Stereotypical Perfectionism And Ideas Of OCD

When I reached middle school, I thought about being called OCD much less than I had in elementary school, mainly due to the fact that the person who had called me obsessive- compulsive was no longer at my school. I was still labeled as a perfectionist by my teachers and peers, and I knew that I was in fact one. But, time went on, and I somehow managed to think about the disorder less and less, until eighth grade, when the person who had called me obsessive-compulsive nearly three years ago, returned to my school. Being older and more mature, and trampled by the memory of the day that I was introduced to that term, I decided to research OCD and how it is related to perfectionist tendencies.

One biological explanation for OCD is that it is inherited, that some or a specific gene is responsible for OCD occurrence. The 1.6% prevalence across the world shows that this may be a specific gene or set of genes causing OCD. With a concordance rate of between 65% and 80% MZ twins (Rasmussen 1986), their must be a genetic link in OCD. This explanation with the empirical evidences strongly suggested and support that the cause of the OCD is a reductionist disorder. However, from the behavioural and cognitive perspective have suggested that the cause of the OCD is not only biological factor as it must have a ‘trigger’ for an individual to activate and perform such behaviour. Such as irrational thoughts

Keep the environment calm. Rationale: decreased outside stimuli helps the patient relax and reduce urge to perform rituals.

I decided to write my paper on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in children. OCD is a type of anxiety disorder where people feel the need to check things repeatedly. Kids with OCD become preoccupied with whether something could be harmful, dangerous, wrong, or dirty — or with thoughts that unpleasant stuff could happen. It can cause severe anxiety in those affected. Kids with OCD also might worry about things not being "in order" or "just right." They may worry about losing things, constantly feeling the need to collect these items, even though they may seem useless to other people. It includes obsessions and compulsions that take up a great deal of time and affects your daily routine.

Throughout school you’ve most likely seen these two types of people, the perfectionist and the procrastinator. The perfectionist always getting an A for their hard work, while the procrastinator sometimes slides by with a 70 with their mess of a paper or project. From a glance, these two varieties of people seem like yin and yang, but in some ways they can be alike.

American culture, afraid of hard work suppresses perfectionism, a trait closely tied to a strong work ethic. So many articles and papers explain the detrimental effects of striving for perfectionism; the website, Psychology Today says, “Perfectionism may be the ultimate self-defeating behavior. It turns people into slaves of success—but keeps them focused on failure, dooming them to a lifetime of doubt and depression.”

Which in turn leads to failure, which will lead to disappointment and negative feelings of worthlessness or not being good enough, which in time could lead to depression, anxiety, etc… “Perfectionism – the maladaptive practice of holding oneself or others to an unrealistic, unattainable or unsustainable standard of organization, order, or accomplishment in one particular area of living, while sometimes neglecting common standards of organization, order or accomplishment in other areas of living.” (Out of the fog 2007-2015, retrieved from: http://outofthefog.website/top-100-trait-blog/2015/11/4/perfectionism). A full description of “perfectionism” as by article reads: “Perfectionism in its Adaptive form is often seen as a compliment in reference to diligence and the pursuit of excellence. But the Maladaptive (or neurotic) form is a destructive, dysfunctional type of persistent perfectionism, which is ultimately damaging both to the perfectionist and to those closest to them.” (Out of the fog 2007-2015, retrieved from: http://outofthefog.website/top-100-trait-blog/2015/11/4/perfectionism). This is a personality disorder that the participant has struggled with for as long as he can remember; the origin is unsure but is believed that it may have come from his parents who are also “perfectionist.” While there is no concrete evidence that “perfectionism” is hereditary,

The need to be perfect can become an issue. Perfection can never be achieved; Jesus is the only perfect one. Perfectionist are everywhere in the world. One thing that people do not understand is that perfection is impossible no matter how one looks at it. Perfectionism can cause problems in someone’s life such as: anger, frustration, anxiety, depression, doubtfulness, and risk of suicide.

On another note, whereby perfectionism according to some is believed to be a positive trait of an individual, to psychology professor Simon Sherry from Dalhousie University, he believes it is most of the time a behaviour that is detrimental; to which in professor can be mostly damaging (Charbonneau, 2011). According to a study by conducted by Dr. Sherry and colleagues, it was found that the existence of a high level of perfectionism among professors led to a lesser likelihood of them producing publications, gaining valuable citations and also publishing their work in high-impact journals or in other words lower research productivity. This could impact their career in the long run due to the more they had perfectionistic tendencies within them,

Therefore creating the idea that the perfectionistic trait can also affect other parts of students’ lives, including pressures in university causing procrastination and low academic achievement. Students usually go through many stressful events during deadline times, therefore an individual with the perfectionistic trait would have an increase amount of stress due to self- and other pressures. ‘higher levels of maladaptive perfectionism are likely to experience higher levels of perceived stress’ (Schwenke 2012), implying that an individual who has a neurotic level of perfectionism is more likely to have a high score of perceived stress. These pressures have the ability to affect how an individual perceives their lives, forming an attitude to their personal quality of life.

Chapter 6 of our textbook talks about the concept of the early childhood educator as a model. Whether they realize it or not, teachers are constantly modeling behaviors and attitudes for their students. Some of these behaviors and attitudes provide good examples for students and others serve as poor examples. My tendency toward perfectionism is one habit I don't wish to model for my future students. As a perfectionist, I would often, and sometimes still do, strive for unattainable standards, be very self-critical and try hard to avoid failure at all costs.

Unlike many more severe disorders, OCD requires acceptance of two problems: obsessions and compulsions. Generally, OCD is diagnosed when one shows signs of obsessions and compulsions that interfere greatly in one’s life. (Osborn, 29) The impact of OCD on one’s daily life can be reduced if the disorder is correctly diagnosed and treated effectively. Personal interviews along with testing of various assessments, are the main ways to diagnose one’s severity of OCD. Talking with friends and family members for suggestions and advice to seek further medical help is a good way to start being open about one’s disorder. One should visit a general practitioner (GP) for evaluation in order to make a correct diagnoses of one’s condition. Such questions asked by one’s GP include the following: Does one wash or clean a lot? Does one check specific objects constantly to avoid an unwanted fear? Does one have continuos unwanted thoughts that are impossible to get rid of? Does one daily activities consume a long period of time a day? Is arranging objects in a specific order important to satisfy one’s fear of mess? If the results of the evaluation depict that one has OCD, the severity of the disorders symptoms will then be assessed by a mental health

Table 9 also presents the R Square, which is .013. This means that only 1% of variance in EFL teachers’ depersonalization is explained by conscientious perfectionism scores, which could be considered as a very small effect size according to Cohen’s guidelines for effect size.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, also known as OCD, is a disorder that affects about two to three percent of the population (UOCD). Knowing what OCD is and who it affects is just step one in understanding the psychology of this disorder. The psychological symptoms of OCD can be quite varied which can make it difficult to diagnose. Understanding the therapy techniques and how people with OCD live their daily lives is one of the most vital part in the psychology of OCD. While the roots of the disorder may be complex, understanding the disorder in everyday life is quite simple.

Perfectionism is when one sets very high expectations often in an “overly critical manner” (Frost, Marten, Lahart,&Rosenblate,1990).