Transcript The difficulty in measuring perfectionism

The difficulties in measuring
perfectionism
Esmie Smith
PhD Student
What is perfectionism?
Defining perfectionism
 Burns (1980) definition: “people who strain
compulsively and unremittingly towards impossible
goals and who measure their own worth entirely in
terms of productivity and accomplishment.”
 Frosts et al. (1990) definition: “setting of excessively
high standards for performance accompanied by
overly critical self-evaluations.”
Defining perfectionism
 Shafran et al. (2002) definition: “the overdependence of
self-evaluation on the determined pursuit of personally
demanding self-imposed standards in at least one highly
salient domain, despite adverse consequences.”
 Hall (2013) definition: “encompasses a specific
constellation of achievement related cognition and
behaviour associated with the compulsive pursuit of
flawlessness in contexts that hold personal relevance for
the individual.”
Measuring perfectionism
Almost
Perfect Scale
Revised
(APS-R: 1996,
2001)
Multidimensional
Perfectionism
Scale
(HMPS: 1991)
Almost
Perfect
Scale (APS:
1992)
Multidimensional
Perfectionism
Scale
(FMPS: 1990)
The
Perfectionism
Scale (PI:
2004)
Burns
Perfectionism
Scale (1980)
Positive and
Negative
Perfectionism
Scale (PANPS:
1995)
Can perfectionism be healthy?
“My bias is that perfectionism is not only an undesirable goal
but a debilitating one as well. In my judgement, perfection
per se does not exist in reality, but it is the striving for that
non-existent perfection that keeps people in turmoil.”
(Pacht, 1984, p. 386)
Hewitt and Flett (1991,2006) - Perfectionism is problematic
and debilitating.
Greenspon (2000)- Perfectionism is illusionary and irrational.
Can perfectionism be healthy?
 Hamachek (1978)- ‘Normal’ and ‘Neurotic’ perfectionism.
 Slade and Owens (1998)- dual process model of
perfectionism (positive and negative).
 “Almost 30 years after Hamachek published his seminal
article, a large body of evidence has accumulated
confirming that two basic forms of perfectionism can be
distinguished.” (Stoeber, 2006, p. 295)
Unidimensional
 Burns (1980) created one of the first scales for
measuring Perfectionism, however it only considers
the dysfunctional attitudes.
 More recently, Shafran et al. (2002) supported the
unidimensional approach and dismissed the
multidimensional approach as it wasn’t relevant to
“clinical perfectionism”.
Multidimensional
Frost et al. (1990)
Hewitt and Flett (1991)
Organisation
Perfectionism
Perfectionism
Parental
criticisms
Concerns
over
mistakes
Personal
standards
Doubts
about
actions
Parental
expectations
Other
orientated
Self
orientated
Socially
prescribed
Thank you for listening