Perfectionistic concerns and psychological distress: The role of spontaneous emotion regulation during college students’ experience with failure.

Abstract

Perfectionistic concerns are associated with various forms of distress, and research has shown that maladaptive emotion regulation mediates this relation. To our knowledge, this mediation process has not been studied in the lab when an individual experiences distress in the moment. This study was designed to determine (a) whether spontaneous emotion regulation mediates the relation between an experimentally induced experience of failure and distress and (b) whether perfectionistic concerns moderate this indirect effect. College students (N = 165) completed self-reports of perfectionistic concerns and past-week affect. They then completed one of the two anagram tasks that induced either a high degree of failure or a low degree of failure. Finally, spontaneous emotion regulation during the anagram task and post-task affect was measured. Spontaneous use of cognitive reappraisal mediated a positive indirect effect in the association between manipulated degree of failure and post-task negative affect at high levels of perfectionistic concerns but not at low levels. Moreover, spontaneous use of rumination mediated (a) a positive indirect effect for post-task negative affect and (b) a negative indirect effect for post-task positive affect at low levels of perfectionistic concerns but not at high levels. These findings suggest there is value in perfectionism research addressing the process of regulating emotions as it unfolds in the moment a person experiences failure. Public Significance StatementThis study suggests that people who are critical of themselves for being less than perfect find failure upsetting because they have trouble managing their emotions concerning the failure. Failing to reappraise the situation and ruminatively thinking about the failure are the principal problems that lead to greater distress.

Test anxiety, coping, and academic achievement: Maladaptive perfectionism as a moderator

“…Иако различити теоријски модели користе различите синтагме за означавање негативно конотираног перфекционизма (перфекционистичке бриге, евалуативне бриге, самокритички перфекционизам и дискрепанца), садржинске разлике међу овим концептима мање су од међусобних сличности. Стога је употреба обухватног израза "маладаптивни перфекционизам" оправдана (Woodrum & Kahn, 2022).…”

“…The study of perfectionism has progressed significantly with the introduction of its multidimensional conceptualization, which recognizes two higher-order dimensions of this phenomenon: adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism (Dunkley, Starrs, Gouveia & Moroz, 2020;Thakre & Sebastian, 2021, Stojiljković, Todorović, Dosković & Todorović, 2011. Although different theoretical models use different terms for negative perfectionism (perfectionistic concerns, evaluative concerns, selfcritical perfectionism, and discrepancy), conceptual similarities between them far outweigh the differences, which justifies the use of maladaptive perfectionism as an umbrella term (Woodrum & Kahn, 2022).…”