age depends on how you feel about life. It comes with experience, with experienced problems or, conversely, with their absence. But everything can be changed, so despair ahead of time is not worth it!

Stages of psychological age

Many domestic and foreign psychologists have attempted to systematize the stages and highlight the psychological features of age, based on a single criterion, so there are many different periodizations. Understand in scientific terms - the fate of scientists, we take one of the descriptions, compiled by Erickson.

He singled out 8 stages, on the basis of which a psychological characteristic of age can be singled out:

• Infancy. In this important period, the basis for further relationships with the world is created - trust or distrust of it. The more successful this period will be, the more openly the new person will be in later life.
• Early childhood, covering the second and third years of life. First attempts at autonomy and autonomy. Future prospects are laid: how much the person in the future will be independent, or how much he will depend on others. Confidence or doubt in their abilities is the main lesson of this age.
• Preschool age. The ability to show initiative or be passive, leading or driven, the concept of morality and guilt - all these qualities come from preschool age.
• Junior school age (about 12 years). Awareness of their need and value in the eyes of parents, friends, society in general, as well as diligence are laid at this age. The reverse effect under unfavorable conditions of life is a sense of uselessness and own insignificance, a lack of love for work.
• Youth (13-19 years). A person defines himself in the surrounding world, compares, tries to find his place in social groups that he considers appropriate. This is a very important process, at this time there is the formation of personality, its individuality. During this period a person can partially or completely merge with the category of people that he considers an example for imitation, and lose his own individuality, or stand out from the "crowd" and find his "I".
• Youth - this period covers the age of 20-30 years and is characterized by a desire for intimacy and intimacy in relations either alienation and even fear of intimate relationships.
• Maturity (30-40 years). Search yourself in creativity or a period of stagnation (which some people call "stability"). Expression of one's personality through the creative principle is a natural aspiration of this period, and stagnation is the path to stagnation. Still this period is characterized by a growing sense of responsibility for loved ones.
• Senior age and old age (from 40 years). By 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 a split. What does this all mean? This means that every psychological age has its own characteristics. A person can go through one period successfully, but "get stuck" in another.

On examples

Based on the above, you can determine the psychological age of a forty-year-old man who can not part with one social group (rock music) and tries in every possible way to connect himself with her (wearing appropriate clothes, attending rock concerts) - as "19 years". But not all so unambiguously. If the same man created a family, cares about his wife, children and parents, his age is already "30 years" (taking into account his youthful passion for rock music).

How do you know the psychological age?

In magazines, you can often find many tests to determine the psychological age. In them there are questions like "Will 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 differ. You can pass several tests and calculate the arithmetic mean from the results.

If interest in one's own psychological age does not come from idle motives, then the psychologist will help him to understand himself. After all, this is not just a test that determines your age by ticking the answers, but a person who estimates your personality entirely: your appearance, posture, gestures, voice, phrases, your attitude to yourself and others, your goals and aspirations. All 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 age, there is no cause for concern. But what if the difference is significant? The strong lag in mental development is infantilism, lack of independence, inability to take responsibility for the deceased, blunted guilt, the eternal quest for predestination and the fear of close, trusting relationships. Strong lead is also bad. This premature "aging of the soul." A person feels morally tired, he is not very interested in creative expression, he overstepped and through the period of creating a family. It remains only a sense of vexation from life lived in a psychological, but not lived in real life.

How to do it?

How to know the psychological age, you already understood, but how to change it? You can do it. But that means changing yourself. First you need to understand your weaknesses: exactly where, in what period of your life you are stuck, why can not you leave this period in the past, what prevents you from moving on, or why you "jumped" through significant periods of your life before you had time to live it. After analyzing all this, you can start to correct the problems. But sometimes habits are stronger than the desire to change something. In this case, the 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 are its main features and characteristics, and whether it can be changed. We advise you to pass only proven tests, and not created by non-professionals. That is why an appeal to a psychologist will be the most successful idea. If there is no such option, review at least a few available tests and select the one about which most information is known. Good luck and harmony in your soul and body!