PERFECTIONISM in Psychology: Causes and How to Overcome It

Perfectionism is one of the words used in everyday contexts to describe those people who they are never fully satisfied with what they do and are very careful in carrying out tasks and their details. However, perfectionism in psychology is a complex and highly nuanced personality trait. In addition, there are numerous causes that could explain its origin, as well as a series of strategies for a better management of perfectionism. If you want to know more about perfectionism, keep reading our Psychology-Online article: Perfectionism in psychology: causes and how to overcome it.

Index

1. Perfectionist: meaning
2. Perfectionism in psychology
3. Causes of perfectionism
4. How to overcome perfectionism

Etymologically, the word perfection comes from the Latin “perfectio”, whose translation would be “action of leaving something finished”. Perfectionism is about a complex personality trait. In general terms, it is defined as the application of high and demanding standards or criteria of performance, in combination with a negative self-assessment if the established criteria are not achieved by person.

It is a personality trait considered multidimensional, that is, composed of several aspects or facets. Some of the components that make up perfectionism or symptoms of perfectionism are as follows:

• High personal demands, there is a close relationship between self-demand and perfectionism.
• High concern about making mistakes.
• Doubts about the shares.
• Organization.
• Order.
• Responsibility.
• Effort capacity.

Perfectionism is not positive or negative per se, but rather it is considered that some of its facets or components may be adaptive or maladaptive. Therefore, the positivity or negativity of perfectionism will depend on the context, intensity, and interaction with other personality traits.

Likewise, it is not categorical, you do not have or you do not have perfectionism, but varies in greater or lesser amount depending on the person.

Historically, perfectionism has been valued and conceptualized from a negative point of view. However, for years it has been and continues to be the object of study in psychology due to its complexity and variety of manifestations. Currently, it is considered that perfectionism can be divided into two factors: perfectionist concerns and perfectionist efforts. These two factors lead to the classification of two types of perfectionism: maladaptive perfectionism and adaptive perfectionism, which would be the two ends of a continuum.

Perfectionistic concerns

The first factor is that which has been associated with the negative and dysfunctional perfectionism. It generally encompasses the concern for errors, socially required or imposed perfectionism, high self-criticism and discrepancy between demanding personal standards and results achieved.

It is considered maladaptive due to the high relationship between this perfectionism and anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety, etc.

This type would include people with perfectionistic personalities who exhibit exaggerated reactions of frustration, sadness and / or anger in the face of what they consider a failure, however minimal. It's about a obsessive perfectionism in which people monitor and pay excessive attention to their own performance. They are also very sensitive and vulnerable to criticism and error. They usually have low self-esteem and perceived as having few abilities and skills in general.

Perfectionist efforts

On the other hand, perfectionist efforts they allude to the positive and healthier aspect of perfectionism. It refers to the pursuit of achievements, the eagerness to reach the established goals and the search for improvement and personal improvement. Adaptive perfectionism is present in people with a perfectionist personality characterized by the establishment of high but achievable goals and the existence of demanding but not excessively rigid criteria. They present a tendency to order and organization, knowledge of one's own limits, and even seeking excellence and personal improvement, if they do not achieve their goals, they remain motivated by effort and ambition, not falling into negative self-evaluation and a feeling of failure.

Therefore, the perfectionist personality It can present adaptive and maladaptive factors, it is not negative or positive in itself. However, obsessive perfectionism can, on the one hand, lead to psychopathological problems and impairments in social life. Since people with excessive perfectionism tend to show hostile to other people and be very sensitive to what they do or say about them.

There is also a strong link between perfectionism and anxiety: people with high perfectionism present an excess of checking behaviors and of planning, as well as comparison with other people, in which they tend to perceive themselves as inferior to the rest.

Here are some of the causes of perfectionism or facts that have been identified as precursors to perfectionism:

• Genetic predispositionIn other words, there is a biological presence of the personality anxiety trait.
• Authoritarian parental and maternal style, so there is an excess of demands from childhood. Children in this family environment tend to become very demanding and develop a perfectionist personality, since parents generally punish mistakes and often abusive way. Thus the minors learn that mistakes will not be tolerated and believe that the only way to get love and approval from their father and / or mother is through excellence and complacency.
• Growing up in an environment where they are welcomed praise excessively, so the person gets used to these high levels of praise and his self-esteem comes to depend on them. This dependence generates high internal pressure to achieve external praise as a defense mechanism and maintenance of self-esteem.
• Receive humiliation, teasing and / or slights From childhood, the person develops low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness and failure that they try to compensate through high performance. Likewise, they develop oversight of their own behaviors, with the aim of controlling that they meet the self-imposed criteria.
• Comparisons with others. Growing up in a home where one or more family members are very successful and comparisons are constantly being made. In this case, there is a high standard of performance within the family, as well as demanding criteria, by which the person generates a feeling of inferiority by comparison. This orientation to comparison tends to be maintained in adulthood, so that the person will compare himself with successful people, comparisons in which he will feel devalued. Likewise, they will seek to resemble other idealized models or prototypes of person, incapable of being aware of their virtues and strengths.
• Parenting with perfectionist fathers and / or mothers It can also lead to the development of perfectionism, since they are a model and reference for boys and girls, who learn by observation of the family's behaviors and thinking styles.
• As in the family environment, schools can also promote perfectionism through very demanding academic standards, severe and authoritarian. Therefore, students can internalize these demanding standards and apply them in other areas of their lives.
• The Low tolerance to frustration It can also influence perfectionism. Tolerance for frustration is related to tolerance and acceptance of a certain level of imperfection. If a low tolerance for frustration develops, an achievement may not be recognized if it is not totally perfect by your own criteria.
• Elevated neuroticism, since people with high levels of neuroticism have a predisposition to develop a perfectionist personality. This is because neuroticism is related to a tendency to guilt and worry, factors that can lead to a perfectionist style.
• Culture of competitiveness, in which people are valued based on their results, achievements and success. What is considered successful or not is established in society by social convention. Thus, people seek to meet the high externally and socially imposed criteria of success. The adjustment or not to these external criteria have a great weight in the self-evaluation of the person. Likewise, constant comparison and standing out from other people is encouraged.

There is no specific intervention for maladaptive perfectionism, as it is not categorized as a mental disorder. However, it is possible to perform a perfectionism treatment oriented to work those components or elements of perfectionism that are dysfunctional. This treatment usually addresses the thoughts and behaviors related to perfectionism, as well as the development of self-compassion in relation to mistakes and failures. In the following article you will find what is self-compassion and how to apply it.

On the one hand, the intervention focuses on the person being able to identify those thoughts or thought distortions that are at the base of perfectionism. Some of these cognitive distortions are catastrophic thinking (for example “if I make a mistake when I speak they will laugh at me and never want to relate to me ") or dichotomous or all or nothing thinking (" I have had a failure at work, I have failed completely"). After this identification, an attempt is made for the person to be able to replace these thoughts with more realistic and useful ones, emphasizing the usefulness of these new thoughts.

On the other hand, it is sought that the person is capable of take perspective and perceive and judge herself from the outside and not from her own standards. Exercises aimed at the development of self-compassion in which the person with perfectionism speaks to himself and judges himself as she would with a friendship, developing a greater fflexibility and understanding By herself.

Finally, you can make use of the exposure technique in the situations feared by the person to reduce this fear and anxiety progressively. In these expositions the person makes small mistakes on purpose and gradually, to face the fear of being imperfect. Gradually, the discomfort of the blemish is expected to diminish and they become comfortable with a higher level of tolerance for error. It is advisable to perform relaxation and breathing exercises to help lower anxiety levels. Also with this exhibition the catastrophic thoughts that people have are put to the test perfectionists, because they see that the dire consequences they anticipated do not come to pass reality.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Perfectionism in psychology: causes and how to overcome it, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

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