Perfectionism: A Good Predictor of Stress and Anxiety
Personality research has revealed a number of interactions between traits and clinically-significant mental health issues. For example, neuroticism has been shown to be predictive of anxiety and depressive disorders, while introversion is a common trait among those suffering from social phobias (reviewed by Bienvenu et al., 2004). While some these traits may be refractory to clinical intervention, insights into relationships between lower-order personality dimensions and clinically-significant psychological problems may open up new avenues for treatment. Among the more interesting personality traits is perfectionism, because it has been linked to eating, anxiety, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive disorders, in addition to personal self-efficacy and achievement (Stairs, Smith, Zapolski, Combs, & Settles, 2011). To better understand the clinical relevance of perfectionism the findings of several studies will be reviewed here.
A large (N = 731) study examined the prevalence of the big five personality domains among individuals suffering from a range of disorders (Bienvenu et al., 2004). Neuroticism was universally predictive of these disorders (p ? .01), while conscientiousness, a trait similar to perfectionism, was minimally associated. The most common facet of conscientiousness among the disorders was self-discipline, which showed a significant relationship with simple phobia, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) (p ? .002). The conscientiousness facets of competence, striving for achievement, and deliberation, however, were only associated with social phobia. These findings suggest neuroticism and conscientiousness are distinct traits, as Stairs et al. (2011) have concluded.
Stairs and colleagues (2011) identified nine distinct traits among 15 different instruments designed to quantify perfectionism and then combined these into a single instrument called the Measure of Constructs of Perfectionism (M-CUP). Notably, perfectionism was considered a facet of conscientiousness with an internal consistency of .79 (Stairs et al., 2011, p. 148). The facets of conscientiousness from the study by Bienvenu et al. (2004) that seem to match the traits underlying perfectionism, as defined by Stairs et al. (2011), are self-discipline and deliberation (order, details and checking).
Gnilka and colleagues (2012) reviewed early theories discriminating between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. The latter representing an inability to experience positive affect because of an interminable discrepancy between their standards and perceived performance. When this definition was applied to college students, a discrepancy subscale correlated significantly with anxiety, self-controlling behaviors, distancing, accepting responsibility, and escape-avoidance behaviors (p < .05). In a separate study, Dittner and colleagues (2011) examined the relationship between negative perfectionism and stress in college students over the course of a semester. Negative perfectionism scores were from a conditional acceptance subscale, which was based on the facets of poor academic performance, ineffective pursuit of goals, higher levels of psychological distress, and low self-esteem. Significant correlations were obtained between negative perfectionism and depression at the beginning of the semester (p < .01), and physical fatigue (p < .05), depression (p < .05), and negative perfectionism (p < .01) at the end of the semester.
The above research findings clearly show a relationship between perfectionism and psychological distress or illness. Featuring prominently are anxiety and related disorders. To build upon this body of work the instrument developed and tested by Stairs et al. (2011) will be used to further investigate the relationship between perfectionism and anxiety, and perfectionism and stress. The hypotheses are as follows:
1. The order subscale will be significantly associated with anxiety, based on the findings of Bienvenu et al. (2004).
2. Given the findings of Dittner et al. (2011), the order subscale will be inversely correlated with stress.
3. The high standards subscale will have a positive, but weak association with anxiety and stress, based on the findings of Bienvenu et al. (2004) and Dittner et al. (2011), respectively.
4. The reactivity to mistakes subscale would probably be classified as maladaptive (Gnilka, Ashby, & Noble, 2012) or negative (Dittner, Rimes, & Thorpe, 2011) perfectionism; therefore, a significant relationship will exist between this subscale and anxiety and stress.
5. The perceived pressure from others subscale does not align well with any of the scales discussed above, because it could be adaptive or maladaptive and is not a facet of conscientiousness as defined by Bienvenu et al. (2004); however, individuals with high scores on this subscale would probably experience low levels of anxiety and little to no stress. Accordingly, perceived pressure from others will be weakly correlated with anxiety, but not stress.
Methods
Participants
Primarily young adults (363 females, 82 males, Mage = 25.81 years, SD = 9.39, range: 18-66 years) participated in the study. Recruitment occurred in the Personality unit or via a link to the survey sent by students in the Personality unit. All participants...
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