Is socially prescribed perfectionism veridical? A new take on the stressfulness of perfectionism

Abstract

Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.

Perfectionism erodes social self-esteem and generates depressive symptoms: Studying mother-daughter dyads using a daily diary design with longitudinal follow-up

“…Regarding the anticipated indirect effect of daughters' socially prescribed perfectionism, a similar hypothesis was supported in Mackinnon et al (2011) and Sherry and Hall (2009). Conversely, although informed by case histories (Bruch, 1971), theoretical models (Sherry et al, 2016), and recent findings (Smith et al, 2016(Smith et al, , 2017, the indirect effects of daughters' self-oriented perfectionism and mothers' other-oriented perfectionism were considered more exploratory given that our study is the first to test these specific predictions.…”

“…Even so, the recipients of perfectionistic demands appear to suffer more than the originators of perfectionistic demands (Sherry et al, 2016;Smith et al, 2017). For instance, Hewitt, Flett, and Mikail (1995) found spouses of people with high other-oriented perfectionism had greater marital distress, whereas the partner high on other-oriented perfectionism was not themselves affected.…”

“…Likewise, Smith and colleagues (2017) reported other-oriented perfectionism in influencers (mothers, fathers, romantic partners, and friends) predicted socially prescribed perfectionism in targets, which subsequently contributed to targets' stress. Thus, although individuals with high other-oriented perfectionism do not themselves suffer greater distress, evidence indicates they distress the people closest to them (Hewitt et al, 1995;Nealis, Sherry, Sherry, Stewart, & Macneil, 2015;Smith et al, 2017). In fact, being harshly judged visà-vis another person's unobtainable standards may lead people to feel rejected by and disliked by others (i.e., low social self-esteem), which in turn triggers depressive symptoms (Sherry et al, 2016).…”

“…Additionally, among female undergraduates, socially prescribed perfectionism and selforiented perfectionism display negative associations with social self-esteem (Blankstein et al, 2008;Flett et al, 1996;Sherry & Hall, 2009) and positive associations with depressive symptoms Sherry, Hewitt, Flett, & Harvey, 2003;Smith et al, 2016). Likewise, other-oriented perfectionism in one person contributes to distress in another person (Haring, Hewitt, & Flett, 2003;Hewitt & Flett, 1993;Hewitt et al, 1995;Smith et al, 2017). Hence, we also hypothesized daughters' socially prescribed perfectionism, daughters' self-oriented perfectionism, and mothers' other-oriented perfectionism would predict increased depressive symptoms in daughters' (Wave 3) via negative associations with daughters' social self-esteem (Wave 2).…”

Perfectionism and depressive symptoms: The effects of psychological detachment from work

“…The different sources of pressure were not separately investigated in the current study. Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that both the level and consequences of socially prescribed perfectionism are tied to the extent to which the individual's social environment involves exposure to criticism and demands to be perfect (Smith, Speth, et al, 2017;Smith, Saklofske, Yan, & Sherry, 2017).…”