Signs of Emotional Immaturity

Emotional immaturity can be a serious hindrance. It can make life unnecessarily challenging for you and others around you. However, the first step to combating emotional immaturity is being able to identify its signs. Once you can see the warning signs of emotional immaturity -- whether in yourself, your loved ones or coworkers -- you will be better able to address it constructively.

Easily Angered

• The emotionally immature person does not react well when life does not turn out the way he thinks it should. If an outcome falls short of his expectation, he throws a tantrum, shouts, swears or makes a scene in some other way. In addition, he may become combative or belligerent. Having a meltdown is the only way an emotionally immature person deals with frustration or disappointment.

Avoidance of Personal Responsibility

• A sure sign of emotional immaturity is your unwillingness or inability to take responsibility for your actions. You constantly casts yourself as the victim when recounting disagreements with others or when describing unpleasant events that involve you. You are unable to see how your own actions may have contributed to these circumstances. And you may even become defensive or antagonistic if others try to point out the part that you played in your misfortune.

Self-Centeredness in Conversation

• Take note of the way you converse with others. If you're emotionally immature, you will find a way to steer every conversation to yourself. You'll ensure that regardless of how a conversation begins, it will be about you by the time it ends. You may also have a hard time listening authentically to others and showing genuine concern or empathy for them. Such concern and empathy come from having an emotional awareness of others, and if you're emotionally immature you may find this concept difficult to grasp. Instead, you may focus more on talking than listening.

Flawed Thinking

• Flawed thinking may be a sign of emotional immaturity. The emotionally immature person finds it difficult to think things through logically. You will often jump to conclusions hastily or misinterpret social cues. In addition, you may have beliefs about yourself or the world that make it hard for you to see the error in your thinking, and this is because you rarely consider the possibility that your thought process might need adjustment. You don't take seriously the perspectives of others that may differ from your own.