Immature personality: what indicators define it?

These are the main indicators of immature personality, which help to detect it.

Psychological maturity or mature personality seems to be, a priori, a main objective in the individual development of human beings.. This is defined as the phenomenon that allows personal life to be oriented in a way that favors the achievement of objectives and results at the psychological level.

However, as indicated by Rojas (2001), the mature personality should be conceived as a dynamic process subject to change in which the experiences of the person are continuously shaping the character and personality traits.

Psychological maturity is composed of very diverse and complex characteristics, in which the combination of affective and intellectual or cognitive aspects becomes a main point.

Thus, the mature personality can be defined as the set of aptitudes that aptitudes that denote the disposition of an appropriate knowledge about affectivity, as well as the capacity to form an opinion and to have a reasonable, sensible criterion based on solid and validable arguments.as well as the capacity to form an opinion and to have a reasonable and sensible criterion based on solid and validable arguments. All this allows a satisfactory development in the different personal areas: the familiar relations, the social bonds or the academic-professional scope.

What is affectivity and why is it important to know how to manage it?

The knowledge of the affectivity and its adequate expression is a very relevant component of the mature personality. But, what is affectivity? This concept is defined as the capacity of the individual to react psychically and subjectively, through emotions and feelings, to both internal and external stimuli..

These affective reactions produce internal changes in the person that are described in terms of the following dimensions: pleasure-pleasure (whether the stimulus is pleasant or unpleasant), excitement-tranquility (whether the stimulus increases the individual's nervous response or attenuates it), tension-relaxation (whether the stimulus creates an alert or distended response in the subject), approach-rejection (whether the stimulus generates attraction to bonding or distancing in the person) and activation-blocking (whether the stimulus drives or prevents the individual from acting).

An effective understanding and management of effectiveness is defined by an essential competence that consists in understanding what function emotions and feelings haveand the conviction that they are transitory phenomena that can be regulated and controlled through psychological resources and strategies.

This fact is fundamental because it is considered a basic factor in the establishment of healthy and satisfactory interpersonal bonds.

Consequences of affective immaturity.

A lack of knowledge or ineffective management of affectivity in people can result in a series of deficits or problems that hinder the way in which they relate to their environment..

For example, in sentimental bonds or in intimate relationships, affectively immature people tend to establish love relationships on an unsound and incoherent basis, so that an overly idyllic and irrational idea of the relationship (or of love) is elaborated.

In these cases, the likelihood of developing emotional dependence on the partner may be higher.This is because the other part of the relationship is conceived as "the whole", and no space is created for individual vital plots outside this sentimental sphere.

Thus, the way of offering and receiving affection (or love) becomes dysfunctional either by excess, as occurs when emotional dependence or idealization of the partner is established, or by defect, when there is a lack of knowledge and inability to understand and express affectivity adequately.

Another of the consequences, perhaps more in the medium and long term, derived from affective immaturity, is related to the significant difficulty in establishing a couple's project with a level of commitment that allows building a bond where experiences, affinities and joint goals are shared..

Establishing this lasting commitment requires the willingness of the parties to nurture this connection and maintain it over time. Thus, it may be feasible that, after falling in love (more emotional and subjective), the affectively immature person may not be able to perpetuate a sentimental union on terms suitable for both parties. may not be able to be able to perpetuate a sentimental union in the suitable terms for both..

Indicators of affective immaturity

As pointed out by Rojas (2001), there are a series of specific indicators that can be useful in identifying a pattern of affective immaturity:

• The existence of a discrepancy between the chronological age and the mental age of the person.
• The absence of self-awareness, which implies ignorance of how situations influence the individual's cognitions, emotions and ultimate behavior.
• A significant level of emotional instability, so that the fluctuation in the different emotional states is excessively disproportionate and unregulated.
• Lack of capacity to assume personal responsibilities, low autonomy and tendency to depend on others.

• A distorted, irrational or biased perspective of reality, where there may be egocentric and unempathic approaches.
• Lack of a long-term life project, which implies a lack of capacity for analysis, reflection or balanced decision making.
• Low level of knowledge of emotions, as well as an insufficient degree of emotional intelligence to base an accurate and fair criterion.
• Low power of sacrifice or willingness to establish one's own objectives and goals, in the short, medium and long term.
• A weak or incongruent level of internalization of moral and ethical values.