Examples Of Adaptive Perfectionism

Gallo (2011) cited the words of Robert Steven Kaplan, a professor of business in Harvard University, who says how everybody to some degree is a perfectionist and it is when this thinking turns into an obsession that it becomes a problem. Perfectionism, as defined by Melrose (2011), is the setting of excessively high standards of performance in addition to being overly critical in work outputs. Additionally, as defined by Hewitt and Flett since 1991, it is a personality trait that embodies an enduring pursuit of unreasonably high performance standards, as well as an overly critical evaluative tendency. Perfectionists are ego-involved individuals who strive for perfection as a means of proving themselves. They are easily affected by actions indicating

This type of people are also said to experience anxiety during cognitive tests (Eum & Rice, 2011). Adaptive perfectionists manifested a healthy level of functioning, as evidenced by low scores in the depression, anxiety, and self-esteem problems. On the other hand, maladaptive perfectionists are said to experience the otherwise (Hanchon, 2011). Therefore, when a student nurse’s personal goals motivate him to strive for perfectionism in his works this is considered an adaptive perfectionism. However, if motivations to excel come from an extrinsic factor, the student forms unrealistic standards for self. This may predispose emotional distress to the student if goals are not met. The student then suffers from maladaptive perfectionism. In relation to the birth order of the students, first born children are found to be adaptive perfectionists. On the other hand, middle children and only children are considered to be maladaptive perfectionists (Fizel, 2008). When it comes to sex, according to Cremades, Donlon and Poczwardowski (2013), females marked lower scores in the subdimension of Concern over Mistakes than

Socially prescribed perfectionism is the only dimension negatively related to resilience (Klibert, Lamis, Collins, Smalley, Warren, Yancey & Winterowd, 2012) and has the strongest association with depressive symptoms. Most socially prescribed perfectionism is inflicted by the parents or family. Nursing students who receive great expectations from parents or a significant other, thus creating unrealistic goals for one’s self, is said to be a socially-prescribed perfectionists. Since socially prescribed perfectionism is influenced by extrinsic factors, nursing student who are socially prescribed perfectionist may develop maladaptive perfectionism. Parenting styles also have a big impact on the occurrence of perfectionism (Wang, 2012). Maladaptive aspects of perfectionism was observed in Authoritarian parenting style; authoritative parenting seemed to be demanding that it increases individual’s tendency to these maladaptive aspects, and indulgent parenting was linked with lesser feelings of criticism from parents. None of the parenting styles was related to adaptive perfectionism (Walton,