Immaturity Levels Rising

[MrRING]

LINK

Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

June 23, 2006 —The adage "like a kid at heart" may be truer than we think, since new research is showing that grown-ups are more immature than ever.

Specifically, it seems a growing number of people are retaining the behaviors and attitudes associated with youth. As a consequence, many older people simply never achieve mental adulthood, according to a leading expert on evolutionary psychiatry.

Among scientists, the phenomenon is called psychological neoteny.

The theory’s creator is Bruce Charlton, a professor in the School of Biology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of Medical Hypotheses, which will feature a paper outlining his theory in an upcoming issue. Charlton explained to Discovery News that humans have an inherent attraction to physical youth, since it can be a sign of fertility, health and vitality. In the mid-20th century, however, another force kicked in, due to increasing need for individuals to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places and make new friends.

A “child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge” is probably adaptive to the increased instability of the modern world, Charlton believes. Formal education now extends well past physical maturity, leaving students with minds that are, he said, “unfinished.”

“The psychological neoteny effect of formal education is an accidental by-product — the main role of education is to increase general, abstract intelligence and prepare for economic activity,” he explained. “But formal education requires a child-like stance of receptivity to new learning, and cognitive flexibility."

"When formal education continues into the early twenties," he continued, "it probably, to an extent, counteracts the attainment of psychological maturity, which would otherwise occur at about this age.”

Charlton pointed out that past cultures often marked the advent of adulthood with initiation ceremonies. While the human mind responds to new information over the course of any individual’s lifetime, Charlton argues that past physical environments were more stable and allowed for a state of psychological maturity. In hunter-gatherer societies, that maturity was probably achieved during a person’s late teens or early twenties, he said.

“By contrast, many modern adults fail to attain this maturity, and such failure is common and indeed characteristic of highly educated and, on the whole, effective and socially valuable people," he said.

"People such as academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature outside of their strictly specialist competence in the sense of being unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact.”

Charlton added that since modern cultures now favor cognitive flexibility, “immature” people tend to thrive and succeed, and have set the tone not only for contemporary life, but also for the future, when it is possible our genes may even change as a result of the psychological shift. The faults of youth are retained along with the virtues, he believes. These include short attention span, sensation and novelty-seeking, short cycles of arbitrary fashion and a sense of cultural shallowness.

At least “youthfulness is no longer restricted to youth,” he said, due to overall improvements in food and healthcare, along with cosmetic technologies. David Brooks, a social commentator and an op-ed columnist at The New York Times, has documented a somewhat related phenomenon concerning the current blurring of “the bourgeois world of capitalism and the bohemian counterculture,” which Charlton believes is a version of psychological neoteny.

Brooks believes such individuals have lost the wisdom and maturity of their bourgeois predecessors due to more emphasis placed on expertise, flexibility and vitality.

 

[escargot]

The paradox is of course that we mature physically younger than ever before.

 

[WhistlingJack]

Is it relative to lengthening lifespans? If a century ago, the average age of mortality for certain sectors of the population was 30-40, and if now the average age of death is 70-80, could this account for people's apparent lack of urgency in 'growing-up'?

 

[Leaferne]

Speaking purely anecdotally, it seems a lot of people are mommied and mollycoddled well into their twenties, long past the age when past generations had achieved some sort of independence. I wonder how much of it is economic? It seems to be harder for people now in their 20s and 30s to establish decent careers, compared to the experiences of people who are now a generation or so older.

 

[escargot]

Yup. It's true - we are infantilised in every way. We're doomed when that asteroid hits us and takes our ipods away.

 

[Kondoru]

You what?

im sorry, I was distracted a bit....

....must be cause I was wanking off to a real cute cartoon guy whilst hugging my soft toys.

And eating sweeties, of course.

 

[TheQuixote]

You what?

im sorry, I was distracted a bit....

....must be cause I was wanking off to a real cute cartoon guy whilst hugging my soft toys.

And eating sweeties, of course.

That admission really doesn't surprise me in the least!!!

Let's get back on track and discuss the issues in the OP, ta.

 

[Yithian]

Horseshit.

People are as mature/immature as ever, it's just that the social norms that prevented certain attitudes and mindsets being displayed through public behaviour have been erroded.

In short, people can now display their immaturity more easily. So they do.

 

[Kondoru]

its a very interesting article.

i think its a variety of factors, people being in education longer, differing social norms, people living with their parents.

(my uncles doesnt intend leaving)

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Horseshit.

Well quite!!

This is great. He doesn't explain "psychological maturity" and infact defines it in contrast to other things. These other things sound like an episode of grumpy old men (as well as some score settling with fellow academics)

“But formal education requires a child-like stance of receptivity to new learning, and cognitive flexibility."

...

"People such as academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature outside of their strictly specialist competence in the sense of being unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact.”

...

The faults of youth are retained along with the virtues, he believes. These include short attention span, sensation and novelty-seeking, short cycles of arbitrary fashion and a sense of cultural shallownes

He missed out playing music too loud and hanging out on street corners.

One could even argue that this is a good thing:

Charlton added that since modern cultures now favor cognitive flexibility, “immature” people tend to thrive and succeed, and have set the tone not only for contemporary life, but also for the future, when it is possible our genes may even change as a result of the psychological shift.

...

Brooks believes such individuals have lost the wisdom and maturity of their bourgeois predecessors due to more emphasis placed on expertise, flexibility and vitality.

A lifelong openness to new ideas and greater degrees of mental felxibility may be the next stage of human development as the struggle for existence (at least in the West) is now largely quite a way in the dim past.

If we are going to be able to keep up with the rate of technological change we are going to need this kind of thing. It might even be a stepping stone to the Posthuman Singularity.

 

[Kondoru]

Does that mean more chocolate??

Ok, Ill get my coat, its the one with the Dennis the menace fan club badges on....

 

[Graylien]

Hmm. He's taking a very middle-class perspective there. Not everyone stays on in full time education till their mid-twenties - there are still plenty of kids leaving school at 16 or 18 and going straight into work (or alternatively straight onto welfare).

 

[Leaferne]

How on earth can you go straight onto welfare at that age?! Here you have to prove you're actively looking for work. Sorry, speaking of middle-class perspectives...anyway, how many of those people going to work at an early age are setting up their own households? Or are they living at home, or...?

 

[Graylien]

How on earth can you go straight onto welfare at that age?

Well, you simply walk down to the Jobcentre and fill in some forms. If you'd ever spent any time living in youth hostels or bedsits (as I have) then you'd realise that there are plenty of 16-20 year olds living on benefits. I was merely stating a simple fact - not making a value judgement.

 

[James_H]

yeah indeed a couple of my friends get the jobseeker's allowance, while they're looking for jobs.

Not that I've been around too long, but my gut feeling is that kids of my generation will find it much more difficult to "deal" with the "real world" than previous ones.

 

[Peripart]

I don't agree that people are more immature, and anyway, that report smells of wee and it's got a big nose and nobody likes it.

 

[Mister_Awesome]

I've witnessed this phenomenon first hand, and could even speculate that I qualify for it. Though perhaps, as someone suggested, it's just that we're more easily able to express it than at most times in history. The bit about certain types being that way certainly holds water in my eyes, though.

 

[Ravenstone]

Might it not be more to do with more disposable income, and childless households? I'm pretty sure this household is fairly immature - there's the computer for starters; three motorbikes; an extensive Star Wars collection; a few thousand books and 500+ DVDs. Nothing particular mature about any of those. But there's no kids, so more disposable income, and more hobbies to finance.

Having said that, friends of ours with children say the children make them far more childish, because all their excursions, entertainments, etc, are all child-orientated.

Which is why I don't want kids


edit Still, the world has always had it's share of Mommy's Boys and Daddy's Girls, so I'm not convinced it's anything new anyway.

 

[MrRING]

LINK

Spike goes to the mat to get guys
By Matea Gold, Times Staff Writer

WHERE have the guys gone?

It's a question that has had television executives scratching their heads in recent years as young male viewers — always elusive — have become even scarcer, lured away by Xboxes, iPods and an array of other tech gadgets and online entertainment, some of which they probably don't want their mothers to know about.

Now Spike TV is hoping to bring some of them back by cultivating a more manly image — call it the cable network for the anti-metrosexual. To put it even more plainly: "The Rock is Spike," explained Spike President Doug Herzog. "Jude Law is not Spike."

Three years after executives proclaimed it the "first network for men," Spike has adopted a new slogan ("Get more action"), replaced its bubble-letter logo with hefty block print and scheduled a slew of action-oriented programs including "The Ultimate Fighter" and "Blade," which premieres Wednesday — all part of an effort to sharpen the channel's identity.

"I think everybody understood the notion that it's a network for men, but what did that mean?" said Herzog, who also heads Spike's sister networks Comedy Central and TV Land (Spike being the rowdy brother). "We weren't going to do the pornography network, which was probably the best idea if you're looking for these viewers. We kind of landed on our notion of what it is: an unapologetic, action-oriented, home base for guys.

"Action means car chases and dust-ups and fistfights and Bruce Willis movies but also means the action of the card table, the action of Vegas and beautiful women," he said. "If it's testosterone-driven, bold and unpretentious, we think there's room for it."

Spike is not alone in making a pound-on-your-chest appeal to men. Lately, there seems to be a resurgence in macho-themed marketing: Burger King is running a new "Eat like a man" campaign for its Texas Double Whopper — cholesterol and weight gain be damned! — and Miller Lite ads feature celebrities debating "Man Laws," including how soon you can make a play for a woman who dumped your best friend. (It depends on how hot she is.)

Some of these advertisers apparently already view Spike as a good place to find a captive audience of young men; spots for Burger King, Toyota and Coors dominate the network's commercials. Still, it remains to be seen if Spike's pumped-up image will be enough to draw a substantial share of guys back to the television screen when they have so many other pursuits vying for their attention. In 2000, 18- to 34-year-old males made up just 9.5% of the American television viewing audience; so far this year, their share has dropped to 9%, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Keith Richman, chief executive officer of Break.com, a user-generated entertainment website aimed at young men that attracts around 900,000 unique users a day, said Spike's new strategy makes sense.

"There's no channel that really talks to guys on their level like their guys and says, 'We know you're not pretty, but we embrace you,' " he said. "Whether you'll be able to get the guys off the Internet back to watching TV is another matter. They're competing with being outdoors and the new gadget that just came out and 'Nacho Libre' at the box office and guys' desire to go out and meet girls. Lay on top of that our natural proclivity to be fickle."

Those distractions haven't hurt only the television industry, of course. Movies and music sales have also slumped in recent years, in part because young men — once the driving force of popular culture — have so many entertainment options.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

LINK

Spike goes to the mat to get guys
By Matea Gold, Times Staff Writer

WHERE have the guys gone?

...

Perhaps, it's the name of the TV station? Spike, in Buffy tVS, was always just a little bit camp and soppy. Going on about love & poetry and all.

Maybe, they should go for a new name that more accurately describes the station? How about, Prick TV?

 

[James_H]

sounds 'oorrible :?