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Cited by 59Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety StudiesAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesObsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

Biased interpretation in perfectionism and its modification

Yiend, Jenny, Savulich, George, Coughtrey, Anna, Shafran, Roz·2011·Behaviour Research and Therapy
DOI 10.1016/j.brat.2011.10.004
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Abstract

Perfectionism is a transdiagnostic construct associated with a range of diagnoses, including depression, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder. Treatments that directly target perfectionist cognitions have been shown to successfully reduce associated pathologies. However, the way in which they do this is not clear. We set out to assess the role of one candidate mechanism of action, namely the cognitive process of interpretation of ambiguity. In one experiment we looked for associations between biased interpretation and perfectionism. In a second, we manipulated interpretations, thereby providing a strong test of their aetiological significance. Results from the first experiment confirmed the presence of biased interpretation in perfectionism and demonstrated that these are highly specific to perfection relevant information, rather than reflecting general negativity. The second experiment succeeded in manipulating these perfection relevant interpretations and demonstrated that one consequence of doing so is a change in perfectionist behaviour. Together, these data experimentally demonstrate that biased interpretation of perfection relevant ambiguity contributes to the maintenance of perfectionism, but that it is also possible to reverse this. Clinical implications include the identification of one likely mechanism of therapeutic change within existing treatments, as well as identification of an appropriate evidence-based focus for future treatment development. Targeting underlying functional mechanisms, such as biased interpretation, has the potential to offer transdiagnostic benefits.

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  • Efforts to experimentally induce perfectionism indicate that inducing perfectionism increases symptoms of anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

    “efforts to do so indicate that inducing perfectionism increases symptoms of anxiety, depression and eating disorders (Boone et al., 2012; Yiend et al., 2011).”

    From Coming of age: A reflection of the first 21 years of cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism (2023) · cites this paper as Yiend et al., 2011

    Experiment 2 (p. 15) induced perfectionist interpretations in healthy volunteers, and the General Discussion (p. 22) reports changes in perfectionism-related checking behaviour. It does not report that induction increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, or eating disorders; the Discussion (p. 21) says the perfectionist-trained group showed no significant change in checking time. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Grzegorek, J., Slaney, R., Franze, S., & Rice, K. (2004). Selfcriticism, dependency, self-esteem, and GPA satisfaction among clusters of perfectionists and non-perfectionists. Journal of Counseling Psychology , 51, 192-200.
  2. Hewitt, E L., & Flett, G. L. (1990). Perfectionism and depression: A multidimensional analysis. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 5 , 423-438.
  3. Osamu Kobori, O., Hayakawa, M. & Tanno, Y. (2009). Do perfectionists raise their standards after success? An experimental examination of the revaluation of standard setting in perfectionism. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatr y, 40 , 515-521
  4. Richards, A., & French, C. C. (1992). anxiety-relationship bias in semantic activation when processing threat/neutral homographs. The quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 45(3), 503-525.
  5. Richards, A., French, C. C., Calder, A. J., Webb, B., Fox, R., & Young, A. W. (2002) Anxiety Related Bias in the Classification of Ambiguous Facial Expressions. Emotion, 2(3), 273-287.

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Authors
Yiend, J., Savulich, G., Coughtrey, A., & Shafran, R.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
Corresponding author
Yiend, Jenny
ORCID
Venue
Behaviour Research and Therapy
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2011-12
Volume
49
Issue
12
Pages
892-900
ISSN
0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.brat.2011.10.004
OpenAlex
W1964110622
Cited by
59
References
91
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
3.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • CentAUR (University of Reading) (acceptedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
Keywords
perfectionism, transdiagnostic mechanisms, therapeutic mechanisms, transdiagnostic treatment, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder
MeSH terms
Adult, Attitude, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Psychomotor Performance

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