Posts Tagged ‘Perfectionism’
Being a Perfectionist Doesn’t Have to be a Negative
Being a perfectionist gets a bad rap. It is associated with negative outcomes, anxiety and stress. This isn’t because perfectionism is bad, but rather the way we approach it is bad. Hurtful Perfectionism Perfectionism is a striving, meaning it is about constant forward movement. This means it is about finding solutions and moving toward the…
Read More
Why Do People Gild the Lily? Curiosity, Maybe
Sometimes people don’t accept “good enough,” and they pursue perfection with counterproductive, or even disastrous, results. This phenomenon is so common that we have multiple sayings warning us not to fix what ain’t broke and not to gild the lily. So what drives people to go ahead and fix what isn’t broken anyway? A new…
Read More
Perfectionism Can Interfere With Seeking Psychological Help
As I’ve written about before, a desire to be perfect can bring many imperfect consequences, from insomnia to binge eating. Now, a new study suggests that perfectionistic tendencies may exacerbate mental health struggles in a more insidious way: by preventing people from seeking psychological help. In the study, researchers in Canada surveyed 299 college students…
Read More
2 Reasons Self-Control and Forgiveness Go Hand-in-Hand
Forgive and forget? Easier said than done, but also easier to do if you have high levels of self-control, it turns out. Previous psychology studies have repeatedly pointed to a link between people’s levels of self-control and their capacity for forgiveness. That link appears to be especially strong when “forgiveness” is seen in terms of…
Read More
An Intervention for Perfectionism
I’ve written about perfectionism several times on here before, and to be honest, I’ve never really said anything nice about it. As I’ve pointed out, perfectionism has been implicated in everything from insomnia to binge eating to lower resilience. Basically, the need to be perfect is not a tendency that seems to bode well for…
Read More
Perfectionism Has Been Rising Over Time
Millennials get accused of all sorts of things. Narcissism is a common one. That idea fell apart when scientists took a closer look at it. But here’s a charge that might stick: perfectionism. It turns out that levels of perfectionism have been rising over time. A recent meta-analysis aggregated data from studies in which over…
Read More
Perfectionism and Insomnia
Perfectionists might find that when they lie down for the night, their sleep is anything but perfect. A growing collection of studies are highlighting a link between perfectionism and insomnia, as well as giving clues about why that link exists. Last year, a study of 334 people spending the night in a sleep laboratory found…
Read More