Criticism from Others: More Reliable than Self-Criticism Essay Example

Self-criticism is the act of evaluating oneself on actions done at certain times. Self-criticism is an imperative aspect within one’s life but can be destructive if not controlled. By conducting self-criticism, one can focus on his/her identity and how he/she reacts to specific issues surrounding them. Self-criticism is not valuable and accurate while compared to criticism from others because it leads to less goal progress, destroys one’s personality and identity, and can become uncontrollable.

When one indulges in self-criticism, he/she only sees the negative aspects, thus leads to the poor achievement of his/her personal goals. According to Powers, self-criticism can derail one from achieving his/her goals unless they utilize self-oriented perfectionism (Powers, 973). Self-criticism hinders one from achieving set objectives by focusing more on the negative issues rather than focusing on improving the small achievable aspects. Powers continue to argue that it is better when one sees the progress he/she is making through self-oriented perfectionism in comparison to the barriers arising. In the study, ‘participants reported less goal progress when they were higher in self-criticism, and they reported more goal progress when they were higher in self-oriented perfectionism’ (Powers, 968).  Criticism from others is different from self-criticism because it projects both sides of the person; hence one can either focus on the positive aspects to improve the negative ones.

Self-criticism can destroy one’s personality because it is done in a harsh way, which is not helpful to an individual. According to Kelly, self-critical individuals tend to express negative emotions more often than positive ones (Kelly). However, she argues that at one point in one’s life, self-criticism is important because it helps in growth and self-realization. But this does not necessarily mean that self-criticism is imperative at every stage in one’s life. The harsh inner critics destroy one’s personality that the inner voice provides; hence one ends up losing a lot in terms of personality growth. Moreover, self-criticism does not favor the positive side if it is not controlled (Kelly). For example, criticism from others over a presentation in class can prove that one did something tangible, while others may feel it was not done in the right way. Therefore, from this, one can encourage him/herself to improve the actions in the future.

Self-criticism is not valuable and accurate as compared to criticism from others as it focuses more on the perfectionist side hence can be demoralizing if not controlled. Powers argues that self-criticism must be controlled because unlike criticism from others, self-criticism compares one’s behavior to that of a perfectionist or actions are done perfectly (Powers, 972).  It is imperative to understand the accuracy of being complete and being human. Through comparison from both sides, one can identify the room for improving while encouraging the negative aspects of a certain action. Controlled self-criticism is beneficial compared to that which is uncontrolled because it projects a debate over what the negative and positive outcome (Powers, 972). In a nutshell, self-criticism focuses on the negative side hence ends up depressing the person in question.

In conclusion, self-criticism is not valuable and accurate than criticism from others in that it can lead to poor goal progress in terms of achieving the set objectives. Secondly, self-criticism can destroy one’s personality because it projects the negative aspects more than the positive ones that are imperative in terms of growth. Thirdly, self-criticism can become uncontrollable hence messing with one’s development and way of looking at things in his/her life.

Works Cited

Kelly, Allison. ‘Are you self-critical?’ Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-attitude/201905/are-you-self-critical

Powers, Theodore A., et al. "The effects of self-criticism and self-oriented perfectionism on goal pursuit." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37.7 (2011): 964-975.