Inflexible Standards: Characteristics And Effects On The Human Mind
Everyone likes certainty, in the sense that there are things that we don’t like that give us surprises. There are things in our daily lives that we want to remain the same and, to achieve this, we do the same thing every day, what we call routine.
However, we also value being open-minded. Novelty brings us a breath of fresh air in the form of greater imagination, creativity and new experiences that usually awaken good emotions in us.
Mental rigidity is the opposite of open-mindedness, and it is made up of inflexible standards , patterns of thinking that are very impervious to any change for the better. Let’s reflect on what it means to have too many of these standards.
We have all heard about being closed-minded, an expression that is widespread in popular language. As a general rule, it is used to refer to someone who has a lot of mental rigidity, who does not leave a specific pattern of thought He or she has his or her own standards, inflexible and very impervious to any new idea or way of making it out of their daily lives.
It also applies to someone who does not understand or does not want to understand a point of view other than their own, that in their world things are as they are, and that any idea that is foreign to their standards must necessarily be wrong.
We understand that a person has too many inflexible standards when discards approaches, ideas or perspectives different from those you usually use in your daily life He settles and closes himself in his own ideas and mental schemes, he does not leave them.
You may know deep down that certain strategies you apply in your daily life are incorrect and dysfunctional, but since you fear change and don’t know if the new involves more risks than the old, you don’t risk getting rid of your standards. inflexible
People with too many inflexible standards, excessively solid and fixed in nature, have trouble valuing other perspectives or points of view not only those that come from others but also, they are not capable of leaving that vision that they have been applying for a long time to the world around them.
They do not like novelty for fear that they do not know if it will bring good results or, if not, it will bring them worse consequences than those they obtained with the old methods. They follow the maxim of “better evil known than good unknown.”
Everyone has inflexible standards to some degree, and we shouldn’t worry about just having them Everyone is at a point within a gradient that goes from the most absolute cognitive flexibility to the most static mental rigidity.
There are things in our daily lives that it is very difficult for us to question or change, without this being a symptom of any mental disorder. We can see it with an everyday example that surely everyone can identify with.
Think about how many times you have tried to solve a problem in the same way, over and over again, even though on more than one occasion that system has not worked for you. You know in advance that this is a bad option, but you are afraid to try new things lest they waste more time or give you worse results, but, of course, you don’t win if you don’t take risks.
Characteristics of mental rigidity
Inflexible standards, and mental rigidity in general, can acquire various degrees of importance from a clinical psychology perspective Being too closed-minded or systematically rejecting new ideas and behaviors can be described as problematic phenomena, symptoms or traits of an obsessive personality.
For example, from psychoanalysis, mental rigidity and inflexible standards are taken as something typical of a patient who resists change or who does not want to talk about a topic that causes discomfort or fear. This idea is quite related to the one we usually use in popular language, since the patient resists change for fear that the new thing will cause some type of existential crisis.
Also We can relate standards to the idea of the comfort zone A person who has been following the same guidelines for doing everyday things for years or who has a very fixed belief system will not find it comfortable to doubt them at this point in their life. The comfort that it offers us to think in a certain way for a long time is very great, and any change that is introduced will mean going through a period of instability and uncertainty.
But despite its apparent convenience, having extremely inflexible standards comes with its downsides. The main ones are that always thinking in the same way, seeing the world through the same prism and not doubting one’s own ideas acts by cutting the wings for imagination, personal improvement and the discovery of new experiences and ideas. Open-mindedness is radically opposite to having inflexible standards.
As a symptom, inflexible standards, or rather mental rigidity in a broader sense, It can be observed in psychological conditions such as Asperger’s syndrome, dementia or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Characteristics of a person with too many inflexible standards
As we said, everyone has some inflexible standards, since it is inevitable that our minds are rigid in certain aspects, especially those that have to do with our daily lives. No matter how open-minded we are, we need a certain daily stability, certain guidelines that change little and that give us security in knowing that they will always bring us the same results.
However, as we have also mentioned, having too much mental rigidity is a problem that limits our imagination, depriving us of trying new strategies to see if, by opting for a new method, we have better results than we used to have. Having too many inflexible standards does not allow us to adapt to the environment.
There are several characteristics that we can find in a person who follows too many inflexible standards:
People with too many inflexible standards They get stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that they have created for themselves from which they refuse to get rid of, even though they know that it will always bring them negative results.
Although they know that having too rigid thinking makes it impossible for them to develop healthy and happy bonds with others by depriving themselves of new experiences, they remain trapped in it. Excessive inflexible standards cause their victims to not give in and remain prisoners of their own ideas and attitudes.
Consequences of having too many inflexible standards
When we are people with extreme cognitive rigidity, our minds close to new possibilities , which brings with it a series of consequences that all make us dissatisfied with life. Among the emotional, social and physical consequences of having too many inflexible standards are:
Problems adapting to adversity
Difficulties growing as a person
Difficulties in growing intellectually
Problems making new friends
Work problems due to not knowing how to adapt to changes at work
Problems enjoying sex
Most of these problems are related to the idea of not being able to leave the comfort or security zone that the person It has been created following their uncompromising standards. Since she is not capable of innovating or trying anything new, the slightest thing that there is something that deviates from what is part of her daily routine or what was expected, she is disconcerted and feels very anxious, so much so that it is impossible for her to adapt to the new situation.
