For individuals with inflexible standards, change is amazingly difficult. They also are inclined to be very strict and rigid of their behavior.
We often uphold ideas, beliefs, and even rules because they supply us with a framework of security and peace of mind. However, this set can turn out to be rigid and watertight. In this fashion, we could be coping with inflexible standards.
These standards, which appear to be held to the acute, even on the expense of our own good, can harm us. Let’s take a better look.
Schema therapy as a framework
J. Young, in his schema therapystates that people develop a way of interpreting the world in childhoodof explaining reality. Schemas are ways of fascinated about yourself and others.
They consist of memories, emotions and bodily sensations. They repeat throughout life.
However, sometimes they become maladaptive early schemas (EPDs) by being dysfunctional for humans. These schemas arise in response to unmet emotional needs for secure attachments, autonomy, freedom of self-expression, spontaneity, and limitations.
Young postulates the existence of 18 schemas, divided into 5 categories. Within these categories, hypervigilance and inhibition occur, with the next dysfunctional patterns:
- Negativity and pessimism.
- Emotional inhibition.
- Inflexible standards.
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What are inflexible standards?
Inflexible standards are rigid behavior in response to strict internal standards. They often involve sacrificing well-being and luck just to fulfill them.
In addition, individuals with inflexible standards are those that find it difficult to accommodate a standpoint apart from their very own. Especially when it goes against their very own standards.
It is difficult for all people to vary certain things. However, there may be a downside after we turn out to be completely rigid in our pondering. This prolongs the issue find an answer to the issue.
Of course, in the identical situation, two people can have different schemes. Resolution is determined by many other aspects, including temperament and contextual conditions. For example, in cases perfectionism or OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), this rigid cognitive style predominates.
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Characteristics of individuals with rigid standards
The predominant characteristics of individuals with inflexible standards include:
- they own low frustration tolerance.
- They havetendency to heavy : strongself-criticism.
- There is an exaggerated adherence to the foundations.
- There is an orientation to hiding emotions and feelings.
- They reply to difficult patterns. They are driven by a way of duty.
- Theyare closed, i.e it’s hard to vary and adapt to the circumstances. In general, they have an inclination to remain inside their comfort zone.
Some research and dissertations have sought to determine a possible link between dysfunctional schemas in childhood and adolescence (including rigid standards) and present and future behaviors. Therefore, research in Peru postulates that aggressiveness is more common amongst young individuals with dysfunctional schemas. In the identical country within the 15-17 age group found that inflexible standards are very widespread: 66.4%.
Consequences of inflexible standards
To understand how inflexible standards affect an individual’s life, let us take a look at an example.
Someone who has experienced some economic and material deprivation throughout their childhood feels reassured that they’ll save and have money in reserve because they feel in charge of their future. However, this person is unable to benefit from other advantages that cash gives them, similar to a recreational getaway, planning a vacation or renovating an apartment. Its standard is inflexible and guided by one belief: hoarding. In this fashion, he deprives himself of the pleasure of experiencing and, because it were, returns to the unique situation: he’s deprived due to his inflexibility.
The predominant consequence of getting inflexible standards is that this opportunities are lost, each professionally and economically. Because it is so hard to innovate and think “out of the box”, creativity suffers.
Sometimes individuals with these schemas often experience difficulties in interpersonal relationships. Their rigid and rigid ways of being and pondering prevent them from taking responsibility for changing some things or accepting others.
It can also be true that they find it difficult to calm down. They are very critical, so it is usually an issue to attach with the enjoyment of present situations.
Mental schemas are also in a position to change the physiological functioning of the body. In women with rigid standards, a rise in the quantity of the hormone cortisol within the blood was found. This increase can have various health consequences, with elevated cortisol levels being associated sleep disturbances, increased risk of dementia in aging, obesity and insulin resistance.
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Challenging norms could make our responses more flexible
The decisions we make should follow the trend towards balancetowards what happens in the center, not on the ends. Stiffness is usually the reason behind our inability to search out a way out of our problems. Thus, we repeat the identical dysfunctional solutions over and another time.
Contrary, flexibility it allows us to adapt to recent situations and move away from fines. We understand that we will try other strategies.
In the face of such hermetic pondering styles, it should be very vital to start by questioning these pseudo-truths, these internal imperatives that impede change. Cognitive therapy and schema therapy can contribute on this sense.
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