Although people pleasing is not a clinical term, many people find themselves with people pleasing tendencies. People pleasing is when someone’s main goal is to appease others, often ignoring their own desires or calling in the process. In relationships, people pleasers do what they think they need to do to be loved and accepted, at the expense of developing and expressing themselves as God made them. We’re more likely to exhibit people-pleasing behaviors when we feel as though we don’t belong.
A distinguishing factor between someone who is a people pleaser and someone who is simply just doing an act of kindness is that people pleasing is difficult to stop. A people pleaser will change parts of his or herself to meet the perceived needs of the other person. People pleasing comes along with the need to be needed and a desire to feel useful to the other person.