The 10 Symptoms Of An Immature Personality
The immature personality is an incomplete personality. A personality that, consisting of the sum total of the behaviors practiced, is poorly defined and has negative traits.
With this in mind, this point is where it is understood that an immature personality gives way to a still incipient and incomplete psychology that can (and should, for its own sake) change and improve to become more solid.
In this term of “immature personality” resides an intense reality that often undermines the freedoms of others. It is possible to determine, with the help of psychotherapy, the main points to achieve an improvement and a conscious structuring of your own essence.
Enrique Rojas, professor of psychiatry at the University of Extremadura (Spain), systematized the main ingredients of an immature personality into 10 characteristics, a reality that we usually encounter as mental health professionals in our consultations.
Thus, from this approach, we will briefly analyze each of these 10 symptoms, alluding to their repercussions in our lives, whether we are “carriers” of this banal reality or if we are “victims” in living with this type of personal condition.
1 – Lag between chronological age and mental age
In a first contact, this is one of the aspects that draws the most attention. We may come across people who are afraid to “grow up”, they are people who are not aware of their responsibilities and their reality. Their surroundings show this characteristic, fighting for them to assume the roles expected of each one according to their evolutionary moment.
2 – Unknowing yourself
Knowing yourself is the most important task in a person’s life. Therefore, knowing what your attitudes, aptitudes and limitations are is the logbook for proper navigation. An immature personality may have this symptom, among others; this, no doubt, overshadows other vital achievements that are essential to being consistently and psychologically formed.
3 – Emotional instability
Constant changes in mood can be indicative of an incomplete personality. Going from euphoria to melancholy or from a good mood to a bad mood in a matter of moments, being unstable, variable and irregular is a symptom that something is not right in the constitution of our essence.
Changing frailty and fluctuating feelings make us not know what we are going to find in the other person. Thus, as if it were a roller coaster, the oscillations are so frequent that they often prove to be harmful for someone who is next to an immature personality. It’s not that you want to hurt the other, it’s just that in the end it ‘s inevitable to fall victim to these swings.
4 – Little or no responsibility
Like any other psychological characteristic, immaturity has different levels. Being aware of your reality means knowing the present of yourself and being responsible for the qualities, possibilities and requirements without neglecting yourself or thinking you are better than anyone else.
5 – Little or no perception of reality
If we do not properly capture our own reality and that of our surroundings, we easily fall into a lack of harmony with ourselves and those around us. We must learn to measure distances and proximities well, valuing each point and each situation, which is what we should and what we want to do.
6 – Absence of a life project: life cannot be improvised
Life is not improvised. That is why it is necessary to plan a life plan that helps us to mentally design our future. Achieving a balance between love, work and culture is the only guarantee of well-being. As Rojas emphasizes, love must be the first argument in life, because it is what gives life and strength to others. Fulfilling this premise, the sum of everything must offer us an internal coherence that determines our vital development.
7 – Lack of affective maturity
Understanding what our sentimental life is, what it consists of and how it is structured is the key to forming a mature personality. Life makes sense when you love, but there is no love without renunciation. At the same time, no one can be absolute for the other, which is why it is understood that emotional dependence and the most genuine feeling we have cannot coexist without being destroyed.
8 – Lack of intellectual maturity
Intelligence with affectivity is another of the great tools of psychology. Although there are many types of intelligences, the lack of vision and present planning, the hypertrophy of the present moment and the distant impulsiveness create a game that fundamentally leads to a loss in our capacity for growth. If we don’t analyze the facts, it’s difficult for us to know where we want to lead our lives.
9 – Little education of the will
Will is the jewel that adorns mature people. When we are fragile, lack of moderation prevents us from instituting concrete goals. This leads to the extinction of possibilities for improvement. If we don’t know how to say NO, we are losing our essence. We must learn not to be defeated or imprisoned by immediate impulses.
Transforming us into light and fickle beings makes us frivolous and leads us to a frustration that impairs our ability to overcome and be able to fight with the difficulties inherent in life. Taking refuge in a fantasy world means moving away from reality and the maturity that is so necessary for well-being.
10 – Unstable moral and ethical criteria
Morals are the art of living with dignity. Using freedom incorrectly means putting into practice something that is neither good nor positive for anyone. In the immature personality, everything is nailed with pins, and that is why the sewing that aims to set the patterns of the dress of our life is so easily undone. So we must move away from the fashion of permissiveness, relatives and instabilities, trying to be part of the list of critical thinking and mindfulness.
As Enrique Rojas would say, maturity is one of the drawbridges that leads to the strength of happiness, which is the result of hard, serious and patient work. Therefore, there is no maturity without awareness and without full commitment to oneself. So this is, without a doubt, information that is worth identifying in each one.
