Biased interpretation in perfectionistic concerns: an experimental investigation

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Perfectionism is associated with the development and maintenance of several disorders. Given the importance of perfectionism understanding the biased information processes that underpin it is critical. The present study tested the hypothesis that heightened concern over mistakes subscale scores of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale are characterized by a tendency to impose emotionally negative interpretations on perfectionism-relevant situations.

Method and design: Seventy-six non-clinical, general population participants’ were presented with interpretations of scenarios where a protagonist was described as achieving well above what was required, but fell short of their own high standard. Using a within-subjects, quasi-experimental design, we assessed interpretations of these scenarios by examining the degree to which participants rated test sentences as being likely implications of the original scenarios.

Results: A generalized linear mixed model revealed higher concern over mistakes scores were associated with an increased tendency to rate negative target test sentences as being similar to the original perfectionism-relevant scenarios, and a reduced tendency to rate positive target test sentences as being similar to these original scenarios.

Conclusions: The findings provide support for the cognitive–behavioral model of perfectionism. These findings support the inclusion of strategies in cognitive–behavioral treatment of perfectionism to reduce interpretation bias.

KEYWORDS:

• Perfectionism
• interpretation bias
• perfectionistic concerns
• cognitive bias

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jenny Yiend for providing the perfectionism interpretation task that was used as a basis for this study. All authors declare that they do not have any interests that may be interpreted as influencing the research. All APA ethical standards were upheld and followed in the conduct of the study. The manuscript has not been submitted for publication or published in its current form elsewhere. The below funding bodies did not exert any influence over the development, writing, or submission of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Joel A. Howell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8082-4912

Ben Grafton http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9920-4278

Rebecca A. Anderson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8925-7002

Additional information

Funding

Preparation of this work was partly supported by Australian Research Council Grants DP140104448, DP140103713, and DP170104533, and by a grant from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PNII-ID-PCCE-2011-2-0045 awarded to CM. These funding bodies did not exert any influence over the development, writing, or submission of this article.