What Is the Meaning of Inflexible Personality?

An inflexible personality is one that is resistant to change, even if that change would be beneficial. Inflexibility is a characteristic of several personality disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. It is often located at the core of one's sense of self and can be difficult to remedy. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that inflexible traits can and do change over time.

The Inflexible Personality

• Inflexibility is more commonly known as "rigidity" in professional psychology circles. Being inflexible has nothing to do with how agreeable someone is in everyday life. Rather, inflexibility refers to the inability to change the personality traits or coping styles to adapt to changing situations, which makes it difficult -- if not impossible -- to function socially.

Centrality of Inflexibility

• Inflexible character traits are traits that are resistant to change. This change can occur through self-examination, problem solving or through several other methods, but the inflexible traits are shielded from these change agents. Part of this shield is created by an inflexible person's inability or unwillingness to examine those inflexible traits. This prevents any discovery of the trait error or limitation. In psychological terms, one of the key aspects of inflexibility is its centrality -- it lies at the core of an inflexible person's sense of self, and all other processes and traits are subordinate to it.

Terror and Inflexibility

• Centrality is only one aspect of inflexibility; terror is another. The person who exhibits inflexible traits is prevented from analyzing and examining them, not only by the traits' centrality, but by the person's fear of what would happen if these traits -- which they feel are so fundamental to who they are -- were examined and found to be lacking, inadequate or incorrect. Often an inflexible person is also terrified about what others would think if they found out how inadequate or incorrect they are. This terror can manifest itself in other emotions like disgust, contempt or dread.

What To Do

• If you or someone you know exhibits unusual signs of inflexibility, consider talking to a trained mental health professional. Change is possible. In the past, many psychologists assumed that inflexible behaviors and traits never changed, but recent studies have shown this assumption to be false. A study conducted by Professor Mark F. Lenzenweger at Binghamton University in 2004 found that its subjects' personality disorder traits declined each year over a four-year period.