Balance June 2018 - 41

FA I L T O T H E K I N G

Learning
not to be
perfect
How teaching yourself to
accept flaws and mistakes
could have a positive
impact on your outlook
words by
C H A RLIE ALLENBY
photography by
AL M ER HA SER

M

illennials;
synonymous
with avocados
over home
ownership and
living-a-life-online over, well, living life.
The 'snowflake' moniker encapsulates a
lot of the ill will surrounding a generation
facing issues like none before it, but is
the extra sensitivity that encompasses
so much of growing up in a digital age
something we should give a bit more time
to consider? Student suicide numbers
have been in the news a lot over the last
few months for all the wrong reasons.
A new study has shown that those
aged between 18 and 25 really are more
sensitive than previous generations.
Research in Psychological Bulletin
suggests that 'perfectionistic tendencies'
have increased over the past 30 years and,
when a goal isn't reached, it's followed
by a brutal self-assessment of failure that
can lead to depression and associated
aspects of mental health issues, such
as anxiety, OCD and eating disorders.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
"The results of the analysis weren't a
surprise," says Dr Thomas Curran, coauthor of the study and lecturer at the
University of Bath. "It's evident that the
number of people with perfectionistic
tendencies is on the rise. We've also seen
a rise in youth mental health issues,
which fed into the expectations that
run parallel to perfectionism."
The study measured whether
subjects had high personal expectations
(self-oriented perfectionism), social
expectations (socially-prescribed
perfectionism), or expectations of others
(other-oriented perfectionism). "All

June 2018 BA LA N CE

three dimensions increased, but the
perception that the social environment
is more demanding went up twice as
much as the other two categories,"
explains Thomas. "This suggests there
is a big increase in young people's
perceptions of social expectations
compared with previous generations."
Thomas points to millennials
growing up in a more challenging set of
economic and social circumstances and
to an acceleration in students' focus on
perfectionism linked to the emergence of
social media. "It clearly plays a role and
magnifies these tendencies, particularly
with people comparing their own self

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