Overachievementism Research Paper

We can’t deny that over the past 20 some odd-years society and the educational system have changed dramatically. There is so much more pressure on the students of today to do well in school and just excel at everything. This is called “overachievementism”. Students today start being pressured to be perfect at an extremely young age to be perfect. As they grow up the pressure only continues to build and make a heavier burden on their lives. As a result, more and more students are developing psychological disorders. The main problem has become depression. Depression has become a growing problem in today’s society. Depression is defined as a psychoneurotic disorder characterized by lingering sadness, inactivity, and difficulty in thinking and
Depression is caused by reduced quantities or activity of the monoamine neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain (Depression 1). Alexandra Robbins writes about depression in today’s overachiever society in her book, The Overachievers; The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. Robbins writes how depression has become a growing epidemic as a result of the overachiever culture today. “Although it is estimated that every hundred minutes a teenager in the United States commits suicide, The American Psychiatric Association places the true number at two to three times higher” (Robbins 357). Robbins writes “… there is no doubt that overachiever culture plays a significant role (357). Students are put under so much pressure to get good grades, be the best at sports, and have a social life that it’s no wonder depression is growing among teenagers. “A 2005 article in the journal Adolescence cited several studies linking overachiever-type school pressures to suicide attempts” (Robbins 358). Depression can be a result of students thinking they’ll never be perfect or reach the expectations set by their parents.