Your stubbornness might be attributed to an overall mistrust of others. Most people are not going to take advantage of you the second you stop fighting tooth-and-nail for your objectives. For the ones who do, it becomes apparent very quickly and you can distance yourself.
Having stubborn people in your life is a blessing. Stubborn people can be annoying, stressful and may drive you crazy. Your stubborn person could be the person who sits next to you at school, work or your own partner, brother, sister, friend, father or mother. Once you learn how to work with them and not against them, you will be shocked to discover how strong, smart and clever you are and they also are. Lets share knowledge about the those factors likely to triggers or causes stubbornness person.
7 Causes of Stubbornness (How to Deal With It)
1. Overconfidence
Overconfidence lead the causes of stubbornness in person and can sometimes cause people to become rigid and even dogmatic. Instead of assuming that your way is the right or only way, try to keep an open mind. You might not always agree with other people, but it is important to listen in order to gain a new perspective
Several research has shown that there are many benefits to acting confidently. Confidence can motivate people to take on the risks necessary for achieving growth and prosperity. It can also improve social status and deter competition. But when confidence veers into overconfidence, that’s when it can backfire.
How to deal with it:
- Be humble. Don’t always assign people less value than yourself. Think about everyone as being equal. It is okay to be confident and have healthy self-esteem, but over doing it can make you appear stubborn and closed-minded, not to mention snobby, self-centered and even mean.
- To be humble you need to approach every situation from the perspective that you are grateful for what you have. Don’t boast about your accomplishments. Be appreciative for what you have and for the people in your life. If you never lose sight of this and uphold a high level of care for others, you will see your stubbornness decrease.
2. Metathesiophobia (Fear of Change)
Metathesiophobia is the fear of change; is a phobia that causes people to avoid changing their circumstances due to being extremely afraid of the unknown. It is sometimes associated with the fear of moving, also known as tropophobia.
Metathesiophobia, the fear of change is one of the causes of stubbornness in some people. Stubborn people are afraid of change. Whether they realize it or not, they perceive new situations as threats that should be avoided at all costs. As a result they become furious to any advise or influence which make them stubborn to make certain decision. Anyone who tries to impose a change on them could be viewed as an oppressor subconsciously.
How to deal with it:
- Human beings are naturally wired to fear change for several reasons. However, a fear of change may be more intense when the change is not within a person’s control. Talking with a mental health professional can help you manage your Metathesiophobia. Exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are the most effective treatments. Exposure therapy focuses on changing your response to the object or situation that you fear. Discuss your fears with a trusted friend or family member. They may share a similar fear and offer tips on how to cope from personal experience. Otherwise, expressing your fears can help to alleviate shame, stress, or anxiety and make you feel less alone.
3. Incorrigible
what causes stubbornness most time is when someone can’t admit they are wrong, it can be very frustrating. It’s even more frustrating when you can’t think of a better word than stubborn to describe them.
Stubborn people have trouble admitting when they are wrong. They would rather argue than suffer a blow to their ego. This is especially prevalent in fights between romantic partners.
How to deal with it:
- The first step to resolve this issue is to analyze the triggers for such behaviors and then bring positive changes accordingly. There could be various reasons behind the stubborn attitude. Instead of aggressively dealing with it, you should understand the main cause to discipline the person or yourself correctly.
4. Rigid Thinking
Rigid thinking is characterized the causes of stubbornness by a desire for predictability, displaying difficulty with unmet expectations, feeling compulsions to do certain things, and in some cases exhibiting perseveration repetition of words, phrases, and gestures.
Stubborn people cheat themselves out of growth and transformation. They cling to past beliefs in a misguided effort to protect themselves from change.
When a person is a rigid thinker, they may prefer that things predictably happen the way they want, the same way, day after day. Of course, the world doesn’t always behave as we expect. Unpredictable circumstances can send your someone into a tailspin, as they may become emotionally overloaded by unfamiliar sensory experiences.
How to deal with it:
- As a guidance, you can probably predict how your rigid thinker will approach many kinds of daily situations. Even if your prediction is simply, “He won’t like it,” you still have some awareness of how people will react to certain events. However, I’d suggest that you avoid allowing your own assumptions to limit the potential you see in people or the potential they may see within themselves. When a someone begins occupational therapy, they are encouraged to learn in their own way. Their rigid thinking isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a limitation on how much they can do.
5. Argument Against the Person
Argument against the person is a fallacy of (argumentum ad hominem) An argument that attacks a person’s character or circumstances in order to oppose or discredit the person’s viewpoint. There are two types. Abusive ad hominem arguments attack the person’s character and Circumstantial ad hominems attack the person’s circumstances.
Stubborn people lash out at those who challenge their ideology. They can’t speak with facts or figures (see #5), so they resort to personal attacks. This is very common in comment threads.
“Ad hominem” is a Latin phrase that means “to the man.” Politicians use ad hominem attacks all the time. Instead of addressing a point made during a debate, they expose a flaw in their opponent’s character to cast doubt on their point. This is not an ethical tactic.
Argument against the person trigger stubbornness in people because instead of addressing someone’s position, you irrelevantly attack the person or some aspect of the person who is making the opinion.
How to deal with it:
- What the concept argument ad hominem means is “argument to the man,” although it is also translated as “argument against the man.” Instead of criticizing what a person says and the arguments they are offering that might trigger an outburst that are best described stubbornness, what you should have instead is a criticism of where the opinion are coming from (the person) is to allow them validate their position before corrections.
6. They Practice Law of Identity
The concept of identity is important because it makes explicit that reality has a definite nature. Since reality has an identity, it is knowable. Since it exists in a particular way, it has no contradictions.
Practicing the concept law of identity also describe the causes of stubbornness. The law of identity states that if a statement has been determined to be true, then the statement is true. In formulaic terms, it states that ‘X is X’. For example, if I make a statement that ‘It is snowing,’ and it’s the truth, then the statement must be true. If we look at the law of identity in more general terms, it says that each thing that exists is made up of its own particular characteristics that are a part of what it is.
Stubborn people tend to practice this law at all time, they only read news from sources that confirm their biases. They don’t want to risk exposing themselves to conflicting information, because that could cause an identity crisis.
How to deal with it:
- There are three fundamental laws upon which rational thinking are based. These three laws are thought to have originated from philosophers, who believed that the laws are necessary conditions for rational thinking to occur. The three laws are the law of identity, law of non-contradiction, and law of the excluded middle. Therefore, practicing the concept law of identity alone is not sufficient for rational thinking. If you find yourself in this position you should endeavor to adopt three laws.
7. Thinking You’re Always Right
While listening to someone talk, you may think everything he says is wrong because you think you know “the right way.” There is a distinction between facts and opinions. Your opinion is not the only one that matters, nor is all your knowledge necessarily correct. You have to accept that you learn something new every day, even if it overwrites something you thought you already knew.
- You are entitled to have an opinion, but you cannot expect others to always agree with you. Repeating your opinion louder, or more often, or with judgmental slurs attached, will not convince anyone to agree with you. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
- No one likes a know-it-all. If maintaining relationships with family, friends and business is important, you must consider your likability
