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An Experimental Investigation of Standard Setting in Clinical Perfectionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2012

Sarah J. Egan ,
Marian Dick  and
Peter J. Allen
Sarah J. Egan*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology & Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Australia
Marian Dick
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology & Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Australia
Peter J. Allen
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology & Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Sarah J. Egan, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology & Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: s.egan@exchange.curtin.edu.au
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Abstract

This study investigated if clinical perfectionism leads to resetting standards higher following both success and failure. A sample of 206 participants (74% female) completed an online experiment consisting of three sets of a nonverbal reasoning task and were asked before each set to select how many of the trials they aimed to get correct. Each set was followed by feedback regarding performance. Half of the participants received ‘difficult’ items for set 2, to allow investigation of failure effects. There was a significant relationship between clinical perfectionism and the standards that were set for the first set; however, there was no relationship with standard setting following success or failure. Instead, previous actual success or failure was the best predictor of goal setting. Consequently, clinical perfectionism was associated with setting higher standards in general, but not resetting standards higher following success or failure. Findings suggest that while clinical perfectionism plays a role in standard setting prior to performance, following performance actual success or failure becomes the best indicator. The implications of these findings for the cognitive behavioural model of clinical perfectionism are discussed.

Keywords

perfectionismstandardssuccessfailureexperiment
Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 183 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

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