Maturity; please critique it.

Maturity
Maturity is defined as being able to respond to a situation appropriately, which, quite frankly, is very important in both a social and professional environment. Like many other things, maturity is part of the socialization process, the process by which people learn how to become a functional member of society. As people move about their lives, they learn the "ins and outs" of the society in which they live, as well as its norms and values. While going through life, people are faced with decision making every day; whether it be what to eat or how to make the day productive. The way in which people react to other people's decisions and actions is what defines their level of maturity, and the way in which someone presents their reaction should be in consideration of the other person. What many people think today, is that a person’s level of maturity corresponds with their age. Maturity is learned through socialization, and no matter the age one can learn to handle a situation in the correct manner.
Socialization is key to learning how to react to others. When we are younger we mimic those who are older than us. During a psychology class my professor showed the class an experiment that proved just that. There was a professor of psychology at Stanford University, Dr. Albert Bandura, who tested 36 young boys and 36 young girls between the ages of 3 and 6 in his experiment. This experiment was called the Bobo Doll Experiment, where Bandura showed half of the children a video of an older women playing violently with the Bobo Doll while half of them were not shown the video. The half that were shown the video, when placed in a room with the Bobo Doll and many other toys, immediately started punching and kicking the Bobo Doll. The children who watched the video also picked up a fake gun that was placed in the room and began pointing the gun at the doll and yelling vulgar things at it. The half that were not shown the video played with the other toys that were in the room and were non-aggressive towards the Bobo Doll. This experiment proved that when we are younger we react towards things the way we see others act. The more we observe, the more we do, and the more we realize the appropriate responses towards things. As we grow older, we are constantly being socialized, and maturity becomes apart of our character once we learn to appropriately react to a situation.
Maturity can be grouped into three aspects: communication, the way someone presents themselves, and the ability to adapt to a certain situation. Communication reflects maturity because we use our words to explain ourselves, as well as listening to others in the process. We learn how to communicate through observing those around us, the biggest factor being our parents. The way our parents react to us may represent how we react to others. For example, a parent that merely grounds their kids when they act wrongfully may teach their child that the best way to deal with something is to not actually deal with it at all. Another example would be a parent who punishes their kids by screaming at them, without allowing them to explain themselves. This may end up socializing a child who hides their wrongdoings instead of owning up to what they have done. In an effort to prevent this, a parent should develop communication between their child and themselves. This teaches the child that owning up to what they have done and learning how to explain themselves is the best way to solve a problem. Listening to others is also an important aspect of communication and maturity. When someone can listen to another person in the efforts to understand them, rather than listening to talkback, high levels of maturity is shown. This accounts for the communication aspect of maturity.
The way we present ourselves to others also plays a large role in our level of maturity. We must present ourselves in a way that shows we respect ourselves and those around us. We can do this by the way we dress, the way we walk, and the way we look at people. People who dress conservatively can be thought to respect themselves, and therefore respect those around them. If someone walks their “nose in the air” as they sway their hips, it puts off an image of “I am too good for you.” That person shows that they do not have much regard for the feelings of those around them, and learning to put others first is a big component is maturity. If a high school student walks into a class wearing a vulgar shirt, sits on a desk while chomping on gum, throws a paper airplane across the room, and looks down on the students around them, one could presume that they do not have respect for the classroom. This would lead to the belief that the student has not reached maturity. If someone walks in wearing conservative clothes and sits down facing the teacher, it could be assumed that they are showing respect and have reached maturity.
The biggest ways to show maturity is the way someone reacts to a situation. This is because communication and the way we present ourselves are both factors in our reaction. If there is a child playing with toys and another kid comes up and asked to play with him or her and their toys, there is a mature reaction and an immature reaction. The mature reaction would be if the child said yes and included the other child in whatever they were previously doing. An immature reaction would be say no because they do not want to share their toys with someone else. Someone’s reaction has many factors built into it; this included honesty, patience, and knowledge of the other person's feelings. Honestly shows that a person is able to receive the consequences of their actions whether they are good or bad. Patience allows a person to think through a situation before reacting which would allow the person to present more appropriate reaction to the situation. Having knowledge of the other person’s feelings would cause the person to put themselves “in the other person's shoes.” With all of these things in mind the person would be able to give a reaction that should be able to resolve the situation in the most appropriate way.
All in all, maturity cannot be defined simply. There are many factors that go into a person’s level of maturity. It is shown through the way we communicate with others, the way we present ourselves at any given time, and how we cope during different situations; however, within each of these factors there are many smaller factors that play a role. At any moment in our lives we are watching and observing those around us. It is by observing those around us that we learn to behave. As a society we need to learn to set examples for others in hopes that they will learn to be respectful and mature rather than the need to be “savage” and “too cool” for those around them. Maturity itself would be impossible to measure, however, it is not impossible to understand when one is reacting in a mature way versus an immature way.