Perfectionism: Is it Helpful or Hurtful?
By Gina Cipriano
Perfection is often romanticized as something that allows a person to be motivated, a hard-worker, detail oriented, and organized. While this is often true, it is vital that people take a step back and consider how perfectionistic tendencies are influencing them (both positively and negatively). This awareness can assist them in using these qualities to aid in achieving goals rather than feeling defeated when these goals are not achieved.
Often, people with perfectionistic qualities are thought by employers to be the best employees. However, perfection can also have a dark side. Perfectionism can be excellence seeking and/or failure-avoiding. Excellence seeking entails striving to meet high standards and have order, and failure avoiding entails fearing making a mistake or fearing they will not meet the expectations of others (Harari et al., 2018).Increased perfectionism was shown to lead to increases of anxiety, depression, and stress within the workplace and did not positively contribute to work performance (Harari et al., 2018). Perfectionism may lead a person to think they are somehow “not enough” and that they “need to do more” even when a task has been completed.
So, when does perfectionism become a problem?
• When high standards cannot be realistically achieved • When minor mistakes lead to considerable distress• When a person has difficulties remaining flexible in groups due to fear of the project not being done “right”• When the perfectionistic standard is set on other people leading to negative evaluations of others • When a person believes their self-worth is reliant on their ability to be perfect Overholser & Dimaggio (2020) explain perfectionism can contribute to the following mental health issues:• Phobias• Eating Disorders • Panic Disorders • Anxiety Disorders• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder • Increased Stress • Interpersonal Difficulties
Can Therapy Reduce Perfectionism?
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy was shown to decrease aspects of perfectionism, which assists a person in becoming psychologically flexible (Ong et al., 2016). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy aims to increase psychological flexibility through components such as mindfulness, removing oneself from thoughts, clarifying values, and values based action. • Handley et al. (2015) showed groups focused in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy were also shown to be helpful in reducing the negative affects of perfectionism. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on changing maladaptive thoughts and behaviors to more helpful ones. CBT can help people who are perfectionistic in nature reduce all-or nothing thinking, decrease cognitive distortions such as (if I am not perfect, people will not like me), and changing behaviors associated with perfectionism to increase flexibility (i.e. setting a timer to complete a task)• A Mindfulness Intervention was shown to decrease peoples’ level of perfectionism (Weber et al., 2020). Mindfulness entails bringing attention to the present moment without judgement. • Therapy has been shown to decrease other mental health issues while decreasing perfectionism • Therapy can help increase a person high in perfectionism recognizing that 100% looks different each day, and that is more than okay.
References Harari, D., Swider, B. W., Steed, L. B., & Breidenthal, A. P. (2018). Is perfect good? A meta-analysis of perfectionism in the workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(10), 1121-1144. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000324Handley, A. K., Egan, S. J., Kane, R. T., & Rees, C. S. (2015). A randomised controlled trial of group cognitive behavioural therapy for perfectionism. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 68, 37-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.02.006Olton-Weber, S., Hess, R., & Ritchotte, J. A. (2020). Reducing levels of perfectionism in gifted and talented youth through a mindfulness intervention. Gifted Child Quarterly, 64(4), 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986220953392Ong, C. W., Barney, J. L., Barrett, T. S., Lee, E. B., Levin, M. E., & Twohig, M. P. (2019). The role of psychological inflexibility and self-compassion in acceptance and commitment therapy for clinical perfectionism. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 13, 7-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.06.005Overholser, J., & Dimaggio, G. (2020). Struggling with perfectionism: When good enough is not good enough. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 76(11), 2019-2027. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23047
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