Adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in medical students: a longitudinal investigation

Abstract

Perfectionism in medical students differs systematically from perfectionism in general arts students. Distinguishing adaptive and maladaptive aspects of perfectionism is important in understanding the cross-sectional and longitudinal implications of perfectionism for medical students.

Perfectionism and coping with daily failures: positive reframing helps achieve satisfaction at the end of the day

“…All scales were presented with a seven-point answer scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) adopted from the MPS. Following previous studies (e.g., Enns, Cox, Sareen, & Freeman, 2001), perfectionistic strivings were measured using FMPS Personal Standards (7 items; e.g., "I have extremely high goals";…”

“…To confirm that the scores from the five perfectionism scales-Personal Standards (PS), Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP), Concern over Mistakes (CM), Doubts about Action (DA), and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SOP)-formed the two expected dimensions (perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns), we used Amos 17 (Arbuckle, 2008) to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis setting (a) PS and SOP as indicators of the first factor and (b) CM, DA, and SPP as indicators of the second factor (see Stoeber & Otto, 2006 Enns et al (2001), we standardized the scores giving all components equal weight and then combined (a) the standardized PS and SOP scores to measure perfectionistic strivings and (b) the standardized CM, DA, and SPP scores to measure perfectionistic concerns. In line with previous findings (e.g., Dunkley et al, 2003), perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns were significantly correlated, r = .56, p < .001.…”

The Role of Personal Standards in Clinically Significant Perfectionism. A Person-Oriented Approach to the Study of Patterns of Perfectionism

“…The topic of perfectionism and its association with emotional health and psychopathology has become the focus of considerable research since the 90s, when four different research groups (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990;Hewitt & Flett, 1991;Slaney, Rice, Mobly, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001; Terry-Short, Owens, Slade, & Dewey, 1995) introduced multidimensional conceptions of perfectionism, with validated several findings that are difficult to reconcile with the two-factor model (e.g., Cox, Enns, & Clara, 2002;Enns, Cox, Sareen & Freeman, 2001;Kawamura et al, 2001).…”

How Do the Dimensions of Perfectionism Relate to Mental Health?

“…Similar patterns of correlations have been found in a variety of other studies, all revealing that subscales loading on the MEC factor from the Frost et al (1993) study are most strongly and reliably associated with psychological distress (cf. Dunkley et al 2006;Enns et al 2001;Frost et al 1990;Hewitt et al 1997;Kawamura et al 2001) relative to the PAS subscales. Taken together, these studies support the conceptualization of perfectionism as a multidimensional construct, with certain dimensions most strongly associated with risk for psychopathology (Frost et al 1990;DiBartolo et al 2004;Dunkley et al 2006;Hewitt and Flett 1991b).…”