State Perfectionism and its Relation to Trait Perfectionism, Type of Situation, Priming, and Being Observed

Perfectionism is normally viewed as a multidimensional personality trait. In the present experimental study, perfectionism was treated as a state in which transient changes were produced through manipulation of 2 factors: being observed by others and verbal priming. The experiment was carried out in 2 different situations: a social encounter situation and a problem-solving situation. Partial support for the hypothesis that both priming and observation cause elevated degrees of perfectionism was found in the social encounter situation. In the problem-solving situation, observation produced some effects, although partly in an unexpected direction. A significant interaction effect between priming and observation was found on estimating performance on a memory task in the problem-solving situation. The state approach to perfectionism and the stability of perfectionism across situations are discussed on the basis of the findings.