Growing Up

In DC501 this term, we have discussed how different age cohorts learn and how their brains function. The table below is kind of a composite of several authors' views on what central focus drives which age cohort when it comes to learning.

Age Group                                                           Focus of Attention

0 - 10
Parents

11 - 14
Peers

15 - 19
Self

20 - 24
Self + Others

25+
Self in Larger World

It can somewhat be summarized by whose preferences have the most influence on you. First, your parents' preferences rule, then those of your peers do.  Then as you carve out your individual niche in life, your self-identity, your own preferences take center stage. As you further mature, others' preferences (family, co-workers, community, society) emerge as important, too, and command your attention.

The transition from self to others as your guiding and motivating force is a difficult one.  It's often coincident with the transition from school to the working world, and the simultaneous transition from others providing for you, to you providing for yourself.  In college, preferences still matter, although perhaps not as much as in high school. But as college gives way to career, personal preferences don't matter nearly as much as social preferences do.

Personal preferences must yield to personal responsibilities (which means attending to the preferences of others). That is what marks transition to adulthood, when your sense of responsibility to others, and your place in the larger society around you, take priority over your preferences. When you let go of what you WANT to do, and embrace what you NEED to do (and SHOULD do), that's maturity.