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What Is Perfectionism

Perfectionism involves striving for unrealistically high standards of performance. Normal perfectionism involves reasonable standards that lead to satisfaction, while neurotic perfectionism is driven by fear of failure and disappointment of others. Neurotic perfectionists experience failure even from their best efforts and set rigid and impossible standards for themselves across all areas of life. They tend to focus on mistakes, feel intense shame and guilt, and make catastrophic judgments in an overemotional manner.

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Victor Hugo Choque
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254 views2 pages

What Is Perfectionism

Perfectionism involves striving for unrealistically high standards of performance. Normal perfectionism involves reasonable standards that lead to satisfaction, while neurotic perfectionism is driven by fear of failure and disappointment of others. Neurotic perfectionists experience failure even from their best efforts and set rigid and impossible standards for themselves across all areas of life. They tend to focus on mistakes, feel intense shame and guilt, and make catastrophic judgments in an overemotional manner.

Uploaded by

Victor Hugo Choque
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What Is Perfectionism?

Canadian researchers Gordon L. Flett and Paul L. Hewitt wrote the


book
on perfectionism, so to speak. (Their textbook on the topic is called
Perfectionism:
Theory, Research, and Treatment.) They consider “normal”
perfectionism
as having a goal of flawlessness: “Normal perfectionism is
defined as striving for reasonable and realistic standards that leads to
a
sense of self-satisfaction and enhanced self-esteem.”
When perfectionism goes too far it is considered extreme, or
“neurotic,”
according to Flett and Hewitt. “Neurotic perfectionism is a tendency
to strive for excessively high standards and is motivated by fears of
failure and concern about disappointing others.” In other words,
wanting
to be perfect is normal; expecting to be perfect in all aspects of your
life is extreme. A person who strives for perfection will work hard for
an
A-plus; a neurotic perfectionist will consider anything less than an A-
plus
a failure—in fact, she may even think of an A-plus as something of a
failure
if she had to work very hard to earn it. Flett and Hewitt have found
that some of the following tendencies crop up among perfectionists:

Expecting people and situations to have no flaws or faults.


There
are three types of perfectionists: People who expect perfection of
themselves, people who demand perfection from others, and people
who think others expect perfection from them.
• Getting “stuck” on tasks. Doubt and concern over mistakes can
trigger procrastination.
• Having perfection-oriented automatic thoughts. Even when
they
don’t realize it, perfectionists tell themselves that they have to be
perfect.
• Having a hyperawareness of imperfection. Perfectionists notice
and dwell on every flaw.
• Feeling shame and guilt. When a perfectionist makes a mistake,
she
feels ashamed of what others think and guilty because of her own
unacceptable performance.

• Making mountains out of molehills. For a perfectionist, a minor


setback carries more importance than it deserves.
• Setting rigid standards. A perfectionist sets unreasonably high
expectations; success is black and white—either you’re a complete
success or a complete failure.
• Expecting the impossible. Perfectionists feel they should excel in
every area—even those in which they have no training or experience
or that are not important.
• Making all-or-nothing judgments. If a perfectionist can’t do
something well, she may write it off as being worthless.
• Overstating what’s at stake. Perfectionists convince themselves
that
the world hangs on every decision and action.
• Overreacting. Perfectionists tend to cope with problems in an
overemotional, reactive way rather than facing them head-on with
problem-focused, task-oriented strategies.

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