Immature personality: what indicators define it?

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

However, as indicated by Rojas (2001), the mature personality must be conceived as a dynamic process subject to change in which the person's experiences continuously shape character and personality traits own.

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

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

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

The knowledge of affectivity and its proper expression is a very relevant component of the mature personality. But what is affectivity? This concept is defined as the individual's ability 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 according to the following dimensions: pleasure-displeasure (if the stimulus is pleasant or unpleasant), excitement-tranquility (if the stimulus increases or attenuates the individual's nervous response), tension-relaxation (if the stimulus creates an alert or distension in the subject), approximation-rejection (if the stimulus generates attraction to bonding or distancing in the person) and activation-blocking (if the stimulus prompts or prevents action to the individual).

An effective understanding and management of effectiveness is defined by an essential competency consisting of understand what role emotions and feelings play, as well as 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.

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Consequences of affective immaturity

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

For example, in emotional ties or intimate relationships, affectively immature people tend to establish love relationships on an unsound and incoherent foundation, so that an idea of ​​the relationship (or love) is elaborated too idyllic and irrational.

In these cases, the probability of developing emotional dependence towards the partner may be higher, since the other part of the relationship is conceived as "the whole", and no space is generated for individual vital plots outside this sentimental sphere.

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

Another consequence, this perhaps more in the medium and long term, derived from affective immaturity, is related to the significant difficulty in establishing a couple 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 that 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 romantic union on terms suitable for both.

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Indicators of affective immaturity

As pointed out by Rojas (2001), there are a series of concrete indicators that may 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 knowledge about one's own being, which implies ignoring how situations influence the cognitions, emotions and final behavior of the individual.
• A level of significant emotional instability, so that the fluctuation in the different emotional states is excessively excessive 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 self-centered and not very empathetic approaches.
• The lack of a long-term vital 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 support a correct and fair criterion.
• Low power of sacrifice or willingness to establish own objectives and goals, in the short, medium and long term.
• A weak or inconsistent level of internalization of moral and ethical values.