The Negative Effects Of Perfectionism During Adolescence

A topic that portrayed a life struggle of a beloved person. The well-constructed study intertwines with the Adlerian theory, play therapy, and children with maladaptive perfectionism. The subject of perfection itself is a behavior that Adler (1956) interpret as, “the striving for perfection is innate in the sense that it is a part of life, a striving, an urge, a something without which life would be unthinkable” (p. 104). However, maladaptive perfectionism is destructive behavior that destroys the person either child or adult and makes them frown from achievement. Researchers integrated Adlerian therapy and play therapy AdPT, to help children view their situation from a different perspective using various playing intervention (e.g., art, storytelling, etc.). The interventions aim to emphasize the crucial C’s “the need to (a) connect with others, (b) perceive oneself as capable, (c) feel like one count in his or her environment, and (d) have courage.” (Akay, & Bratton, 2017). Based on the Adlerian approach the support system including family, caregivers, and teachers, plays a role in the way children deal with difficulties and decrease their maladaptive attitudes generally and the perfectionism and anxiety especially. Which will lead to reframing the attitude of children to adhere the standard and societal

In December 2011 Suleyman Avci conducted a study on 508 first grade students to learn the relationship between self-regulation and the delay of gratification in doing well in academics. Most people are aware the more time they put into something the better the results will turn out and the bigger the reward will be. This theory applies to almost anything including academics. The more one studies the better they will do on a test however, not all students understand this, which explains why some students are more stressed than others. In order to perform well in school students need to set goals for the future and not get distracted by things in the present, like watching television or playing video games, instead of studying for a test. I am completely aware of this; nevertheless, it is still hard to do because my “hot system” wants the instant gratification of doing something fun rather than homework. Future success is hindered by the need for instant gratification. Students who achieve higher levels of academic success are those who realize academic rewards are more important than temporary satisfaction. Those

Do you push yourself to be the best? Do you get mad at yourself for not doing the best? Do you delay assignments till the last possible limit because of fear of rejection? Do you feel horrible when work isn’t done to your best ability of when minor failures seem like catastrophic ones? These are all signs of what is known as perfectionism (Pacht 1984). If you seem to agree with most of these things then you might be a perfectionist. According to Webster’s dictionary, it states that perfectionism is "a disposition which regards anything less than perfect, unacceptable." Many people in the world suffer from perfectionism. So is that case of Mike Bellah. His perfectionism lead him to a lifestyle where he lost

Today’s youth feel the need to be perfect. Having any flaws has been beaten into kids as an awful quality. Scared of ridicule from their peers and parents, today’s youth work hard to maintain an impossible image. Students lose sleep, a basic human need, to complete their ever-growing amount of homework. They miss out on social interaction, a key component to any healthy human’s life, just to complete homework, work a part-time job, play sports, commit to after-school activities, and household responsibilities. Young people tend to feel overwhelmed and are unable to properly control and release their emotions. Older generations think these outbursts are because today’s youth are entitled. On the contrary, today’s youth are competing on a personal, physical and even emotional level with every other person their age and older to be the best to have the best opportunity to live a good life.

Every person has a personality, but with a personality people also possess personality disorders. According to Rathus (2010) “personality disorders are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupts social life or work and may distress the affected individual” (p. 525). Little do most know that they themselves and the people around them daily have one or more disorders. A few personality disorders are obsessive-compulsive, obsession with perfection, and narcissistic, need for admiration. The film Mommie Dearest, directed by, Frank Perry, shows how personality disorders, like obsessive-compulsion and narcissism, effects children in their childhood and as they grow older.

My client came to seek help on their perfectionism at the workplace. My client’s department chair was instructed by the principal to make copies and have the copies filled out by their co-workers within their department. My client waited for the copies but realized they were not done towards the end of the day. The copies were not made until after working hours and were given to the teachers the following day. My client did not like the way their department chair organized the paperwork. My client thought he/she could do better and more efficient with the stack of

Both of my younger sisters are not perfectionists by any means, and they most likely never will. So why is it that they weren’t given that characteristic? We were all nurtured in the same in environment, so it would seem to make sense that we would be affected by the same experiences. It’s true that not everyone is the same, different genes, different makeup, so it could be that they weren’t given the “perfectionist gene”. This makes me think that basing a child’s behavior on their parents’ experiences is much too generic and unreliable. My parents’ hard work through school for the very best did not seem to affect my sisters as much, but my mother’s stubbornness with her parents seemed to make its way into their deck of cards and not mine and my brother. It could just be that “nature” is overpowering nurture, which would explain the very different

It says that I am a perfectionist because my parents pressured me from a young age. “Perfectionism, too, is a form of parental control, and parental control of offspring is greater than ever in the new economy and global marketplace, realities that are deeply unsettling to today's adults”(Marano). The quote is basically explaining that I was made a perfectionist, not born one and that the increase in parental control is larger than ever. I became a perfectionist because, from a young age, my parents always set high goals for me and never expected less. “Perfectionists fear that a mistake will lead others to think badly of them; the performance aspect is intrinsic to their view of themselves” (Marano). I relate to this quote because my perfectionism has led me to worry about what others might think of my work, or that one small flaw will make people think badly about me. “There’s a difference between excellence and perfection…Excellence involves enjoying what you're doing, feeling good about what you've learned, and developing confidence. Perfection involves feeling bad about a 98 and always finding mistakes no matter how well you're doing. A child makes all As and one B. All it takes is a parent raising an eyebrow for the child to get the message” (Marano). I can easily identify with this quote because my perfectionism leads me to always tear myself down about something I know I could’ve done better,

The idea of perfection developed by the media, consists of the characteristics tall, blonde, and simply unrealistic. The photoshopped pictures of these idealistic women are all over magazines and billboards. Women conform themselves to try to meet these standards through plastic surgeries, crazy exercise routines and potentially deadly diets. A combination of outside influences and genetics can drive women to major mental disorders.

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.

According to Dunn, Whelton, and Sharpe (2006), due to working as academics involves having to constantly receive criticism from colleagues and students as well as bearing the expectations to deliver work in the highest standards, university academics are therefore seen as the most appropriate group to represent the professional group for the study of perfectionism. The career as a university professor is indeed very challenging, whereby everyday work entails critical scrutiny from peers. In addition to that, the environment that these professors have to face each day are somewhat trying and unaccommodating (Gmelch, Wilke, & Lovrich, 1986) which can further aggravate dysfunctional personality tendencies. All these criteria may one way or the other give

“You’re so perfect. You attend church all the time. You must never do anything wrong.” These words have been spoken over me my entire life. Growing up in church, I never felt a pressure to be “perfect”, but I did have a sense of things I thought were generally “good” or “bad” and made my best attempt to make the correct decision.

Past research has not yet identified the relationship between perfectionism and stress in blue ribbon schools (high performing schools) and non-blue ribbon schools (low performing schools). The study will also be looking into socioeconomic status (SES) as a moderator of where the student goes to school and how that can play a role when measuring these two constructs. Perfectionism will be looked at generally for this study and not broken down into the different types of perfectionism. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the impact of stress and perfectionism on academic achievement varies between blue-ribbon and non-blue-ribbon schools. The research hypothesis of this current study is that there will be a positive

“Procrastination is a common form of self-regulatory failure with substantive connections” where the tendency is to put off tasks. (Steel, Farrari, 2013)

The concept of self-handicapping traces back to Goffman’s (1959) studies on everyday behavior and Heider’s (1958) studies and development of attribution theory, however it wasn’t until about 30 years later that Jones and Berglas attributed self-handicapping to a means of protection “by finding or creating impediments that make good performance less likely” in anticipation of failure (Jones & Berglas, 1978). Self-handicapping therefore is a coping method in response to one’s failure expectation in order to have an excuse lined-up for when failure does occur. A student without enough hours of sleep the night before a major test provides the student with an excuse for poor performance in the exam, yet the act alone leads to an unsuccessful performance in the exam. However, if failure does not occur the individual appears to have to have performed well in a task or accomplished a goal spite the odds of failure (Jones & Berglas). Research suggest various factors such as parental styles (Greaven, Santor, Thompson & Zuroff, 2000), intrinsic motivation in the educational setting (Simek & Grum, 2011), and an individual’s perfectionistic tendencies (Pulford, Johnson, & Awaida, 2005; Rhodewalt, Tragakis & Finnerty, 2006) play a role in developing self-handicapping behaviors.