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.