How to reduce the damage done by this depressive personality trait.
The personality trait of perfectionism is linked to higher depression risk, a review of ten different studies finds.
People who are perfectionists are worried about making mistakes and they tend to be heavily critical of themselves.
They feel pressure from society to perform to a high standard and they think others are continually judging their performance.
When perfectionists fail to meet their lofty standards, they tend to get depressed.
Practicing self-acceptance or self-compassion is one of the best ways of dealing with perfectionist tendencies (see my ebook).
The conclusions come from research collecting together the results of 10 separate studies including 1,758 people.
The results showed that neuroticism, or ‘negative emotionality’ is the personality trait most strongly linked to depression.
However, being a perfectionist is associated with an additional risk.
The authors explain their results:
“In our meta-analysis of 10 longitudinal studies composed of undergraduate, community member, psychiatric patient, outpatient and medical student samples, neuroticism was the strongest predictor of change in depressive symptoms.
Even so, all seven perfectionism dimensions still predicted change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”
One aspect of perfectionism is feeling societal pressure.
The authors write:
“…socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, self-criticism, and perfectionistic attitudes add incrementally to understanding change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”
Perfectionism is problematic because high standards are so hard to reach consistently.
The authors write:
“…people high in perfectionistic concerns appear to think, feel and behave in ways that have depressogenic consequences [causing depression].
Such people believe others hold lofty expectations for them, and often feel incapable of living up to the perfection they perceive others demand.
They may agonize about perceived failures and have doubts about performance abilities because they experience their social world as judgmental, pressure-filled and unyielding.”
The study was published in the European Journal of Personality (Smith et al., 2016).
