Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016.

Abstract

From the 1980s onward, neoliberal governance in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom has emphasized competitive individualism and people have seemingly responded, in kind, by agitating to perfect themselves and their lifestyles. In this study, the authors examine whether cultural changes have coincided with an increase in multidimensional perfectionism in college students over the last 27 years. Their analyses are based on 164 samples and 41,641 American, Canadian, and British college students, who completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) between 1989 and 2016 (70.92% female, Mage = 20.66). Cross-temporal meta-analysis revealed that levels of self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and other-oriented perfectionism have linearly increased. These trends remained when controlling for gender and between-country differences in perfectionism scores. Overall, in order of magnitude of the observed increase, the findings indicate that recent generations of young people perceive that others are more demanding of them, are more demanding of others, and are more demanding of themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record

Neurophysiological and behavioural markers of compassion

“…It is also associated with self-harm and suicide risk 6 . Self-criticism interferes with goal pursuit 7 , and is associated with problematic perfectionism, which has been increasing steadily over the last 20 years 8 . Ever since Freud argued that depression arose from 'anger turned inward' 9 , i.e., a form of self-criticism, it has been a therapeutic target for many schools of therapy 10 .…”

From ‘having’ to ‘being’: self‐worth and the current crisis of American society

“…Similarly, the American College Health Association () reported a significant increase in undergraduates feeling ‘overwhelming anxiety’ in the past years, rising from 50 per cent in 2011 to 62 per cent in 2016. While these trends may be due in part to increased awareness of mental illness and the growing salience of middle‐class healthism (Greenhalgh and Wessily ) and therapeutic culture (Illouz ), they have also been attributed to the spread of neoliberal values: as stated by Curran and Hill (: 4) based on a comparative study, ‘Young people appear to have internalized irrational social ideals of the perfectible self that, while unrealistic, are to them eminently desirable and obtainable. Broadly speaking, then, increasing levels of perfectionism might be considered symptomatic of the way in which young people are coping – to feel safe, connected, and of worth – in neoliberalism’s new culture of competitive individualism’.…”

A second opinion: diagnosis and prescription of the American case

“…Perhaps. The research Lamont cites on growing ‘self‐perfectionism’ among college students (Curran and Hill ) would be consistent.…”