Perfection - Not so Perfect by Tanisha Chandrasekaran (Issue #2)

Professionals tend to define perfectionism as “a combination of excessively high personal standards and overly critical self-evaluations,” but there are extra nuances to this definition.

Gordon Flett and Paul Hewitt are two main authorities in the area of perfectionism, each of whom have studied this subject matter for many years. Flett is a professor within the school of fitness at York University in Ontario, Canada, and Hewitt is currently a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), additionally in Canada.

Collectively, the 2 psychologists defined the 3 major sides of perfectionism in a study they published nearly three decades in the past. They say that there is “self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and socially prescribed perfectionism.”

Perfectionism can severely impact our intellectual and bodily health. In a recent examination conducted through Thomas Curran, a lecturer inside the department for fitness on the University of Tub within the United Kingdom, and Andrew P. Hill, of York St. John College, also inside the U.K., the authors explain that socially prescribed perfectionism is the “most debilitating” of the three forms.

In socially prescribed perfectionism, “individuals believe their social context is excessively demanding, that others judge them harshly, and that they must display perfection to secure approval.”

Anxiety, melancholy, and suicidal ideation are only a few of the intellectual fitness problems that professionals have repeatedly related with this shape of perfectionism. Curran and Hill studied extra than 40,000 American, Canadian, and British college students and located that in 1989–2016, the share of people that exhibited traits of perfectionism rose by way of up to 33 percent.

As Curran and Hill factor out, “self-oriented perfectionism” — which occurs while “individuals connect irrational importance to being perfect, hold unrealistic expectations of themselves, and are punitive in their self-reviews” — is linked with clinical depression, eating issues, and untimely demise among university students and young people.

Despite this, countless studies and psychologists have debated whether perfectionism is more beneficial or harmful. Perfectionism looms over people all around the world, and it is important to be educated about it.

References

Curran, Thomas, and Andrew Hill. Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta-Analysis Of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 To 2016. American Psychological Association, 2019, https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000138.pdf. Accessed 13 Jan 2021.

Esfahani, Fateme, and Mohammad Besharat. "Perfectionism And Anger". Science Direct, 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810015624. Accessed 10 Jan 2021.