You may think that pretending you know everything, even when you don't, makes you come across as smarter. But in reality, people who aren't afraid to be self-critical tend to be the brainier ones. Intelligent people accept their own shortcomings and understand that there's always more they could be learning.
Smart people also tend to be averse to failure, having a tendency to see failure as a sign of weakness or that something is wrong with them. The pressure is high to perform. And if life is not unfolding the way they want, smart people get super self-critical and the pressure to “get it right” gets even higher.
Though often confused with intelligence, critical thinking is not intelligence. Critical thinking is a collection of cognitive skills that allow us to think rationally in a goal-orientated fashion and a disposition to use those skills when appropriate. Critical thinkers are amiable skeptics.
Origins of Self-Criticism
The predisposition toward self-criticism originates in our early relationships. Parents may have extremely high expectations. We may have a sibling who excels academically, in sports or in some other area-and always receiving attention and praise for his or her superior achievement.
Excessive self-criticism and issues with self-worth are described very precisely in depressive disorders (Beutel et al., 2004, Blatt and Zuroff, 1992), while a dysfunctional lack of self-criticism can be seen in the narcissistic personality disorder (Blatt and Luyten, 2009, Luyten and Blatt, 2013).
o Have negative impacts on mental wellbeing: self-criticism is often linked to anxiety, social anxiety, depression, eating disorders, body image issues, inability to cope with problems (e.g. bottling up feelings, avoiding our problems through negative coping skills like substance use, etc.)
Overthinking is a sign of intelligence insofar that you need to be intelligent enough to be able to think and re-think until you have overthought. It is, however, not necessarily a sign of high intelligence.
Definition of Critical Thinking
Children are not born with the power to think critically, nor do they develop this ability naturally beyond survival-level thinking. Critical thinking is a learned ability that must be taught. Most individuals never learn it.
People who apply critical thinking consistently are said to have a critical thinking mindset, but no one is born this way. These are attributes which are learnt and improved through practice and application.
One of the strangest things about being human is that people of lesser intelligence tend to overestimate how smart they are and people who are highly intelligent tend to underestimate how smart they are.
Self-criticism is often associated with major depressive disorder. Some theorists define self-criticism as a mark of a certain type of depression (introjective depression), and in general people with depression tend to be more self critical than those without depression.
One explanation behind the struggle of smart people in life is because their self-esteem lies only on their intelligence levels. This makes it difficult for them to work with people who are smarter than them. They aren't good at dealing with failed projects and critical feedback.
Intelligent people seek solitude, especially when they have work and other important things to do. They also seek it when they just want to enjoy time alone with themselves.
This score is called the Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Typically, 70% of all people will have an IQ between 80-120. About 95% of all people will have an IQ between 70-130. High-IQ people usually score above 130 IQ points, depending on which test is used.
People who have genius traits tend to think about problems and concepts in a much more dynamic way. As a result, they are unlikely to accept information and facts on face value. Instead, they will want to defy and test conventional thinking.
Throw social commitments into the mix, and there's limited time to be alone and be still with your thoughts and creative process. It's common for people with genius qualities to seek out isolation at times, due to a social anxiety and an excessive need for “me” time, in order to practice mindfulness..
Our early childhood experiences, parents, or caregivers play a significant role in forming our individual identities. Genetic predisposition and temperament are also involved, making some people more sensitive to criticism or prone to depression and negative thoughts.
The most common barrier to developing self-compassion is our own “inner critic”, which often has origins in our developmental histories such as parental rejection, hostility, neglect or unresponsiveness.
Some skills that you can use as weaknesses include impatience, multitasking, self-criticism, and procrastination. An authentic answer goes a long way. That's why the best solution is to identify your real weaknesses and take proactive measures to address them.
People with avoidant personality disorder are very sensitive to anything critical, disapproving, or mocking because they constantly think about being criticized or rejected by others.
Abstract. Background: A self-critical personality style has been associated with psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety. Self-critical people also tend to strive more anxiously for basic motives such as affiliation, achievement, power, and autonomy.
Someone who is self-critical often criticizes themselves, especially their own behavior, work, or performance. : They are without doubt the most ruthlessly self-critical team in the league. He says he never watches his own performances because he is too self-critical.