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Home QOTM Test Page 2022 July

Young adults today are more perfectionist and report more pressure from their parents than previous generations

Five takeaways:

  1. New research shows that young adults are showing a higher propensity for perfectionism as they deal with increases in critical parenting and higher parental expectation.
  2. The study’s authors noted that society increasingly encourages competition and individualism, which might push parents to place greater pressure on their children’s success. A perfectionist mindset would be a logical next step for a child seeking parental validation.
  3. The study differentiates between “self-oriented perfectionism” and “socially prescribed perfectionism,” which is more common and more powerful– it arises from social cues like parental or peer pressure and is correlated to societal/cultural trends.
  4. One of the study’s authors noted that “Parents are not to blame,” as the pressure they are putting on their children is more so an anxious reaction to “a hyper-competitive world with ferocious academic pressures, runaway inequality, and technological innovations like social media that propagate unrealistic ideals of how we should appear and perform.”
  5. Various market/financial factors are contributing to another fact that will weigh upon young and early-career workers: that young people will need to work far harder than their parents, and earn much more, just to attain the same standard of living. This adds to the mental health burden.

From Beth Ellwood for PsyPost
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This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

The Unbearable Heaviness of Clutter

Five takeaways:

  1. If you have to move things around to accomplish a task in your home or at your office or you feel overwhelmed by all the “things” in your home– you are likely over cluttered. And the effect on your life can be profoundly negative.
  2. A study published in Current Psychology showed that procrastination was tied directly with one’s clutter and that both led directly to raised levels of cortisol– the stress hormone.
  3. Why does clutter elicit such a strong physiological reaction? Experts think that it is tied to the classic representation of how a home should look and function. Think of the classic, bucolic, single family home of the 1950s. A disorderly home fails to live up to such an expectation.
  4. A main tactic for decluttering, suggested by Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, is to avoid touching the object when considering whether to keep it. Have a family member or friend ask you “do you need this?” as touching an object increases the chance you will remember your attachment to it.
  5. Another important tactic involves making a conscious effort to acquire less. Keeping objects out of the house is paramount. Once they get in they enter the home they become easier to get attached to.

From Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi at The New York Times:
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Note: You will need a free account with The New York Times to view this article. At the time of this posting The Times offers 20 free free article views per month.

This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

Relationships are More Important than Ambition

Five takeaways:

  1. Ambition, the author argues, is viewed as a force that drives people forward. Conversely, relationships are often seen to hold people back from developing in life.
  2. The author cites a Journal of Applied Psychology a multidecade study that tracked the lives of ambitious children into adulthood. The study found, unsurprisingly, that children who exhibited more ambition early on went on to more illustrious and lucrative lives. But it also showed that early ambition was not as strongly correlated with wellbeing later in life. In fact, it showed that ambition is only weakly connected with well-being and negatively associated with longevity.
  3. The author cites psychologist Tim Kasser, who has shown that the pursuit of materialistic values like money, possessions, and social status– the fruits of career successes– is correlated with lower well-being and more distress. It can also come at the cost of meaningful personal relationships.
  4. Many studies have shown that community is strongly connected to well-being– more so than financial success. A 2009 Science study of 1.2million people showed that Louisiana was the happiest state… while the richest states like California, New York, and Connecticut, were listed among the least happy.
  5. Barry Schwartz, a psychological researcher based at Swarthmore College, notes that while relationships can have a limiting effect on one’s life, but that too much freedom in life can be detrimental: “Relationships are meant to constrain,” he says. “but if you’re always on the lookout for better, such constraints are experienced with bitterness and resentment.”

From Emily Esfahani Smith at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.
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