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PSYCHOLOGICAL MATURITY
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Introduction
The word "psychological health" is one of the most nebulous, enigmatic, and
ambiguous in modern psychological theory. There are already problems with the term's
ambiguous connotations, but so many individuals use it without even bothering to clarify it.
Psychological health can be characterized in three different ways:(1) a reasonable and ongoing
search for satisfaction in one's life; (2) the use of a problem-solving pattern of conduct; and (3)
the capacity to see one's surroundings with a degree of independence from "need distortion."
Social, Emotional, and Mental well-being are aspects of psychological health. People in good
psychological health have an average level of emotional, behavioral, and social maturity. This
means that this person is in a healthy state of mind, one that they can use to be expected in
society and everyday situations.
Gordon Allport, the Mature Person
Healthy people, according to Allport, operate on a logical and conscious level, aware
and in control of the factors that govern them. The present and their future goals guide mature
people. The focus is on the present and the future, rather than on the past and the conflicts of
one's youth. There is a difference between the neurotic and the healthy individual regarding
conflict and experience. As a result, Allport's method is health-oriented because he primarily
researched healthy, mature individuals and had little to say about neurotics.
According to Allport, adults have functionally autonomous motives independent of
their childhood contexts. Rather than being driven along by motivating factors from the past,
our plans for the future propel us forward. Allport's emphasis on future objectives and intents
is central to this concept. All aspects of a person's personality are brought together by the
individual's desire to achieve goals and objectives. Taking risks and trying new things might
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cause a person's tension level to grow. Allport argued that one must experience tensionproducing situations and take risks.
According to Allport, happiness is not a goal in and of itself but rather a by-product of
achieving one's ambitions and aims. On the contrary, he felt that the life of a healthy person
might be filled with anguish and suffering. However, this concept has various contradiction,
which asserts that the goals that are pursued by a healthy personality are ultimately
unreachable. Allport outlines the explorer Roald Amundsen, who was responsible for
discovering the South Pole, as an example. After making a new one, Amundsen would instantly
begin planning for the subsequent discovery. He was driven by the desire to continue his
journey. However, he knew that this objective would never be entirely accomplished as long
as there remained uncharted territory to contend with. In response to this contradiction, Allport
wrote, "Salvation comes only to him who ceaselessly bestirs himself in the pursuit of objectives
that are not fully attained."
Allport recognized the necessity of inventing new motivations if current ones become
inadequate, and as a result, he created the notion of structuring the energy level. When the
children reach maturity, the mother, whose primary purpose was to raise them, will need to
discover new objectives and refocus her energies. People who are mature and in good health
continuously need motivators with the strength to spend their energy (Fancher, 2020). Allport's
motivation theory of the healthy personality also includes the principle of competence and
mastery, which suggests that fully grown, healthy people wish not to operate at mediocre levels
but rather to perform at high levels of mastery and competence in their efforts to meet their
objectives.
Allport Outline six criteria that characterize a mature personality: (1) The self evolves
from focusing on oneself to a wider variety of people and activities. According to Allport,
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individuals should engage in things with a sense of genuine personal connection and
participation. Meaningful activities become an extension of one's self-perception when one
invests in them. (2) There are two types of warmth Allport described regarding others: the
ability to be intimate and the ability to be compassionate. People in good health can show
affection and tenderness toward a parent, a kid, a spouse, and close friends. The second type
of warmth is compassion, characterized by an awareness of the universality of human suffering
and a sense of connection with all other individuals. "Imaginative extension" is how one
extends one's sentiments to another.
Thirdly, Self-acceptance is critical since it entails embracing one's whole self, flaws
and all, without being resigned to one's fate. There is less internal tension among mature people
who can accept their flaws. They do their best and attempt to improve as much as they can. (4)
Healthy people have an objective perspective on their surroundings and accept reality for what
it is (Mazo,2021). Mature people do not distort reality to be more consistent with their desires
and concerns. Neurotics, on the other hand, may have a personal preconception of reality that
causes them to categorize individuals and circumstances into compartments that may not
accurately represent the truth of the scenario.
Allport was a firm believer in the value of hard effort and the necessity of immersing
oneself in one's job to succeed. He did not believe it was conceivable to discover mature,
healthy individuals who had not channeled their talents toward their chosen profession. Work
and responsibility provide significance to one's life and a sense of continuity to one's existence.
Lastly, Self-objectification, or the ability to see oneself objectively, is a prerequisite for
deepening one's understanding of oneself (Fancher, 2020). Self-awareness necessitates
understanding the relationship between one's beliefs about oneself and one's real self.
According to Allport, persons with stronger levels of self-awareness are more intellectual than
those who lack it.
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Alfred Adler's Theory on Individual Psychological health and Maturity
Psychiatrist and philosopher Alfred Adler emphasized understanding persons in their
social setting. Adler's work addressed equality, parent education, birth order, living style, and
individual holism. Adler believed that we all share a fundamental need: the need to feel like a
part of something bigger than ourselves. First, Adler established a theory of personality,
psychopathology, and psychotherapy closely tied to a humanistic philosophy of life.
Adler (2020) argues that when we feel recognized and capable, we are more likely to
engage in a collaborative and linked manner. In times of despair, we may resort to selfdestructive behaviors like competing, withdrawing, or giving up (Mazo,2021). To be happy
and optimistic, we need to learn to provide and accept positive reinforcement, such as
compliments, praise, and attention from others. Adlerian philosophy and practice have proven
particularly effective when it comes to children. In the Adler school of thought, "a misbehaving
kid is a discouraged child," and encouraging children to feel valued, relevant, and capable is
typically the most successful technique in dealing with problematic child behaviors.
People strive for superiority or achievement to compensate for emotions of inadequacy
or weakness that they may be experiencing. Adler thought that all humans are "gifted" with
tiny, weak, and inferior bodies from the moment of their birth. People are constantly pushed
and tugged in opposite directions by the drive to overcome feelings of inadequacy and the
yearning for fulfilment (Mazo,2021). To alleviate their inferiority complexes, people strive for
success or superiority, but the methods they choose to achieve these goals are not determined
by objective reality but rather by their subjective expectations of the future. According to Adler
(2020), everyone is "fortunate" with a lack of vital organs. These physical limitations are of
little or no significance, but they take on significance when they arouse sentiments of inferiority
in mind, which act as a catalyst for achieving one's full potential.
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As Adler pointed out, physical limitations alone do not dictate a person's way of life;
they just serve as a source of inspiration for striving toward one's goals in the here and now.
Like other parts of one's personality, this drive is unified and self-consistent. An individual's
actions and functions can only be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger aim,
according to Adler. When one component of the body is out of balance, the entire body is
affected. When an organ cannot perform its normal function, the individual is said to have a
condition called organ dialect. "Organ dialect speaks a language that is generally more
expressive and displays the individual's perspective more clearly than words can accomplish,"
one scholar put it.
Carl Rodger's Theory on Human Maturity and Functioning
Others theorists who also describe psychological health and mature adults include Carl
Rogers. Carl Rogers describes a fully functioning individual as motivational for a healthy
person. Rogers believed that our view of the present is more significant than our memories of
our childhood events to develop a healthy character. His therapy work with clients has
highlighted the need to examine and understand one's personality through the lens of one's
particular point of view, one's own subjective experiences. When it comes to our clients, the
reality is defined by their vision (Normaningtyas & Wulandari, 2021). A technique of
psychotherapy created by Rogers that focuses the primary responsibility for personality change
on the client rather than the therapist is known as client-centered therapy (CCT), after Rogers
himself. The inclination of trying to actualize, he felt, is a universal driving drive that all people
share. He believed that reality is susceptible to each person's perceptual experiences, which
will vary from one individual to the next.
One essential need" was Rogers' concept of personality: to preserve, realize, and
strengthen all parts of the individual. The maturation of the body's organs and physiological
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processes and all other elements of human growth and development are governed by this
actualizing drive (Bradley,2022). A person's natural propensity toward actualization is
unstoppable because it forces them to adapt and progress as the individual moves from one
stage of development to another. "Here in this palm-like seaweed was the tenacity of life, the
forward drive of life, the ability to push into an extraordinarily adverse environment and hold
its own, but to adapt, evolve, become itself."
Rogers recognized this process to be true for all living things. Maintaining a state of
homeostasis, reducing stress, or making life as easy as possible is not the objective of life but
rather a growth in complexity of functioning that allows us to become all that we are capable
of becoming. Rogers noticed no difference between the mentally well and the mentally ill at
this biological level, but there were considerable disparities in the psychological components
of actualization between the two groups (Bradley,2022). At the beginning of childhood,
actualization moves from a physiological to a psychological focus.
Summary
Allport was the first personality theorist to research mature, normal individuals rather
than neurotics, making him a pioneer in the field. In building his model, he took on various
well-established theories of personality. His emphasis on the fact that there are no functional
parallels between neurotic and healthy characters and that they are two entirely different
entities is, for example, rather unusual. Unlike Freud and other personality theories, he believes
that a healthy personality, once created, is devoid of traumatic memories from one's infancy.
Furthermore, Allport's emphasis on raising rather than lowering the amount of tension as a
method of effecting good change is notable. According to this concept, psychological wellness
is more forward-looking than backward-looking. The viewpoint is directed toward what the
individual intends to become rather than what has already occurred and cannot be altered.
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Rogers' beliefs have attracted a lot of attention because they emphasize being "me" and
"now." In today's world, when the emphasis is on self-expression and letting go of inhibitions,
this paradigm is appealing. Those who are healthy can grow and lead their lives without being
influenced by their early experiences. The ability to develop and actualize one's potential as a
person's mind comes pre-programmed into everyone's genetic make-up.
According to Adler, the pursuit of achievement or dominance is the single most
powerful driving force behind people's actions. The ultimate objective for humans is either
personal excellence or the prosperity of all humankind as a collective whole. In either scenario,
the end aim is fictitious and does not have any objective basis in reality. Despite this, the final
objective is extremely important since it unites the personality and makes all conduct
understandable and consistent.
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References
Adler, A. (2020). Understanding human nature: The psychology of personality. GENERAL
PRESS.
Bradley, R. (2022). Exploring the Inferiority Model in Adlerian Psychotherapy.
Fancher, R. E. (2020). Gordon Allport. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.
Mazo, S. (2021). Maturity and Personality: What Does it Mean to be Mature?.
Normaningtyas, A., & Wulandari, D. F. (2021). Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology: The
Inferiority Feelings of Anna as Main Character Depicted in Miracles from Heaven
(2016). Prosiding Konstelasi Ilmiah Mahasiswa Unissula (KIMU) Klaster Humanoira.