Age has been referred to as a number for a long time. It has been thought that age is the result of time on your body. However, as observation and science have recently noticed, aging is not exclusively a result of progress in time. Besides times, there are other factors that affect, or contribute to ageing.
According to scientists today, it is possible for you to be affected by chronological aging or mental ageing or biological ageing. This article seeks to understand the two principles; mental aging and chronological ageing.
Mental age
The definition for this kind of ageing as defined by the dictionary is: The capacity of a person, or their level of native mental capability, that would be compared to the average chronological age of a person at this level.
Better placed with an example, a ten year old child who thinks like a 13 year old child can be said to have a mental age of 13 years.
Chronological Age
On the other hand the chronological age is the amount of time- in days, months or years- that a person has lived.
These two terms correlate in the sense that the chronological age is the reference point for the mental age.
Differences
There are differences between the two subjects. The difference mainly stem from the understanding and the way in which the two are determined.
Mental age is in a sense more inclined to the level of intelligence of a person, while chronological age is about the physical process of growing old (1). Mental age is a determinant in the way that a person reasons while chronological age is a determinant of how long a person has lived.
An example, when you want to determine how sharp a person is, you will compare his thinking capability to that of other people in his/ her age (2). But for chronological aging, you will compare the appearance of a person, and compare it with the commonly perceived appearance of a person in that age.
Factors that Affect Mental Age and Chronological Age
Mental Age
- Health Supplements
- Information and Education
- Exposure to General Knowledge
- Upbringing
Chronological age
- Length of life that the person has lived.
Mental age can be affected by many things. If a person gets exposed to nutrients that enhance the brain, or a good education, then chances are that they will be better off in the way they think, compared to other people in the same age (2). On the other hand, the only single factor that will determine the chronological age of a person is the time they have lived their lives.
It also interesting to note that while there is no known calibration for a maximum age, the maximum chronological is evident when a person dies due to old age. At the same time, mental age is not determined by the number of years that a person lives. Chronological age is determined by the length of time that a person has lived.
Summary
In light of this, it is important to note that the length of time that a person lives is not necessarily a show of how intelligent of a person is. It is possible for intelligence to be manifested even in young children or people.
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