Consultation for parents “What is rigidity”

• September 6, 2018
• Nervous system diseases
• Valeria Marutkova

You notice that in sudden situations it is difficult for you to overstep your principles and change positions, it is difficult for you to make changes to the usual algorithm of your day, to commit an act unusual for you is nonsense, you do not know how to switch and change your view, it is difficult for you to adapt and get used to change of scenery? These are the first signs of rigidity.

It is worth understanding in more detail what rigidity is in psychology, its types, degrees, and how to get rid of it. Let's start with the most basic, and figure out what it is all about.

What is rigidity?

From Latin the word “rigidity” is translated as “inflexibility, hardness.” On the other hand, the definition of rigidity in psychology is a feature of a person’s thinking that does not allow him to adapt to a new environment, a change of environment, a change in the daily routine, or a change in the behavior program.

A rigid person in his everyday life has a whole set of specific strategies and algorithms for various banal situations or situations that he encounters most often. The strategies in his arsenal are often outdated and do not correspond to the current “standards” of the modern world. But the person using them refuses to accept new ones, following his proven rules, accepted norms and does not allow himself to go beyond the boundaries set by him. The framework that a rigid person sets for himself is perceived as truly true, the only correct and proper one.

As an example of the behavior of a rigid person, we can consider an ordinary situation: imagine a road that you urgently need to cross. The traffic lights and pedestrian crossing are far away, you look around. Good road lighting, excellent visibility, no approaching cars - nothing will prevent a person who does not suffer from rigidity from crossing the road. However, a person with rigid thinking at the moment while an ordinary person is crossing the road will feel an internal obstacle in himself that does not allow him to break the rule, even if it is safe and unpunished, the rigid person will go to the traffic light, perhaps wasting energy on to get there, and the time. Nothing will force him to go beyond the established limits, even if he is in a hurry, misses an opportunity, misses the last plane - the main thing is to follow the established rules.

Positive aspects of rigidity

As you already understand, rigidity is (from a psychological point of view) a state of a person in which he experiences difficulty or is generally unable to change his usual program of actions. Due to rigidity, any changes in a person’s life are not easily perceived, which greatly affects the individual and her life.

Considering the example of the road, I want to exclaim: “But what’s wrong with a person not breaking the rules? By living by the rules, a person tries to protect himself!” Maybe. By the way, rigidity is not always a bad thing, for example, a person with rigid thinking has increased communication skills, it is easier for him to get along with people, and at work and study the person has obvious success and has organizational skills. And at the same time, such high activity does not prevent him from doing routine or monotonous work, since rigidity increases perseverance.

When an individual's rigidity of thinking is expressed to a small extent, one can notice that this person is neat, punctual, has an accurate goal, his actions are always logical, and he is also stress-resistant.

Social causes of rigidity

Social reasons often come from childhood. If the parents were too demanding of the child, he believes that such an attitude to life is normal for everyone. Also, excessive parental control, overprotection, limiting the child’s social circle, weak expression of parental love affect the formation of personality and become the reasons for rigidity of thinking.

In adults, rigidity becomes a consequence of such life situations as:

• disappointment in personal life;
• professional failures;
• psychotrauma;
• complex relationships in the team;
• mistakes made in the past.

It becomes almost impossible to combat the lack of psychological flexibility of an adult if childhood psychotrauma is the basis. In this case, you should contact a psychologist or psychotherapist. The earlier stiffness is diagnosed, the more effective treatment will be.

Disadvantages of Rigidity

But rigidity has many more disadvantages. With pronounced rigidity, the person becomes narcissistic and very conflicted, and passion for some activity or hobby is put at the forefront of activities, overshadowing everything else. Most often, these signs appear in patients with mental illness.

In a situation where rigidity is expressed to an extreme degree, the person, on the contrary, is observed to be careless and irresponsible. Excessive activity alienates others, and most do not understand the ardent desire to achieve a goal.

Increased rigidity is most often accompanied by emotional instability and paranoia. Individuals are susceptible to obsessions, sometimes overly aggressive and unable to establish contact with the outside world.

In life, mental rigidity prevents a person from being simply happy, since he often does not allow himself small pleasures, considering short-term desires a waste of time and effort.

Manifestations in children

Signs of muscle stiffness and what it is in children should be considered separately. This symptom is especially common in newborns, but it goes away completely independently without any treatment during the first few months of life. However, if symptoms persist for a longer period of time, this is a reason to consult a doctor.

Parents should pay special attention in the following cases:

1. The tension does not go away even during sleep.
2. There is a violation of reflexes.
3. The child's legs are constantly bent and tucked towards the body.
4. The child's fists are clenched all the time, and his arms are crossed on his chest.
5. There is stiffness in the leg muscles.

Also, pathology may be indicated by the fact that the child begins to hold his head up from an early age, although normally this occurs no earlier than 6–8 weeks after birth. This is also a symptom of hypertonicity of the occipital muscles.

Degree of rigidity, symptoms

There is no need to worry in vain; rigidity is common to all people. Its certain degree is inherent in everyone and is explained by the fact that the human psyche tends to create and get used to a certain pattern of actions in order to save strength and energy, and the established patterns are reinforced by the paths of neural connections, which allows a person to do monotonous work (knitting, for example), and think about friend (watch TV and knit).

The degree of severity of rigidity is individual for everyone and depends on the characteristics of the individual. So, some people are predisposed to rigidity due to their nature, and for some, despite many factors, its manifestations remain minimal.

The degree of rigidity can be determined by observing several situations, since the reaction due to personality characteristics may be different and rigidity will manifest itself to varying degrees. There is a small list of situations, considering the behavior in which you can assess the extent of the problem:

• the complexity of the task set to be achieved;
• danger level;
• the presence or absence of motivation to achieve the goal;
• variations of extreme situations.

It is a big mistake to mistake integrity for rigidity. In the case of the second, the person can step over the principles and easily adapts to a new situation, easily adapts to a new society and environment.

Types of rigid thinking

There are three main types of rigidity of thinking:

• Cognitive. The most common type of rigidity. This type relies on sensory cognition and the ability to perceive new information. Cognitive rigidity is expressed in the inability to create a new concept or learn new information. A dissonance occurs in the individual’s head between established, ingrained views and new information, which is why the individual begins to distance himself from the team and close people, trying to close himself off from the new world.
• Motivational. The individual refuses to accept new motivations for action and cannot complete subsequent tasks. Most often, such rigidity can be seen in situations where a person does not perceive new reasons to satisfy any needs, or refuses to get rid of something because it has become a habit. In the background, highly valuable ideas can develop.
• Affective. Rigidity manifests itself in the comparison of situations and the emotional response to it. The individual is too carried away by the chosen object or certain conditions.

Features of a rigid person

You can independently identify a person who is rigid or prone to this. There are several properties common to all three types. For example:

• stubborn character;
• inability to give up a habit;
• impressionability;
• inability to change one's behavior on one's own.

At the same time, a person with rigid thinking may exhibit contradictory properties:

• overly sociable, trying to stand out or be the center of attention;
• grumpy, devalues ​​the world around him, dissatisfied and filled with negativity;
• skeptic;
• withdraws from society;
• evil joker, makes fun of people.

If you want to determine whether you are a rigid person and what degree of rigidity you have, analyze your behavior or ask your loved ones about it.

Psychophysiological reasons

Psychophysiological mental disorders are most often congenital. Features of a person’s higher nervous activity influence his behavior.

In this case, the causes of rigidity are:

• Crises of a certain age. Suffice it to remember how difficult it is for teenagers and older people to communicate.
• Predominance of character traits. A rigid personality has clearly defined character traits: perfectionism in relation to oneself and others, excessive punctuality, workaholism.
• Temperament. Most often, rigid people are quite phlegmatic. They have little interest in what is happening around them and have almost no interests that do not relate to their main job.
• Features of nervous activity. A person with a rigid psychotype has an inhibited reaction, they make decisions slower than others, and it is difficult for them to adapt to changes in the world around them.

If psychophysiological reasons intersect with social ones, this becomes a reliable foundation for the development of rigidity.

The education system plays an important role in shaping the style of thinking. If the learning process involves a lack of creativity, this may cause students to develop rigid thinking.

How to deal with rigidity of thinking?

How to deal with rigidity? The first person to talk about the inability to make changes in attitudes and activities when the situation changes is Jacob Moreno, who correctly added that rigidity is the scourge of the twentieth century.

Why? The problem is that in an industrial society and with the flourishing of well-functioning mechanisms, in bureaucratic states it was precisely the rigid person who became especially necessary - a person capable of carrying out everything strictly according to instructions, which greatly influenced civilization in the future.

Moreno concluded that the people were being “shredded.” There are few people left who dare to doubt the instructions, so in the fight against rigid thinking, Moreno prescribed two pills: spontaneity and creativity.

"Wittgenstein's ladder"

It sounds simple, but in reality it is very difficult to get rid of rigid thinking and you should contact a specialist who will create an individual treatment program for you.

The problem with rigidity is that no matter how much the patient wants to get rid of the desire to follow the rules, his inner “I” protests. The subconscious convinces him that by overstepping his rules, a person will turn into an unprincipled person, capable of any base act.

Patients who have overcome their rigidity say that in reality it turns out that there was no rigidity, only honor, integrity, beliefs and faith in traditions on an inflated scale.

To convince yourself to get rid of the belief in the correctness of your actions, repeat to yourself that truth is a relative concept; you may have misunderstood it when you heard or read it. Are you sure that your actions, actions and their motives are the truth? And in our impermanent world, is it possible to be sure that the truth remains and is understood in the same way as it was an hour, a day, a month ago?

Convince yourself that truth is unknowable.

Accept for yourself and come to terms with “Wittgenstein’s ladder”, which sounds like this:

The original order is like a ladder that is used to climb somewhere. However, after this the ladder must be discarded. Because it turns out that although it was useful, it itself had no meaning.

Types of rigidity

Since rigidity affects human behavior in different areas, in psychology there are three types of it.

Affective or emotional

This type of rigidity is associated with the characteristics of the manifestation of emotions and reactions to external influences. Affective rigidity manifests itself as excessive stability and constancy of emotional states. Such people can replay the same episode of life in their heads for a very long time, experiencing all the same feelings that do not weaken over time and can become obsessive.

Rigid people also have the same emotional reactions, and in similar situations they behave the same way. But such people are monogamous and do not change their affection, even if its object no longer reciprocates their feelings.

Motivational rigidity

This is perhaps the most noticeable type of this personal quality. It is the people who possess it who are usually called stubborn. They can be divided into 3 types:

1. Disappointed are those who, having failed once, give up, consider themselves losers all their lives and do not want to make efforts to change the situation in their favor.
2. Stubborn are those who persistently “break into the wall”, not wanting to notice that there is an entrance nearby. They are not able to deviate from a pre-chosen path, change ineffective methods of activity, and they also cannot abandon a goal once set.
3. Lazy people are those who, from childhood, have convinced themselves that career and success are not for them. In the complete absence of positive motivation, they do not seek it. Since they won’t succeed anyway, why waste energy and try. These people quietly go with the flow and consider any changes a disaster.

People whose level of rigidity is normal are able to manage their motivational sphere and, when some motives are lost, actively seek others.

Cognitive rigidity

This is inflexibility, rigidity of thinking and perception. It is characterized by a person’s lack of need, and often the ability, to change his thinking style, his views on the world, his beliefs and ideas, even if they are unproductive and obviously incorrect.

Rigid people think in standard patterns and are not at all inclined to creativity. Cognitive rigidity prevents you not only from solving non-standard problems, but also from acquiring new knowledge, because it does not fit into once created patterns and schemes. Therefore, everything new, original, unconventional is rejected and recognized as incorrect, unnecessary and dangerous.