What Is Emotional Irresponsibility, How To Identify It And Examples

Emotional irresponsibility is the lack of responsibility towards one’s own emotions and those of others. They are a set of behaviors filled with immaturity that disrupt personal interactions and, with this, also destabilize the environment. They favor the creation of conflictive environments, both at the interpersonal and community levels.

If you want to better understand these behaviors, don’t miss this PsychologyFor article in which we will talk about What is emotional irresponsibility, how to identify it and examples Find out how to find out if someone acts this way and what consequences it has.

What is emotional irresponsibility

Emotional irresponsibility is a term used to describe the lack of responsibility when expressing emotions or making decisions regarding others. It manifests itself as egocentric and unempathetic behaviors in which other people are not taken into account.

Moral conscience does not fit into the behaviors of people who act with emotional irresponsibility. They act as if they were the only ones in the world and what they did had no consequences, always putting their needs and desires first. The effects of these behaviors can be harmful for the most immediate environment.

How to know that someone does not have emotional responsibility

To identify if someone does not have emotional responsibility, you have to observe different aspects of their behavior. Below, we explain what to look for to identify it:

  • It is selfish: Always prioritize your needs before those of others.
  • He is impulsive: acts without thinking about the consequences. Make hasty decisions without considering the repercussions they may have.
  • He doesn’t control his emotions: he directs his emotional explosions on his closest environment
  • Lacks empathy: is unable to understand and connect with the feelings of others. He blames others for what he must assume as his own to improve certain situations.
  • Lack of emotional control: Your emotional reactions are unpredictable, which makes it difficult for you to establish relationships. To avoid it, we recommend reading this article on Effective Emotional Control Techniques.
  • Minimizes the feelings of others: does not consider that their actions can affect the people close to them on an emotional level.

It is important to remember that these signs do not manifest themselves in the same way in each person, but they usually occur when someone does not have emotional responsibility.

What happens when a person does not have emotional responsibility

The most common consequences of a person not having emotional responsibility are the following:

  • Harms your environment: You do not take into account the feelings of the close people around you, so you can hurt them without realizing it.
  • Makes interpersonal relationships difficult healthy: The person may feel ignored or not valued, and may tend to isolate themselves socially. In this article you will see the Consequences of social isolation.
  • Causes feelings of loneliness: Difficulties establishing intimate, close, and long-lasting relationships with others can lead to feelings of separation and lack of emotional support during difficult times. This may cause you to end up living alone.
  • Affects mental health: The inability to manage one’s emotions can deteriorate one’s emotional well-being, and lead to the development of mental health problems, such as depression and/or anxiety.

Examples of emotional irresponsibility

If you are looking for examples of emotional irresponsibility in different contexts, here we bring you a selection:

  • External conflict: faced with a problem from a partner or friend, the person continues with their life. He is not affected by the emotional state of the other.
  • Workgroup: when a student is part of a school work group and does not do his or her part of the work.
  • emotional relief: when someone is emotionally unwell and strongly unloads their discomfort on someone close to them. A person unloads on a friend or family member and, when the anger passes, they reestablish the relationship as if nothing had happened, without taking into account the damage caused by their emotional explosion.
  • Conflict in the couple: a member of a couple demands to be attended to his/her needs but does not attend to those of his/her partner.
  • family conflict: for example, parents who take out their frustrations on their children, let their defense mechanisms hit them (without stopping to improve internally).
  • Lack of empathy with friends: the person only attends to his or her desires and needs, for example, with regard to leisure activities carried out with a group of friends.

It should be noted that emotional irresponsibility derives from emotional deficiencies that require attention. You have to make an effort to learn to manage your own emotions and improve communication skills. If you don’t know how to improve your emotional well-being, you can seek help from mental health professionals.

What is emotional irresponsibility, how to identify it and examples - Examples of emotional irresponsibility

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is emotional irresponsibility, how to identify it and examples we recommend that you enter our Emotions category.