Positive Conceptions of Perfectionism: Approaches, Evidence, Challenges

“This changed at beginning of the 1990’s, when two research groups independently demonstrated that perfectionism is multidimensional in nature, and provided perfectionism research with two multidimensional scales to capture the construct in all its facets (Frost et al., 1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991).”

“For example, we now have a better understanding of the many guises perfectionism can take and the varied outcomes associated with the different perfectionism dimensions (Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“Adaptive perfectionism is a healthy type of perfectionism that is characterised by having high personal standards and striving for excellence but, at the same time, having little concern for mistakes and doubts about actions (see, for a review, Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“…strivings (FMPS-personal Standards, FMPS-organisation, HMPS-self-oriented perfectionism) and psychopathology were found, indicating that in contrast to the view of previous authors (e.g., Stoeber & Otto, 2006), perfectionistic strivings may also play a role in some forms of psychopathology.”

“Even though perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns may show substantial correlations (Stoeber & Otto, 2006), the distinction between the two dimensions is important with regard to how perfectionism relates to stress, coping, and burnout.”

“In two major review papers in the area of perfectionism (Gotwals 7 et al., 2012; Stoeber & Otto, 2006), both bivariate and partial correlations were examined.”

“Dispositional perfectionism remains highly controversial with allegations regarding both its benefits (e.g., Stoeber & Otto, 2006) and costs (e.g., Blatt, 1995; Flett & Hewitt, 2006).”

“While the first type of perfectionism generally shows positive correlations with indicators of good adaptation, such as positive affect, life satisfaction, and an active coping style; the second—maladaptive perfectionism—is associated with indicators of maladjustment, such as negative affect, life dissatisfaction, dep…”

“Further studies have confirmed that the dimensions and facets from different measures of multidimensional perfectionism converge to two major dimensions and that the two dimensions often show different, sometimes opposite correlations (see Stoeber & Otto, 2006, for a comprehensive review).”

“Order items were not analyzed in this study (Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“Moreover, research has suggested that two major dimensions of perfectionism be differentiated (Stoeber & Otto, 2006): a dimension which has been described as positive, healthy, or adaptive perfectionism and a dimension which has been described as neurotic, unhealthy, or maladaptive perfectionism…”

“Moreover, the studies’ findings are more consistent and show clear differences between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns (see Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“In further examination, Stoeber and Otto (2006) found that the nine studies indicating that perfectionistic strivings were maladaptive, mixed, or undifferentiated also tended to report high correlations between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns (.45 ≤ rs ≤ .70).”

“Keywords: depression, junior elite athletes, team sports, individual sports, attribution Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 June 2016 | Volume 7 | Article 893”

“Whilst there is some evidence that achievement striving aspects of perfectionism are associated with positive outcomes (Stoeber and Otto, 2006 for review), numerous studies have found a robust link between both positive achievement striving and maladaptive evaluative concerns perfectionism and…”

“…may serve to energise achievement striving in athletes (Flett & Hewitt, 2002; Frost et al., 1990; Hamachek, 1978; Slaney, Ashby, & Trippi, 1995; Stoeber & Otto, 2006), the prevailing view is that the act of striving for perfection does not, in itself, lead to debilitation (Flett & Hewitt,…”

“In contrast, evaluative concerns perfectionism clearly represents a negative BIG THREE PERFECTIONISM SCALE 4 form of perfectionism showing strong and consistent negative associations with negative affect and various indicators of psychological maladjustment (see Stoeber & Otto, 2006, for a review).”

“…strivings are occasionally associated with positive outcomes (e.g. resourcefulness and task-oriented coping; Dunkley, Zuroff, & Blankstein, 2003; Stoeber & Otto, 2006) and, after controlling for perfectionistic concerns, are sometimes negatively associated with depressive symptoms (Smith,…”

“Before discussing the main results, we would like to discuss the importance of the distinction between maladaptive and relatively more adaptive perfectionism, which has recently stirred considerable debate (Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“The present findings indicate that other-oriented perfectionism should not be considered a positive form of perfectionism, even though factor analyses typically place otheroriented perfectionism on a higher-order perfectionism factor combining aspects of perfectionism that have been associated with positive characteri…”

“Moreover, it emerged that two main dimensions of perfectionism should be differentiated (Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993; Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“For some time, the maladaptive label for perfectionism clearly has been appropriate given its concurrent association with indicators of maladjustment or some form of distress (Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“A recent summary of research examining the consequences of these two broad 4 dimensions by Stoeber and Otto (2006) indicates that when considered in isolation, a 5 commitment to the pursuit of high personal standards is generally associated with positive 6”

“Along these same lines, drawing from literature on adaptive or healthy and maladaptive or unhealthy aspects of perfectionism (e.g., Stoeber & Otto, 2006), we used recently developed cut scores to create groups of adaptive (high standards and low discrepancy) and maladaptive (high standards and high…”

“Recent conceptualizations view the construct as multifaceted in nature (e.g., Frost et al., 1990; Hewitt and Flett, 1991), while these facets have been conceptually and empirically combined to higher order dimensions of perfectionistic concerns (Frost et al., 1993; Stoeber and Otto, 2006).”

“Because other-oriented perfectionism is not regarded a core dimension of perfectionism (Stoeber & Otto, 2006) and we aimed to investigate the role of employees’ work motivation for themselves (not for others), other-oriented perfectionism was not further regarded in this study.”

“…positive characteristics, behaviors, and outcomes, while perfectionistic concerns are associated with negative characteristics, behaviors, and outcomes (Frost et al., 1993; Stoeber and Otto, 2006; Stoeber and Eismann, 2007; Stoeber et al., 2007, 2009; Stoeber, 2012; Harrison and Craddock, 2016).”

“…Becker, & Stoll, 2007)—of which striving for perfection has been found to represent the core element of the positive dimension of perfectionism (Stoeber & Otto, 2006) whereas negative reactions to imperfection which have been found to be intimately related o concern over mistakes and…”

“There is little dispute that perfectionism has an energising effect on achievement striving and that this action may subsequently lead to successful outcomes (Flett & Hewitt, 2002; Frost et al., 1990; Stoeber & Otto, 2006 ).”

“The personality trait of perfectionism has been recognized as an important achievement motivation construct to study in the competitive sport environment ( Flett & Hewitt, 2005 ), given that it has been associated with both functional/healthy and dysfunctional/unhealthy psychological, affective, and behavioral correla…”

“These two forms are called perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, respectively, by Stoeber and Otto (2006), but they are variously referred to as adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism (Rice, Ashby, & Slaney, 1998), positive striving and maladaptive evaluative concerns (Frost,…”

“In contrast, perfectionistic strivings predicted less frequent use of selfblame, which provides further evidence for the different, often opposite relationships of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns summarized by Stoeber and Otto (2006).”

“…recent theory and research suggests that two aspects of Frost et al.’s (1990) model—parental expectations and parental criticism—should be regarded as developmental antecedents of perfectionism rather than aspects of perfectionism itself (e.g., Rice, Lopez, & Vergara, 2005; Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“…of PAS scores to psychopathology often decrease once controlling for MEC scores (DiBartolo et al. 2004; Dunkley et al. 2006; McCreary et al. 2004; Stoeber and Otto 2006), partial correlational analyses revealed that PPS-MPS scores were no longer associated with our social anxiety measure.”

“…and Organisation from the FMPS to load on the factor representing the positive dimensions of perfectionism (e.g., Perfectionistic Strivings — Stoeber & Otto, 2006), while Concern Over Mistakes, Doubts About Actions, Parental Expectations, and Parental Criticism on the FMPS and…”

“…and outcomes (e.g., maladaptive coping, negative affect), perfectionistic strivings often show negative relationships with negative processes and outcomes and positive relationships with positive processes and outcomes (e.g., adaptive coping, positive affect; see again Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“Regarding self-oriented perfectionism, the findings support the view that striving for perfection itself is not necessarily a negative characteristic (Lundh, 2004; Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“However, research has suggested that two major dimensions of perfectionism be differentiated (Stoeber & Otto, 2006 ): a positive dimension, which has been described as normal, healthy, or adaptive perfectionism, and a negative dimension, which has been described as neurotic, unhealthy, or maladaptive perfectionism (Ha…”

“Personal standards perfectionism, which has also been labeled perfectionistic strivings (Stoeber & Otto, 2006), incorporates the facets of self-oriented perfectionism from Hewitt and Flett’s (1991) model and the construct of high personal standards from Frost and colleagues’ (1990) framework.”

“This dimension has been emphasized by most theorists on perfectionism, but has shown the smallest and least consistent association with psychopathology (DiBartolo, Li, & Frost, 2008; Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993; Lundh, 2004; Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“…construct of order or organization was not necessary in the classification and might even lessen classification precision (see Rice & Ashby, 2007; Stoeber & Otto, 2006), and Order was found to correlate substantially and significantly with High Standards and to correlate significantly with age…”

“Whereas most studies did not find significant negative correlations of perfectionistic concerns with academic performance (Stoeber & Otto, 2006), some studies report small negative correlations (Blankstein et al., 2008; Flett, Blankstein, & Hewitt, 2009; Leenaars & Lester, 2006; Mobley, Slaney, &…”

“…strivings’ positive associations may only become apparent when the overlapping variance between strivings and concerns is taken into account and partial correlations or multiple regressions are calculated (R. W. Hill, Huelsman, & Araujo, 2010; Stoeber & Otto, 2006; see also Gaudreau, 2012).”

“There are several influential models of perfectionism (e.g., Dunkley, Zuroff, & Blankstein, 2003; Stoeber & Otto, 2007).”

“We used current theory and research on the dimensionality of perfectionism (Bieling, Israeli, & Antony, 2004; Sirois & Molnar, 2016a; Stoeber & Otto, 2006), and the forms of procrastination (Sirois & Pychyl, 2016b), to guide the measures chosen as indicators of perfectionistic concerns,…”

“…an important advance in the perfectionism field has been the identification of two higher‐order dimensions of perfectionism that cut across many different perfectionism constructs and measures (see Blankstein & Dunkley, 2002; Dunkley, Blankstein, Masheb, & Grilo, 2006; Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that perfection can and should be attained (Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“Some have argued that perfectionism is two-dimensional, with both positive and negative forms (see Stoeber & Otto, 2006 for a review).”

“On the other hand, this finding is consistent with studies that consider self-oriented perfectionism to be part of the positive side of perfectionism (Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993; Stoeber & Otto, 2006).”

“Some researchers argue that the concept is both adaptive and maladaptive (Stoeber and Otto, 2006) or mostly maladaptive (Flett and Hewitt 2005).”