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This study was designed to explore the experiences of two groups of participants who had high scores on the positive dimensions of perfectionism (high standards) but who differed on a measure of worry. From a larger pool, 36 university students were selected based on their scores on the Standards and Order subscale of the Almost Perfect Scale and on the Penn State Worry Scale. Participants responded to open-ended questions eliciting their definitions of perfectionism and their views on its effects on various domains of their lives. Consistent with early theoretical work (e.g., Hamachek, 1978), the results of the study suggest that identified perfectionists may view their perfectionism as positive or negative. The results also suggest that the constructs of standards and order represent the positive dimension and the construct of worry a negative dimension. Discussed are the results and their implications for mental health counseling and further research.
References to perfectionism in the counseling literature have been increasing in recent years, and perfectionism is noted as a common concern in a range of psychological and counseling disorders (see Shafron & Mansell, 2001). For instance, it has been identified as a maintaining factor in eating disorders (e.g., Fairburn, Cooper, & Shafran, 2003); depression (e.g., Beck, Freeman, & Davis, 2004); and anxiety disorders (e.g., Frost, Novara, & Rheume, 2002). Egan and Hine (2008) recently concluded that perfectionism "can be viewed as a transdiagnostic issue, and targeting this maintaining mechanism may potentially provide symptom reduction across a range of disorders" (p. 245). However, despite its clinical importance, discussion of perfectionism has often been confusing and difficult to summarize because as yet counseling has no formal, agreed definitions of it.
Different researchers and writers use the term "perfectionism" differently, usually without any meaning specified. Definitions seem to emphasize the possession of excessively high standards (e.g., Rice, Bair, Castro, Cohen, & Hood, 2003), a perspective that seems consistent with the tendency of early researchers and writers to emphasize the personal standards of perfectionists and to use terms like "excessive" or "extreme" in describing them (e.g., Burns, 1980; Pacht, 1984). Consistent with these descriptors, when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) lists perfectionism as one criterion for obsessive compulsive personality disorder, it refers to...