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 one to guide one’s personal life in a way that favors the achievement of objectives and results at a psychological level.
However, as indicated by Rojas (2001), mature personality must be conceived as a dynamic process and subject to change in which the person’s experiences continuously shape one’s character and personality traits.
Psychological maturity is made up 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 skills that denote the availability of appropriate knowledge about affectivity , as well as the ability to form an opinion and have reasonable, sensible criteria based on solid and validable arguments. All of this allows satisfactory development in different personal areas: family relationships, social ties or the academic-professional field.
What is affectivity and why is it important to know how to manage it?
Knowledge of affectivity and its adequate 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 based on the following dimensions: pleasure-displeasure (if the stimulus is pleasant or unpleasant), excitement-tranquility (if the stimulus increases the individual’s nervous response or attenuates it), tension-relaxation (if the stimulus creates an alert or relaxation response in the subject), approach-rejection (if the stimulus generates attraction to attachment or withdrawal in the person) and activation-blocking (if the stimulus impels or prevents action to the individual).
An effective understanding and management of effectiveness is defined by an essential competence that consists of understand what function emotions and feelings have 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 establishing healthy and satisfactory interpersonal ties.
Consequences of emotional immaturity
A lack of knowledge or ineffective management of people’s emotions can lead to a series of deficits or problems that hinder the way in which they relate to the environment
For example, in sentimental ties or intimate relationships, emotionally immature people tend to establish love relationships on an unsound and incoherent basis, so that an idea of the relationship (or love) is created that is too idyllic and irrational.
In these cases, the probability of developing emotional dependence on 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 or idealization of the partner is established, or due to defect, when there is a lack of knowledge and inability to understand and express the affectivity appropriately.
Another consequence, perhaps more in the medium and long term, derived from emotional immaturity, is related to the significant difficulty in establishing a relationship 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 will 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 emotionally immature person may not be able to perpetuate a sentimental union on appropriate terms for both
Indicators of emotional immaturity
As pointed out by Rojas (2001), there are a series of Specific indicators that can be useful in identifying a pattern of emotional immaturity :
