When 'Enough' is Never Enough

Have you ever impulsively worked on a project to perfect every inch of it? Only to realise you’ve spent hours doing so? And even when you’ve spent hours working on it, you do not feel satisfied? I’m sure we all have, at some point, which leaves us wondering what this phenomenon is. 

A multidimensional personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance, accompanied by overly critical evaluations of one’s behavior, refers to Perfectionism (Stoeber, 2018). We often see a lot of people around us struggling with this, but it is not actively considered to be a problem; naturally, we don’t have a lot of conversations about it. When the concept of perfectionism was first introduced in society, it was only believed to have a negative side. But with further understanding of the concept, a positive side was also identified. It has been classified into adaptive and maladaptive forms (Slade & Owens, 1998). Adaptive perfectionism is characterized by normal behaviour and is beneficial to the individual, whereas maladaptive perfectionism is characterized by maladjustment leading to maladaptive behaviour. It has been found that adaptive perfectionists tend to set standards based on their capabilities in different fields, whereas maladaptive perfectionists are often worried about others’ expectations of them (Bieling et al., 2004). Besides these, there are two other classifications of perfectionism: self-oriented and socially prescribed. Self-oriented is associated with intrinsic motivation, whereas socially prescribed is associated with extrinsic motivation (Stoeber, 2009). 

This phenomenon has both positive and negative effects on one’s mental health. But the negative effects are more prevalent. The adverse impact is fundamentally manifested in the form of psychological disorders and psychosomatic diseases, which include depression, anxiety, and eating disorders (Egan et al., 2007). Perfectionism has been correlated with feelings of failure, anger, helplessness, and disappointment, which are closely related to the concepts of depression and suicide (Bell, 2010). Adaptive perfectionists are less vulnerable to using avoidance coping strategies, which explains why we observe lower levels of depression in that particular group (Noble, 2014). Perfectionism has also been strongly correlated with anxiety (Eum & Rice, 2011). The development of multiple types of eating disorders has been associated with self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism (Flett et al., 2011). Emotional eating was found to have a positive correlation with negative perfectionism (Wang & Li, 2017). Positive perfectionism facilitates better learning and emotions. It has been correlated with positive emotions. 

There are several ways through which we can overcome the negative effects of perfectionism. To name a few, realigning one’s expectations by taking a new perspective on the definition of what is ‘perfect,’ reaching out to well-wishers or loved ones to be able to reframe one’s expectations, looking at things from a different perspective to understand what truly matters, and practicing mindfulness and self-compassion can ease the process of accepting difficult feelings, and advising an individual regarding this might be very easy, but if it gets to a point where the individual is affected both physically and mentally, then the best way out of this would be through seeking professional help. 

The current research only focuses on aspects that are not particularly beneficial to one’s well-being, which has given this phenomenon a negative image. Future researchers can make an effort to understand its positive aspects. It is important to have open conversations based on this topic to develop strategies that facilitate better functioning among individuals. Through this we would be able to normalize the occurrence of this phenomenon, fostering a sense of community to comfort people who struggle with this.

References 

Fang, T. and Liu, F. (2022) A Review on Perfectionism. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 355-364. doi: 10.4236/jss.2022.101027. 

Kent, J.A. (2023). Perfectionism Might Be Hurting You. Here’s How to Change Your Relationship to Achievement. Harvard Summer School. https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/perfectionism-might-be-hurting-you-heres-how-to-change-your-relationship-to-achievement/

Stoeber, J., Feast, A.R., Hayward, J.A. (2022). Self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism: Differential relationships with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and test anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(5), 423-428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.04.014

Stoeber, J. (2018). The psychology of perfectionism: An introduction. In J. Stoeber (Ed.), The psychology of perfectionism: Theory, research, applications (pp. 3-16). London: Routledge. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312045838_The_psychology_of_perfectionism_An_introduction