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!