Psychology Assignment - Research Paper Example

However beautiful the strategy, you must occasionally look at the results number Publish “However beautiful the strategy, you must occasionally look at the results.”- Sir Winston ChurchillHuman beings display various kinds of psychological orientations and traits that ultimately affect their personality types. Certain people are driven to perfectionism which is evident in their behaviors. Psychologically, perfectionism can be characterized by a person who struggles to achieve faultlessness by providing himself with par excellence standards as well as highly critical evaluations of himself.

Perfectionists are also acutely aware and influenced by evaluations of their selves performed by other people (Stoeber & Childs, 2010).The human drive towards perfectionism is not merely restricted to certain types of people alone but is present in everyone in varying degrees. People who tend to pursue perfectionism most of the time such that the drive for perfectionism occupies most of their personality tend to be seen as perfectionists. In contrast, there are other people whose drive for perfection is limited to only certain aspects of their personality only.

Overall, the human drive to perfection is present in all human beings and the best course of action is to find a balance between perfectionism and other aspects of the human personality. Perfectionism is not merely a negative perspective on human personality but instead there are both positive and negative aspects attached to perfectionism (Yang & Stoeber, 2012).The onset of perfectionism in a person’s personality can lead to two different forms – adaptive perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism.

In the case of adaptive perfectionism, the subject individual utilizes his drive for perfection to achieve goals or exceed them through motivation (Rice, Leever, Noggle, & Lapsley, 2007). However, in the case of maladaptive perfectionism, the subject individual sets high ended aims and objectives and uses unrealistic strategies to achieve such aims and objectives. Unrealistic expectations coupled to visions of grandeur in maladaptive perfectionism tend to underscore the individual’s efforts such that the individual’s aims and objectives are unreachable.

Typically when a maladaptive perfectionist is unable to reach his or her goals, it is common for them to fall into depression.Continuous dissatisfaction in maladaptive perfectionism is often enough to drive individuals into various other disorders (Hewitt, Flett, & Ediger, 1995). Individuals may experience eating, weight, motivation, physical appearance and other forms of disorders and typically tend to experience anxiety and stress along with a low self esteem (Greenspon, 2008). The behavior of perfectionists is characterized by an all or none approach.

The best way to deal with such personality tendencies in individuals is to abrade the all or none approach to life in such individuals. Individuals stuck in maladaptive perfectionism can improve on their condition by essentially modifying their behavior sequentially to eliminate the all or none attitude to life. The magnificent strategies pinned down by maladaptive perfectionists can be reduced in grandeur by forcing oneself to look through the produced results. Most perfectionists are not able to achieve anything at all but still tend to persist in their folly since they are not holding themselves accountable for their practices.

It is advisable to look into the strategies used by a perfectionist in order to point out their unrealistic assumptions that hold them back from achieving in life. As mentioned before, it is pertinent to pause and reflect on life, no matter how grand one believes one’s strategies to be.ReferencesGreenspon, T. (2008). Making sense of error: A view of the origins and treatment of perfectionism. American Journal of Psychotherapy 62 (3) , 263-282.Hewitt, P. L., Flett, G., & Ediger, E. (1995). Perfectionism traits and perfectionistic self-presentation in eating disorder attitudes, characteristics, and symptoms.

International Journal of Eating Disorders 18 (4) , 317–326.Rice, K. G., Leever, B. A., Noggle, C. A., & Lapsley, D. K. (2007). Perfectionism and depressive symptoms in early adolescence. Psychology in the Schools 44 (2) , 139–156.Stoeber, J., & Childs, J. H. (2010). The Assessment of Self-Oriented and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism: Subscales Make a Difference. Journal of Personality Assessment 92 (6) , 577–585.Yang, H., & Stoeber, J. (2012). The Physical Appearance Perfectionism Scale: Development and Preliminary Validation.

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 34 (1) , 69–83.