Cause and Effect

My topic is perfectionism. Although perfectionism isn't the sole cause to an effect such as mentos are to diet pepsi; perfectionism is a huge contributor to certain effects. Here is my cause and effect description.Perfectionism is a cause of eating disorders. The cause of perfectionism leads to many effects such as physical and psychological changes to your body. All of these causes lead to one effect which is a change in your personality.

If I were to create a chain of causes it would go as follows: Increasing Perfectionist Trait ---> Eating Disorder ---> Unhealthy Weight Loss, Internal Damage, Physical Appearance Changes, Depression, Plummeting Self-Esteem ---> Personality Changes Such As Narcissism, Depressive ---> Encourages Higher Perfectionism ---> etc. It's an ugly vicious cycle, but it's real.

Fairburn, Christopher G., and Kelly D. Brownell. "Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook." books.google.com. Guilford Press, 2002. Web. 9 Mar 2011.<http://books.google.com/books?id=rNbdAGVNIh0C&dq=perfectionism+cause +and+effect&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Cynthia M. Bulik, Federica Tozzi, Charles Anderson, Suzanne E. Mazzeo, Steve Aggen, and Patrick F. Sullivan. The Relation Between Eating Disorders and Components of Perfectionism. Am J Psychiatry, Feb 2003; 160: 366 - 368.

Is there normal perfectionism?

The focus of my paper has changed to the negative effects of perfectionism. I always believed it to be a good quality and wanted to focus on both the negative and positive effects of perfectionism. However, I quickly learned that perfectionism is NOT a good trait to have. It leads to many physical and mental problems and can be debilitating for a person. For this post we needed to find atleast to sources who opposed our view. Let me tell you, that was challenging! It was a stretch to find two good scholarly articles. But it was done.

I found a really good article that helped put into words (better than I could have ever come up with) about the difference between 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' perfectionism. They mention a few times throughout the article the differences: striving for perfectionism and striving for excellence are two different things, 'I feel good by dedicating myself to a certain task' is much different than 'I like to please other people by being successful'. There is still much research going on but seeing as the source is highly credible I believe that there is 'good' and 'bad' perfectionism. You can decide to strive to do your best, or you can stive for the impossible.

It is shown in evidence that people who have positive perfectionist tendencies also have positive characteristics about them. Although not much research has been done whether positive perfectionism is a cause of nature or nurture, it is thought that one can learn to be a normal perfectionist. They can adapt it over a period of time. In the psychology world, the idea of both negative and postive psychology came up and was researched minimally before decideing that perfectionism was a neurotic disorder and was always negative. Now it is being researched again and there are hopes instead of destroying one's perfectionistic tendencies that they can change to develope positive perfectionistic characteristics.

http://kar.kent.ac.uk/4481/1/Stoeber_&_Otto_PositiveConceptions_2006.pdf

Flett, Gordon L., and Paul L. Hewitt. "Positive Versus Negative Perfectionism in Psychopathology." Behavior Modification 30.4 (2006): 472-495. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Mar. 2011.

Changing Views

My intensions for this paper were to discuss perfectionism, in general. The good, the bad, and of course, the ugly. I have come to find out that in the world of psychology, perfectionism is not a good quality. In fact, it is correlated with many, many mental health diseases. As the world in general, I think we see perfectionism as a positive trait. It's a trait we all believe to help push us towards success and reach great achievements that we doubted were ever possible. There is a difference between perfectionism, and doing your best. I found perfectionism to be more bad and ugly than anything. That's where my stance on the subject has changed.

I have changed my topic to focus on how perfectionism is a negative quality and what effects it has on an individual. My paper will continue to discuss the difference between perfectionism in the psychology world versus perfectionism to the everyday person. It will emphasize on the devastating effects that comes with perfectionism as well as how to find a balance between perfectionism and being content with giving your best effort.

I have found many interesting things about my topic during my weeks of research. One is that perfectionism has different types. There is interpersonal perfectionism, performance perfectionism, appearance perfectionism, moral perfectionism. A perfectionist may suffer from one up to all of these different types. I am always surprised how the effects both mentally and physically are so intertwined. In a physical sense, you can have harmful results through problems such as eating disorders, self-harm, and OCD. Not only do those immediatly harm yourself but can also lead to chronic stress and heart disease. These disorders aren't physical alone, however. They also have a mental aspect to them that I have never considered before. These disorders can include low self-esteem, anxiety, social phobia and clinical depression. Most surprising to me is they can also lead to personality disorders.

Perfectionism has become much more personal for me while doing all of this research. I have known people with OCD and eating disorders and have a greater understanding of how deeply it really effects them and an idea of what they may be going through. I think through media, social pressure, and high expectations of others we are driven to perfection. This is not healthy and we need to encourage people to give their best efforts and be happy with what they have accomplish. We need to focus more on what we have done, rather than what we couldn't do. I believe there is a balance and hope to find more research on that aspect.

Elliot, Mariam, and Susan Meltsner. Perfectionism Predicament How to Stop Driving Yourself and Others Crazy. 1st ed. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991. Print.

Howarth, Enid, and Jan Tras. The Joy of Imperfection. 1st ed. Minneapolis: Fairview Press, 1996. Print.

The Dangling Carrot

When reading articles on certain subjects you may think you get what is being discussed, where in reality you are only getting the surface information. To understand the deep themes and ideas in the article you may need to know actual definitions to some of the language being used. Not all scholarly articles and books may go into great detail about common words in their field. They may not do so because their target audience may be other professionals in that field or other reasons. Whatever the reason may be, I want you to be able to understand the articles that you may read based on my topic of perfectionism.

The five words I have chosen are; giftedness, all-or-nothingism, perfectionism, carrot dangling, and self-fulfilling prophesy. Some of these words may be used on a daily basis. However, depending on the context in which they are used the meaning can be completely different. Not only can the meaning be different, but I have found in the articles that I have read that there are certain psychological theories associated with these words that the regular person would not pick up on while reading. Thus, only getting the surface information.

Bireley, Marlene, and Judy Genshaft. Understanding the Gifted Adolescent Educational, Developmental, and Multicultural Issues. 1st Ed. New York: Teachers College Press, 1991. Print.

Elliott, Miriam, and Susan Meltsner. The Perfectionist Predicament How to Stop Driving Yourself and Others Crazy. 1st Ed. New York: William Morrow and Company Inc., 1991. Print.

Photograph of Perfectionism

Out of the three images for our assignment, I chose the photograph that depicts perfectionism for my blog post. In this photograph you instantly recognize the objects involved. Both scissors and grass and common items seen daily. Just imagining cutting a lawn with only a pair of scissors is mentally tiring. Not to mention physically tiring if you were to ever actually try the unimaginable time consuming task. Just looking and this photograph makes me tired and frustrated.

This image is a 'perfect' dipiction of perfectionism. Think about it. Although you MAY get a perfect, leveled lawn - it's pointless to even try. (Plus, the probablity of you messing up is VERY high.) The amout of energy and time it would take you would not be worth. Not only because in the eyes of your neighbors a scissors cut lawn and a mower cut lawn would look the same, but also by the time you were getting towards the end of cutting your lawn with a pair of scissors, you would have to start over because the lawn which you have already cut would probably be starting to grow back again. The vicious cycle is never ending and can truly make a person go mad.

A lawn mower can do a perfectly good job. Why can't we be satisfied with doing our best rather than going to great lengths which will get the same response from the people we're trying to please. In cases where we're trying to please ourselves, it's usless wasting our time and energy reaching for perfection. It's impossible and we will never be happy.

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Reading from my chosen source, I have concluded that the authors have written this article with deductive reasoning. Although, this may be argued seeing as it all depends on your perspective I will show you my reasoning. The authors of this article begin by talking about the general idea of perfectionism. They discuss its definition as well as many shared beliefs among the professional world of psychology. The authors' major premise is the knowledge about what perfectionism is. They continue on to more specifics such as what certain mental disorders are associated with perfectionism and different aspects of a person's life may be affected. These specific ideas are what I see as the authors' minor premises about perfectionism. This is why I see the article as being written with deductive reasoning.

The authors' have structured this article starting with the the general idea of psychology and they state that it effects on mental health, then they give us examples followed by specific details of effected areas of different persons. With each area they include research done by themselves as well as other credible psychologists and doctors. I find this credibility adds to the effectiveness of this article. I also find that their writing style of deductive reasoning make it locigal and easy to understand their claim, making it more effective as well.

I have the idea that their claim is perfectionism is not healthy and can lead to serious mental health problems. Although opposition may argue that perfectionism pushes you forward and leads to greatness, this authors' show how perfectionism effects you negatively. Just because someone has used perfectionism to achieve greatness does not mean they do not suffer from some mental health issue. The authors that have worked together to write this article are highly credible. Coming from backgrounds that include experience in college departments of psychology and science centers. They have conducted their own research and backed up their evidence not only by what they found but also with ideas of other credible sources. Seeing as everythings was cited with a credible reference and can be proven, I find no logical fallicies in this article.

DiBartolo, Patricia Marten, Li Chia Yen, and Randy O. Frost. "How Do the Dimensions of Perfectionism Relate to Mental Health?." Cognitive Therapy & Research 32.3 (2008): 401-417. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Feb. 2011.

To read this interesting topic for yourself, click HERE. Enjoy!

2 New Sources

SOURCE 1:

I have read the article Personality Differences Between Depressed Melancholic and Non-Melancholic Inpatients. The authors of this study include Alex Rubina, Marco Zanasi, Camilla Robone, and Alberto Siracusano. They took part in the actual study of these patients to determine the relation between personality disorders (such as perfectionism) on both melancholic and non-melancholic patients. Given that these authors, or rather, scientists conducted the study and have degrees in neuroscience I find them highly credible on this matter. Not only do they record their findings and ideas from the study, they reference many other credible sources which only reinforce the educational and credible value of this resource.

SOURCE 2:

The second source I have come upon is Self-Oriented Perfectionism in Eating Disorders. There are many authors/researchers that were involved and include: Josefina Castro-Fornieles, Pilar Gual, Francisca Lahortiga, Araceli Gila, Vanesa Casula, Cynthia Fuhrmann, Milagros Imirizaldu, Begona Saura, Esteve Martinez, and Josep Toro. Between all of these authors they include multiple members of Departments of Psychiatry, Clinical Psychobiology, and Medical Psychology from different credible Universities. Some are even employees of Institute Clinics of Neurosciences. These people are very involved in this subject I am researching and have much experience in this field. Just like the other source, these people have also conducted their own studies and even include multiple references whom are also credible.

My Understanding

Perfection. It is something I believe a majority of humans are working towards and are pressured to obtain from the high expectations of others. Whether the expectations are implied or directly communicated, we all feel that pressure to be perfect. But is reaching for perfection really worth it?

I have heard that perfectionist personalities can lead to some health issues. No doubt reaching for perfection will lead to stress which can lead to phyisical manifestations such as stomach ulcers. I believe that a perfectionist can also develop mental health issues which are not so easy to recognize. In the couple of resources that I have read it includes depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders and even complications of being able to have social relationships. Those are all really serious and can have a profound effect on your life. Listing those conditions, however, is only a scratch on the surface.

These studies, and I hope to find more with the same support, show how perfectionism can lead to certian illnesses and the effects it has on a person as a whole. I think is will be very educational for people to learn what relations and conditions perfectionism can cause/lead to.

Perfectionism

The topic I have chosen for my research assignment is perfectionism.  A lot of people brag about being perfectionists, but what I want to argue is that it may not be such a good thing. I believe that doing your best is a great goal, but that striving for perfection in everything you do is dangerous for your health. The subect of perfectionism really intrigues me in the sense that everyone strives for it, yet it causes us so many health issues that we may not even be aware of. I'm curious to read studies to find out more if perfectionism is a direct cause or an additional symptom of many mental health diseases. I will be blogging over the course of the semester about the different aspects of perfectionism and its effects on the human body.