Are adolescent equivalent mature to an adult in cognitive maturity

Yes, it's true that most teenagers develop social and intellectual abilities when they become like 14-15 but their brains are still developing as teenagers and don't stop developing until the early to mid-20s. Because of this, the teenage brain is still maturing and processing emotional capabilities and the various human emotions until it turns into a fully-matured adult brain. As you may know, teenagers love rewards. There are plenty of adults who love rewards but mature adults tend to have a lower nucleus accumbens than teens, which is why many adults are usually not so materialistic. In high school, you probably heard lots of teens in the classroom ask for snacks or stickers or parties as a reward for doing assignments. Now you know why. It's because the teenage brain associates rewards with praise, happiness, and satisfaction. A reward might seem like a "Good job" message for someone. The teenage brain is perfectly capable of functioning like an adult's brain but the difference is that the teenage brain places huge emphasis on pleasure, emotion, satisfaction, and desire. Pleasure- Pleasure is a loose term that tends to be used to describe male/female orgasm, masturbation, and sexual arousal but pleasure doesn't just have to do with sex. Pleasure is just joy that comes from doing something that feels good. The brain releases dopamine anytime you do something pleasurable and because of this, adults and especially teenagers may feel more addicted to pleasurable activities since they release a higher amount of dopamine for teenagers than they do adults. Hugging, eating, having sex, taking drugs or drinking alcohol, and even pooping are a few of the many things that can release dopamine. Some dangerous stunt-like activities such as climbing a mountain or riding a rollercoaster may also release dopamine. Dopamine is linked to the nucleus accumbens because people tend to feel good about themselves when they got rewards, thus releasing some dopamine. Emotion- Both men and women are capable of having extremely intense emotions and high emotional abilities but teenagers tend to be more emotional than adults because like I said in Round 1, the teenage brain is still processing, analyzing, and comprehending the many human emotions and emotional capabilities. Because teenagers tend to be more moody and emotional than adults, teenagers may be more prone to mental disorders/illnesses than adults. Satisfaction- Human beings and even other living organisms tend to want to do things that satisfy them and are beneficial to them. Teenagers especially love satisfactory activities because the teenage brain tends to release high amounts of pleasure and dopamine when teenagers engage in satisfactory activities. The basic satisfactory activities are sleeping, eating, pooping, and others but humans tend to add their own satisfactory activities to the basic and natural satisfactory activities. Desire- Everyone has desires and usually, with intense therapy and practice, people are able to control their desires before they spiral out of control. However, teenagers have a harder time controlling their desires and this is because the teenage brain gets more pleasure out of risky activities and dangerous habits. Desires can turn into urges and those urges, if not controlled, can turn into actual habits that can get you into trouble. This is why law enforcement makes some fetishes and paraphilias such as pedophilia, crush fetish, and necrophilia illegal if acted upon, which means that the people can still have those dirty and disgusting fetishes and/or paraphilias, as long as they don't actually engage in any activities that have to do with those fetishes or paraphilias. If a teenager and an adult have consensual sex, then it would technically be moral and okay but the thing is that pedophilic relationships can spiral out of control due to the fact that the teenage brain is attracted to risky activities that may be deemed as unsafe. Pedophilia can be unsafe because it can cause the teenager or the adult to increase their inability to bond with people their age and it can cause the teenager to only want to talk or form relationships with adults and the adult to only want to talk or form relationships with teenagers or little children. This is why pedophilia is illegal but only if acted upon. Sources: http://www.livescience.com... http://www.dana.org...